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Mid March/April is Olive Time. It’s the time to start picking olives, preparing them and bottling them. It is quite an exciting time and for some, a tedious process of washing the olives twice daily but for me, a daily ritual that I love. You see I love olives, I was introduced to them by…
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March is New Zealand’s Sustainable Backyards month. I am doing a heap of workshops and we also hosted an open day backyard garden tour. So it was no surprise when the Weekend Sun local paper emailed to say they wanted to do a story on us. Sure. Why not? But what turned out to be…
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We have a whole heap of courgettes growing in the garden at this time of the year. Different types; the ordinary supermarket variety green one, Rampicante, scallopini and baby kamokamo. Kamokamo are a Maori squash which can grow quite large and develop a hard outer shell to allow you to store them through winter. As…
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I love my garden. It is a place where I feel alive, where I find my peace and where I grow strong, healthy organic food. It is also a place I like to play in. Where I find that inner child and where there are no rules. Where I can be creative. I love to…
Let's talk deodorant. Back when my son was just 14yrs old, he spent nearly a year on the couch, cradling his head from crippling headaches and migraines. Endless trips to doctors, paediatricians and even a neuro specialist brought slim relief. He lived on pain killers and the last straw came when he was prescribed an…
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Love. noun - a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. - a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend. - sexual passion or desire. On our recent trip to Bali, we happened to come across no less than 3 wedding shoots on one day, in the…
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July is Plastic-Free Month. Focussed on getting people to be aware of all the single use plastic we use, and aimed at reducing the amount of plastic us consumers use. So here's a great idea...plastic free dental powder! Easy to make, economical and really nice to use. No plastic packaging needing to be discarded. Yay!…
The blooms have all gone. Deciduous trees are leafless. Face it. Reality check: it's Winter! Despite the fact that I have erlicheer and daffodil blooms in my garden, and it feels a little like spring during the day sometimes, the calendar month tells me we are slap bang in Winter! It's just nature being confused.…
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Winter is here! The temperatures are dropping and night temps are hard on the body comfort zone. Time to break out the hot water bottles! I have just replaced a couple of old ones (life span seems to be about 5-6 years) and so needed some covers for them. Being an avid upcycler, I rummaged…
Okay. Here we are in the COVID Lockdown and we have all the time in the world. Kitchen and laundry cupboards are Marie Kondo-ed. I look around. What else have I been meaning to do for ever and ever....Windows! But I don't have window cleaner left in my cupboard! What to do? Don my protective…
Continue reading ➞ Window and glass cleaner
Beautiful French Lavender Ladies. I have harvested tonnes of my English lavender a month ago. It doesn’t have the big showy floral petals on the ends of the lavender spikes like the French lavender, but rather compact flowers on the end of long stalks. They are really fragrant and I love the meditative activity of…
Yesterday I had a gut feeling about this COVID-19 business. After doing my weekly shop this morning and discovering chaos and pandemonium in the store, with customers cheek by jowl, trolley to trolley I wondered at the sanity, or lack thereof. So I am not one to panic, but I am a practical person and…
At Christmas our family exchanged gifts and one of the gifts was wrapped up in a coffee sack. My daughter worked in a coffee roastery and these sacks are onsold for $2 or given to staff for free. As we sat there in the afterglow, I eyed up the coffee sack “wrapping” and thought, “Hmmm,…
I’ve always been interested in making my own personal care and household products. This way, I know what goes into them.....no harsh chemicals to affect my health, that of my family, or the planet. So I was chuffed when I found a recipe in an old Organic NZ magazine from 2012, featuring a dishwashing powder…
