Miraculous Journeys into the Far North...& beyond...

An invitation to celebrate Labour Weekend, Oct. 26th, a Public Holiday in New Zealand/Aotearoa in Waipu, on the North East coast of Upper North Island, was the perfect start to my adventure in the Far North of this amazing country....

Whilst wwoofing at http://www.earthtalk.co.nz/, Awhitu is a good experience of rural NZ life, the community lacks any public transport infrastructure & so getting out & about is completely dependant on owning or having access to a car. Negotiating lifts & opportunistically tagging along on others journeys becomes an art form! Wonderfully, my experience has been that there's usually a very kind & hospitable kiwi always ready to help out... in most situations...!

Mysteriously & miraculously... everything went to plan... On Thursday, Oct. 23rd, I tagged along on Charmaine's Business Meeting journey & arrived at Big Blue House, an Auckland B&B, http://www.thebigbluehouse.co.nz/ - I'd 'wwoofed' here for a week earlier in the year... Very early the next morning, I hitched a lift with Kate from BBH...we stopped en-route for a gorgeous Breakfast in a fashionable Ponsonby Rd Cafe, before Kate dropped me at Wendy's home, in Auckland Centre... later that morning, Wendy kindly dropped me off at Smale Farm Station, beyond North Shore, across the Auckland Harbour Bridge... en-route to her work place.... where a short time later...miraculously...Helen picked me up & we drove to her home in Waipu via lunch & shopping in Warkworth... see what I mean about travelling being 'an art form'? Friday night dinner with Helen & Sue's family & friends was the perfect end to an exhausting but amazing series of encounters with kiwi kindness par excellence!

Ohhhhh No! I have lost the photos I was going to upload to this post... here's hoping they re-appear as bizarrely as they have disappeared....

Tales of the Unexpected!

Kia Ora Everyone.... Sorry no postings for quite a while! Where've I been, eh? Well, the good news is that I haven't fallen down the gully or been swallowed up by a Mangrove sucker or even been enjoying some tramping in the Bush.... much more interesting than that! I've been doing an unsolicited stint as the health equivalent of whatever that woman's called whose does those 'The Hotel Inspector' TV programmes.... at Middlemore Hospital, Auckland & as from today... of the South Auckland Home Care Team....
A few weeks ago, my wwoofing duties included a couple of days of carting big bales of hay from the Barn & wheel barrowing them to various parts of the Farm, to mulched the many fruit trees after feeding them with Blood, Bone & Lime.... (all dried & none of it mine, I hasten to add.... well, maybe a bit of my blood after I missed the bale twine & accidentally cut thru' my rubber gardening gloves...)
Since then I'd felt like I'd pulled a muscle or two in my fairly substantial belly!.... but the pain got worse & I began to feel ill.... & eventually T&C drove me their GP... about 60 miles away.... we are out in the sticks here... & she diagnosed Appendictis & arranged my immediate transfer to Middlemore Hospital.... some key hole surgery & excellent nursing/medical care & I was happily discharged 4 days later.... got home & began to feel really ill.... & ended up being readmitted 4 days later with two badly infected wound sites that needed further surgery & IVantibiotics... more excellent nursing/medical care... & here I am, discharged yesterday, 6 days later & just had my first experience of the District Nursing service..... Margaret, my wonderful DN has redressed my wounds & I'm feeling a bit more myself than I have for some time... I did have a bout of feeling ever so sorry for myself & thanks very much to those friends who replied with some tlc to my texts... anyway, now I realise yet again what a blessed woman I am to have good friends & a family who thrive on crisis management & are there when I need them! Who needs soaps, eh?
As a wwoofer, you can be in a precarious position when you're ill - re: accomodation, food, care etc because Tanya & Charmaine here at Earthtalk have had to buy in extra help to cover my absence yet they've been incredibly compassionate & caring & driven miles & miles to ensure I had visitors & all that I needed to help me get well in hospital... e.g. it's a 3 hour/130 mile round-trip to the hospital taking in the car so.... yes, I am very fortunate to have two such amazing & generous woman take the time & trouble to look after me.... doing my washing & cooking my evening meal....! Hopefully, I'll be back on my feet, up & wwoofing very soon although no heavy lifting for 4 weeks according to the Doctors so the hay bales & mulching are off the list for me! So, what a wonderfully healing spot I've got to recover in & a plentiful supply of organic eggs, fruit & veggies... the 4 types of lettuce I'd pot planted on my decking have just shot up whist I've been away & spring really has arrived.... as I glance up I can see 12 little ducklings splashing away in the wetland pond & a wonderfully irreidesant Kingfisher on the fence nearby! Yes, I'm blessed!
So, no photos but lots of gratitude for the gift of family & friends that it's ever so easy to take for granted! Love Suz xx

Wwoofing Bliss....

Kia Ora Everyone,

Sorry there's been no entries for a little while but I've not had access to the internet or been able to upload my photographs recently.... Thanks though to everyone who keeps in email contact as I'm getting very good at using all the opportunistic occasions I can to briefly access my mail....



Okay, a whistle stop tour through the highlights of the last few weeks.....



As my time at Waihoihoi Lodge drew to an end, I tried to capture the more challenging moments of this wwoofing experience in word & photo... the compulsory sessions in the heated, outdoor spa, usually at the end of an exhausting day of cleaning or packing with the obligatory glass of some noxious substance or other was one challenge I particularly struggled with - as evidenced in photo 1.... those jets would insist on massaging the aches & pains from my shoulders as I gazed across at the bay..


One of the things about being a wwoofer is that one has to learn very quickly to 'go with the flow' & if one's Host suddenly decides that it's time for eveyone.... including Hildegard, the dog, to go down to the beach for a gorgeous walk along a windswept, sun-filled empty beach... quite honestly, what's a wwoofer to do... except to jump into the jeep & go! Here's me at Wapui Cove... on compulsory beach walk duties!
























This is another photo of the amazing Waka (Maori

Canoe) & Wave sculpture at Whangarei....





















And lastly, a photo of the view from the Hot Tub across Bream Head, some folks say that Bream Head looks like a sleeping dragon... what do you think?

Waka & Wave at Whangarei...

Waipu Wonders Mark 2...
Feeling ever so slightly like Thelma without Louise, on July 11th, I temporarily left Awhitu. Tanya & Charmaine at Earthtalk had agreed to rent me their second little car... an elderly, battered but lively white mazda at a very reasonable 'wwoofer' rate so I had a 'set of wheels' to follow them the 250kms drie north to Rosemary Neave's women's Waihoihoi Lodge It's situated 8kms outside Waipu, a small, rural village on the north east coast of North Island. The 3 of us were headed north for the Waipu Winter Arts Festival & a Saturday evening performance about Hildegard of Bingen, a medival Nun & mystic, written & performed by Ceridwyn Parr & Danielle Melton, http://www.watershedcottage.co.nz/

Enroute, we stoped off at Judith's in Warkworth, a friend of T&C's, who had prepared a gorgeous birthday lunch for Charmaine. Annie, another friend of T&C joined us... & after a second, decadent sliver of chocolate tartin, some very lively conversation & an inspection of Judith's 'chucks'.... we continued on our way north... As a wwoofer, I find it incredible how generous T&C have been in making me feel welcome, introducing me to their many friends & including me in many of their social events....plays, meals, trips into the city... even introducing me to Moka, their favourite massage therapist, who works miracles with my mid-life wwoofer aches & pains from working on the land....
Eventually, after passing thru' the Brynderwyn Hills, we reached our destination... & received a very warm welcome from Rosemary, the owner of Waihoihoi Lodge. I have taken some photos of the Lodge, its breathtaking location, surrounded by native bush, overlooking Bream Bay & beyond that.... the South Pacific sea....

but... not being a blog nerd... I haven't always been able to match my text with the right photos so... please be patient & watch this space & I'll post the photos as soon as I can upload them....
My weekend was full of gorgeous memories... Ceri & Danielle's creative & fascinating exposition of Hildegard's life, Rosemary's gourmet meals - including a spectacular outdoor Sunday Brunch, rich conversations & as the daylight faded away, wonderful, therapeutic body massages in the 7 seater outdoor spa overlooking the bay, with the lights of Bream Head & the harbour sparkling in the distance....it was magical to gaze up at the dark, star-filled sky & see the southern cross, venus & the milky way so clearly.

And all good things have to come to an end.... or do they?

Not for wwoofers it seems! T&C had suggested to me that whilst I was up in northlands, I take some time to explore the area & they'd arranged with Rosemary that I'd stay on for an additional two weeks wwoofing... combined with some sightseeing.... inbetween times Rosemary had given my name to Kate & Lynn, owners of The Big Blue House B&B, Auckland, who were desperate for someone to run their B&B whilst they were away on a week's holiday.... so, I ended up spending a fun-filled week wwoofing for Rosemary, Ceri & Danielle.... helping clean & pack up Waihoihoi Lodge.... for more details of why see Rosemary's web site http://www.waihoihoi.co.nz/

My wwoofing duties included obligatory long walks on picturesque, empty beaches followed by visits to the local Deli/Cafe for exquisite coffee & homemade deserts e.g. prune & pineaple cake served with cream... interspersed with occasional packing, veggie garden weeding, feeding chucks, clearing attics, playing with Hildegard... the dog, near-death experiences straddling the quad bike up & down steep paddocks to find & then feed Rosemary's neighbour's grumpy ducks... trips to the rubbish tip...oh, I forgot....all in house activities were accompanied by obligatory sing-along operatic arias & other 'playlist' selections on Rosemary's ipod... playing loudly via the house sound system...

And there were contemplative moments too... mainly in the outdoor spa gazing at the stars.... zen moments on the beach & working outdoors...

but seriously, reading between the lines, I hope you're able to tell that it's such a hard life being a wwoofer! Honestly, I'm struggling to keep up!

Eventually, my week at Waihoihoi came to an end & it was time for me to move on to The Big Blue House B&B.... Rosemary, Ceri & Danielle advised me to drive the scenic 'Twin Coast' route back to Auckland.... stunning scenery, mountains, beaches & vineyards.... more about my experiences running a B&B will follow in another blog....

Oh, I just remembered, whilst at Waihoihoi, I did have an afternoon out at Whangarei... a city north of Waipu... besides joining the AA Breakdown, buying a warm fleece to combat the cold, wet weather & mouching around the shops for abit of retail therapy.... on Rosemary's reccomendation, I went in search of this unusual sculpture called 'Waka & Wave' in the Whangarei Town Basin, at Hihiaua Peninsula. It's located close to the site that the Maori would traditionally have launched their Waka (canoes) in years gone by. It was sculpted by Wallace Hetaraka & Chris Booth as a bicultural project betwen Maori & Pakeha artists.

This is the Waka and... SORRY... it's disappeared but this is the Wave......

This is a photo of the view from the local beach... towards Whangarei Heads... some folks say that the headland looks like a Dragon's Head... with the Dragon's snout at the tip of the headland... what do you think?

And this is me at Waihoihoi Lodge, at the mandatory Sunday Brunch...I was forced to sit outside on the deck, overlooking the sea.... & enjoy myself... terrible!

Anyway, got to go now as wwoofing duties call.... Thanks too for all your emails... keep 'em coming... Love Suz x

Waipu Wonders....

Dear Friends.... Unfortunately my lap top is currently out of action so I'm in a rather seedy internet cafe checking my emails & trying to post a message to say.... watch this space for news of hot tubs, southern stars & a little story about my close encounter with a sick rat.... Love Suz x

Somewhere over Awhitu's Rainbow.....

So, still in the park, enjoying myself & admiring the Manukau Honey trees & their white blossom...
Photo 1.... when there's terrific clap of thunder....
& the skies darkened....
& the birds stopped cheaping...
the heavans opened....
so I legged it as quickly as I could along the shoreline back to the car & the safety & warmth of Banana Bungalow....
photo 3 - drenched....
but happy to have escaped the hailstones that were cascading down....
Banana Bungalow is so called because on the otherside on the Bungalow, just to the right of the photo, are Bananas... growing alongside the avocado, cherimoya, coffee, grapefruit & other trees...
And just to prove that I'm more than surviving
& that inspite of all this fresh air & very healthy,
home-grown, organic food plus plenty of sleep....
I'm obviously still 'thriving', this is me this morning -
photo 4-
It's so true that we can have 4 seasons of weather in one day here....
first, it was hailstoning & lashing down with rain....then, a few minutes later....
Do keep the emails coming.... & let me know when you're planning your trip to Aotearoa....
Love Suz xx

Just 3kms away is....Awhitu Regional Park....

Hello Again,
It's Saturday afternoon here... & about 4am Saturday July 5th for all those sleeping
soundly in the UK before waking up to watch the Williams Sisters battle it out on Centre
Court... Thanks for all the emails... it's always great to receive news from ábroad'....
Please ignore the date/time on these photos... I can't seem to get it off as the camera - it's being very tempremental...
Here goes....
Photos 1 - 4 are from a walk I took yesterday through Awhitu Regional Park... like the
UK's National Parks... it's literally on our doorstep because it's on the other side of the
Kauri Gully, one of the boundaries of Earthtalk... photo 1 is looking towards Earthtalk's shore...
I literally had the whole park to myself & only met up with 3 people as I left the Park...
It's a wonderfully wild place, full of history...Both the AWhitu Peninusula & the park take their name from the pre-eurpoean Maori settlement of Awhitu, which means ýearning'... felt by Hoturoa, the commander of the Tainui canoe (Waka), when he left the districy. The traditional name for the park's location was Kauritutahi, after the single Kauri Tree which stands on the small islet off the park - see photo 3!
In 1878, an English family, called the Brookes, came & settled here via the jetty
- photo 3 - & it was their only lifeline with the outside world because this was considered
'a far flung place' & there were no roads...
It was a blusterery day & after a few showers... out came the rainbow...photo 4
T&C retruned on Thursday & they'veinsisted I had an extra day off this week & a bonus
because I worked so hard whilst they were away.... braving gale force winds, hail & sleet,
fighting my way to their chucks....
I'm busy planning where to go t& visit when we go up to Whangarei, on the far north east coast next Friday, July 11th. I'm going to 'rent' T&C's little Mazda & have a week 'wwoofing'for Rosemary, who owns & runs a Spirituality Centre up there. There's a Festival on over the weekend & one of the things I'm going to is a Hildegard of Bingen Concert. She was a medival Mystic who wrote beautiful music & poetry. Two of T&C's friends are putting on the performance. I was planning on staying up there for two weeks but had an offer of 'house-sitting' a B&B in Auckland, called 'The Big, Blue House' from the 21st July for 7 days... putting breakfast out for guests etc... so after looking it up on the internet I decided to cut short my travels & go there... I'll have access to wi-fi & sky & receive some renumeration too!
Okay, more photos to upload & I'm trying to get everything uploaded before my time on the pc runs out....
Lots of love, Suz x

Winter Solstice ritual & Ist Official Team Appearance

One of the reasons I chose to come to Earthtalk, Aotearoa, was to become more immersed in the land, landscape, more earthed... take time to walk a different pace... during these first few weeks here, I've felt the beginnings of this transition...as I've relaxed & arrived into this place... shaped & facilitated considerably by the weather.... because it determines almost everything that happens here.... e.g. it determines what work I'm asked to do.... whether we have electricity, water, telephone.... hot drinks!!!!
In the southern hemisphere, Saturday June 21st is Winter Solstice... the longest night of the year. It coincides with Matariki, the heralding of the Maori New Year...
& is associated with planting garlic... which we duly performed in the veggie garden. T&C asked me if I'd like to prepare a Winter Solstice ritual for the 3 of us to share... Yikes! T&C have shelves heaving with hundreds of books on every conceivable subject.... beautiful binding, intriguing titles, interspersed with gorgeous ceramics, feathers & other objects of unknown origin... (it'd be a marvellous place to be marooned in... a book-lovers paradise!!!!) Anyhow...I enjoyed delving into some of these books.... distracted by many....some I need to return to but absolutely nothing to do with southern hemisphere stories of Winter Solstice.... all rooted in nature... the elements etc...
We gathered around evergreen & pine cones from our pine forest, paper from the recycling bin made into decorations... (as all my resources are packed up in boxes at my Mum's flat in Manchester...) I made pyramids to point the way north (earth), south (fire) east (air) & west (water) & green space in the middle symbolising wholeness...
I gathered windfall mandarins, lemons, limes & grapefruit from the Citrus Orchard symbolising the rebirth of the sun... the beginning of the return of Hine-raumati, the Summer Woman... the Goddess of the land.... & the stars symbolising the 6 or 7 jewel-like cluster of Matariki stars, Matariki literally translates as 'little eyes' or éyes of God' as the pleiades appears in the eastern sky... & we reflected together on what was birthing in us, what did we desire to kindle in ourselves, what support might we need to support this re-awakening in us & lastly, took time to name & bless our family & friends.... & ancestors.... with gratitude... & I'd like to share with you two of the pieces I discovered... I hope they speak to you & nourish your journey too....
Änd what are the seasons of the year save your own thoughts changing? Spring is an awakening in your breast, and summer but a recognition of your own fruitfulness. Is not autumn the ancient in you singing a lullaby to that which is still a child in your being? And what, I ask you, is winter save sleep big with the dreams of all the other seasons.' Source:Kahlil Gibran
The Grain Mother, Great Goddess, sacrificed her maiden daughter at harvest. In mourning, she withdrew her energy from the earth & all nature went into a period of dying (winter solstice) Then in spring, the Maiden returned from the underworld & Grain Mother rejoiced & the whole earth burst into life.... (Souce: Greek Fable associated with Demeter, mother of Persephone)

This photo is my first official 'Team Member ' occasion.... (that's me on the left... wearing my green Earthtalk Kathmandu Eco-Fleece... apparently made from 25 recycled plastic bottles... amazing! ) The folks on the photo were adults from an Auckland Adult Mental Health Therapeutic Gardening project.... included a trainee Occupational Therapist from Stoke on Trent, UK .... now living in NZ!

Just lost two photos I'd uploaded so I'll go look for them... my roll seems to have ended prematurely... Bye for now.... Suz x

Snapshot Earthtalk

Blog 6 For those of you with much greener fingers than me!

Photo 1: Charmaine beside her homemade Earthtalk preserved, pickled, dried, poached, bottled..... etc delicacies.... we can do 'mail-order' overseas....!

Photo 2: Pawpaw Tree in the Banana Plantation.... In 1999, T&C planted a small commercial banana plantation in the lee of timber trees". There are over 50 bananas of 10 different varieties - they need shelter, warmth, water & nutrients. Later, they added other subtropicals like pawpaw & ground cover sprang up to create a second lush subtropical jungle.

Photo 3: My friends, the ducks..... after being fed & watered... in the deciduous orchard... "supporting espaliered apples & pears, arguta - (small hairless kiwifruit), grape vines & berries. 40 heritage fruit trees - peach, plum, fig, persimmon, quince, guava, feijoa, elderberry, loquat etc. Varities chosen for their all-year fruiting. Understory is herbal ley'' - a mixture of plants to bring up deeper nutrients, fix nitrogen, attract beneficial insects, suppress weeds." The ducks eat the slugs, snails & insects, provide manure & eggs!

Photo4: The veggie garden looking worryingly weed-free & too tidy....!!!! "A central flower bed attacts beneficial insects for plant pollination or for controlling insect pests. Raised mulched no-dig 1 metre-wide beds. All year round salad & cooking greens - (Just this week, I've transplanted kale, rocket, garlic, silver beet, & made salad (herb & leaves) packs up using these & harvested coriander seeds, made my first 2 types of pesto using earthtalk's very own basil, pine nuts, &
basil nuts & olive oil..... only for the califorian quail to come down & try & nibble the lot... we were experiementing with using coarse bracken from the hedge instead of nets to protect the young plants... & there's broad beans & onions waiting to go in...when the gale force winds, rains & hail stones have faded...!!!) There's 3 big compost bins in here too... just like the one I helped to make in the subtropical orchard... the laying hens (chucks) live in a straw yard here too... turning weeds & kitchen scraps into eggs 7 manure.... Just outside the veggie garden is a herbal garden... chosen for their for culinary, medicinal & ornamental use... & a rosemary & lavender hedge.. to provide a pest barrier, attract bees & provide prunings for poultry nesting boxes... they really take permaculture very seriously here & have worked miracles on the land!!!! As you guessed the text is T&C's... It's well worth a visit....Come & stay! Love Suz x

Blooming Lovely!

Hello... I can hardly believe that one month has passed since I arrived here at Awhitu, Aotearoa... it’s strange because in many ways, I feel that I’ve been here so much longer...
& then there are days when I feel that I stepped off the plane just a day ago.....
there are times when I feel so very much at home here & then there are unexpected moments of profound loneliness... missing family, friends, & all that is familiar so very much...
so thanks for the emails & please do come & visit Aotearoa/New Zealand & stay with me... it’d be wonderful to explore this amazingly diverse beautiful country together...
& share the adventure!
At last, here are some more photos & a brief resume of my adventures thus far...
Tanya & Charmaine (T&C) have gone on holiday to Samoa, Pacific Islands, for 10 days, leaving me in charge of ‘Earthtalk’.... chucks, ducks, guinea fowl, harvesting fruit, slug/snail patrol... – hey, it’s no joke going out with a head torch & collecting slugs & snails late at night, all busy devouring transplanted lettuce, broad beans & other precious little plants that you spent hours planting out with lots of tlc & plenty of nitrogen rich worm poo from the worm farms around the place... T. tells me that the little plants apparently still reel with shock for up to a week following the transition from the greenhouse... whereas I’m still reeling with shock at so many slugs gathered in one veggie patch... anyway, as this is a full-on very ‘pc’ organic permaculture project...absolutely everything has some positive benefit to the land... so, the chucks & ducks have a wonderful feast each morning gorging themselves on the night’s haul & then we humans benefit as we devour the rich yellowy yolked eggs from the chucks... with even their egg shells recycled in the compost afterwards...
a little bit of trivia is that chucks can eat egg shells if they’re boiled or cooked in some way... that's fine... but not raw shells!
These are the chucks in their run.... apparently their days are numbered as they aren’t laying enough eggs... T&C tell me that they believe that if they want to eat meat that they have to be prepared to slaughter their own animals in a humane way... so, they’ve already begun to initiate me into the slaughter ritual... C. holds each chicken in her arms & thanks them for the eggs they have laid in their lifetime. C. tells me that the chickens usually go into some kind of relaxed, mesmerised trance at this point, bored with her muttering on.... & so she hands over the chuck to T.... who promptly chops its head off, draining off any blood... returning said chuck to C for hand plucking & whatever else one needs to do before their ready for the freezer.... not what happened in Wallace & Grommit’s ‘Chicken Run’, eh?

Gorgeous Feijoas.... I'm picking them daily.... helping to prepare them for Charmaine's '100 things one can do with a Feijoa'.... or is that 101 things??? They're very delicious... with soft fleshy insides....

More shelves stocked with Earthtalk produce.... Is there no end to it..... No there isn't....!
Love Suz x

Birthdays & Bananas

Photos1,2&3 -
Happy Birthday Aotearoan-style....
Photo 1: I celebrated my birthday on June 15th & T&C accompanied by T's 94 yr old father, Kenneth B. Cumberland gave me a marvellous day... Kenneth is a famous geographer, originally from Bradford, UK... Morning Coffee with some of Charmaine's homemade orange & poppy seed muffins.... delicious... & the celebrations & presies continued... I felt surprisingly homesick for a few days around my birthday... remembering my 50th last year & all my lovely family & friends back home.... missing the familiar routines, faces & places of recent times... & like the tide.... those feelings ebb & flow...


Photo 4 - no idea how to delete this photo... it seems to have a mind of its own.... am I going bananas????

Lots of love, Suz x

Ever seen a sculpture that's also a clothes line????

More Tree Dahlias...
Chucks paradise.....
Fantastic sculptured.... clothes line... it's quite amazing! It's by James Pickersgill.. if I've remembered properly....









View across the estuary from the lower track beside the gully.... so still & calm...
Sending you some peace from this earth space across the sea.... love Suz x

One Banana, two bananas, three bananas & more?????

Wonderful photos of golden Tamarillo trees, Banana trees & the delightful Tree Dahlia in full flower..... Enjoy them... love Suz x

Pohutukawa Place....

Blog 8
Photo 1:
A close up of the beautiful banana tree flower with the bananas behind.... in the plantation...














Photo 2:Sunset over Earthtalk, looking towards Manakau Harbour..... view from the upper track... there's a native cabbage tree on the right..
Sorry - photo 3: Pohutukawa Place - has just disappeared.... ít's a green cottage that's is being enlarged & refurbished! It's looking absolutely lovely & when it's ready.... I'm going to move in.... yahoo! It's got amazing uninterupted views across the wetland towards the sea... it's compact but very lovely....it's got a kitchen, a wet room bathroom, a living room & a bedroom.... T&C are thinking about getting a sofa bed for the living room... or a king size bed that splits into two large divans.... what are you waiting for!!!! Hopefully, it'll be ready by the beginning of August.... the Pohutukawa tree is just off the left of the photo. It's a native tree & flowers deep red flowers at Christmas time.. inside the cottage is being decorated to reflect the natural colours around... I've been helping decorate too... photos to follow... love Suz x

Worms, Wwoofer & Tamarillos

Blog 7

Photo 1&2:
One of the 3 worm farms at Earthtalk... this one is just outside my front door.... the kitchen scraps that the chucks don't like are fed to the worms.... the worm farms are home to thousands of worms that T&C bought in specially... The worms produce worn pee called 'vermitea' & worm pooh called 'vermicast'. Collecting & spreading these rich, dark magical potions is considered a special 'wwoofer' treat.....
it's like liquid/solid gold for plants.... my nurse training
has helped me out on so many occasions these past weeks... when I've felt especially squeamish about collecting & handling all manner of squishy, squashy, smelly animal products......
























Photo 3: My turn to cook supper... I'm cooking a vegetarian indian curry including using homegrown butternut squash & maori root potatoes

Photo 4: The amazing Tamarillo... they grow in 3 places but most abundantly in amongst the banana plantation... I collected 11 kilos today.... 6 kgs to take to the supermarket in Waiuku to sell.... a twice a week delivery... the rest to either make tamarillo sweet sauce, savory chutney, dried for use in the museli packs.... to give away as gifts to local families living in Waiuku, to visitors, to tradespeople who come or simply to enjoy ourselves in various shapes & forms... hot puddings etc... there are two types of Tamarillo - yellow & red.... you eat can them raw... you eat the insides with a tea spoon... otherwise you can use the whole fruit...
Bye for now... Suz x