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

Earthtalk Abundance...

Blog 5



I'm on a roll tonight... these are some of T&C's photos....

Photo 1:the two of them on their stall at the local Framers Market...

Photo 2:a banana tree flower... & yes, ever so slightly reminiscent of an anatomical part...
T. regularly chops them off.... & they're sold as decorative flowers.... castration is the only way if you want to go bananas... mind you...bit of trivia for you now.... banana trees only flower once... but self-seed abundantly... as I'm reminded every time I step into the banana plantation...except that is... if you're an Abyssinian banana tree, in which case you get to keep your flower... which grows to enormous proportions... because you don't ever produce any fruits.... my, how my world-view is changing!!!!
Photos 3 & 4... flowers from Earthtalk... Time to sign off I think.... Bye for now, Love Suz x

Dolphins at Graham's Beach...

Hi Everyone,

I think this is my third posting... thanks for all the emails too...

it's taken me soooo long to get up to date with my photos & even longer to upload the decent ones.... (no... no indecent ones will EVER be posted... what, private sale... erm, perhaps.... I'm open to offers to fund my travels...)

the good news is that very soon....you'll be able to view a huge selection of views from Awhitu & beyond.... with appropriate ramblings from myself... however, a friend recently emailed me to say I sounded like"Felicity Kendal aka 'The Good Life' on speed"... so I'll try & tone it..... UP even more....

Photos 1 - 4 I took these on a follow up visit to Graham's Beach, approx. 10 kms away. I can't remember if I told you about the afternoon Brett, a local Dolphin/whale addict rang & told T&C that he'd spotted some dolphins in the harbour at the end of our road... we hurtled down there & spent about 15 mins scanning the horizon 'dolphin-spotting'... gazing anxiously at the sea....I could definately hear the theme music to Jaws... but to no avail... no sightings... then Brett had an idea... he guessed they had swum north up the coast... & offered to drive us to Graham's Beach.... the next beach up...
T&C decided to head back to the house but I went with Brett to Graham's Beach...
it was deserted & I was ever so slightly hesitant when Brett suggested that we needed to both lie belly down on the beach to rest our arms so we could spend a decent amount of time watching the family of bottle-nosed dolphins... 2 adults & a baby he'd spotted......swimming round & round in a huge circle... it was magical watching them too....
Brett told me he was up in Awhitu house-sitting for a friend as he'd had a busy season on his organic farm & had just finished building his own catarmaran specifically to go dolphin/whale watching & swimming around the Pacific/Polynesian Islands... his iminent inaurgural voyage was to Fiji... ... he'd swum on more than 200 occasions with dolphins & demonstrated his 'signature call', (a high pitched whistling accompanied by banging two stones together underwater....) that he uses to summon dolphins... & lo & behold... the two adult dolphins came nearer to the shore... it was absolutely fascinating!!!! So that's Graham's Beach for you... it's also the home of Awhitu Vineyards.... local 'quality' vino...! So, do come & visit & stay at Earthtalk any time! I could go quite... bonkers.... very soon... with all this glorious solitude....!
Love Suz x

2nd Installment - News with a view!

I've discovered that I can only upload 4 photos at a time so... here goes....
Photo 1 - the Awhitu Penninusular is made up of these huge sand dunes... grazed by dairy cattle, sheep & goats. For thousands of years, the land was covered by native bush & was home to the local Maori people - Ngaati Te Ata. Then... Europeans arrived & that's when the truble began.... we stripped the land of the bush, cheated Ngaati Te Ata out of their land & nature wreaked havoc.... these huge sand dunes were formed....
Photo 2 - the view across the Tasman Sea.... all that's between New Zealand & Oz.... taken from Manakau Heads - the western entrance to Manakau Strait.... & a very foreboding place... the gathering storm clouds fell a minutes later in a torrential sub-tropical rainstorm... it reminded me of the scenery from the film 'The Piano'....
Photo 3 - Earthtalk's Mangrove suckers silting up the estuary ...mentioned in a previous dispatch!
Photo 4 - the famous Manukau Honey trees... which T&C have planted in their native bushland area all over Earthtalk- this sells for a fortune in UK supermarkets because of it's medicinal properties...

My computer time has come to an end for now so.... bye, Love Suz x

Wwoofer's Dispatches..... News from the Awhitu Front Line!!

Dear Friends...
First of all, thank you to all of you who have emailed me & have been waiting very patiently for
a reply... I have had limited time access to the PC & as Earthtalk is in a Wi-fi 'Dead Zone' - my
hope of using my laptop has faded.... except of course to watch DVD's... more about that later!
I've taken ages to work out how to establish a blog... & even longer to successfully upload photos
from my digital camera onto the blog site...'fingers crossed that finally I've cracked it & if you
wish, you'll be able to share my journey & reply either directly to my usual hotmail email
address or via my blog site!!!
Okay, a whistle-stop tour thru'the photos to your right...
1, 2 & 3 - Tanya & Charmaine, two amazing, radical, hospitable & pioneering women, who 16 years
ago came to the Awhitu penniusular & began creating Earthtalk.... - rather than me wittering on
about what they've done, it'd be easier for you to access their Earthtalk website http://www.earthtalk.co.nz/
These first 3 photos are from the Awhitu monthly Sunday Farmer's Market & show them setting up their stall with many of the fruits, vegetables, flowers, dried fruits, salad bags, pickles,
chutneys, jams, sauces, home-made museli, nuts etc etc I have helped pick, peel, dry, pack - a huge 'do & learn fast'process that shows no sign of abating... & I forgo to mention that all those processes are accompanied by wonderful opportunites to taste those recipes that Charmaine is still éxperimenting' with... Tanya is the taller of the two women.... I helped sell their stuff to customers too! The Awhitu Penninusular is a popular place for Aucklanders to come to their 'batch' - holiday home, at the weekend... because of it's wild & rugged scenery & very friendly
wwoofers too....
Photo 4 is the view eastwards from Earthtalk across the estuary & Manakau Harbour,
towards Auckland... it's about 10 mins from the main house! Lots of varieties of bird life & Mangrove tree suckers... Tanya has told me that pulling them up so that they don't choke up the estuary & Kauri gully is one of the jobs that awaits me... wading into thick mud flats....
I thought I'd uploaded lots more photos but they don't seem to be here so I'll have a go at sending this blog & then search for the missing photos.... & let you know what I've been doing these past two weeks! Please keep the emails coming... it's always great to hear from you!
Love Suz xx