YeeHah! Drumroll please.....The kindergarten where I work, has just reached Silver status as an Enviro-Kindergarten! Very exciting indeed! The "award" recognizes ongoing and new initiatives for kindergartens running innovative sustainable education programmes and having sustainable practices in place. This means everything we do comes under a "green lens" or eco-driven choice - whether it is a purchase being made, or how we work with resources. Our first Bronze award was a year of putting all these practices into action, then the Silver status has taken us two years to refine, streamline and persist in "green" practices. So I am feeling particularly chuffed with our achievement! So lucky for me, not only do I live the Green Dream at home, I also go to work, still in the Dream!
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Katikati Kindergarten adobe house shortly after completion Jan 2009
A testimony to great teamwork, courage and vision. The house
now sports a "Green Roof" or earth-covered garden roof. |
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Mosaic details in our kindergarten adobe playground
Everything custom-made with sweat, a drop or two of blood,
and a few tears! |
On the Home front, Liz and Spence, our little half-Bantams have managed to fill a dozen egg carton from left to right! To celebrate, I taught my daughter to make herself a "frittata", having never made one before (remember, Mike and I don't actually eat eggs??). She claimed that it was delicious - only that the vegetable were a little crunchy - ooops, I said, she should try to cook the veggies lightly first - next time round! "But Mum! I thought you
knew how to make a frittata!" Well, not really. I mean, how should I know, never having made one before in my life?? And anyway, since when did frittata get born?? I grew up knowing about
quiche. A rather eggy vegetable pie with a crust. A frittata? Without the crust. Anyway, we are slowly using up the rather petite little eggs. Shanti, the cat, also gets her egg yolk treat 3 times a week. I read somewhere in our Natural House Book that they are good for cats.
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| Shanti watches the doves from inside the window |
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| A full dozen eggs! A thing of beauty. |
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Taken on a wet and dismal Sunday,Liz and Spence's
quarters fit snuggly over the spent veg beds
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What a glorious start to October - a gorgeous sunny day spent in the garden on Saturday, planting out all my seedlings - sunflowers to line the walkway to the washing line (my daughter loves sunflowers, so I figured in order to attract her to hang up the laundry, why not plant her favourite flowers along the path??), marigolds and alyssum to both attract or repel certain insects, caulis for wonderful summer Aloo Gobi dishes, lettuces green and red, lemon verbena for herb teas and beetroot. 'Tis the planting window, according to the moon, and I get until the 10th to continue this wonderful soul-filling activity. Then on Sunday, gloomy and wet, I spent a wonderful half day tucked away at the bottom of the garden in our shed, listening to Casey Kasem's top 40 on our Disaster,Solar-powered Radio, sowing seeds in endless trays - tomatoes, pumpkins, melons, butternut, tamarillo, coriander, lettuces, beans and more. The general rule of thumb I have always used is to cover seeds with soil twice the size of the seed. I tell my kindergarten children that we need to cover them with a "soil blanket", so they can have a good sleep before waking up. They seem to understand that concept. I guess none of us like to sleep without covers, even if only a sheet in summer! I even experimented with making my own seed raising mix on Sunday (recipe from Organic NZ mag) - a third clean river sand (left over from our garden path-making project), sifted compost and worm farm excess "poos". We shall see how successful that little experiment is............. I planted my heritage black Maori corn direct into the garden - only to spy a little blackbird furiously pecking away at the newly planted site. I gave up chasing him away after the 4th time. I hope I still have a few corn come up! When the root-crop planting Lunar "window" comes around, I can't wait to plant out some Maori potatoes and white yams (which I managed to swap at the last Transition Tauranga Seed Swap Meet last week). Very exciting. Only have two of each tuber but I reckon that's all I need to start my future delectable abundance. I have already planted purple Ureneka potatoes which have thankfully survived the vicious frosts of early Spring.
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Maori corn, the seed generously gifted to me by a dear friend
Corn are the signature food for teeth - stands to reason as they
resemble rows of teeth! |
I love the thrill of checking up on newly planted seed-trays - peeking expectantly for signs of growth. I still sometimes clap my hands together with glee, when trays greet me with abundant green heads popping up to greet the world! Sheer unadulterated bliss! Oh, and while feeding the chooks tonight, I glanced at the bed next to them and spied one beautiful big broccoli ready for the picking tomorrow, with 2 more coming along nicely. That reminded me to harvest our Globe Artichokes I spied while planting out the corn seed on the weekend. And I remembered to harvest 4 spears of beautiful early asparagus. Along with a small bucket of mandarins, oranges and grapefruit. Perfect Abundance and Blessings.
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The kowhai trees on the south side of the house are in full bloom
Kowhai means yellow in Maori. The blossoms attract the beautiful
tui birds with their wonderful primeval song |
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Our beautiful mouth-wateringly delectable Globe Artichokes -
delicious lightly steamed, served with a dipping sauce of melted butter, olive oil, chopped garlic, lemon juice and Tamari Sauce. Mmmmmmm! |
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