My Way and Kati KaiWay!

Wow!!  I have been running as fast as a mongoose between traps, with a hunter in hot pursuit!!  At last, I can breathe just a little deeper!  Since returning from our tropical holiday in Rarotonga, we have had 2 weeks of finishing off our solarium building project (so many little details to think of) and of course, getting all our ducks in a row in order to plant our first trees in a local reserve - Kati KaiWay is born!  A community project dedicated to planting fruit trees in a local reserve, in order to strenghten our town's economic resilience in the face of future economic uncertainty.  Free fresh fruit for all.  What an awesome project to be part of - it blew me away to see about 45 people attend, amazing to consider people gave up their precious weekend time to come and help dig and plant trees, for the good of the collective!  Heartwarming fuzzies!

A talented helpxchange American couple arrived in the midst of all the chaos of our lives, to live alongside us for 2 weeks.  Justin is a chef (lucky us!!) and has been cooking up a storm in the kitchen, giving me a much-needed break in the kitchen!  Mekayla is a jeweller-cum-artiste extraordinaire!  They have been a whole heap of help, allowing me to focus on the KaiWay project.  8 cubic metres of firewood has been beautifully stacked in our new recycled firewood shed.  Yeeha!  We will be very warm next winter!  And our firewood will be tinder-dry!  Makes sense to buy your firewood at the end of winter, for the following winter!

What a beautiful sight..... geometric patterns!

Paintings of African ladies, done by my sister-in-law , Mary-Anne Lang.

During the lead up to our Kati KaiWay project last Saturday, everything that could go wrong, did!  But on the day (Saturday), all was good and fine and well!  People pitched in, last minute plans were made and some miracles were performed!  We busied ourselves digging turf, loading barrows-ful of tree and leaf mulch for the extended fruit tree beds and planting feijoa and plum trees.  We will have to follow up with a second planting day next winter, to add the next groups of trees......... citrus, persimmons and figs.  By the end of it, I had to take a Nanna-Nap to recover!

On Sunday we worked in our garden, I managed to plant a whole bunch of new seedlings - Mignonette.  Did a wheelbarrow load of weeding and managed to set up the bird netting to protect the new fat strawberries that the birds are snacking on.  I also re-erected the blueberry enclosure.  

Strawberry netting

Blueberry enclosure to protect our budding blueberries and strawberries 

Set up another passionfruit trellis on left and bean frame on right. 

I've direct-sown some black Maori corn behind the bean frame, and new Hopi black beans on the bean frame.  Below are some further images taken on the weekend, I love the profusion of colour.......... It's great to see little buzzy bees and busy bumblebees at work.

Double flowered forget-me-nots

Little wildflower daisies

Wind-bullied fig with it's bandages and crutches recovering
 from a total face-planting in a storm 

Sage flowers under lemon tree

New recycled materials wood shed

Kati KaiWay participants getting briefed on planting

A plum tree bed with tree mulch

 Mekayla painted our old paint-peeling outdoor bench - a summer spruce up.  Wait till I upload the picture she painted for our new solarium wall..............

Newly painted bench by Mekayla

A week has passed since I started this post - the weather has improved and the garden is smiling!  

So am I!

Cat tricks and carrot sticks and a garden in my kitchen

Our little town has been inundated with rainfall deluges and windstorms to wipe out carports (our neighbours) - we have had more rain fall in our town than is a decent share for the entire African drought-stricken continent!  Winter rainfall, and now we are well into Spring and still it comes bucketing down!

Yellow winter/spring foods

Carrot Sticks

The foods we are harvesting of late, are hues of yellows and oranges!  Lots of natural lycopene and beta carotene!  Who needs to buy it in capsules when you can have the real McCoy!  Our carrots come in shades of yellow, orange and white - a visual delight!  We are having carrot sticks and houmous, grated carrot in salads, carrot stew and carrot soup.  Vitamin A in carrots aids the growth of healthy bones and teeth.  Carrots are packed with a nutrient called beta-carotene, which is converted into vitamin A by the body. Carrots are actually one of the best source of beta-carotene.    Vitamin A is vital for healthy vision and being able to see in dim light.

Our grapefruits have sweetened up and we enjoy one a day - whole or juiced.  Our tiny little oranges too, although having just sweetened up to eat, are in full blossom again!  The smell is one of my favourite olfactory sensations!

 As I write this, I am listening to Brenda Fassie's Vulindlela,  a great reminder of our African roots.  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RvfDkzUOos

Wonderful stuff!

Cat Tricks

What can I say????  This is Shanti's latest trick!  We dare not leave the toilet door slightly ajar and she noses it open for a quick drink.  Uh, and she has a bowl of water half a meter away where we feed her but she seems to prefer this drinking hole!!!  Disgusting!

Our new cat trick!

Kitchen Garden

As gardening activites are somewhat severely curbed in torrential down-pouring or hurricaning weather, I have enjoyed my kitchen gardening.  Sprouting requires no soil.  Just a glass jar, a circle of netting or muslin, a tight elastic band and a selection of organic legumes, seeds or nuts.  My sprout of choice is mung beans.  They are sweet, crunchy and easy on the palate.  I pour twice as much water over mung beans and by the next day, they are fully hydrated and then it takes a twice daily rinsing and we are eating them in 3 days.  According to Ayurvedic practice, mung bean sprouts balance all three doshas, in other words, they are good for all of us!               

Sprouts.... kitchen gardening

Getting my bottles ready for preserving later in summer...

What do you do when you have a switch on your wall you would  rather not have?
Make it into a feature!!

Coming back from holiday, it was great to be able to walk out in our giant outdoor backyard supermarket and pick a basketful of Globe artichokes (yum), asparagus (not many), grapefruit, oranges, mandarins, a huge Violet Sicillian Cauliflower, leeks, silver beet, bunches of parsley and other herbs.  We are looking at planting up our new little secluded courtyard with yet more olives and frangipanis, to remind us of our tropical holiday!  Perhaps a hibiscus or two.  How exciting.............food for the soul!  If we can't change the weather, at least we can pretend a little.

Island Escape

Back home from our tropical holiday in Rarotonga.  Cook Islands.  Perfect weather conditions - 25 - 26 deg.C and one day we experienced 32 deg.C.  What I call real Summer weather.  We felt so amazing!  Our little cabin set high up on a hill, overlooking the lagoon and fringed with palm trees, was basic but self-contained.  We fed ourselves on local fare - yard-long beans, eggplants, tomatoes, paw paws, bananas and of course, coconuts!  We shared a coconut a day, juice (some have nearly 1 litre fresh coconut water inside) and jelly meat.  Older coconuts had thick flesh which we scraped out and ate like lollies.  

Paw paws were bought by the box-full, $7 for about 15!  A local elder heard about our paw paw feasting, laughed and said: "Plenty paw paw, plenty poo poo!"  How true!  That's because paw paw or papaya is rich in dietary fibre as well as antioxidants. Papain and chymopapain are 2 enzymes which help break down proteins into amino acids, which means it is an excellent digestive aid.  We gorged ourselves silly, by-passing the processed and packaged foods of supermarkets.  There are plenty opportunities to buy freshly baked organic breads from the markets and some shops.  And this we had for lunches, with aged malt-tasting island honey!  

We experienced a couple of grumpy stall and shop holders, they must get so tired of tourists!  And just when we were thinking negative thoughts, we experienced island generosity that blew us away!  We bought some bananas $2 for about 10 from a stall holder and discussed making our own food rather than eating out.  We raved about the fruits of the island we were eating.  She proceeded to tell us her name was Kaierangi, meaning food or manna from heaven!  She then gifted us a paw paw each.  After gratefully accepting her gifts, she then picked up a bunch of yard-long beans and gave them to us.  I tried weakly to protest but was simply met with another gift of a huge firm eggplant - a meal for 4 in itself!  We were so humbled by that immense level of generosity!  Everything she had grown on her land!  We tried to look out for her again to repay her generosity but the next market day was raining and deserted of stall-holders.

Island fare

On the island, my own personal solar panels soaked up the vitamin D and sun-rays in gulps!  Being a sun-worshipper means I am  running on  severely low battery for about 8 months of the year in NZ!  Land of the Long White Cloud............... being back, catching up on building updates and the weather blues.  It is mid Spring, and cold and rainy.  A great welcome home!

Wigmore's Waterfall

I made some insect spray to take along - what a blessing, as mosquitoes can literally suck you dry!  Into a small 125ml spray bottle, I nearly fill it with filtered water, add a teaspoon gin (for preserving and an oil dispersant) and 5 - 10 drops of the following essential oils: lavender, geranium, tea-tree and peppermint.  I then add about 20 drops of citronella oil.  A quick shake before use and it has the most pleasant smell and does a fantastic job!  I never stick to a precise recipe - too boring!  Each time it changes.  Have just made up a new one for home use as we used it all up on our trip.

We took a 3 hour hike in the Takitumu Conservation Area and were very glad of the insect repellent!  Our guide, Tom, was 14 days off of his 80th birthday and we were all huffing and puffing up the mountain behind his easy striding.  We got to see the highly endangered Kariori bird or Rarotonga flycatcher, which is bright yellow as a juvenile, and turns grey later on in life!  What a thrill!

Below are some images of the flora we found.  I have no idea of their botanical name:

Reminds me of Crab Claws

Reminds me of a Thai temple

And of course the beaches and lagoon............ what sheer unadulterated bliss to lie soaking up the sun's rays and viewing the aqua waters and vibrant skies.  The sun is so bright that it reflects off the sand and water and literally hurts the eyes!!  What wonderful light if you were a painter...........

 We watched a wedding take place right in front of our eyes, as we lounged on deck chairs in the sand!

My daughter and husband did the snorkelling thing, coming back all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, with descriptions of amazing fish they had encountered.  I was happy to view the posters of local tropical fish in a nearby roadside cafe!  I have never been adventurous, and to immerse my head under water and perhaps come face to face with something creepy is not my sense of fun!  So I watched them snorkel, from the safety of the sand!  I did however, have a couple of swims both in the lagoon and hotel pool!!  

I know,  a wuss!  But some of us have a low adventure threshold - 'tis me!

Muri Lagoon

Wedded bliss

Pretty little bridesmaids

Crystal clear water

And how is a tropical destination sustainable?  Forget the carbon miles, 3.5hrs flying time gets us to a holiday destination that sustains my sun-loving soul!  I can handle this gloomy Spring weather now, much better than before!  And financially, my husband puts a small amount of savings every week into a travel fund................ our holiday is paid for before we even take it!  It's preferable to flying now and paying later............ for the rest of the year, long after holiday memories have faded.

Next year we are planning a Fiji getaway.  We never did get there, after planning to go a few years back when 3 days before our flights, George Speight overthrew the government and we were advised not to go on account of travelling with children as it could have been unsafe!  Let's hope there are no military take-overs planned for next year July!

Before we left to Raro

Progress when we returned.....

In the mean time, we hope to spend some time in our solarium or sun room and think back to warmer times on the island...........  It's blowing a gale outside!  Come on sunshine!  I have seeds to sow and food to grow...........

Rapid Road to Recovery

This picture of our peach blossoms makes me feel great, just the mere sight of it! On top of the world!   I have been bogged down by crazy, hectic activity these last two weeks.  So much to do, so little time..........  The reason:  End of term. So many strings to tie up and projects to complete.  And in the home, crazy, frenzied Spring activities in the garden, building projects on our front doorstep with hundreds of little considerations and decisions to be made.  Add to this all, the delightful culmination of a term's hard work ending in a tropical holiday getaway!  So suddenly our holiday crept up on us (we had booked and planned it a year in advance)............... quick as a flash, I sent out a barrage of invitations to Helpxchange visitors............... to have all 6 respond in the positive. I had suspected it would be a lot harder to find housesitters at short notice.   Eeek!  So graciously, I accepted the first positive responder and declined the others.  Fast forward to this point in time and we have a house full of guests - our lovely French housesitters, our returned Argentinian ex-helpxchange from 3 years back, and Mike's very old (in relationship years, not age) friend from Melbourne!  Add to this a builder outside the front of our house making much hammering, grinding, nail-shooting noise and playing his own blend of 60's radio station ........ and one can see why a picture of Spring blossoms is calming and healing.  

I also managed to pick up a violent cold/flu bug from the kindergarten.  As I was potting up some seeds on Friday afternoon, I started to cough rather ferociously and wondered if I had ingested some potting mix ...............oooops, is this how Leggionaire's Disease begins?  It continued well into the night.  On Saturday morning, I woke up feeling rather weak and unwell but thought I would fight the good fight and stay on my feet.  After half an hour, I had to admit defeat and weakly climb upstairs and huddle in bed with a hot water bottle.  All the classic symptoms of flu; cold; shivering, achey body, cough, head fit to burst................  Oh, no!  There goes our tropical vacation!!

My learning so far in life, is that if you fast at the first sign of illness, the body is able to utilise the energy required to digest food, into healing the body.  So that's what I did.  For nearly 36 hours I did not eat but drank water and sage tea.  Fast forward to Sunday afternoon and I was able to move around and feel like I was on the road to recovery.  Wow!  It's amazing what your body is capable of if you give it the right conditions or ingredients.  No drugs.  Nothing but rest, fasting and patience.   I am almost certain that we get sick, simply so we can rejoice in the feeling of wellness again.  Health is a commodity we take for granted when we have it!

The new insulated floor is laid.

Behind the white is a gaping hole where the new full-length window will be inserted.

Travelling in Style:  The previous weekend I happened to go to the Bowling Club Car Boot Sale and picked up this grand little cat-box for $3.  It has a wicker lid to close for transporting the cat, and a little velvet cushion inside.  On opening it, Shanti immediately hopped in, smelt around it for a few minutes and then lay down and stayed there all night.  It is testimony to her love of small confined places.  Last night I walked out of our bedroom to find 2 very bright  eyes staring at me from my shelves with linen in wicker baskets!  Little beastie leaves her fur on all my newly laundered bed sheets!  She will not be coming on holiday with us, but she has 2 lovely French keepers to take care of her.  And if we ever need to go somewhere with her, she now can travel in style!

Oh, to travel in comfort.......

I often say that nothing really surprises me in life.  I had worried that I would be sick on holiday but my body has fast-forwarded it's healing at a break-neck pace and I can only but marvel at what it is capable of!  I can't help but being most pleasantly surprised!!  And the other advantage of my 36hr fast???  I think I might just look a whole lot better in my itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikini next week, with a new-look, flat tummy!!  Hope it lasts!   Beach weather; bring it on.......................!

Goddess of Wind

Even Josephine, our "scarecrow" is wind-blown and weary!

The Spring equinox always bring a mixed bag of weather conditions.  The wind is blowing a hurricane outdoors and we watch with resignation as the blossoms are ripped off the plum and nectarine trees before even having the chance to be pollinated!  Oya, the Brazilian Goddess of Wind is indeed a fierce warrior!  Her destructive nature is thought to make way for new growth and development.  Mmnnn.  Thus I expect a bumper crop of fruit and veg this growing season!

Building activities have been underway last week and one forgets how much mess it brings!  Mike and I spent our weekend tidying up (our builder is neat, but the process creates so much fall-out!).  I had to find places to put all the plants I pulled up for the building process, and Mike moved the mound of grass and soil created with digging out of the foundations.  On the plus side, the extra soil created a lovely impromptu bed to plant my seed potatoes in, with two heaps on the side for mounding up. As this area was covered in weeds and we were feeling a tad tired from the extra work, we thought we would try to experiment: Mike laid down cardboard (reducing need to weed), onto which we made two rows of soil mounds for my potatoes to sleep in (using the soil from the building project).  Two birds, one stone.  (Seems a strange idiom for a vegetarian???  Maybe I should start a new saying - one pull, two carrots?)

Given that the wind lent a hand to plucking citrus off the trees and throwing them to the ground, I worked with the windfall, rather than curse the hand that helped............ made lemonade and limonade!

Did you know that lemons are the signature food for breasts?  Yep, if you look at a half lemon, it resembles the mammary glands!  If drunk during menstrual cycle, it reduces breast pain often associated with it.

EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZIE RECIPE:

Dissolve one cup of sugar in one cup of hot water (can boil it on stove till dissolved), then add 1 1/2 cups lemon juice (or lime juice).  Voila!  Bottle and keep in fridge, to dilute roughly 1-6 parts water for a refreshing drink on a hot day!  

I have poured mine into plastic containers which can be frozen till needed on elusive hot days.

Making Lemonade

Lemonade on the left, Limonade on the right.

After initially misunderstanding the seedtrays were not the latest in inside kitty litter, Miss Shanti, the cat, now eyes them curiously.  At first she would try to step onto the soil-filled trays but got a few smacks on her bottom.  Now she knows that it is a no-go zone!  They are doing well, albeit a little leggy from being indoors.  The thrill of new growth never ceases to amaze me.  I keep on looking, tracking their growth, several times a day.

Shanti guards the seedlings

Violet Sicilian Cauli - so beautiful, it seems a shame to eat! It is an authentic Italian purple cauliflower.  Great flavour.

Garden harvests include citrus, cauliflower, radishes, artichokes (last of), chicory, salad ingredients and parsley.  The leguminous cover crop in bed one was beginning to show gorgeous purple pea flowers, so it was time to cut it up this weekend and put the chook tractor onto it, to clean up and dig it into the soil as a great soil conditioner and nitrogen fix for my summer crop of tomatoes.  Crop rotation is essential to good crops and healthy soil. 

Cover crop of blue peas, hairy vetch and oats.

Plum blossoms in the calm before the stormy winds of Oya arrived.....

Lemons to last through most of Spring and Summer....

Chook tractor over the cover crop, with rain jacket to protect entrance to sleeping mezzanine.

On Friday, Mike arranged for a stump grinder to come and grind out our old oak tree stump, so that we can plant a Luisa Plum tree nearby.  With space being at a premium in our small edible landscape, we have to undergo drastic measures, like stump grinding to make space for new!  The resultant sawdust/soil mix was put to good use, in the chook bed, the compost bin, the pathway in the hothouse, and extra for layering between kitchen scraps in the compost bin.  It's great when there is a no-waste feel-good factor involved in demolition!

Where once was a stump.............

And all around the garden are signs of Spring!  I planted some tulip bulbs mid winter and this is the result.................

One white frilly tulip

A cerise-pink tulip, with more buds opening to reveal their colours..

Daisies

Purple bonnet-like flowers that seem to spring up (no idea what they are)

Tubular miniature agapanthus

Geranium

Forget-me-nots

The hothouse has 3 new little additions - tomato plants, a month earlier than outdoor plantings.  Not home-grown seedlings but ones we bought from the local market.  22 October is the "traditional" tomato planting window (Labour Weekend) in New Zealand.  The following weekend, we will begin to work on preparation for our tree planting community project.  I saw an online video clip about a small town called Todmorden and their response to economic downturn.  Brilliant!  Inspiring!  If you have 14 mins to spare, watch the clip!  

The salad ingredients that have seen us through the winter.  

The changing face of our porch.  New insulated
 foundations for solarium.