Bamboo

It's not just  me that loves hanging out in the shady bamboo understory.

The violet patch is thriving...........and I found evidence of some one making potions.

This is one of my timber bamboo groves. As I harvest every year there is  room to move, play, set up hammocks... 

Out of the sun, next to the stream, rustling leaves... what more would you want?

Sharp tools

Just finished doing a little sharpening on my favorite tools.

You never know how blunt they are until you sharpen them.

It makes things so much easier/quicker.

Lots of planning underway so my pencil sharpening has been a lot more regular.

Recipe box sort out.

 I love my recipe box.

I get a lot of grief about it though.

Mixed up with; peach wine, gouda cheese, choritso sausage, brawn, sourdough starter, chilli sauce and tomato soup recipe's are some more very important ones.

Like; fish hydrolysate, fermented pant juice and dilution rates for plant extracts. I reckon they are all important things to cook.

Mud

There is nothing like the feel of mud. 

This mud has been hiding underground alongside a spring. Bright blue when you first uncover it but it changes color as it gets exposed to air.

I love how these guys have used it!!

Supplejack nest

Verdict. Too small. We are off to make another so we can sit in it.

 

Fire

 

Full moon eclipse.

  

A super blood moon eclipse warrants a night in the tipi. 

So beautiful. So lucky to have seen this. Just after the eclipse a heavy fog settled down. 

Scaffolding

 Need scaffolding.

Just go and harvest some!!!

This is one of my favorite plants to visit. 

Its nestled in a small food forest with; Cherimoya, Banana, Sugarcane, Kefir lime, Fejoa, Pine nut, Avocado, Passionfruit, Loquat,....and of course since we are harvesting sunlight some solar panels.

Eco printing

 

After my adventures in using kokowai I had a go with eco printing. 

My favorites where liquid amber leaves and eucalypt bark. Now we have fancy covers for our tipi mattresses.

And am looking around with new eyes at potential new dye sources.

Kokowai

 Kokowai.

This is the colour of this land. Ngati pukeko. 

This is one of my first attempts of dying cloth with clay from this whenua. 

Mordanted with raw milk then soaked in clay.

Usually I avoid white clothes. Now I am on the lookout!!

Happy harvest

 Ours was spent with the best of friends. Sharing kai, clay creations, great conversations and of course music late into the night.

We ended up staying in the tipi overnight. Breakfast was leftovers and foraged fruit.

Fire bath

 What better way to dye your fabric than a firebath under the stars. This eco dying did not come out to clear so will have to stoke up the bath again soon.

Brick yard

 How can you walk past the brick yard without spinning a wheel and getting your hands in the clay? You do not need to make. Just the rhythmic spinning of the wheel and clay moving under your fingers. And well if you cannot reach the treadle just sitting with the clay.

A trailer load of harvest

 Corn harvested and ready for hanging. Thanks to all of my helpers!!

We dreamt up a harvest party while shucking corn and collected corn silk for rongoa too.

Brownies in the garden

This afternoon I had a wonderful group of brownies in the garden. We wandered tasted and wondered. It is amazing what is edible and how much fun you can have mixing it up.

It is amazing how much of a jungle the garden is at this time of the year.
 

And thank you to Pam Pearse for taking the photo. It is not often there is one of me!!

Wood

 

There is nothing like a woodshed full of wood.

You get warm filling it, feel warm when you see it and well for us it cooks, warms the house and hot water.

You also get wonderful bags of sawdust for the composting toilets.

End of summer jungle

 

Changes

 

This photo was taken 10 years ago when we started the first stage of our road. 

Since then this area has fed us, many friends and an ever increasing diversity of wild and farmed animals with an ever evolving succession of kai.

From the seeds grown and saved here we now have a community garden, seedling house and propagation area to distribute plant material into our community. 

Thanks to our friend Byron we have a birds eye view of this craziness.

Bee watching!!

Watching bees.

First you have to sneek up to flower. 

Make sure your shadow is away.

Slowly hold flower and if you are gentle you can bend it towards you and get really close! 

Community garden

 And we are off again...........

It feels so good to be gardening together again after a bit of a break. The tunnel house is once again full. These are our first lot of winter seedlings (evicted from the tunnel house as it is full!) hardening off before planting and distributing around the community next week.

Some of these seedlings we have grown from seed saved from some of the first plants we grew at the start of our community gardening.