My whole adult life I have kept journals, capturing bits of my life in words and images. I’ve also taught journal writing classes from time to time. Journal writing is a key part of my creative process as a writer and my self-care regime as a human. Journals get some bad press – sometimes seen … Continue reading My ‘great complaining notebooks’…some background on ‘Write to the Centre’ …
Hello! Its been a few moons since I posted…I took an unintended break there for a bit! What have I been up to? (I’m going to assume the fact you are reading my website means you are interested…ha ha.) Last year I received a grant from the Earle Creativity Trust to write a book about my … Continue reading many moons
My opshopping habits have changed in recent years. I go much less often, I buy much less, and I try not to buy stuff for other people like I used to. (Sometimes I see absolutely perfect gifts, and break this rule…mind you.) However, I do still love a good rummage. Here are the best ‘thrift … Continue reading Opshopping highlights – February/March
Apple cheeks, apple weeks, the race against the birds… The inherited tree which has the codlin moth – I know it’s time to strip the tree when the birds begin to peck at the apple tops – this means they are sweet and ready. Cutting around the moth tunnels, making apple sauce which turn into … Continue reading Apple season
Some days you can really feel the fire – then other days, you are like a squished snail or a washed-up jellyfish and you wonder where the fiery-you with the self-belief and the staunch intent went…but it’s all in there…different bits surface on different days…the trick is to not pay either state too much mind….it’s … Continue reading the huge scruffy melange of humanity
Not really. But I do get enormous pleasure from taking my twee basket and a sharp knife out to the garden and seeing what is ready to eat, filling the basket with a bit of this, a bit of that…and then just enjoying looking at it for a while, before prepping the vegetables for cooking … Continue reading I’m only in it for the aesthetics
I love weeds. I love plants which sprout in cracks, parking lots, on barren concrete rooftops. I have a fascination and somehow, an admiration (while respecting what a terrible pest some of these plants become) for when plants go dominantly feral and take over, in the vein of the ‘terrible beauty’ concept that Yeats coined. Type … Continue reading ‘nature’ will not let your plans get in the way of her onward romping…
A few weeks back, I went to Kirtan Camp in the Otaki Gorge. (Kirtan is ‘yoga of sound’, essentially.) It was three nights, three days of beautiful nature, yoga, music, chanting, vegetarian food and lovely people. It was my treat to myself of deep ‘me time’ after the family-centred intensity that is the summer school … Continue reading Kirtan Camp 2015 – love gets sweeter everyday …
Another beautiful permaculture garden I visited recently, is the Paekakariki School garden. Lots of schools have gardens these days, but they are usually hotch-potch patches of vegetables gone to seed and a few calendula…not the Paekakariki School garden. It’s clearly lovingly and frequently tended, with huge compost and mulch piles, a working greenhouse and an … Continue reading Another garden visit: Paekakariki School Garden
We’re having days (weeks!) of consistent warm weather this summer – a change from the last couple of summers. I’m really feeling the summer vibes this year! Raspberries and strawberries picked at a place we house-sat: I bought a sheet of googly-eyes made from icing, certain they would make for some hilarious baking. I was right. … Continue reading summer colours
Helen Lehndorf 