Helen Lehndorf
writer
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Review of ‘A Forager’s Treasury’ by Johanna Knox
A Forager’s Treasury By Johanna Knox Allen & Unwin, $36.95 I’m late in writing this review – I’ve had the book for some weeks now and I was supposed to post a review last week, but it’s taken me a long time to gather my thoughts about it because, quite simply, I’m completely overwhelmed…
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Walnuts, irises, peas….
Over autumn I foraged HEAPS of walnuts, plus my parents gave me a big box….they’ve been drying off for six weeks. I’ve just started cracking into them and they are good, fresh, earthy, delicious. Now I have a happy walnut glut and will be thinking of ways to use walnuts so if you have any…
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gifts from the thrift
How is the first official week of winter treating you? (Game of Thrones fans will get the reference here….) Here is some vegetable bunting I made for the kitchen because….well, just because: Here’s some stuff from the op-shop lately. (I buy most of my clothes from the op-shop also, but they aren’t all that exciting…
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Interview with Johanna Knox author of ‘A Forager’s Treasury’
As a keen forager myself, I was so excited to hear that my friend Johanna Knox was writing a foraging guide for New Zealand, but despite the fact I was pre-disposed to like it, I am truly impressed and in awe of what she has produced. It is a beautifully written, helpful and down-to-earth book…
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a portrait of the (visiting) artist
Here’s some photos of the Massey Visiting Artist apartment where I am working during the day. The apartment is FREEZING. Thank goodness for tea – the instant hand-warmer. Here is the view from the living room – I can see the steeple of All Saint’s Church from the sofa where I sit to work. And out…
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mycology walk
Last weekend I had a yearning to go on a mushroom/toadstool hunt in the bush. I took my family out for a ramble around a bush track on the Woodville end of the Manawatu Gorge, looking out for autumnal fungi. I was not disappointed! There were some wonderful red toadstools. Bright orange fungus: Tiny ethereal…
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celebrating a long apprenticeship
Next Wednesday, 12.30pm, Theatre Lab 5D14, Massey University Wellington my dear friend Maria McMillan and I are giving a talk/poetry reading. It’s my first duty as visiting artist at Massey. We’ll be repeating it the following Wednesday 24 April, 6pm, at the Palmerston North City Library. I invited Maria to share the reading with me…
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picking up what the wind drops
I took a walk to a nearby section where an old house had recently been demolished. They are building shops there. I dug up a wormwood plant and rescued an iron gate from a skip which I’ll use as a frame for beans in the vegetable garden. When I walk I am looking for stray…
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abandoned mattresses
Some neighbours moved out and left two mattresses on their front verge. (Where they then stayed for some weeks, until finally the real estate agent selling the house hauled them away. Isn’t it funny how people think if they leave something on the curb it suddenly counts as ‘rubbish’ and will magically disappear….?) I love…
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a sudden break
My writing has taken off over the last couple of weeks, which is a relief because I was feeling a bit barren and uninspired after the summer hols and obviously needed a good few weeks of thinking time before anything was ready to come out. Towards the end of last year I applied for and…
Helen Lehndorf 