Helen Lehndorf

Tag: Slow-Small Media for the Weekend

  • Slow-Small Media for the Weekend #23

    (Above: I pity the birds in these ongoing spring storms and winds…losing so many eggs and babies. I found this little blue egg on the footpath.)

    I hope everyone got through the strange stormy weather this week. We rushed about taking down bird feeders and moving tall outdoor plants. Our only damage was that our garden water feature fell over and smashed.

    Here’s this week’s digest:

    A sweet little song by a band that usually makes edgier music: ‘Mr Broccoli’ by Tall Dwarfs

    There’s a new biography about NZ musician Chris Knox out and I look forward to reading it. Clare Mabey wrote a very good review on the Spinoff. Reading her review sent me to Chris Knox’s back catalogue.

    I saw Chris Knox perform several time in the 1990’s. His performances were always electric, captivating. He was very eccentric, unpredictable and the mood swung from hilarity to venom and back in a dizzying fashion.

    When I used to DJ on student radio I loved playing this short, sweet and jangly song at the end of my show. I still love it.

    (Listen to all of the Slow-Small Media songs on Youtube.)

    Poem: ‘Perhaps the world ends here’

    I love Joy Harjo’s work. She always cuts through the frills and fluff and gets to the roots of life. I believe in the power of a good kitchen table and this poem speaks to that power.

    Perhaps the world ends here

    by Joy Harjo

    The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.

    The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been since creation, and it will go on.

    We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners. They scrape their knees under it.

    It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human. We make men at it, we make women.

    At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.

    Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our children. They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back together once again at the table.

    This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.

    Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory.

    We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for burial here.

    At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse. We give thanks.

    Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.

    (Above: not our kitchen but the kitchenette of a sweet little cottage in the Hawke’s Bay where I taught a creative writing class once.)

    Affordable Art: realistic mushroom magnets

    I am very taken with these sweet and realistic-looking mushroom magnets that look as if they are growing out of your fridge door. They are just $22 each which isn’t bad for something handmade and something which would give you a little smile on a daily basis.

    Although the iconic red Animita Muscaria toadstools are cool…I think I like this little brown cluster the best. I often see ones like these in my garden.

    (Above: image borrowed from Little Beehive.)

    A remarkable watch: the hidden art of Pat Porter

    Recently, I stumbled over this sad and beautiful documentary about the ‘hidden’ art of Pat Porter. An artist who painted every day, made thousands of paintings, believed in her work and yet, never showed her work during her lifetime.

    The work is stunning. Her family are lovely. It’s a beautiful watch.

    It raised all sorts of questions in me about what art is and who it is for and what it means to make and make and make and never share (beyond your family.)

    It seems to me Pat was happiest making, happiest in the flow of her work. How utterly inspiring.

    You can see peeks of her post-humous exhibition here:

    Her son is the writer Charlie Porter. I’ve read both his artist’s clothing book and his Bloomsbury clothing book. His sensibilities make a lot of sense after watching these clips about his mother’s work.

    If you find this story as compelling as I did you can read an article by Charlie about it.

    A delight for the eyes: early C20th people with giant trees

    Do you like vintage photographs? Do you like trees? Do you like seeing people in awe of giant trees?

    Then this is the vintage photograph selection for you!

    A summer recipe I’m dreaming about making: Croatian Sour Cherry Strudel

    I’ve been watching episodes of Tasmanian farmer and chef Mathew Evan’s show ‘Gourmet Farmer’ on YouTube. It’s the perfect relaxing viewing for someone like me who likes local food stories, vegetable gardening and preserving, etc. There’s even some foraging!

    On a recent episode, a Croatian friend of Mathew’s made him a Croatian style strudel with sour cherries. It looked so amazing.

    (Above: I have no cherry photographs to share…but here are the (non-fruiting) cherry trees in the park near to where I live. They do this each September.)

    Croation strudel is made with filo pastry rather than the heavier pastries of Germanic strudels. Apparently, the trick to getting it sweet and light is a sprinkle of sugar and a brush of light oil (instead of butter) between the pastry layers.

    I have no idea where I will source fresh sour or Morello cherries…but even if I have to make one with sweet cherries…I plan to make a version of this for Christmas Day. I’m excited.

    (Yes, I said the ‘C’ word. Sorry.)

    *

    Here’s one of my wild and weedy bouquets. Each Friday I try to clear the table of all of the random stuff it accumulates over the week, give it a wipe and polish and pick a bouquet from the garden so we begin the weekend with at least one little spot of calm and beauty.

    I hope there are both of those things in abundance in your weekend, friend. Thanks for reading. x

  • Slow-Small Media for the Weekend #22

    Hello there! There’s a lot of tea-related content this week so let’s begin with this dreamy whole-peony tea I drank last week. A friend gave me a peony tea-ball for Christmas and I decided it was time to treat myself…

    I will try really hard not to talk about the weather this week except to say it continues to be frigid and I lit the fire again this morning.

    F and I have been focusing on making our tiny backyard a little slice of urban green refuge for the summer. I bought the above park bench off a local father and son team who make them to fund the son’s activities so it felt lovely to both have a solid new garden seat and support a young entrepreneur.

    Then (anti-thesis of keeping it local) we went to Bunnings just to buy boring useful things and impulse-bought a birdbath. Our old birdbath was a rusting early C20th cream can with a large terracotta plate on it. Here is our new one. It seemed a pretty good price given they often go for multiple hundreds and I love the colour.

    We aren’t big spenders at all so both of these impulsive purchases make for big news around here.

    We have a lot of tui in our backyard and I’ve been enjoying watching them with their spring ‘crazies’: swooping, diving, mating, scrapping on the wing. It’s been all go.

    Here’s some things which caught my eye recently:

    A tasty way to use up any bolting silverbeet

    Lots of my silverbeet is threatening to bolt so we’ve been eating more silverbeet than usual lately. It’s not the tastiest just sautéed on it’s own but I’ve been resolutely serving it in this simple way because I loathe waste and also, it’s good for us.

    Eating it like this I’m taken back to my childhood where boiled silverbeet was a common side to our meat+three veg dinners.

    This recent recipe, Silverbeet Feta Filo Pie, from NZ food writer Nicola Galloway is a much tastier way to eat quite a bit of silverbeet. It calls for 500g of silverbeet.

    (Besides, almost everything tastes good wrapped in filo.)

    Nicola suggests serving ‘the warm pie with a simple spring salad or roasted vegetables, and a dollop of natural yoghurt.’ Yum!

    Affordable Art: ‘Big and Small Fight For Them All’

    If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ll know about my fondness for frogs.

    This week’s affordable art ($50) is a lovely t-shirt design from Waikato’s ‘Go Eco’ Environment Centre. It depicts a native frog and the slogan ‘Big and Small: Fight for them All’. What a beautiful message.

    Go Eco says: ‘This t-shirt has been inspired by our smallest and quietest endemic pepeketua – the Archey’s Frog. These tiny, nocturnal creatures are among the world’s oldest surviving frog species, with their lineage dating back over 200 million years!  They are critically endangered, but still facing threats from mining interests – highlighting the importance of fighting for all creatures – Big and Small.’

    Does a t-shirt count as art? Of course it does! It’s art that you wear on the billboard of your chest.

    Song: Ruti ‘If I Could Choose It Would Be You’

    This is a memorising song by a fresh young artist.

    The song begins subtly and sounds like it will be another pleasant enough guitar-based folk song but at around 1min 20 seconds she changes pitch and starts to sing very high and it elevates the song so much and becomes so very sweet and transporting. Plus I’m a sucker for songs in 3/4 time.

    I reckon it’s bound to become a classic love song.

    (I add one song to the ongoing playlist every time I write a digest. Listen to the whole playlist here.)

    Poem: ‘Coping Poem’ by Sam Duckor-Jones

    Sam’s work is always wry and sad and complex and nuanced.

    In this poem, a woman accidentally uses a naff contemporary catchphrase, ‘lean in’, and then two friends lean in to leaning in…

    ‘They were huddled at a small uncomplicated table
    They were literally leaning in
    Oh god, she said

    Lean in! he said, let’s just lean in
    Let’s go ahead & lean in
    & then keep on leaning in, he continued, til we’re all completely prone’

    He wrote this ‘coping poem’ back in 2022 but I feel like we need it more than ever right now. It’s sad and funny and makes me also want to lie down too.

    Read the whole poem on The Spinoff’s Friday Poem page.

    A watch: Where have all the Bob Ross paintings gone?

    Have you ever encountered the phenomena of Bob Ross? the afro-haired TV art teacher with the soothing voice and oddly compelling, if slightly generic, creative process?

    Friends of ours used to put Bob Ross on the tv to calm their children down during the 4pm-6pm ‘twilight zone’. His calm voice and soothing vibe of his art lessons used to bring the dinner time crazies down a notch or two.

    Bob Ross died back in 1995 but is more popular than ever…possibly because we all need more slow-moving and calming things to watch. He was also very funny (but only ever in a wholesome way.) Was he art any good? I don’t think so. To me it looks like the kind of thing I stroll past in op shops all the time…but the phenomena of Bob Ross is not really about the art.

    Here’s an amusing short film (10mins) by the New York Times addressing the questions ‘Where are all the Bob Ross paintings’?

    In the process, we get a glimpse at what happens at bobross.com and while they do sell ‘Bob Ross’ art supplies…what mainly happens is a lot of very wholesome fan support. Trust me, this is worth your attention even if you never heard of Bob Ross before today:

    Random Things I Love: Community Hall Teapots

    I have a bit of a ‘thing’ for community hall tea pots and crockery. Any community hall I go into I always go to the kitchen and have a nosey at their tea making apparatus. I especially love the gigantic ones that are so big they need two handles.

    I bring it up because next week I am doing an author talk in a little hall and I’m sharing foraged and home made herbal tea and …I have to take my own teapots! Whaaat? I hope this isn’t the beginning of the end of giant community hall tea pots!

    Here’s some photographs I have taken in community hall kitchens over the years:

    (Above: in case you ever wondered how much a catering sized teapot cost > now you know. I found this pic when looking for hall teapot photos I’d taken over the years. I can’t remember if I was actually toying with buying one (why though?) or if I was just delighted to spot one in a kitchen shop.)

    An excellent read: An existential guide to making friends

    (Above: we used to have a blackboard on a door in the kitchen. The door is now gone which means the blackboard is also gone but I stand by this message.)

    Wizard of Wellington Rosie shared this excellent article by ‘The Shadowed Archive’ on how to make and retain friends.

    It’s warm, spirited writing and made me remember how friendly the world can be…with the right attitude.

    I especially loved this:

    ‘Let the phone be a bridge, not a house.

    DM to schedule the walk. Send the photo of the dog. Do not live inside the thread like a tapeworm. The group chat is a mulch heap: throw scraps in, grow pumpkins out here.’

    It’s long…do read the whole thing… the ending is especially poignant with thoughts about friendship endings.

    The best thing I found at the op-shop this year

    Finally, while I’m riffing on tea pots, last month I found this tiny teapot at the opshop for $1.

    It’s made from a gum nut, has an acorn top for a lid, a copper wire handle and spot and a verdigris copper heart on it. It’s way more darling in real life but here’s a not great photograph:

    Whoever made it: I love you.

    Until next time, do your best and each day, be sure to have some rest.

    x Helen

  • Slow-Small Media for the Weekend #21

    (Above: a freshly foraged brew: plantain and kawakawa.)

    Happy weekending!

    You did it! You made it through another week. Take a moment to congratulate yourself.

    That’s a big achievement, atm, and if you were here with me I would bring you a nice hot cup of tea and pat you appreciatively on the shoulder. Well done.

    Let’s digest…

    A cleansing, sweet and delicious carrot soup recipe

    (Above: not actually the carrots I used for my soup but some baby carrots I grew and then served as a snack a while ago. I was proud of the ‘Frenchie’ way I’d pared them so took a photo.)

    This week my dear friend Bev gave me some large carrots she’d grown and I made this sweet and delicious Creamy Carrot Ginger Cashew Soup .

    It might sound very simple but the result is delicious. The flavour combination is unique and feels very nourishing and pleasing to the palate. The cashew nuts give the soup real creaminess without the heaviness of dairy cream. It’s a soup I revisit every spring.

    A wonderfully community-minded chap having fun in his own yard

    If only more people were so generous, so creative, so playful…imagine the cities we could have!

    This is a very inspiring seven minute watch:

    Poem: ‘Red Brocade’ by Naomi Shihab Nye

    A gentle poem about making time for your friends.

    I love the detail about ‘snipping mint’.

    Red Brocade

    The Arabs used to say,
    When a stranger appears at your door,
    feed him for three days
    before asking who he is,
    where he’s come from,
    where he’s headed.
    That way, he’ll have strength
    enough to answer.
    Or, by then you’ll be
    such good friends
    you don’t care.
     
    Let’s go back to that.
    Rice? Pine nuts?
    Here, take the red brocade pillow.
    My child will serve water
    to your horse.
     
    No, I was not busy when you came!
    I was not preparing to be busy.
    That’s the armor everyone put on
    to pretend they had a purpose
    in the world.
     
    I refuse to be claimed.
    Your plate is waiting.
    We will snip fresh mint
    into your tea.

    Song for the week: ‘Forever is a Charm’ by Princess Chelsea

    A seductive, gentle, music-box-like song by New Zealand Indie-pop darling, Princess Chelsea. So sweet!

    (I add one song to the Slow-Small playlist every time I write the digest. You can listen to the full playlist over on Youtube.)

    Affordable Art: ‘Sacred’ by Kathryn Furniss

    (Above: Kathryn Furniss ‘Sacred’ wall tile. Available here.)

    When I spot a Kotare, usually by a stream, I always get shivers and feel like I’ve seen something very special.

    This week’s affordable art, is a wall tile with a print, costs $40, and is by NZ artist Kathryn Furniss.

    I like the cool blues. I like that it’s a pair.

    & I so appreciate it when artists make their art available to people without big budgets in this way. Thank you for your generosity, artists.

    Emotional wellbeing: You don’t need closure, you need space

    (Above: I liked this quote by KC Davis so much that I wrote it out and stuck it on the wall.)

    I really appreciated this short opinion piece by Nikki The Death Doula

    Nikki discusses the myth of closure and how messy endings can be.

    She says: ‘People want a neat bow tied around messy endings: the final conversation, the goodbye ritual, the explanation that makes it all make sense. Closure is sold to us like it’s a finish line you can sprint across, complete with balloons, confetti, and a medal that says Congratulations, you’re over it now!‘

    Do you have ambiguous/strange endings of relationships or situationships that still haunt you?

    I know I do. Most of the time it’s okay but then in the wee hours of the morning when I occasionally have insomnia…that’s when those old, confusing, painful endings rise up and loop around my brain…so I really appreciated this gentle reframe about the fantasy of closure and some suggestions about other ways to integrate old grief.

    I also heard on a podcast in recent weeks that most adults change their friends approximately every seven years (!) I don’t know if it’s true but it’s a comforting thought if you’ve lost some connections along the way.

    Watch: Soothing nonsense

    Last week I found at the op-shop one of my best finds EVER but I will have to show you next week because I haven’t had time to take a decent photograph of it yet.

    In the meantime, as a bit of a clue, here’s half an hour of soothing nonsense: a sweet mother and daughter team faff about first foraging acorns together and then making a miniature tea set from the acorns. With gentle music and not much happening…this little clip could be the perfect thing to lull you into an afternoon nap…

    I hope something there ‘amuse your bouche’, so to speak. (Forgive me, that makes no sense.)

    I’m not sure what this weekend holds. Last weekend was full (all good stuff) so I’m intentionally leaving this weekend blank so it can fill itself as we go.

    Until next time, may the sun shine on your face this week,

    Helen x

  • Slow-Small Media for the Weekend #20

    (Above: a spiderweb in sunlight, September 20 2025, Ōtaki Gorge.)

    Last Saturday I turned 53. The above photograph was taken on my birthday. The sun came out!

    It’s been a crappy spring (weatherwise) so the sun felt like such a gift.

    I sat on the porch of the place I was staying and tried to read in the warmth…but the sun felt like such rich medicine I couldn’t hold my attention on my book and just kept closing my eyes and facing the sun like some kind of warmth-starved Tuatara.

    We were travelling light so my birthday cake was a supermarket almond finger (one of my faves) with a birthday candle and some dandelion petals:

    Article: Why is spring so hard?

    I find spring a challenging season so I was much heartened by this article answering this questions by one of my favourite writers, Juliet Batten.

    Juliet explores why spring can be a ‘bumpy’ season and reassures that it’s quite normal to find it difficult.

    A solace read.

    Carrying on with that question…an article: ‘The Cruelty of Spring and our Heartbreak at it’s Fickleness’

    This article on the ‘Examined Life’ website pulls some terrific examples from literature expanding on Juliet’s theme of spring being difficult.

    The website’s author, Ellen Vrana says:

    ‘There is life and birth and death in spring. There are lambs and rains and feasts and withdrawals, resurrections and divination.’

    Song for the week: ‘Near a Priory’ by Maxine Funke

    Any song which starts with the word ‘Granny’ is likely to get my attention.

    I like the breathy and minimalist style of New Zealand synth-folk artist Maxine Funke and this song is a sweetie:

    (You can listen to all twenty songs -I add a song every time I write a digest- on Youtube here.)

    Article: A frugal and lighthearted person talks about simple living for financial freedom

    I always read The Spinoff’s ‘Cost of Being’ series where people talk about their finances because I find it so fascinating. The way we approach money reveals so much about prorities, values and life circumstances.

    I particularly enjoyed this one.

    I immediately sent it to Fraser and said ‘this could be us!’…not so much her particular circumstances…but more her attitude. A little bit broke (compared to many) but with a resilient, light-hearted, resourceful attitude.

    This bit sounded very much like our household:

    Typical weekly food costs

    Groceries: I have no idea but it’s not much. A lot of my work involves food rescue and making community kai, so I’m always taking food home. I also grow most of my veges, and have excellent fossicking and scrounging skills!

    A lively read and helped refresh my own commitment to simple living.

    Affordable Art: ‘Resist’ by Bread and Puppet Theatre, Vermont, USA

    (Above: nothing says ‘resist!’ like weeds which will grow in cracks in the concrete. Image borrowed from Bread and Puppet Press.)

    I love dandelions. I love resistance. I love the work of the Bread and Puppet Theatre. I love this postcard and it comes in at a mere $6.00

    (& Possibly once you add postage it would be close to $50 NZD, the cut off price for ‘affordable art’…)

    A long and fascinating delve into the luddite movement

    Speaking of voluntary simplicity, my pen-friend and Wizard of Wellington, Rosie Whinray, published a long, well-researched, fascinating and fun article about the Luddites: ‘Summoning Ned Lud’.

    It’s not just about the Luddites, of course, it’s about time and labour and music and materiality and injustice and autonomy and so much more.

    Make yourself a POT of tea and sit and read this. It will take more than one cup of tea because it has various links to music and interviews on YouTube and no doubt you’ll want to savour them all.

    Thanks for another stellar read, Rosie!

    Video> ‘Life is never still’: an inspiring 92-year-old artist and writer shows us all how to live

    From the description:

    ‘His vibrant paintings burst with dramatic light and dark, playing with colour and drawing upon his Caribbean heritage. He powerfully captures the energy of Trinidadian carnival culture, folklore, and the cathartic power that the celebration holds.

    Join us for an intimate look inside his studio, writing shed, and kitchen, and experience his unique creative process that blends painting, poetry, cooking – and most importantly – love. Learn why mistakes are essential, why stepping away can spark inspiration, and how collecting objects can fuel new ideas.’

    He’s an absolute joy! You won’t regret spending 12 minutes watching his cruise through his day.

    That’s it for the week’s digest. This weekend I am hoping the weather will permit gardening. I have letters to write, mending to attend to, a new stack of library books to hang out with.

    My nettle patch is coming back to life so I’ve been making simple nettle soups and will make it again this weekend.

    I also bought a bottle of vodka so I can make some lemonbalm tincture with the new season’s lemonbalm; it always feels at most potent in spring to me…the leaves bright green and shiny. Lemonbalm is good for stress and anxiety, is known for being a ‘gladdening’ herb. (Now there’s a sweet old-fashioned word.) Read more about it here.

    I hope there are ‘gladdening’ things in your weekend.

    Thanks for being here and sharing the things that I caught in my net this week.

    x Helen

  • Slow-Small Media for the Weekend #19

    (Above: last Sunday the wind briefly stopped and the sun came out and so I dressed the picnic table outside for an ‘al fresco’ meal. It was lovely for about an hour and then the chilly spring weather returned. I’m glad I grabbed the moment, though.)

    Hey! How was your week?

    Sometimes when I am describing to a friend the futility of resisting what is happening in life, I say: ‘Anyway, there’s no point resisting it. It’d be like trying to punch the wind.’

    This week, though, I really did feel like trying to punch the wind!

    The spring winds here are chilly, mercurial, and strong. Despite my continued attempts to reframe them: they’re ‘cleansing’; they’re ‘blowing out our cobwebs’; ‘they herald the advent of summer’… I landed on Thursday feeling fed up and cranky about the weather. (So pointless.)

    There’s just so much I want to do in the garden but I don’t last long out there in these strong spring winds…maybe twenty minutes?

    However, I have potted up my first tomatoes. And I bought some leek seedlings which will be ready for next autumn/winter if I plant them in September. I used to plant leeks in January to be ready for winter…but the last few years I’ve been planting them earlier and earlier. This may be the earliest, however.

    Have you managed to start some spring planting yet?

    Here’s some things I’ve been enjoying lately:

    Dramatic (and philosophical) fire cooking with a charismatic Argentinian chef

    This documentary about Argentinian chef contains multitudes. He’s famous for cooking with open fire and there’s plenty of inspiration for that in the film (he cooks a lot of meat…so if you’re vegetarian, take care) but there’s also slow-living philosophy, visible mending and nature appreciation.

    He’s quite the charismatic, zen dude and I enjoyed this immersion into his life.

    Song for the Week: ‘Under the Sun’ by Mia Doi Todd

    Mia’s voice is high and sweet. The lyrics are dreamy. Discovering this song this week was a great antidote to being cranky about things I can’t change, like weather, politics and certain life circumstances. The song has a healing flowing feeling.

    A tomato poem: ‘In My Next Life Let Me Be a Tomato’ by Natasha Rao

    Because I’m dreaming into summer produce, especially tomatoes, I went looking for a tomato poem. There’s lots to love in this poem but I particularly love this line:

    ‘I want to be unabashed, audacious, to gobble

    space, to blush deeper each day in the sun, knowing

    I’ll end up in an eager mouth.’

    In my next life let me be a Tomato

    lusting and unafraid. In this bipedal incarnation

    I have always been scared of my own ripening,

    mother standing outside the fitting room door.

    I only become bright after Bloody Mary’s, only whole

    in New Jersey summers where beefsteaks, like baubles,

    sag in the yard, where we pass down heirlooms

    in thin paper envelopes and I tend barefoot to a garden

    that snakes with desire, unashamed to coil and spread.

    Cherry Falls, Brandywine, Sweet Aperitif, I kneel

    with a spool, staking and tying, checking each morning

    after last night’s thunderstorm only to find more

    sprawl, the tomatoes have no fear of wind and water,

    they gain power from the lightning, while I, in this version

    of life, retreat in bed to wither. In this life, rabbits

    are afraid of my clumsy gait. In the next, let them come

    willingly to nibble my lowest limbs, my outstretched

    arm always offering something sweet. I want to return

    from reincarnation’s spin covered in dirt and

    buds. I want to be unabashed, audacious, to gobble

    space, to blush deeper each day in the sun, knowing

    I’ll end up in an eager mouth. An overly ripe tomato

    will begin sprouting, so excited it is for more life,

    so intent to be part of this world, trellising wildly.

    For every time in this life I have thought of dying, let me

    yield that much fruit in my next, skeleton drooping

    under the weight of my own vivacity as I spread to take

    more of this air, this fencepost, this forgiving light.

    Affordable Art: Kereru @ Whanganui River

    I’ve broken my self-imposed budget for affordable art this week. This beautiful print by Rob Barrington is $95 so almost twice the affordable art budget of $50. Forgive me. I love it so much I had to share it with you.

    I live an hour’s drive from Whanganui, know the landscape well and love this depiction of the river, coast and ‘my’ mountain, Taranaki in the background. It has a vintage NZ school journal feel about it that I love, too. My folks gave me a little money for my birthday and I’m pondering this print as a contender for what I spend it on.

    (Above: Kereru @ Whanganui River by Rob Barrington. Image borrowed from Kina.)

    A meditation I wrote for processing and integrating ‘recent events’

    Back in 2020, I wrote and recorded a meditation to offer solace for how unsettling and scary the pandemic was.

    I didn’t specifically mention the pandemic in the meditation. I just referred to it as ‘recent events’. This good decision to be a bit vague has meant this meditation is perennial …because there are continual ‘recent events’ for us to cope with. My hope was that a listener might feel a little more calm, less scattered and ‘put back together’ after listening.

    You can listen to it here.

    (And for my northern hemisphere readers…you can hear the short flat vowels of my very NZ accent!)

    Recipe: Twenty Minute Tahini Biscuits

    I made these biscuits this week. They are good for if you have someone coming over and you need something to serve quickly. I served some to my friend Kushla and she said they tasted like chewy halva.

    They are quick to make (twenty minutes from go to woah) They have just three ingredients and are gluten-free.

    Twenty Minute Tahini Biscuits

    Mix:

    one cup unhulled tahini

    one cup powdered jaggery (Indian unrefined sugar)

    one egg

    It will make a stiff paste.

    Roll into small balls. (Approximate a teaspoon full.) Put on a greased biscuit sheet.

    Bake at 190 C for 9 minutes. (Keep an eye on them. They cook quickly and burn easily.)

    Put on a cooling rack. Enjoy!

    *

    It’s my birthday this weekend and Fraser and I are going off-grid for two nights to a hut in the bush with outdoor cooking (hence watching the aforementioned fire-cooking documentary!) and an outdoor bath.

    The description of the place says there are eels to feed, glowworms to visit and the bridge across the nearby stream is a giant log. I feel confident we’ll have a great time.

    Until next week, try to stay out of the wind!

    x Helen

  • Slow-Small Media for the Weekend #18

    (Above: a tiny posy of small flowers from the garden: forget-me-not, pansies, calendula, & marigold.) )

    Hello!

    Another week of our lives has passed since the last time you were here…indulging me by reading my collected nonsense.

    How was your week? Did you have time to look at the sky for a while? Read a good book? Wear something that makes you feel excellent and utterly yourself? Did you drink enough cups of tea?

    If not, make yourself one now and settle in for some slow-small media imbibing…

    The joy of simple well-made things

    I write this from beside our fire. It’s stormy outside and today’s high is 12 degrees. The fire is just over a year old. We had it put in when our 1980s gas fire was condemned by the gas inspector. He recommended a heat pump. We did this instead and have not regretted the decision for even a second.

    The fire was made in New Zealand in a business in the Hawke’s Bay. The fire feels like a new member of the family and staring into her depths has given me many happy moments.

    (Above: our little fire with the morning sun on her.)

    When I was in Taupō last weekend, I upgraded our poker to a lovely hand made one from a metalsmith at the local Sunday morning market. I took a photo of him brandishing the poker at the market because he was a lovely chap and I am a nerd for the provenance of handmade things:

    (Above: The maker of our new poker. He didn’t make the hooks on display but he did make the poker.)

    Speaking of woodstoves, last week I stumbled on the YouTube account of Homewood Stoves, another NZ-made wood fire business – this time based near Whangarei.

    Their videos are full of wholesome and homey videos featuring their beautiful homes, gorgeous kids and lovely kitchen…it’s peak #cottagecore content but in a NZ context. Very soothing viewing for a rattled nervous system. Which leads me to today’s recipe…

    How to start a ginger bug for homemade ginger beer

    Also on the Homewood Stoves channel, this aesthetically-pleasing and slow method video has really inspired me to brew up some ginger beer this summer.

    This is a very helpful and nicely made video.

    & I have kitchen-envy! >>

    Poetry: A bit of Mary Oliver balm for another hard news week

    On Thursday, I had a really long work day and was ‘head down, bum up’ all day so didn’t catch any news. When I finally knocked off, Fraser mentioned it had been a big news day in terms of global events and laid it all out for me. (I won’t rake it over here because it’s not Slow-Small-Media suitable… ) but again I was struck how, in these turbulent times, you can be offline just for a day and then plug back in and find the world has been through the wringer again…in new and newly-awful ways.

    To that end, I feel this week we need one of the big guns of solace poetry…so here’s an excerpt from Mary Oliver’s ‘In Blackwater Woods’ (read the whole poem here):

    Here she is on love and the necessity of detachment as part of that love:

    ‘To live in this world

    you must be able
    to do three things:
    to love what is mortal;
    to hold it

    against your bones knowing
    your own life depends on it;
    and, when the time comes to let it go,
    to let it go.’

    A song for the week: ‘So Free’ by Lūka, & Mose

    I appreciate every season…however, at this stage of late winter/crappy spring, I can’t help but begin to yearn for summer.

    This newish song by Lūka & Mose gives me that spacious and bright summer-road-trip feeling…even on this stormy day.

    I can tell I’ll be playing it a lot this summer:

    (You can listen to all of the Slow-Small Media songs over on YouTube here. I add one song every time I write a new edition of this digest.)

    Affordable Art : the Tea Frog you probably don’t need at all but might make you smile

    Oh, hi:

    (Above: image borrowed from the IkoIko website.)

    Look, I know nobody needs this ridiculous object…but how much fun, hey? )(+ Who ever went into IkoIko looking for something they needed?)

    This little guy is $33 so he falls well within the affordable art budget of $50.

    Is it ‘art’ though? I imagine you asking… I’d argue it makes having a cup of tea more artful…and so yes, he qualifies.

    A short list of ‘sacred gifts’, from Alex Klingenberg

    Returning to the topic of regulating the nervous system after feeling rattled by the noise of the world… this short article by Alex Klingenberg invites us to consider what we have to give in this moment, what our ‘sacred gifts’ are.

    I particularly like this excerpt. As I read the list below, I think about how I can bring these qualities into my relationships, my family, my friendships.

    Does my being in my presence leave people a little uplifted? I hope so.

    Sacred Gifts of Being:

    • Presence – showing up fully to the moment.
    • Attention – the act of noticing, listening, and honoring.
    • Wonder – the childlike awe that keeps the world alive.
    • Stillness – the capacity to rest, pause, and make space.
    • Resilience – carrying light through difficulty.
    • Gratitude – choosing to see abundance and say thank you.

    The article is gentle and thoughtful; I felt a little steadier after reading it.

    (Hat tip for this link to Thousand Shades of Gray who also does a regular digest which I really enjoy and find a lot of good reads from.)

    An artist who embraced the slow art of sewing after an illness

    Speaking of gratitude and presence, this is a lovely watch. Louise Watson had to give up her teaching career after illness. Now, she lives more slowly and has begun and nature-based art practice as part of her new, slowed-down life:

    & That’s a wrap for this week’s sharing.

    This weekend I’ve been invited to a friend’s house for the inaugural paella in her new (from the op shop) paella pan; I’m going to be sharing early birthday cake with some fellow September-birthday friends and I’m going to a Sika Sound Journey as he’s passing through town. This will be my fifth time going to a Sika journey. I’ve been twice at yoga/kirtan camps and twice here in my home town. It’s always worth it. Transporting!

    Sika often starts his journeys with the repeated phrase:

    ‘you are leaving time…you are leaving time…you are leaving time…’

    I hope you can find some moments of presence, attention, wonder, stillness, resilience and gratitude this weekend and also maybe ‘leave time‘ for a little bit.

    Much love.

  • Slow-Small Media for the Weekend #17

    (Above: PN’s Te Manawa Museum currently has an exhibition about sunshine and light. Here I am playing with my shadow in the light box.)

    Song for the week: Just George ‘Lungs’

    This local tune is by my friend Abi Symes. I’m proud to have a little connection to this song, all about the overwhelming nature of grief, because Abi wrote it after we had a conversation about the physicality of grief. Abi got a bad lung infection after going through multiple griefs in quick succession and I told them that in Traditional Chinese Medicine, the lungs are an organ where grief is felt.

    Abi sent me the song and I felt all tingly at the way, as creative people, we can cross-pollinate each other without even intending to. I love the song and I love Abi.

    (I add one song every time I compile this digest. You can enjoy the whole playlist on Youtube here.)

    Be careful, this video may turn you into a total bird nerd

    I loved everything about this little clip from Gardening Australia: the birds, the Australian native plants…but mostly, the enthusiasm and nerdy citizen-science of the sweet, sweet couple who are developing the bird garden. They gave me a deep case of ‘elder couple goals’ for me and F.

    Watch this and then tell me people aren’t good:

    A fun spring challenge: can you find enough edible flowers to make a ‘fairy salad’?

    (Above: my fairy salad – all of this was growing in the garden.)

    Spring in the Manawatū is pretty horrid. Squally winds, sudden temperature drops, weather that goes from warm to icy within the same outing…leaving me in the wrong clothing…all uncomfortable and cross.

    It’s been like that all week….then on Wednesday…there was a brief reprieve and the sun came out. The garden was still. I could hear the tūi. I could hear my own thoughts.

    I grabbed the sun-window to play in the garden and I made a fairy salad from edible flowers.

    Read all about it, including the recipe for the dressing, over on my Substack.

    (btw, I’m still not sure about writing in two places. Here and Substack. I thought I’d do it for a year and then reassess. Do you have any opinions? I’d love to hear them in the comments.)

    Affordable Art*: ‘Forage’ vase

    (Above: image of the ‘forage’ vase from Jilly Jam Pots borrwed from Felt)

    At just $48, I think this vase is such good value. Handmade, rustic, interesting, very original. The inside is glazed to hold water for the little stems you have foraged from around the place. I love it – so simple and eye-catching. The maker, jilly jam pots, has lots of other goodness in their shop, too, including this little vase that looks like a lotus pod. So good.

    (*To qualify as ‘affordable art’, the item needs to be less than $50 NZD. Let me know if you’ve spotted anything around the internet you think people might enjoy and I’ll share it.)

    Rest in power, Kelly Ana Morey

    As a Gen-X NZ writer, I was shocked and saddened to hear of the death of Kelly Ana Morey.

    Kelly is iconic among my generation of NZ writers. Punky, fierce, funny, no-bullshit, straight from the hip, generous, strong sense of justice and of course, a brilliant writer who didn’t get enough kudos and celebration.

    As my FB feed filled with tributes and lamentations, I was again filled with that deep sense of life is so short and random.

    Tell people you appreciate them now. If people cross your mind – get in touch and tell them you were thinking of them.

    Tell a creaky, broke, vulnerable NZ artist that you love their work TODAY. Or if you can’t be bothered doing that, give them $20 via their online begging bowls or maybe, buy one their creative efforts.

    It’s hard being an artist in NZ:

    “This fucking stupid milk-loving piece of shit dumbass mean-spirited sale at Briscoes racist sexist 40% off deck furniture piss country.”

    as Hera Lindsay Bird once tweeted. (Also iconic.)

    A poem: ‘After Work’ by Gary Snyder

    I love Gary Snyder. Especially this book.

    This week’s poem, ‘After Work’ I thought would be a good one as we (in NZ) leave winter…

    It’s simple, it’s erotic, it’s amusing.

    The stew simmering on the fire is not the only thing simmering.

    & it reflects his Zen-eyes. 

    After Work

    The shack and a few trees
    float in the blowing fog

    I pull out your blouse,
    warm my cold hands
         on your breasts.
    you laugh and shudder
    peeling garlic by the 
         hot iron stove.
    bring in the axe, the rake,
    the wood

    we'll lean on the wall
    against each other
    stew simmering on the fire
    as it grows dark
                drinking wine.

    *

    I think that’s all I have to share this week, friends. Soon we are driving up the Desert Road to visit my folks. I’m hoping there will be snow so we can have a snowball fight and I can take photographs of icicles.

    (I have a poem which mentions the Desert Road.)

    + Happy Fathers Day to all the good Dads in the world…and may the not-good Dads be forgiven so their offspring can find peace in their hearts.

    If I don’t blow away in these horrible spring blusters…I will see you here again next week.

    x Helen

  • Slow Small Media for the Weekend #16

    (Above: I love this. Found it unattributed on Pinterest. If anyone knows the artist – please tell me so I can credit and link.)

    Hello! Can you feel the change in seasonal energy out there? Barren-looking fruit tree branches now fat in bud or with the first green emerging. Magnolias doing their thing. Spring bulbs.

    I’ve been eyeing up the vege gardens and wondering when the moment is to pull out the wintery stuff to prep the beds for those first tomato babies. 

    Lazy/easy hosting

    I recently read an article about ‘imperfect hosting’. The jist of it was…what if we relaxed our standards for having people over so that it happens more often…rather doing it ‘perfectly’ but hardly at all because of that perfectionism? 

    Inspired by that, we had six friends over for a ‘Sunday Toast’. We supplied bread, butter and a couple of things to go on toast. (I made tomato dahl and a smoked fish + cream cheese dip.) We asked our friends to bring a toast topping. 

    We put all the toast toppings on the dining table. At dinner time, we took turns at the toaster making toast… then move to the dining table and applied toppings of choice. (Basically, yes, our friends had to cook their own dinner.) Dessert was a ‘zero dishes’ very lazy effort of a box of Cadbury ‘Favourites’ and some mandarins. It was interactive and fun, very easy and after they left – we were all cleaned up in about 15 minutes. 

    We also learned a cool thing from our friends Marolyn and Ruth. They invite people over for a specific window of time, e.g. ‘Come for dinner between 5 and 8pm.) Having an end time makes hosting feel more do-able, too. We copied them. Everyone had fun and then left round 8pm. We had the great feeling of having caught up with mates and hosted something AND we still had a couple of hours of our Sunday night left for chillin’. 

    Something good to watch: ‘Datastream’ Documentary

    I really enjoyed this short documentary about legendary Wellington print shop, Datastream. They closed back in 2017 after 35 years in business!

    They were a print shop with a radical heart but they worked with everyone local. It’s very heart-warming and a testament to the love a business can get when they commit to their community. 

    Homemade Worcestershire Sauce Recipe

    I don’t think I’d ever consider what the base of Worcestershire Sauce is…or that I could potentially make it myself. I follow Australian food writer, Sally Wise’s blog and she recently published a recipe for it.

    Turns out the base is plums so it’s a good recipe if you have plum trees. Part of me is intrigued to make it…the more logical part of me is questioning just how many bottles of Worcestershire Sauce one family needs…but on the other hand, a cool thing to gift or trade. 

    Affordable Art…on the move

    Tote are a fun way to have art in your life. It’s art you can wear… it’s useful art. 

    Here, for just $20NZD, is the op-shopping tote you didn’t know you needed by maker, Odd One Out. It’s such a cool design and would be perfect for the keen op-shopper in your life. 

    This week’s song: ‘Free’ by Little Simz

    A laid-back and heartfelt tune by UK hiphop artist, Little Simz. Lyrics as sweet and warm as a jar of honey sitting in the sun: 

    ‘I think that love is forgiving yourself

    I think that love is offering your immediate help

    I think that love is everything that we need in this world 

    I think the key is being honest and being yourself 

    I think love is understanding that people can change

    And loving them anyway through every stage.’

    (I add one track each week to the slow-growing Slow Small Media playlist. You can listen to all of the tracks in the order they were added here on Youtube.) 

    A poem for the week: ‘What’s fun until it gets weird?’ by Chris Tse

    Last week Chris Tse finished his time as New Zealand Poet Laureate. He did some amazing work in this role, travelling extensively and representing New Zealand so well. Here’s an excellent recent poem of his, ‘What’s fun until it gets weird?’ 

    Chris is (arguably) the best dressed New Zealand poet. He has really raised the bar for theatrical poet couture. 

    Thank you for your service, Chris. x

    This weekend, we are chipping away at some changes we’re making to our back yard – extending our porch, moving plants, and first baby steps towards building me a home studio.  This weekend marks the end of week two of my Verb Home-Based Residency. I’m planning on giving my little greenhouse a good sort out and clean up ahead of spring activities. 

    I hope you are faring well out there. Hope there are some lovely things in your weekend. 

    X Helen 

  • Slow-Small Media for the Week #15

    (Above: resident garden Buddha at the bach I stayed in at Ōtaki.)

    I’m back from my residency in Ōtaki.

    How was it? 

    Well, all these things are true at once: 

    It was a wonderful experience. Parts of it were challenging. I got sick. Woke up sick on the first morning. A nasty dose of ‘flu – fevers, sweats, body aches, etc. I managed to do all of my public-facing things but I did not manage to sparkle. I’m a bit sad that I was a depleted version of myself when I was so keen to converse and connect. I was too sick to catch up with my local friends. The beach was stunning. The beach was my new best friend. The cottage I was housed in was wonderful. simple, sweet, one block from the beach. The organisers of the residency are warm, generous, kind people. Once my eyes stopped stinging and streaming, I read a lot. I did not manage to work on my manuscript…too ill to be generative or analytical. I did keep a journal about the whole experience so maybe there’s something in there? Or possibly it’s a load of feverish waffle. I can’t face looking at it right now but will crack it open when I’m all the way recovered and fully landed back in normal life. It was weird. It was confusing. It was perfect.

    Does that give you a sense of how it went?

    Aaah life, hey? Let’s get into today’s digest…

    Some tools for the ‘pointy end’ of winter 

    Next week,  I’ll be sharing an interview with you with Iona Winter about her new book, ‘Counter of Moons’ where we talk a bit about finding help when life gets overwhelming. 

    Here, from Pip Lincolne, all round sensible person and excellent advice giver, is

    Ten ways to help a friend when they are sad or struggling

    I know I go quiet when I’m feeling overwhelmed and I observe that many friends do, too. 

    Let’s try to be there for each other…even when it feels hard. 

    A recipe for a very weedy pie: ‘Hortopita’ 

    Last week in Ōtaki, I chatted all things winter forage-able weeds with some lovely locals in the beautiful Ōtaki library. (We had planned to do a foraging walk in a near-by park, but rain stopped play so we talked weeds indoors in the warm and dry.) 

    In every season, something in nature is thriving, and winter is great for fresh, bright green greens, well-watered from all the rain. Here is a recipe which calls for 11 cups of weeds! It’s a wild weeds version of spanokopita, ‘Hortopita’. 

    Hortopita (Weedy Spanakopita)

    What a great way to get a big dose of wild greens into your belly!

    This week’s song: Song of the Siren by Tim Buckley 

    The first version of this song that I knew was the famous This Mortal Coil version. Somehow I totally missed the fact that it was a cover! 

    I stumbled over the original version via YouTube. At first it sounded so wrong to me…but after a few listens, I really like it. 

    I know the This Mortal Coil version so well, it’s sort of like I can hear both versions concurrently as I listen. 

    (I add one song each week to the Slow Small Media playlist over on Youtube. Here’s the whole playlist so far.)

    This week’s poem

    is by Therese Lloyd, from her 2018 book, The Facts

    I think a lot about food as love and food as care because I’ve had 25 years of cooking for a family.

    I like the simplicity and poignancy of this poem about a small moment of a food offering spurned.

    (+ Lehndorf-trivia: I flatted with Therese when we were in our 20s. Back then we were part of a performance poetry group called ‘Poetry For Real’.) 

    By Sunday

    You refused the grapefruit

    I carefully prepared

    Serrated knife is best

    less tearing, less waste

    To sever the flesh from the sinew

    the chambers where God grew this fruit

    the home of the sun, that is

    A delicate shimmer of sugar

    and perfect grapefruit sized bowl

    and you said, no, God, no

    I deflated a little

    and was surprised by that

    What do we do when we serve?

    Offer little things 

    as stand-ins for ourselves

    All of us here

    women standing to attention

    knives and love in our hands

    Affordable art: original moka pot linoprint

    We have a big espresso machine. F is a coffee aficionado and roasts our coffee. Coffee is a big part of our daily ritual. 

    When I got home F surprised me by telling me that while I was away he didn’t turn on the big noisy coffee beast and just made stove top for himself each morning. 

    Stove top is what we used to have before we had fancy espresso machines and it’s what we have when traveling. 

    There’s something so handsome about the classic Bialetti moka pot and it has so many warm associations for me.

    So this week’s affordable art (so affordable! $30!) is this simple, charming linoprint of a moka pot by Waikato based maker ‘Stich and Whimsy’ on Felt. 

    (Above: photo of linoprint is borrowed from Felt.)

    ‘Tansy cakes, Fiddleheads & Sea Rocket’ 

    I do love a deep dive into a very niche area of interest and that’s what this article by Faythe Levine is.

    I’ve followed Faythe’s creative life since falling in love with her film ‘Handmade Nation’ 16 years ago! (I was part of that wave of renaissance of handmade things and used to make a bit of money selling at Indie Craft Fairs. It was a huge and exciting scene at the time. It’s hard to convey the unique vibe of those first fairs now but at the time they were very fresh and exciting.)

    In the article, Faythe finds a very charming hand-illustrated book at a second hand shop and then follows her enamouredness into a research side-road.

    The book she finds is charming, Faythe’s writing is so good, the whole premise is very entertaining. 

    ‘The Candy Factory’ – a charming short film

    I can’t find the words to express how beautiful this film is so just, please, trust me and watch it. (Content warning: heartbreak.)

    *

    OK, that’s the digest for this week. Did you miss it last week? & If you’ve read or watched or listened to anything you think I might like, please share in the comments.

    Last night I got my 100th subscriber on Substack which is so lovely. If you didn’t know, I write over there about permaculture, radical reciprocity, attempts to live in gift economy, voluntary simplicity, permaculture, foraging & more. I’m still finding my way there, to be honest…but trying not to apply feelings of urgency to things that don’t really need it.

    This weekend I am going to:

    continue getting better, clean! (house is looking a bit end-of-winter-ish), in the garden, all my rocket is ready at once so I might make a rocket pesto, read more of this book and I’ve been doing some Japanese-inspired visible mending of pants…so I might carry on with that. It’s slow work but looks so great.

    Warmest weekendy wishes to you,

    Helen x

  • Slow-Small Media for the Weekend #14

    (Above: my beloved Buddha statue in our back garden . F imported him from Thailand (!) for my 40th birthday. (So I’ve had him 12 years.) He’s made from volcanic rock and was very black when new. Now he’s faded and mossy…but still serene.)

    Hello! 

    I’ll be taking a break from the digest next week because I am going to be away for ten days being a resident as part of this new artist residency programme down in Ōtaki.

    Ten days is the longest I will have been away from my family in 25 years! I feel a bit anxious about who or what or how I will be outside of the braid of my family.

    Who AM I when I can think long, digressive thoughts without interruption? 

    When I only have to worry about feeding myself? 

    When I don’t have to try to keep everyone’s appointments and life-admin in my head at all times? 

    When I can utterly design my own schedule each day? 

    I don’t know. 

    I’m curious to find out. 

    Do you think I’ll be okay?

    But for now, here’s some thoughtful, calm things for your slow perusal.

    A list of genuinely beautiful compliments

    Do you ever want to express how much you enjoy or like or care about someone but struggle to find words that don’t feel clunky or inadequate? 

    Here’s a list of excellent compliments to inspire you. I tend to fall back on the same superlatives with my friends: love love amazing incredible talented strong beautiful…like too much sugar in a dish I worry I become cloying…that it sounds insincere because of the volume.  I think they possibly stop hearing me? So this list was inspiring to me.

    A song (and an introduction to an amazing person)

    ‘The heart never tires / the heart is tired all the time’ sings Meg Vellejos McCoy, (formerly Meghan Yates) in this beautiful song.

    In 2021, I worked with Meg in her capacity as ‘art monk’ and community pastor. She ran a peer support group…essentially for tired artists to listen to and support one another. To tend to our sadnesses and darknesses so we could move through them and begin to find fresh ground for inspiration. We met via Zoom. 

    The rest of the group were all in the USA. I was the only southern hemisphere person. That suited me at a moment of despair and burnout when I didn’t want to know anyone or be known in that way that is unavoidable in New Zealand > our tiny floating hobbit village of interconnection.* 

    Meg was an amazing facilitator, deep listener and reflector. I got so much from the sessions. I feel like she (and the group) gently helped me to put myself back together. 

    I also feel like they helped tend the ground for magic in my life because while I was in her programme I found out I had gotten the contract for ‘A Forager’s Life’. 

    Meg has just relaunched her website and has lots of new offerings. I recommend her work. 

    I also love her music. I don’t understand why she isn’t more well-known as a musician because I think her music is incredible with very unusual vocalising style, powerful lyrics  and a unique voice. You will think I’m exaggerating but I mean this … I think she’s as good as early Joni Mitchell. 

    If you’re curious about her music there’s a whole live concert here…poignant for how she can hold silence and pause in a live setting where she is the sole focus. Courageous! 

    & This is my favourite Meg record, ‘The Other Side’. 

    It’s music which demands to be deeply listened to.

    (*Mostly I love this about village feeing of NZ but sometimes it’s refreshing not to know or be known. Who are we out of any context?) 

    A simple but delicious and easy dessert

    I haven’t travelled much in my life, but I did spend two months in Turkey in my twenties. 

    More than once, we were served this beautiful dish as dessert. 

    It is ridiculously simple to make but sometimes the best dishes are the best because they are simple. 

    It’s a macerated dried apricot stuffed with an almond and then served with a little whipped cream or rich yoghurt. That’s it! It probably doesn’t sound very impressive. You’ll have to trust me. Tell me in the comments if you try it and what you think. 

    Affordable Art for the Week

    I love the soft light of candles. I love fruit and vegetables. 

    This week’s affordable art is NZ $28 and is a fig candle by Poppy and Sage. 

    Usually I prefer plain beeswax candles. I’m not a huge fan of soy or scented candles or novelty candles…but this fig candle looks so much like a fig! I dunno why.  I just like it! It amuses me. 

    They also do apple candles, orange candles, pear candles…even a flat peach! But it was the fig that caught my eye. 

    A very calm video where a fibre artist lovingly mends some tattered textiles

    The combination of her sweet voice, gentle ruminations on ‘make do and mend’ philosophy, her focussed attention, the satisfying mends and upcycling is entirely calming.

    If you’re feeling at all frazzled, stop, drop and watch and let the calmness soothe you. 

    Poem for the week

    In this poem, Eddie Krzeminski captures so vividly the impersonal, over-stimulating bamboozlement of the modern supermarket. 

    The poem floats through random observations and there’s a real sense of his urban isolation and craving for more connection …to both people and food. 

    ‘Daydreaming in Publix’ 

    by Eddie Krzeminski 

    I’m tired of Apple Jacks, Apple O’s, Apple Crisps,

    Apple Cheerios, Apple Cinnamon Toast Crunch,

    Apple Chex (Gluten Free), Apple Pebbles,

    Apple Raisin Bran, and Apple Frosted Flakes,

    but they are always, for some reason, on sale.

    *

    Standing in the pink menagerie

    of meats, I realize that at twenty-five

    I still don’t know the difference between

    ground chuck and ground round.

    I scry my future

    through the expiration dates

    on milk cartons:

    hundreds of empty jugs

    towering towards the sky,

    surrounded by the shadows 

    of seagulls.

    *

    I know there’s a man in a mint green shirt 

    standing in the darkness behind these shelves 

    in the milk crate city.

    I’ve seen his phantom hands

    pushing new cartons out.

    Why this urge to reach 

    and embrace them?

    *

    Crisp cold bags of butterhead lettuce,

    big-stalked celeries, savoy cabbage

    rimpled like the folds of a big emerald

    brain, yellow and orange bells.

    I don’t have enough money

    for any of these.

     *

    O red-haired girl

    leaning over 

    the freeze-dried plums,

    blouse drooping

    like a night-worker’s

    eyelids,

    can you teach me

    the intricacies

    of prunes?

    *

     I hate the way my hair looks

    in the stale white light

    of 600 LEDS.

    * Charon hauls the carcasses

    of spoiled fruit-stuff

    behind the swinging double-doors

    and down into the underworld.

    * 

    I think of pushing 

    my bum-wheeled cart

    into the stacked pyramid

    of Budweiser cases—

    the implosion, fugitive cans 

    bursting against the dur-a-flex floor,

    spinning and shooting foam 

    to the tune of Enrique Iglesias.

    *

    The fourth grade in me wonders why, 

    with so many pounds of gelatinous cuisine,

    nobody’s thought of starting a food fight.

    * 

    My father taught me

    what the color

    of the bread ties mean

    but among the whole grains

    I remember nothing.

    *

    What did you think of the supermarket poem?

    What’s your relationship with supermarkets like?

    Have a restful weekend, hey?

    Think of me away from home…finding my feet in Ōtaki. 

    & I’ll see you here again afterwards.

    X Helen