Sowing and Stitching

People keep looking at me funny when I tell them with great enthusiasm that seeds really are tiny miracles-but it's true! When I send a half a teaspoon full of little seeds in an envelope down the road or hundreds of miles away, I know without doubt, that I am sending a seed-bomb of extraordinary miracle power. Given a little care, luck, time & some earth & a little moisture, invariably that minuscule capsule holding the true pattern & identity of a pansy, forget-me-not, mignonette, love-in-the-mist or a zillion other possibilities will activate it's little life force & soon unfurl & replicate identically to it's parents; no matter how far from home it roams. Well, of course there are always, rogues, renegades & exceptions, but miracles all, non-the-less!
Through this year I have sent seeds all around the country- to gardeners in big cities, small towns, on farms; to those who are just beginner gardeners & those with fine gardens-all with a little dream or intention of growing beauty & fabulousness. Last week I was startled to find that I was to send three lots of seeds to this delightful Admiral Gardens in the Chatham Islands.

I recently bought some vintage Sanderson oilcloth from a lovely lady called Barbara. I was thrilled to find this card tucked in at the top of parcel & when I turned it over I realised that Barbara Anderson was the artist. Isn't it delightful.

Spring Garden Tour

Chelsea- Sanderson oil cloth

That same week I found two parcels in the letter box on the Monday.

One was from my dear friend Betty (Wood Fairy) England!

I restrained myself & rushed inside to carefully open & savour the envelope...filled with kind messages & bluebell seeds from Glover's Wood.

It is such a remarkable thing that we could then google & instantly see, precisely, where Glover's Wood, Charlwood is. And as it turns out-it is but a stone's throw from East Grinstead & the house where Rob's father grew up. In our search we noticed this picture of a charming stile in Grover's Wood.

We had been talking about making a stile so we could more easily & less precariously hop through to our nice neighbour's next door.

It would go just here. 

It's a nice little spot around here in the winter time when the plum tree has lost it's leaves.

It could be just the right place to use these old window frames (there's another one somewhere!) that we saw at a garage sale just down the road last weekend. The safest way to get them home was to rush back with the two trolleys & ( also precariously) wheel one each home again.

They're a bit rumpty & pretty fragile but they'll have another life with us yet. This old green glass is very special. & very old.

I have found that life & gardens can both be sown by seed.

We get to choose every single day just what we will sow, pay attention to & water & what we will not.

Fostering community is a good-to-sow-thing - a few weeks ago I spotted an add in our "Neighbourly"  group for a trailer load of wood chip mulch that some "neighbours" wanted to give away instead of taking it to the dump. I happened to be the first to phone & with in half an hour the mulch had been delivered & I had sent Ben on his way with many thanks & mandarins for his children.

My newly acquired "old" wheelbarrow that I found at the Restore Shop (they build houses for people who can't afford one through Habitat for Humanity) happy to help distribute the mulch all around the garden. 

A great time to get areas like this tidied up for the winter.

The other parcel that arrived that Monday came from a lovely Trade Me customer who I had sent two Country Homes magazines to and in return I received a hand written letter, cool stamps, Cath Kidston & a gardening magazine- how delightful was that! And since then, some lovely book recommendations too, as Sandi is an avid reader.

The morning sun was still low when I sat at the writing desk here & paused to think of all the things I was grateful for, when I looked down to see the rainbows scattered around in front of me...

shining richly on the fairies dancing in a spring meadow.

Aren't they adorable.

I love this time of year when bulbs & plants have to push their way through soil 

 to reach forth & flower

 & share their heavenly scent at front doors & the such-like.

Life is about sowing & dreaming & stitching, but also cutting out.

Nina (6) & I had the loveliest time cutting these out together last weekend. 

It feels so good to know that I have them all prepared ahead now.

The handmade life is a worthy life, a life of richness & lasting satisfaction.
 I wouldn't want to live it any other way.
I read a poetic article the other day & as I did, I thought- yes, yes that's it!

This extract came from a short article entitled The Handmade Life. 

...we are taught to respect the slow, attentive piecing together of the life we yearn for. 

Stitch by stitch we apprentice the craft.

We work in tandem with mystery, feeling it’s rhythms awaken in our bone-memory.

And we realise the patience it takes to make a life materialise.

There are no shortcuts, & it can’t be done cheaply, or en masse. 
The work is small, the work is slow & all we can do is stay with it.

As Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes says, “The shortcut, the easy way, always falls apart. 
Then one returns to the handmade life.

One has to pick it up painfully, & piece it back together. 
Holding the overall pattern in one’s mind, but working patiently, piece by piece."

May your hands be blessed. 
May they know the magic they make.
 May everything they touch, touch them in return.

May your exquisite efforts soon show their shape. 

And that is indeed my wish for you dear friends & readers.
Thank you for popping in to see me.

We hold more in our own hands & hearts than we understand.
Planting seeds- a song to live by.

Video from KarmaTube

Life and a Biscuit Tin

I've been thinking quite a lot lately about family-

 what it means to be healthy family & how strong bonds can be made spontaneously; glued with love. Other times, germs get in the wounds we create & the glue fails.

Every family story is different; 

life never unfolding quite how we imagine- some of it we choose & lots of it just happens.

Back when I was still little I happened to get a step-mother. I didn't ask to have a step-mother & I didn't actually want to have her- but she came along anyway.

What I didn't understand, until decades later, was how inclusive her mother (she lost her own mother at the time of her birth) had been towards me & how open-hearted & kind her sister was. At her passing in early June, that sister-Shirley left her own family bereft & me with the warm & comforting knowledge that I had been embraced & befriended. I have tucked these kindnesses in to my apron pocket & they will journey with me for life.

In my other pocket I have scissors & a quick unpick! 

Having stayed the night here at The Lake motel in Taupo, we journeyed to Hamilton on a fine winter's day to say goodbye to Shirley. 

 We had sold our persimmons & feijoas at the gate & had enough tucked away to pay for a night or two away. We made a little detour to Cambridge & stopped in at the My Style shop-small but so cute & sprinkled with Cath Kidston & Shabby Chic loveliness.
Just out of town we saw this wonderful old summer house,

set off to the side of this grand old house.

 Shirley knew how much we loved staying in Te Aroha so that's where we stayed after the funeral.

 It was very wintery (though not cold) & moody in the Waikato. We've been so long without rain at home I am having to water all my pots again & put on the irrigation!
It's just a wee town Te Aroha but there's some lovely places to visit here.
It was a bit of a scramble to get all my Trade Me sales & correspondence tied up before we left. I went to address a parcel containing a dear little Laura Ashley dress, when I realised that the buyer lived in Te Aroha! I was so glad that I make my parcels look like presents-so that when I delivered the dress in person, the little girl who was ill, was so excited to get a "present".

 It was good to make the journey in this way, to travel the miles together, talking about everything & working it all through.

 We were just out of Tirau when we saw a sign which prompted us to wonder what had become of Okoroire Hot Springs & Hotel under it's new management.  "Shall we go & see?". We both shouted yes let's!
Last time we visited it was like stepping back in time & it was all profoundly forgotten, eerie & run down.

 And we could only peer through the hole in the fence to see this pool.

 "New Management" had indeed been on the job although I don't think this is actually the quick way down.

 The top pool that had been enclosed previously was now a lovely open pool

 and The Fairy Pool had been reclaimed. It is reputed that this is the very earliest pool to be constructed of concrete in New Zealand, back in 1887.
This photo was taken in 1893

It is called The Fairy Pool because at night the bank twinkles with the little lights of many glow worms.
It was the most extraordinary experience being immersed in this water. On very tip-toe the water was lapping at my chin-really lapping, moving constantly. The bottom of the pool is all sandy & the water seeps up from the natural spring to continually replenish the pool, creating the finest champagne bubbles that tickle all over your skin & create continuous momentum as if the water itself is alive. (You may need to click on them to see some of these pictures properly)

In the days after our return I felt rather sad so I cried when I felt like it & I made a lovely cup of tea & sat in Lucy, remembering Shirley warmly.  Shirley had threaded her kind self through Sunshine Vintage in so many ways. A few years ago she had offered to be a helper & pick up any items I found on Trade Me if they were in Hamilton. It just so happened that Hamilton was where I found an Old English Rose tea set. Shirley was delighted to pick it up for me, not far at all from her home. She carefully unwrapped every piece & checked it all thoroughly before declaring it to be in splendid order.

I found the violet hat in Second Thoughts Collectables in Te Aroha.

Not often that you find such a treasure these days.

As I get older I have become very firm about pursuing depth & meaning & authenticity.

Which is why I find myself drawn to strong woman who have frank things to say.

Shirley had found her very best courage & was about to make new changes in her life, but she'd left it too late & never got the chance.

 Regrets & "too late" serve no one well.

Susan Weed writes so frankly- 

"Accepting it all -- the mess, the chaos, the pain, the insults, the senseless waste, the good deeds gone bad, the sheer beauty, the awesome power, the amazing perseverance, the stunning fecundity, the breath-taking coincidences 

– embracing it all, and loving it all, even within my self, is my path of authenticity,

 the real woman I wish the women of the world to know."

On our trip home I began to realise that I was feeling rather disturbed. Here it was again, that familiar feeling of discomfort of just not fitting in with the status quo. My whole life has become a mission to forge another way: to see, to be, to experience life,

and death.

A month or so ago Rob had been reading about a spot out in the Esk Valley where you could walk up the defunct railway track.

We found more than a railway track.

We found a truly majestical place.

A place where we felt completely at peace.

Wild violets

& bird song.

On our journey home from the funeral we got up close & talked about what we really wanted in death. Grand event funerals may be just the thing for most or many, but for us there is going to be another way.

It came to me a few days later. Rob, Rob...could you put a person in a biscuit tin?", I asked.

 And I am now quite certain you could. As long as you had a label saying who was in the tin & some children who were happy to follow simple instructions. We would be sprinkled together in to the river-the place of peace...& slowly make our way to the sea-that was Rob's idea.

 Any time someone wanted to remember us they could come to the river, to swim, to forage, to play & to picnic.

Perhaps they will find it to be a majestical place too.

This is my wish for you...

That the spirit of beauty may continually hover about you
and fold you within the tenderness of her wings.

That each beautiful and gracious thing in life
may be unto you as a symbol of good
for your soul's delight.

That sun-glories and star-glories, leaf-glories and bark-glories,
flower-glories and sand-glories that lurk in the grasses of the field...

Glories of mountains and oceans,
of little streams of running waters
glories of song, of poesy,
of all the arts...

May be to you as sweet abiding influences that will illumine your life
and make you glad.

That your soul may be as an alabaster cup filled to overflowing 
with the mystical wine of beauty and love.

That happiness may put her arms around you,
and wisdom make your soul serene.

This is my wish for you.

~Charles Livingston Snell

From Scux To Majestical!

Just a few weeks ago, one of us turned 60.

In honour of such a grand event, we set off on a little celebratory road trip north, via right, just out of Napier. We had saved up from fruit selling & planned a good balance of: places we knew we'd like to go & others we'd never even set eyes on before.

There is a valley on the way to Gisborne, a place called Morere- meadows, a river, hot springs, a camping ground & cabins, all enveloped in a lowland rainforest reserve.

People have lived here a long time but never very many.  It's a precious place, you can just feel it. This was once the little school for the areas children, now re-homed & restored. 

The hot water is remarkable, sometimes called fossilised sea water as it has traveled thousands of years before bubbling it's way out of the ground beneath the rainforest. 

Not far after that to Gisborne (the first to see the sun)-so many lovely beaches, a river, op-shops

and walks.

It was fun to explore together.

Yet, it was constantly ever-so-slightly challenging being away from our everyday lives & home.

"Goodness, what's wrong with you dear? It was only for a few days!"

And that's just it..a few days away from the familiarity, provisions, accessibility & rhythms of our everyday lives refreshed our perspective & heightened our senses.

We talked a lot. We always chat away, we're best of friends.

We process our lives, grow, renew our thinking & know one another better with every conversation.

We're still wading through the detritus of the past, like swimming in the ocean & feeling the seaweed entangle your legs; unseen but disturbing- more times than we'd care to recall. But we're still getting in the water, squealing & splashing & swimming.  

This poem of Hollie Holden's captured it so well for me this week.

When you walk slowly enough

And with your eyes
Always alive to beauty
You cannot help but notice
The Bright Unstoppability
Of flowers 
Cracking their way
Through concrete
On walls and pavements 
And in between bricks.
I asked one this morning: 
How did you grow? 
She answered me
Quietly: 
'Hardness and lack of welcome are no match 
For the power of the soft, sure determination 
Of one who knows 
Exactly who she is'
Hollie Holden
May 2016

That's exactly what we discovered on our journey-that we know exactly who we are.
We joined a theatre full of locals at the movies & went to see Hunt For The The Wilder People.
If the trailer makes you laugh, you'll love the movie. If you don't get it, then it may be a tad too Kiwi for you.

Ricky Baker isn't too thrilled with the hand that life has dealt him & he's got himself in to a bit of strife. At one point he tells "Uncle" very indignantly "I didn't chose this scux life, this scux life chose me!!!" 

There comes a point when Uncle & Ricky are standing looking down across a valley from high up on a bush clad mountain. "Majestical!" exclaims Uncle. 

"That's not even a word", Ricky corrects him.

Scux to Majestical sounds like a great life journey to me.

That's what I've signed up for.

Moving on from Gisborne, traveling through country-side we've never seen before, we came across a place called Gray's Bush. It is truly the most majestically sacred place I have ever encountered.

The bush is rare & precious & filled with puriri trees (most unusual in our native bush)
& the birdsong-a mesmerising heavenly chorus.
The flowers of the Puriri tree are vibrant & inviting.

The berries are beautiful too, no wonder the Wood Pigeons love them so.

From Gisborne we headed through the Waioeka Gorge & on to Whakatane.

They have a marvellous Hospice Shop in Whakatane!

I just caught this window dressing before it was removed.

This cute vintage basket was just right there in the window waiting for me.

Beautifully laid out & so many treasures to be found.

A little knitting graffiti was fun to find.

And how interesting to meet Pohutukawa covered sentinel, Pohaturoa Rock-just plonked right here in the centre of town.

Pohaturoa Rock is the local tribe’s (Ngati Awa) spiritual and physical ancestral connection to the area. The Ngati Awa have always performed ceremonies of birth, death, war and other important matters here. 

I loved this poem written by Clive Kingsley-Smith in 1983.

Challenging sentinal, solitary, steadfast

There at the crossroads he stands!

Silently waiting, eternally watching,

Timelessness held in his hands.

Grey, grey with the plumes of eternity,

Grey with the records of time,

Grey in his ancient, revered paternity,

Recorded in Maoriland rhyme!

Rugged by nature from time immemorial,

Unmoved by aeons of grace!

Red Pohutakawa, and creepers arboreal,

Screening the scars on his face!

Grey, grey with the seal of the centuries,

Grey with the score of their years,

Grey with the records of blatant humanity,

Their laughter, their groans and their tears.

Now a walk through-once a cave.

Homeward-bound we stopped in Rotorua to walk amongst the Redwoods.

Only this time it was up in the actually trees, looking down through to the forest floor.

A remarkable piece of engineering & design work the Redwood Tree Walk ,

An engaging experience indeed.

When you know just who you are, all kinds of things begin to flow better & to make sense.
I have continued to learn about the Five Elements. They just make so much sense to me.
So all encompassing. And very useful to help in understanding your constitutional leanings, emotional make up, relationship dynamics, health challenges, healing issues & occupational propensities.
I have huge respect for Jason Elias who writes:

"The Chinese believe that the Five Elements- Wood, Fire, Metal, Earth & Water govern the physical, emotional & spiritual existence of human beings, just as they regulate the cycles of growth & change in the external world.

Each of the Five Elements has a unique nature & spirit, and every human being has a constitutional affinity to one or more of them. 

For instance: the aggressive, forceful energy of Wood is most obvious in the season of spring, when the buds swell to bursting & the seeds sprout in to tender shoots that, against all odds, push their way through the earth in to vigorous life. 

If Wood is your predominant energy, you are like the green stem of spring,  you are driven by the need to stay in motion & to reach new heights, you are firmly grounded by a sense of self & home- the place where you fit & belong. Your roots are driven deep; your potential is unlimited"

Rob & I re-did the Five Element quiz from over here last week & I was fascinated to find that we are both predominately Woods..with some Water. A few years ago I got quite a different result which shows me just how far I have come in reclaiming my true self.

The Wood constitution very much fits the re-discovered "me"; the one who prefers to work alone & just-get-on-with-it & who loves to be fully occupied with all kinds of projects & doings. And yes, I am most certainly deeply grounded by a sense of self & home-the place where I fit & belong.

Of course there is even more commonsense to the whole Five Element thing in the teaching of balance in all things. When one element or season swings out of kilter or becomes unbalanced, then everything can get a bit messed up. Pay attention, balance things out & you restore or achieve harmony & regain your health & equilibrium.

 It's easy for me to stay in touch with this approach since I am constantly in tune with the seasons & the land & so quite naturally these things have become a part of my daily life conversation & observations.

 Harmony is a really useful state...even along the road-side there's a happy, unseen interaction going on that keeps everything in harmonious balance.

With-in the flow of the seasons there is a time for all things, every state of being.
Autumn is the time for rot & return! A time to let go-of all that no longer serves us & to have a jolly good clean up, just as the natural world does the same.
 Eventually the hard work of healing & growing & shedding the past moves the mountains of legacy, until at last, pausing to look across the valley, I can say with surety..."ah, isn't that a majestical sight!"
Much love, Catherine xxx