Abundantly Clear

I didn't plan to be away a long time, 

it's just that abundance (and Watties) got in the way.

It's quite strange really that abundance should take up so much room & demand so much time & attention & really very peculiar indeed, that the factory that resides over our back wall, should deal with abundance too; a lot of plain, way-too-much-of-everything sort of abundance! 

Way too much corn, way too many tomatoes, beetroot, beans & steam peeler machines and way, way too much noise!

In the midst of all this excess I have been growing & learning. I find Susun Weed's teaching to be invaluable...she has taught me ever so much about herbs & living real & wisely.

Last week she wrote about abundance just here.

I know these things to be true:

"Abundance is free.

Abundance is a gift.

Abundance is open and flowing.

Abundance can appear unexpectedly.

Feed abundance and it will multiply.

Abundance is demanding.

Abundance is wild.

Abundance is hard work.

Abundance is a gift."

I am not very thrilled to find our lives over-powered by an errant & mechanically bullying factory I, can tell you. To be awash with the old familiar nervous tension & stress is incredibly uncomfortable & echoes back to the years where I was lost in family dissonance & unable to escape or make it stop. 

However, through these months we have become resolutely determined to remain here on our own land, "our own bit of earth" & not be forced out. Since I am a problem-solver not a complainer I have been speaking up for myself, communicating the issues (the many, many issues of new, repetitive, wildly irritating, drive-you-crazy noises). Funny thing is that on "their" side of the wall they barely ever hear a thing, well certainly not to recognise them as a problem. Sound is weird like that. It bounces around & plays tricks on you. 

I get very cross & cranky when it comes & robs us of sleep!

The feelings of powerlessness are very uncomfortable.

We have now armed ourselves with a clever app that Rob put on our phones so that we can record decibel levels to help us keep perspective & we've also researched the local resource management guidelines that the factory is supposed to be operating within.

We've lived here for 27 years & it's never been like this before; until these last couple of years. 

So...I have been using The Emotion Code (you can down load it for free here) a very useful technique that a friend passed on to me last August. Any one can learn it. Dr Bradley Nelson teaches that the traumatic events of life can create trapped emotions that get stuck in our subconscious & go on to cause all manner of emotional, physical or spiritual issues in our lives.

 I have found this to be entirely true. 

It is possible to systematically release these trapped emotions & the patterns of response to life that we have been holding in our bodies, often for years & years. 

So...I have used this experience to take notice of the trapped emotions (& inherited trapped emotions...so many of those!)) that have needed to be identified & released for so long, especially the ones that have been brought up by my factory interactions & overwhelm. Because of my legacy it is a long & tiresome journey but it has given me hope that one day I will be truly free.

Free to be fully me & I know that I have cleared a mountain of "stuff" already. 

I have to add that I have also learnt to listen to my body; listen well & with compassion. This practise is now second nature to me but I realise that to most people this is a strange & uncomfortable concept. 

We are so human & very complex beings so it shouldn't really surprise us that our emotions, re-actions & physical symptoms of discomfort & dis-ease actually seek our attention. The choice we must make is: will we listen? Will we love ourselves enough to enter the conversation that needs to take place? Frequently, when we ignore the chatter, the pain & the bruising & the niggles & we hope like mad that it will all just go away as we grind on through, our "selves" don't take kindly to being ignored, & often have no other choice than to find new & clever ways to get our attention until we are forced to hear. 

In between the times of industrial trauma & healing work I have been fully occupied with the abundance of the seasons of summer & harvest...produce & seeds & making the most of the long days & the sunshine. Abundance takes an immense amount of attention & care-taking  & sometimes, is just plain exhausting. I am learning to collect a little less & to prepare just what I need at any one time. I am giving away more at every opportunity & that has been so much fun & very freeing.
We cannot gather it all in just for ourselves, abundance is meant to be shared.
A sharp eye is the quickest way to open the door to abundance...
have you ever met Malva before?

She's ever so much more than a weed. Her name is Malva Neglecta & she belongs to the mallow family. Now that you know that, I bet you'll see her everywhere you go.

There's a wonderful lady Julia who lives in Tauranga she has written a very informative article here about mallows.

We found all this Malva & some dandelions on a vacant section while out walking a week or two ago. I ate the Malva for my dinner (really delicious used just as you would spinach) & popped the dandelion flowers in to some organic apple cider vinegar to make a herbal digestive tonic.
Ok, so you're not too keen on me sharing my Malva with you. I'm sure we can find something else that might have a little more culinary appeal. Perhaps I could tempt you with a hollyhock flower or two, a tropical hibiscus or a Rose of Sharon? All of them "family", edible & beautiful. I have had never seen a Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus Mutabilis, Cotton Rose or Confederate Rose) before until a month ago, when I stumbled on a photo on the internet. So enamoured by Sharon's beauty was I, that I sent to the USA for some seeds. Then last week, while we were on our little road trip in the Bay of Plenty, coming in to the little town of Opotiki I yelled STOP!! & kind man he is, Rob screeched to a halt & backed up for me so I could meet Sharon in "person". I found another two bushes in Whakatane & asked for some cuttings at one house. Golly, I do so hope that they grow.
I think this particular bush must be quite old.

The flowers emerge pure white, slowly turn a pretty pink & then fade out becoming rose pink as they finish, hence the Mutabilis bit after Hibiscus.

Bambi loves Malva though, he told me on the way home from Coco & Co.

 He was made in Poppa's Shed.

I think he's lovely but he does so often give me a fright as I walk past heading down the garden path. I keep waiting for him to hop up & follow me.

Lucy had a steady stream of nice visitors through the summer months. The pink windflowers stretching out their hands to greet them as they arrived.

We began a visitors book at last...

A little girl called Willow came for afternoon tea with her mum on Good Friday. They had just finished reading The Secret Garden.

So I left Willow some seeds & bulbs out for her to take home & plant in her own "bit of earth".
I showed her how to find the seeds in the centre of the cornflower heads. They are quite a business to prise out with your finger nails.

Fiddly, but worth it. This particular bush flowered for four or five months this season.

We collected Neptune's Necklace seaweed at Waipatiki Beach through the summer & I pickled some using Alison Holst's bread & butter pickle recipe. The end result was just delicious & a great way to enjoy a free & highly nourishing resource. 

An abundance of red peppers went in to this yummy frittata, a useful meal for a grand beach picnic.

I also learnt that a particular lichen that grows in the Bush, called Usnea can be made in to a tincture that is a powerful medicine that helps to fight infection. I then discovered that this same Usnea is growing right outside the back door on our Melia tree.

The Maori call it Angi Angi, also known as Old Man's Beard. You know you have the right lichen when you can see the white cord running through the centre. The tincture itself turns deep orange. Now almost ready to bottle up, label & have on hand for the winter.

Clyde's (Farmer's Market) magnificent radicchio are just perfect for autumn salads with their crisp texture, glorious colours & that little bit of bitterness that supports the liver in this season.

We were amazed, while out walking, to find wild mushrooms on peoples lawns & even in the middle of Cornwall Park a week or two ago.

Yet more free abundance.

I have loved growing peans on the washing line. I’m leaving the last of them to set seed now. They are not really a cross of peas & beans, just a bean that fancy’s itself to be a pea when it matures a little.

Coco & Co is a vibrant little craft shop in town. The creations are very well made & very clever. I also found this colourful summer dress in the window recently, crafted by Susan at Fresh Vintage.

My favourite, most vibrant flower of all, came to stay with us in early April. My dear & treasured friend Gina came to visit us on her way back up north. What an absolute delight to spend time together. Gina was the friend who I'd never actually met in person but who remarkably (through this blog) recognised me in an Op shop in Palmerston North last year.

A friendship characterised by abundance, depth, sparkle & authenticity.
Precious.
Thank you to all of you who stop by to read my ramblings & thoughts & to those of you who have made contact in the last few months, either in person or via messages. I am very humbled that some of what I have shared has touched you & that many of you have shared your hearts with me, that takes courage & I honour you & wish you all well in your journey of healing, growing & flourishing.
Abundantly yours,
Catherine x0x

Spring Tea With Lucy & Adorable Things

A daffodilly, sunshiney spring welcome to you all.

Thank you for coming along!

I am so glad that I've learnt the rhythms of the seasons & to flow with them.

Each one brings it's own special gifts. 

Our spring, here in Hawke's Bay, offers the soul-nurturing gift of Taniwha, a cattle station with voluptuous spring style & abundant generosity; open to the Public all September every year, for daffodil picking & picnicking. 

So much verdant green.

Thousands & thousands of sunshiney little faces to walk among & to gather.

It's been quite a deep & profound time for me this year, as my process of metamorphosis continues.

You probably already knew this, but I quite suddenly recently realised, just how much flowers are so truly my friends & have come to grace every part of my life in the most marvellous & homogeneous of ways. I have begun storing my flower stories & passions in a new blog called The Bluebell Diaries.

You can see more of Taniwha & the daffodils just here, if you'd like to.

Quite some time ago I asked if I could have an old disused concrete washtub. At the time of my enquiry it was not certain if it would be used or not, apparently the final decision was not & so off we set a weekend or two ago, collected some compost & the loan of a trailer & the hefty, cracked & marvellous old twin tub.

 Rob engaged his best wood-jigsaw-in-his-head skills & made a stand for my new potting place.

We managed some clever maneouvures & saved our backs & fingers (just!) & got the tub settled on to it's stand down here in my newly appointed "shade house" & potting area.

Potting mix on one side & compost on the other.

 Violets line the pathways

& welcome spring sunshine easily finds it's way to my special place.

 As I make my way backwards & forwards I pass Spring Festival,

 what a perfect name, don't you think?

I am noticing that the embroidery of flowers & colours interwoven in my life become more deliberate, dense & deft as time goes by.
A wee while ago, my sister-in-law & very dear friend Silke, had an inspiration to foster community spirit & initiate a Facebook group for Hawke's Bay people called You Made My Day Hawke's Bay.
Here is her group description:
"I want this group to be a platform for the wider community to engage with each other, to bring people together who wouldn't usually meet, to spread the load, because if we all do a tiny little thing once in a while for somebody else, its a little effort, to create a sense of belonging and caring for all the people and place that we live in without judgement, to link up people who can give a helping hand to the people who need one, to spread positivity, happiness and joy, to share from your heart, to give the people who might feel isolated or alone a sense of belonging, to make this world a better place from the grassroots, to make somebodies day, just because you can. Please get creative with offers, keep them coming in, share excess fruit, some knitting for a mum who can't knit, a service that someone might not be able to afford otherwise - you name it - its great whatever it is, if you can make somebody's day."

There has been a lovely flow of all kinds of offers & requests, large & small, which is most heartening. All any of us can do is to offer what we have & who we are.
 So, I offered "Tea with Lucy".

 I suggested that anyone could contact me & bring a friend for some time out or a special afternoon tea.

 We've had four different groups come to visit, each of them for lovely reasons: two lovely young very pregnant mum's came to have some time-out before their babies were born.
These girls here are family; three generations.

This week we've had two more enquiries. 

I tailor the flowers & the setting for each occasion.

 The last little group came as a treat the day before the Nanna had a double knee replacement. Everything went wrong that could, for them before their arrival, but once they reached Lucy..

the sun came out.

 Isn't that lovely!

Do you remember me telling you about my lovely spontaneous meeting with Gina in Palmerston North? Well, as it so happens, Gina is a charming trade Me seller too.

I just had to buy this dear little sugar bowl for Lucy...it's bound to make someone smile. 

 And...the two little cups to go with the Bambi tea pot that I found sometime ago.

When the little cups arrived in the post, the parcel was enormous!!

Gina had sent me this divine picture with the loveliest prayer.

 With my menopausal waking I sometimes slip in to the spare bed so as to not disturb the Snorer & to have some wriggle room, that's where I've hung this blessing.

 Isn't it beautiful.

 In the early days of my trading I sold a fairy duvet cover to a Nanna, for her grand-daughter.
The little girl had just lost her mother & Nanna was her care-giver, it was all so very sad. They would sometimes go to the cemetery so that she could sit & talk to her mummy. I was so glad that that little girl was given the fairy cover. I took some photos of the fabric but after it was gone I discovered that they were out of focus, which was sad as it was so beautiful. I never forgot the fabric, nor the little girl. How joyful it was to find a little piece of the same fabric in the Gina parcel.

 Joy for all little girls.

 We've had such lovely weather, but one day on an inside rainy day I painted these candle sticks in pastel colours. My dear friend Sue was discarding them as the silver plate had worn & they couldn't be polished up.

Thanks to Julie's fabulous inspiration I popped a double violet in to an old watering can

 to put on a funny old step stool I found at the Hospice Shop.

And after seeing African violets in tea cups I got Rob to drill a few holes in some old jugs & potted them up with some pansies & more violets.

The jugs have more room than tea cups & are very resilient even outside.

This nutty old visitor has been scrambling around in trees quite a lot lately.

Look at this beauty. It was such a nice small compact tree too.

Magnolias really are magnificent.

Another thread in the tapestry...the Nanna with the "knees" asked if her garden group could come to visit our garden, this morning a lady came up the drive to arrange it. Next Tuesday a whole garden group will be having a little lunch somewhere & then coming for a wander around in our lovely garden.
"Ooh do you sell plants too"? said the lady.
Well actually....
There are many ways to create community & happiness, including knitting.
Thought you might like this too.



Much love & flowery hugs,
Catherine x0x0x