seed magic

Oh Spring, you love to do this to us. Warm us up with clear, still days, lulling us into thinking we have made it through into the warmer months and then, as though unexpectedly, you send us back into wintery temperatures.

But even though it may be cold and blustery outside, we can still dream about our feet in the warm earth, plant seeds and prepare for the hard work ahead.

And if you don't believe in magic, find some seeds to plant.

A morning playing with the different shapes, sizes and colours of seeds will astonish and delight.

Doing this with a child helps.

Just slowing down and looking, we remember how dependent we are on these little bundles of potential.

Their shear abundance will convert you for sure.

Plan to save some seed in the coming season. Beans and peas are easy. Tomatoes are simple too.

Even just let some of your plants go to seed and see what happens around the base of the parent plant.

Share spare seedlings with your neighbours and friends. Always.

Supporting your local seed bank also is a great way to get a little closer to your seed; they will hold less common varieties to experiment with and have seeds better suited to your bioregion.

Check out the southern seed exchange if you are local.

Seed guardianship keeps the seeds where they belong; in the hands of gardeners and farmers or in the earth, feeding families. Corporate laboratories and distribution centres are no place for seeds of life itself and if you're not convinced watch Vandana Shiva talk about the future of food and seed and check out the NZ Food Bill 160-2 .

These will inspire you to keep going.

Whatever you choose to do in particular, choose to do the good work and take the next step.
Begin on your path of seed guardianship.

written by Jacinda Gilligan, also at watchingkereru.blogspot.com

Home Sweet Home

Everyone in Lyttelton has issues with their house after the earthquake. Maybe there are only a few cracks in the interior gib-board walls or a door and window doesn't shut, the floor is uneven and you feel constantely drunk when walking over it. There might be more serious issues with leaking roofs, collapsed foundations and unstable retaining walls. Some people had to leave their houses altogether: to wait for repairs, for destruction or rebuilding or because of rockfall threats.

Our house is still habitable, but will need large sums of money to fix up, and our insurance might well say that it is cheaper to rebuild. This suddenly has made me become more interested in the different kinds of housing that are out there.

I am not the only one. One of the silver linings after a disaster is the outside- of- the- box-thinking that happens in its aftermath. I always have been interested in modular housing, and I want to share the latest of these with you.

Here is the link to an innovative company : www.breezepod.com

Their pod-houses are either round or oblong and can be combined into different sizes.

There are many advantages to the pods:

• no structural earthquake/hurricane/flooding damage possible
• easy and fast to errect by only 2 people.
• energy efficient.
• the designs are pre-approved for use anywhere in New Zealand having been tested thoroughly during the NZ Building and Housing certification process. Building consent should be issued within 10 working days.

Even the prizes are very reasonable: $75.000 for a two bedroom house, $10.000 more for each bedroom.

As far as I can see there is one major drawback: the building material is polyethylene,- yes, the stuff we all hate as supermarket plastic bags are made out of it.

Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene ) says about polyethylene:

'The political environment has a divided approach towards the use of plastic. As plastics are mainly based on oil or natural gas, there is a general trend, as well as political pressure, towards increased use of renewable sources...

...Other elements go in favor of increased use of plastics. The low weight reduces energy use and cost related to transportation compared to goods made from wood or paper ... In this respect, plastics are considered to have a favorable environmental profile. However, there is no clear consensus whether or not increased use of plastics reduces CO₂ emissions.'
The Breezepod website says that their houses are 100% recyclable, as the whole pod, including roof is all out of the same material.
Me, I've always been a wood-person - old villas and log houses and maybe straw bale houses. I never considered living in a house made of plastic.
Look at the website and let me know what you think!

written by Bettina Evans

NZ Food Bill 160-2

If you live in Aotearoa and enjoy buying food at your local Farmers' Market or have a favourite roadside stall you like to frequent or if you like to swap seeds with friends at your local community garden, or, in fact if you are at all interested in the food you eat then you need to check out NZ Food Bill 160-2. 

Be prepared to be enraged. 

Below is taken from the Nexus website

What are the problems with the Food Bill?

- It turns a human right (to grow food and share it) into a government-authorised privilege that can be revoked by the Governor-General.
- It makes it illegal to distribute "food" without authorisation, and it defines "food" in such a way that it includes nutrients, seeds, natural medicines, essential minerals and drinks (including water).
- It will push up mainstream food prices by subjecting producers to red tape and registration costs. Food prices are already rising due to increased energy costs and commodity speculation, while effective disposable incomes are falling.
- Growing food for distribution must be authorised, even for "cottage industries", and such authorisation can be denied.
- Under the Food Bill, Food Safety Officers can enter premises without a warrant using all equipment they deem necessary, including guns (Clause 265 - 1). Police can be Food Safety Officers, and so can members of the private sector, as at Clause 243. So Monsanto employees can raid premises like houses or marae without a warrant, backed up by armed police.
- The Government has created this bill to keep in line with its World Trade Organisation obligations under an international scheme called Codex Alimentarius ("Food Book"). So it has to pass this bill in one form or another.
- There are problems with Codex also. Codex will place severe restrictions on the content of vitamins, minerals and therapeutic compounds in food, drinks and supplements etc. The Food Bill means that non-complying producers can be shut down easily - thus it paves the way for the legal enforcement of Codex food regulations.

What are the implications for Food Security in NZ?

- The bill would undermine the efforts of many people to become more self-sufficient within their local communities.
- Seed banks and seed-sharing networks could be shut down if they could not obtain authorisation. Loss of seed variety would make it more difficult to grow one's own food.
- Home-grown food and some or all seed could not be bartered on a scale or frequency necessary to feed people in communities where commercially available food has become unaffordable or unavailable (for example due to economic collapse).
- Restrictions on the trade of food and seed would quickly lead to the permanent loss of heirloom strains, as well as a general lowering of plant diversity in agriculture.
- Organic producers of heirloom foods could lose market share to big-money agribusiness outfits, leading to an increase in the consumption of nutrient-poor and GE foods.

If you want more, check it out here, here and here. 

Join with the world's poor who are also fighting similar laws in their own countries.

Sign the petition, write to your MP and generally make a racket.

Posted by Jacinda Gilligan, also at watchingkereru@blogspot.com

Distilling

 The art of distillation goes back quite some time… hundreds of years. I use a hand-crafted copper distiller.

If you can imagine walking through a rose garden in full bloom or a forest of eucalyptus or peeling an orange, those beautiful scents that you inhale are similar to what it is like to distill as the "essential oil" is the essence of that plant. It is a beautiful thing to work with plants in this way. The resulting distillate is the full make-up of the plant, rather than just the essential oil, you get the fullness of the plant that you are distilling, all of it’s properties.

A few of the plants that I have distilled in the past for different purposes have been thyme, eucalyptus, rose geranium, lemon verbena, and Echinacea. Each one delicious and healing in it’s own way.

Just the other day I went for a walk and cut some fresh branches from a eucalyptus tree as you use the leaves and twigs. I went home and distilled. The result was a beautiful eucalyptus hydrosol. There are over 300 varieties of eucalyptus trees. I distilled Eucalyptus leucoxylon,    the one with the red blossoms. The following is a good resource for the various uses of eucalyptus. 

I like to use it as a house spray, for steam inhalation, to add to a footbath, creams or to washing. 

 If you are interested in distilling please let me know and we can stay in touch.

christy@ooooby.com

Written by: Christy Martin

whakaraupo carving school

The Whakaraupo Carving School opened just over a year ago here in Lyttelton/
This week there is the awesome opportunity to enrol in a carving evening class.
Check the clip below to be inspired.
Awesome opportunity.
Ka pai boys.

Wood Carving Night Classes

Come along and learn traditional Māori wood carving at Whakaraupo Carving Centre.

Participants will learn how to carve a koruru/ traditional mask using totara and learn how to decorate them with a range of patterns.

Each carver will learn how to use a range of tools and learn about the qualities of various types of native timbers.

Along the way participants will learn about the history of whakairo rākau-wood carving, and learn some of the stories behind the patterns used and the pieces that are made.
In keeping with Māori tradition this course is only available to men

When: Thursday nights- start date is 15/09/2011
Time: 7.30-9.00pm
Cost: $20
Clothing & Footwear: suitable for wood carving! And dress to keep warm.
Participants must be 16 years or older. Places are limited.
If you would like to sign up or if you have any questions please email
or phone Caine: whakaraupo.carving@xnet.co.nz

posted by Jacinda, also at watchingkereru.blogspot.com

a whole new world series

I am sharing, along with others, some of what I am learning as a result of living in this community - this as part of a series, “A Whole New World”. Maybe you want to listen in? Here is the letter from Rose Diamond who is organising it all. My interview is 19 September at 11.00am (NZ)

Hello!

A Whole New World is launching an inspiring series of interviews with spiritual teachers, authors and community leaders, starting here in Aotearoa New Zealand, Land of the Awakening Dawn, to explore what it means to be awake at this time and how we can unfold our process of awakening into our full creative power.

Go here for a short audio introducing the New Zealand speakers: http://magnificentbeing.net/events-3 (wait a few seconds for the audio to appear)

Or if you prefer download the audio here: http://rosediamond.audioacrobat.com/download/AwakentheWholeNewHumanSpeakers.mp3

For more information and to register go here: http://www.awholenewworld.net/awaken    When you register I will send you details of how to access the calls and an introductory context setting interview with me and colleague Joey Walters, exploring the opportunities in crisis and transition, the transformational power of the Soul Journey and more, is all ready to send to you.   

  

The series is FREE and you can access the live calls by phone or via the internet. Recordings of the calls will also be available for 3 days following each broadcast. The series starts this Sunday 11th September at 11am here in NZ,  7pm ET on Saturday, or for times elsewhere go to:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html   The interviews will be live every other day over two weeks.

This is the first leg of a sacred journey across the world, later I will be talking with speakers from USA and UK about how we can bring our visions down to earth. Please join us to create an intentional energy field as we awaken as whole new humans who can co-create a new story, a new culture and a whole new world together.

Please feel free to forward this email to others in your networks.

blessings

Rose Diamond

A Whole New World is a resource for the transition to a more peaceful, soulful world.   

The FBR (First Big Rumble) Anniversary, 4th September 2011

  

I like celebrations. Any reason is good enough for me. Especially in earthquake country, more laughter, more food and more fun is always welcome.

                               

But how do you celebrate an earthquake? It took only a few seconds to come up with the tried and true idea of 'more stitching'. It felt right to shift on from the hearts, healing and powerful as they were in the weeks after the Febuary earthquake. 

                                                              

We all have moved on, we are in a different state of heart and soul than we were in Febuary. So we decided to stitch wooly medals, to celebrate that we are still here, to celebrate our community, to celebrate life.

                                                                                 

The obvious spot for that was the Petanque Club, situated on the old 'Ground Delicatessen' site in Lyttelton.

So on Sunday, dozens of people turned up at lunchtime. We stitched and ate and made music and listened to music. We talked and laughed. Played petanque.

                                                                              

I usually like to waffle on, use language and words to make sense of the world around me and through this share my impressions with others.

But I can't say a lot about this Sunday. We were there. People, strangers, friends. Breathing together. Picking up pink, blue, green felt, a gold button, a ribbon and creating symbols of love and survival. All our hearts beating in unison.

                                                                                 

How can words express all of that?

written by Bettina Evans