Goodbye Coles & Woolworths…

This year’s resolution was BOLD, it was out there, it was serious. It had fore thought, insight, and a month before the new year dawned I put it out there, I told people, I owned it, I planned on doing some preparation…. then it was New Years Day.

On the way home from watching the sunrise on the beach I decided a couple of extra breakfast ingredients would add nicely to the decadence of heralding in another year. Which is when my partner reminded me… No Coles or Woolworths, remember!!??! Oh crap, yes, it’s January 1st. No Coles or Woolworths.

And so it was. The resolution came to be without so much as a farewell impulse shop. Or a fresh load of toilet paper. Continue reading

RENEGADES: Ron Finley

This is a TED talk that I absolutely LOVE! I first saw it a while back and have watched it many times since. It’s one of my favourites, it’s inspiring, it’s life changing, and I hope you feel as moved as I did by watching! Enjoy!

GROW: Lettuce

I think lettuce is very underrated, particularly good, crisp, crunchy, juicy, fresh lettuce. It’s not uncommon to find slightly sad, wilted, or limp lettuce in salads and sandwiches these days, dressed up in the hopes that we wont notice whats hiding beneath and holding up all our nuts, seeds, protein, vegetables and sauce. I’ll even admit to it myself actually, hiding saggy lettuce underneath a diversionary flavour sensation, not intentionally, usually because I didn’t get to it in time. Hmm, it’s not like I forgot there was lettuce in my fridge, but my attempts at making a fresh salad everyday can be thwarted by invitations to lunch or dinner, or there’s been the lure of additional ingredients which have overridden that of my humble lettuce, or my tastebuds have had other ideas all together. Like cake! Continue reading

GROW: New Moon Planting

For Christmas I was gifted with a sensational growing tray for my start-up garden! It has lots of little spaces for planting my seeds, a nice big domed lid so that I have (a little more) control over the growing conditions of my seedlings, and air vents to (help) adjust the humidity!

How much Mother Nature actually allows me to temper her dramatic swings up here in the tropics is yet to be seen!

I have been eager to plant my seeds and get my garden up and fruiting, however some previous failures Continue reading

GROW: Somehow Their Grass Is Always Greener…

Now I’m starting to wonder if it’s just me or if my plants have a preference for living over at the neighbours?!?!

Maybe that’s going a little too far, after all I have had my share of successful seeds sprouting. The problem was that it didn’t get much further than that due to my absence! (And little baby plants don’t like absence any more than little baby people I’ve found!!). So when I left this time I left my little baby plants in the very capable green-tipped hands Continue reading

LIVE: Travelling Gardener, Happy Garden.

So in a wicked twist of dejavu I find myself again looking down the runway, another trip away fast approaching; and the innocent faces of my seedlings as they peer through sleepy eyes, opening them to the light as they look up at me for the first time. Their lives now precariously dependant upon my ability to read their needs; to water, feed, love, care and tend to their fragile systems… at least until they are a little bit stronger!

The last time I attempted “prepared self-sufficiency” the results were dismal. Rather than flourish in the cool, moist, protected environs of the vacated bath tub my ‘plant-lettes’ sought growth of a different type; the fuzzy, Continue reading

GROW: Go Basil Go!

I think the basil is liking the new potting arrangement!! And check out my apple seed shooting for the sky in the background!! That little apple seedling has sprouted from a  seed I saved from a biodynamic apple I was eating a while back!! Yummy way to recycle food!!!