I’m surrounded by constant reminders this week about how fragile life is. It’s clung to rather than embraced. There is no ‘summertime, and the living is easy’ happening here yet . As another southerly front approaches you can almost hear us collectively draw breath and hold it. As it passes we exhale again. I’m looking […]
One of a good winemaker’s most impressive skills is to look at the components of a wine and work out which barrels will come together in the bottle for great future drinking. There’s always a little leap of faith, a letting go of the science and believing in the magic for a moment. Growing food […]
I think pruning is cathartic. Or it may be just a need to assign more meaning to something which requires dedicated attention and a long amount of time. I’m not sure really. I would just say that there is something about cutting off what has gone before, and leaving behind the hope and promise of […]
When you live in the country there’s something about stepping out onto a busy street in the middle of a big city. It makes me suck in my breath, inhaling life, elevating me to another level of alertness. I have to move quickly to avoid being in the way, change my pace and rhythm […]
My son rushed inside a few days ago with the first duck egg of the season. There was great celebration on The Food Farm, not just because it was a magic find (ducks are notorious for laying on the go, and at this time of year they are free-ranging the property). The cause for excitement […]
Today is not Halloween. It may be All Hallow’s Eve (or Samhain) on the other side of the world- the celebration of death (particularly of the growing season), but you literally couldn’t get further away from that here. Instead, tomorrow (November 1st) is Beltane in New Zealand. This is a celebration of flowering, fertility, or […]
I’ve been out there for 5 mornings in a row. I’ve got down on my hands and knees, even in the rain, so I can put my head at the same level as the earth in the hope of its appearance. But there is nothing. More than any other season spring is a time of […]
