Nicky McFall-Hastings has lit up the trees in Aotea Square to make the Festival Garden for the Auckland Arts Festival. Tanya marvels at the work involved in making Pasifika lei and weaving them around the trunks and branches… …and many women have knitted or crocheted woollen squares to clothe the trunk of a giant pohutukawa outside Te Pataka Korero […]
Autumn at last…
March 17, 2015 by Leave a Comment
We’re very lucky here that Cyclone Pam gave us 35ml of rain but no damage. At last the pond is full again, the ducks delighted, and the baby frogs which have been hiding in garden damp spots can return to their home. Spent summer beds are being weeded and composted, and green manure crops of lupin, mustard […]
Our 30th Anniversary
February 19, 2015 by 9 Comments
In 1985… 30 years ago, Tanya rang Charmaine, then principal of AGGS, to book a room at the school for a “Lesbians Opposed to Waitangi Celebrations” meeting on Waitangi Day. After a chat we made a date for dinner on Friday 8 February “to share our experiences as women in leadership positions in “the system”.” And the […]
A cautionary tale…
February 19, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Our HP All-in-one Desktop has suddenly died, without any warning-and it’s not even two years old. So we’re working from a laptop and web mail only. Thank goodness for Earthsong expert Grant, who has eventually found all the files (but no directories) and saved them on an external disk to be re-labelled and transfered to a new HDD. […]
Summer at Earthsong
January 18, 2015 by Leave a Comment
We’ve enjoyed the last few summery weeks at Earthsong. Many families are away, no meetings or community meals have been scheduled. So we’ve had time to swim at Te Henga, to watch tennis and to be with friends. Steph and Annette took time off from their dairy farm at Whangarei Heads to stay a couple […]
Charmaine in Sydney
January 18, 2015 by Leave a Comment
My birth mother, Pat Tapper, turned 90 on 27 December 2014. I went to Sydney between Christmas and New Year to celebrate with my extended family there. Pat is in good physical health, but has memory loss. Mostly, she knows when she is surrounded by loving family members, and always holds her arms out for […]
Mr Turner – hilarious??
January 18, 2015 by Leave a Comment
We went to see Mr Turner, a film about Joshua Turner, the painter, which has been very positively reviewed. David Larsen of The Listener described it as “one of the funniest films I’ve seen this year” and as “hilarious”. What we saw was a film about a man, albeit a painter of genius, suffering Asperger’s […]
Summer Solstice Greetings to you all.
December 19, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The longest day is here, with huge lemon-scented magnolia blossoms… We will celebrate Summer Solstice with family and friends, at Earthsong. Tanya will harvest a bed of garlic, and we’ll be feasting on our new discovery – delicious blueberry-cashew ‘raw food’ cheese cake – plus savoury snacks and colourful summer salads… On Christmas Day we hope […]
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