It's not enough that we do our best

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As more and more reports come in of food shortages around the world (this photo is from The Wire ), Churchill’s words ring in my ears:

“It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required. Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.”

It is simply not acceptable any more to pretend this is not happening and to continue our lives as if everything is OK.

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Strawberry Fields Forever

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What an inspiration you are Helen! It seems that it’s time to get this blog on the road again. My son Oscar and I have been busy in the garden for weeks now, watching and learning how nature works. We’ve managed, for example, to save strawberries from the

damage caused by months of rain – by ruthlessly removing spotty diseased leaves and allowing healthy new ones to form! Snapping off all runners before they get a chance to root also diverts the strawberries’ energy from making new plants to making fruit. As a result we’ve started to feast on lush juicy strawberries every night. Continue reading

Systems collapse

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Systems collapse – suddenly, and when you least expect them to! A month ago my computer died …. I now have my second new logic board after weeks without being able to travel in the ether … and in the month that I’ve been “off the air” the roses and the poppy seedlings Susan gave me have begun to blossom and I have a bowl full of peas and mint out of our garden. Continue reading

The agony and the ecstasy

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Pear blossoms

Spring is a time of agony and ecstasy. The garden is gloriously alive and the

blossoms appearing everywhere are a promise of delicious fruit to come. Ecstasy. Then suddenly the winds start and the blossoms are blown away. Agony. As I try and prepare for our family’s food security into the future, wind is one of our biggest threats. Dust borne diseases are also carried by wind and in the disaster planning taking place for our area, it is expected that wind will cause more damage to humans than fire (and, of course, wind is what drives fires and can make them so lethal). I’ve been learning about the absolute necessity of building dense windbreaks around every house to reduce disease (which is filtered out by small furry leaved plants), to protect property from wind damage and to create the microclimates necessary for successfully growing food. Sydney once had a Green Zone for these very reasons, but it’s now been cut down by developers. Continue reading

A bite of borage, a shot of courage

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Quick, before Monsanto gets hold of the seeds … get yourself a borage plant!

Pliny, and others throughout history, have attributed borage with giving people courage, driving away sadness and depression and lifting the spirits – just what we need to help us tackle global warming!

Pliny called the plant Euphrosinum, because it “maketh a man merry and joyfull”

But there’s more! Borage looks stunning, attracts bees and makes delicious honey, and even contains an extremely healthy mixture of potassium and calcium, mineral acids, and a very beneficial saline mucilage …. this forms a soothing film over a mucus membrane, relieving minor pain and inflammation. Demulcents, like borage, are common ingredients in cough mixtures and coat the throat to relieve the irritation causing the cough. A steam made from the plants and flowers is also an emollient and will, apparently, soothe dry and sensitive skin. Your very own chemist shop in one plant. Continue reading

Time is life

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Camellia in our Spring Garden

The challenges we are facing with global warming, peak oil, flu epidemics, collapsing stock markets, and mounting stress appear insurmountable. These are all complex problems. Is there any way to build immunity and to survive these diseases of our contemporary world and the illness threatening our planet?

After 2 years of exhaustive research I’ve come to only one solution for all of the above – slow down and reduce consumption.

And so I’ve “stopped work” and not written for almost a week. It is Spring and it’s time to start anew – time to enjoy the garden and to plant for the future. Continue reading

Paul Stamets & Magic Mushrooms – the web of life

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Mycelium on decomposing log (photo by Dr. George Knaphus)

Every now and then it is possible to learn something so huge it can almost blow your mind away. Last year it was the severity of global warming. Today, in our permaculture class, it was finding out about Paul Stamets and his theory that mushrooms can help save the world. He describes mycelium as Nature’s Internet in his new book “Mycelium Running” because of the vast communication networks fungi form in forest ecologies. His work is also revolutionary because it potentially offers a future without pesticides, insecticides and a range of other manmade chemicals. Continue reading

Genetically re-engineering myself

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New Zealand anti-GM billboard

As ordinary Australian people are being so symbolically locked out of the APEC security zone (Australians Pushing Export Coal), John Howard and George Bush are busy making sure that “no billionaires are left behind”. It’s timely, then, as these billionaires gather, thinking they can determine our future, that the current Digger’s Club magazine focusses on Genetic Engineering and the multi-billion dollar Corporations Monsanto and Bayer who are pushing GM. Continue reading

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

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Yeeha … it’s Spring. I can’t believe we’ve finally made it. My peas and broadbeans are blossoming and my nasturtiums have sprouted. Though everyone warns me that it’s hard to grow apricots in Blackheath because of late frosts, I’ve decided not to take this lying down. For the first time in my life I’ve started to scour weather reports to find predictions of frost ahead of time. I lost all my lemons this winter and I’m damned if I’m going to lose my apricots too! I’m gathering old glass windows to cover my seedlings and soft gauzy fabric to cover my trees. I’m certainly not letting my dreams of apricots vanish without a fight! The thought of all that luscious orange fruit straight off the tree is enough to motivate me to action. Continue reading

An explosion of sunshine

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Today Nada bought me oranges from her mother’s garden. I felt like someone in a Jan Van Eyck painting for whom oranges would have been a very special gift indeed – a symbol of wealth and privilege. So today I felt honoured to receive beautiful, fresh oranges, like an explosion of sunshine, from a lovingly tended garden in a warm far-off land … well, actually less than two hours away in Sydney. They looked and tasted delicious.

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