The NZ Green Warrior

Gossip must be one of the most dangerous activities that a human can engage in. Not only is it destructive but often it is inaccurate and can cause lots of trouble for the person spreading the tale as well as the person who is being gossiped about. Recently I had occasion to see the impact of gossip on a friends relationship when she shared things with a wwoofer who she was working with in her garden. This young wwoofer then related what she had been told to a third party only to have the tale relayed to my friend’s partner who then used it as ammunition to confront his partner during one of their relationship counselling sessions. Naturally my friend freaked out and rang me as I was the one who had sent her the wwoofer and she was feeling completely betrayed by her private discussion having come back on her. So what’s the lesson? For my friend be cautious about what she shares in future when she is working alongside a wwoofer. For the wwoofer caution also in future dealings and par...

Monday March 17 -St Patricks Day We passed through Cyclone Lusi with little physical damage around the farm despite wind gusts of around 130km-the tent over the community earth oven flew at times and flapped loudly to those gusts as they blew through from the north east. We didn’t receive much rain, only 30 ml, but enough to give the hungry plants a small dram to refresh them after two months of only 120ml of rain. With the changing climate the extremes are intense at times between the wet and dry periods but overall it is discernibly drier each year. The cyclone seemed to have an unsettling effect on the wwoofing fraternity that were here as two British guys who arrived on the Friday ended up leaving on the Saturday and taking with them a Japanese girl who had arrived only a couple of days earlier. Then another girl, this time from the Netherlands, after only a week of being here when she was going to stay for a month, said that she also would leave, as she was “sensitive ...

March 5, 2014 and the start of a new chapter. Fives have always been special in my life due to me having been born on the 5 June 1956-I like what a 5 means in numerology-change-and that in my opinion is one of life's certainties along with death and some kind of taxes. Anyway I'm starting this blog because I think it's time I publicly said what I think and in the hope that I can enter into an online teaching exchange with a wider audience than those I have taught in the past 25 years.  I live in New Zealand on a farm in the North Island one hour from Auckland on the coast in the small settlement area of Whangateau. As a practising wiccan  and environmentalist I am passionate about trees and use both Permaculture design and organic methods on my farm which is called Caretaker Farm in my desire to create a sustainable forest and garden and a practical outdoor school teaching environmental studies to children from the city and...