New Zealand Garden Diary: Kale Grows Like a Weed

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I grew this kale from seeds I planted out last autumn, once the last of the cabbage whites (which can make any leaves of the cabbage family look like lacework) had disappeared. It provides leaves for stir fries and stews and Diana Henry’s great pasta dish with hazelnuts. So I’m delighted it has kept growing and I’m wondering whether the new lot I’ve planted will grow by the time this bunch has gone to seed.

New Zealand Garden Diary: Fiona the Feijoa Update - Growing Well

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This feijoa is only one of the young trees I have growing in our steep back section. She has survived some brutal winds and I’m glad to see she is fruiting, but I do hope the possums don’t go for her.

Living in New Zealand: Things to do on Waitangi Day: Weaving Māori Baskets

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Waitangi Day (6th February) celebrates the day when Māori and Pakeha signed the treaty of Waitangi. The agreement was flawed, but at least here there was motivation from white (mainly British) settlers to treat the local caretakers of the land more equitably than they had in other places of the world (notably our neighbour, Australia). Normally, like other public holidays, I work, but today I did something different.

I made a basket for potatoes from harakeke (flax). I met up with a great bunch of other women in Lyttelton and we learned from Jackie, Trixi and Catherine, who have been learning themselves. I’m inspired to try more, as we have whakariki (mountain flax) growing in the garden.

The finished basket needs to dry and is weighted with bricks

Reasons to Be Cheerful - The Benefits of a Social Media-Free February

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I confess that I have been reading The Luminaries (a book about 19th-century New Zealand written in the language of the same) since Christmas, but until now I have only been able to handle a chapter a day. It's a very dense book and at 830 pages long, I was worried that I would never finish it. Or understand it if I did. I'll be glad to finish it and get on to something lighter for a while.

But yes, spending less time on Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram means that I have more time to focus on my Deep Work and I have more time in the evenings to read. It also means that I don't have the anxiety that comes with not posting to Facebook and not checking for any posts I may have missed. I know I'm missing everything, but strangely I feel a lot calmer about it than when I was checking it every day. If you don't know what you're missing you have a lot less FOMO.