Some pix, a box and a book!

Ponga Frond (NZ native tree fern)

Succulent.

The top two photos were taken in my garden. I love the ponga frond photo especially! We don't have a big section, one tree and only a few plant varieties. Yuccas, succulents, ferns, ponga and a few potted natives! It's surprising how much even a few plants can enhance the visual appeal of a house and make it feel more like a home. The photos were taken only a few days ago and already the ponga is a full fern. I've posted a black and white version on my Tumbler page if you would like to take a look. Seth Apter and Robyn Gordon also have Tumbler pages and you will find links to them on my page.

The collage box #1 has arrived and been posted on! The top pic is a photo of the stuff I took from the box. Unfortunately I don't have ready access to the photo I took of my contributions as it's on the old computer! I was able to take this one just before making the book below...

Collage book cover. Bingo card, ex libris scrap, fibre. My own circle/coffee paper was added to supplement my selection.

One of the books pages. I used a 'collage box paper' on every second page or used it as the actual page. The yellow mesh fabric was used to bind the two covers together.

I was last in line for box #1 and Lawendula has since received the box from me and she's done a fabulous post on her blog about it. Please check it out here to see how the journey went!

This will be my last post for a few days. We're off camping (not the real rugged variety...just the sleeping in a tent under trees variety!) in a few days and I can't wait! Fun with the kids, roasted marshmallows, nature art, board games, badminton, cricket, waterfalls and photography...wahoo!

McLaren's Falls. This is a photo I took when we camped there last year.  If you enjoyed my nature sculpture post (previous post) then please see this link to a fabulously inspiring Muse Me nature art event that I went too a few years ago at McLaren's falls. You won't be disappointed! Thank you to everyone who share their delight and memories triggered by my last post. I really appreciate it!

*See you soon*

Green/Greener

I've never been a real fan of green, as in the colour itself, but the colour green is symbolic of something I do love. Living life green. I'm not sure how the colour green came to represent a whole way of living. A lifestyle, a choice, a way of being and thinking. After all, what's wrong with yellow? or red? I guess 'go yellow and live life red' don't have the same ring to them. They don't conjour up the same mental image. I live in NZ so it's easy for me to associate the word green with something refreshing and clean. Soft, green moss, dampened with mist from a crisp clear waterfall. In my head this 'green' place is calm and it's clean of course. No rubbish. No cars. No smoking. I wonder what sort of image comes to mind for those people living in barren desersts? Cities towering with neon signs and skyscrapers? What is their green? (Feel free to tell me if you live in these places!)

How is it that 'green' has come to represent recycling? food miles? carbon emissions? Somehow people all around the world have come to realise that the colour green means 'caring for our earth.' It means being responsible caretakers and it means looking after the planet that we depend on. Don't bite the hand that feeds us in other words! With Christmas coming ever closer I've been thinking a lot more about 'being green' and ways to be greener. As a rule we try to be green. We recycle and reuse, take our own bags and pick up rubbish.We consider the place and source of origin but is it enough? Taking your own bags isn't 'being green.' Its on the way. Recycling, walking and not driving, buying second hand, supporting Greenpeace...individually all these things are just on the way to being green. Can we actually 'be' green? I've been thinking a lot and I've come to the conclusion that it is virtually impossible for most of us to actually 'be' green we can only be greener, we live in a society that makes actually being green hard. Being green can be expensive, inconvienent and not nesecarily practical. Being green is an ideal.That's my opinion anyway.That said I've also concluded that every step we take indivually towards being greener leads to a collectively big step. Small is big and those small steps should be celebrated. So lets start celebrating!

I want to celebrate the things in life that make things greener. I'm no longer silly enough to commit to a regular posting on a set topic at a set time so I am starting small, with this post, written just to celebrate something thats 'greener.' Actually, 2 things.

The 2 things are "tree takeaways" and pom poms. Yes, pom poms. Today we ventured into the city to attend a free winter themed craft shop for kids and we ended up making pom poms! I have to say these pom poms are pretty cool and they're made cooler by the fact that they're made from 2nd hand shop wool. Way to go Bunnings Warehouse for not supplying balls of new wool to the kids, there was no-one complaining about the lack of new things, no additional power was consumed and no-one was required to have a cell phone. The kids actually had a lot of fun making pom poms. In fact mine are still making them as I type and these ones are destined for the local SPCA so the kittens can play with them. We bought 2 herb plants while we were there so that's a small green point on top. (Or should that have been a green cherry?)

Tree Takeaways is just as it sounds. A local mall was keen to show it's green side by giving away free native tree seedlings in biodegradable pots. We were especially pleased because we managed to get Pohutakawa, Kowhai and Karo seedlings, the first 2 are able to replace 2 of my children's birth trees (of the same species) which were destroyed last year by ants. The event was run by 'trees for paper' an organisation that trades 1700 educational places around NZ  with native seedlings for paper.All the school has to do is recycle their waste paper and in return they get trees. Sounds like a win win situation to me.