moonlit saunas & knitting in Coromandel

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I arrived in Coromandel almost two weeks ago after taking a bus to Thames and then hitch-hiking from there up the peninsula, me and the hoop all orange and sparkly in the sunlight, both of us a sight to behold at the edge of the road, waiting for a ride....which was no problem at all to find. After a drive along the coast wit the velvet green mountains and rolling hills along side us, I was dropped off literally outside the herbal dispensary, my abode for the next month.

I am slowly developing a real love for this country and its people and already I have found somewhere where I could quite happily get stuck for the foreseeable future. I have found myself in part of a small community at what is known as 'top town', a few km north of Coromandel township. At the epicentre of the community is an old railway, now a tourist attraction which used to be used for mining clay and to this day the area is rich in pottery artists and their studios. Coromandel in general seems to attract quite a lot of artists whose work ranges from fibre arts and flax weaving to garden sculpture to glass blowing to silversmithing.

I thought I was going to come here and spend a significant amount of time learning about herbalism, what with staying with a herbalist and all... however as per norm, things have turned out somewhat differently. Naomi who runs the herbalism dispensary has been a challenge to work for. She gets her wwoofers to do rather dull weeding work, shovelling horse poo and manual labour for their two hours of work a day so that if they want to do interesting herbalism stuff they have to do it in their own time. She appears to be somwheat of a misanthopist healer and has it feels, an inate dislike and distrust for wwoofers and so I have learnt almost nothing about herbalism since being here aside from reading a little of one of her books and being allowed to spend an afternoon colllecting calndula flowers and then helping her make a tincture from them.

That aside, I am so blessed with alll the other amazing stuff that is going on...I feel like I have walked straight into having an awesome social circle of people my age who live within walking distance and have been invivted to a full moon drumming party on the beach, a knitting circle, a girls night in with massage and foot rubs and dinners etc. When I'm not being sociable I am learning about something or another - e.g taking as many notes as I can on what I learn about gardening and permaculture and over the past few days I've been studying botanical dyeing i.e using plants for dying fabric and fibres, such as eucalyptus and flax seed pods and calendula and onion skins and exciting things like sea water and stale urine as mordants. I've also been making prints with these beautiful hand-carved stamps I bought in India using things like beetroot instead of ink. After not being crafty in a few months I am getting so into it again and it is bringing me so much joy. I went to a clothes swap the other day - after wearing the same few items of clothing over and over again jumped at the chance of having something new - and so left with a few bits and pieces and then spent this morning using a friend's sewing machine and adjusting and recycling them to make cool stuff to wear. It is amazing how much creativity can unfold through having to make use with what you have. Next week I am getting a lesson in how to use a spinning wheel and also doing a massage swap with someone in return for a lesson in the pottery studio.

I have to smile....I have created this life for myself here which is absolutely wonderful but I am so busy with things scheduled in all day and evening that at night I can't get to sleep because my brain is mulling over alll these inspired ideas for creative projects and so many otther thoughts.

Part of what is so inspiring to be here is being given the opportunty to learn about what it really is to live with this little planet of ours. Living in London I thought I was reasonably healthy...I ate salad (packaged and from super markets but still), only ate vegetarian prepackaged sandwhiches and only ate bacon with the occasional hungover greasy spoon fry up. I considered myself in the group of people who are 'good' and try and do their bit for the environment....like errr..... I turn the tap off while I'm brushing my teeth and always put out the recycling and turn lights out, hardly ever buy meat etc....but here, I really am starting to wake up to how it feels to be part of this planet....the vast majority of my diet consists of fruit and veggies from the garden, other local produce and then wholegrains. In the garden we have rocket, beetroot, spring onions, plums, fresh herbs, zuchinnni, pumpkin....and not only does it taste wonderful and give you life force and vitality but it has not caused suffering to the world through being flown across the globe using fossil fuels.

When I was about 6 I had a little garden patch where I was allowed to grow my own things like lettuce and onions. And that, drear reader is about the extent of my gardening experience. And I feel ashamed... I am living on this planet and I don't know diddlysquat about how to nourish myself self-sufficiently without walking into a supermarket. it is so inspiring and empowering learning about how to do this and the thought of once again living in a place where everythig I eat is bought sends shivers down my spine.

Eating this beautiful, life-giving food it is easy to have reverence for it, to feel gratitude, to feel yourself as part of the cycle of life whereas in London food was frequently an annoying distration and just something neccessary to stop me being hungry. I didn't have reverence for it because I'd eat it without really wanting to know where it came from and what was sprayed on it. Another thing I have noticed about having lived in london is that it made me very caught up in my own thoughts as being outside most of the time was such an intense experience what with all the commotion and energy flying around, it was easier to just block things out and day dream. I've noticed that people around here are alot more aware of what is going on around them in their environment...and why wouldn't you be when you are constantly surrounded by the sound of the Tui birds singing and little rivers trickling and the occasional moooo or baaaa. I get to wake up with the sound of munching - as I share my paddock with a horse called Pandy and 5 sheep. I also get to sleep with my caravan window framing the moon which is so bright here when it is full it literlly hurts your eyes to look at it.

And speaking of the moon... it has been so beautiful to observe the moon on my travels and become more in touch with it as my efforts in London to live more synchonized to the moon were somewhat fruitless what with all the artificial light and my general disconnectedness from the environment. It is lovely thinking back to what I have done on my fulll moons since leaving London - each one has been memorable but especially this last one. I went to this sauna in this mindfulness retreat place in the middle of a forest with a group of friends and in between sweating in the sauna took dips in an icy bath in the middle of a forest glade. After several repititions of this we went to a little gathering on the beach where I did some hooping and there was a fire and some drumming and the moon in all her splendour shone down on us casting moon shadows.

I feel so blessed to be here. And inspired. And grateful. It feels like whether we realize it or not re are recreating ourselves anew with every day that passes and right now I love who I am creating and feel incredibly blessed to have thse experiences on this journey. Lori, a healer who I saw on Waihiki told me that the universal life force flows through gratitude and I feel like I am experiencing this simple truth.

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