summertime

way back in January (when this blog was first unleashed) i was teaching at the Kapiti Summer School, run by Whitireia Polytechnic. i'm delighted to say i'll be back again in 2009.

not only is Aotearoa one of my favourite places, the region around the summer school campus is blessed with an abundance of flora suitable for botanical alchemy in the dyepot. it's also blessed with beautiful rivers, beaches and woods - with a magical patch of original Nikau forest

and next year will be special indeed, with a day trip to Kapiti Island (pictured above)

into the wild

today a wander in the Nikau bush, a rainforest remnant on the Kapiti coast. birds drop pure notes from the canopy, ferns and epiphytes wander skyward. tiny striped fungi cluster on fallen logs. we walk mindfully. at predetermined 'trig' points each person gathers a windfall leaf to add to their 'walking bundle'. these become cloth documents, coded maps of the path each person has taken. mementos of a memento of time past.