Blog

Considering the New Zealand media’s love affair with stories about homegrown violence, this piece might surprise you. If you’ve managed to not pay too much attention to all the glorified...

One of the things I love about driving up north in the early summer is the abundance of a really bright, almost fluorescent pink rambling rose which grows on the...

This salad is a wonderful combination of flavours, spicy, sweet, earthy, fresh and delicious! **For the vegan version replace the honey with pure maple syrup or agave and use vegan...

I’m always on the lookout for scientific studies on the effects food food has on us even though sometimes, it is all a bit contradictory and on one day coffee,...

Having a healthy scalp is harder to achieve as we age. We often hear of men suffering hair loss, but it’s also common amongst women (especially as we head towards...

Here’s a worrying story for you. I’ve seen it reported over many reputable news websites as well as many blogs in the past week and I have to admit that...

As you all know, I don’t drink coffee or tea anymore, so I am always on the lookout for a coffee substitute. I recently met a friend at Unbakery Café...

Recently I wrote about the F.D.A. in the U.S. banning triclosan as an ingredient used in soaps. This week I found out that Colgate have managed to convince the F.D.A...

If your garden is anything like mine after winter, there’s a fair bit of work to do. This year my broccoli and cabbage were not a great success, so I’m...

Some of you keen gardeners may be planting out seedlings at the moment and I thought I’d share a great trick I learned recently. My garden up north was completely...

The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in the U.S. has just banned antibacterial soaps for having the potential to harm us and no potential to be “antibacterial” as they claim....

Apparently, bitter almonds contain small amounts of cyanide – but don’t worry, even though our supermarkets do like to sell us all kinds of poisons and chemicals in disguise, the...

We love taking Cruz for a walk off the lead in Auckland. There are some great spots for a good romp. A couple of weeks ago we noticed he was...

This is one of my favourite not-so-healthy winter drinks. Wendyl’s Mulled Wine 1 bottle strong, cheap red wine (a Merlot is good) 6 cloves 1 stick cinnamon 1 vanilla pod...

Here’s something for all you crochet people out there to admire. This lovely Piha Shawl was made for me by Alia Bland who designs crochet patterns for a living. Have...

I love this idea because it aims to take urban land covered in weeds and serving no purpose at all and cover them in wild flowers. It’s well worth going...

We all (hopefully) know that all our fruit and veggies require water to grow, but how much exactly? All the meat we eat comes from an animal who most definitely...

We have a new baby arriving in the family soon (my niece Mariko is pregnant) so I’ve spent the last few weeks knitting up a storm. I made a small...

The heart of your home is where your food is, here’s a “cleanliness” related post on a few different ways to detox your kitchen. Those nasty old chemicals sneak in...

We have received a number of notices from our children’s schools recently regarding head lice outbreaks. Our friends at Holistic Hair have these wonderful natural remedies to kill any outbreak...

Every now and then I hear of even more amazing work being done in NZ to support those who have been diagnosed with cancer. Aratika Cancer Trust was started by...