Garden
Rebuilding soil on a clay hillside
Six contour swales, three pioneer species, one degraded dairy paddock, and a winter nursery for bana grass. This is the next step in rebuilding soil at Āhuru Mōwai.
23 June 2026
Blog
Stories, diaries, and how-tos
32 stories from our journey of blending technology with slow, sustainable living in Whangārei Heads.
Uncategorised
Swapping small city apartments for rural life on the coast
When we lived in London, we rented an attic flat in West Hampstead that I absolutely loved. It was small but bright and I liked that there were distinct spaces, rather than open plan living. We rarely cooked at home, preferring to eat out or order in. When our friend Ruthie ca...
6 February 2024
Vegetables
Summer garden: update sweet peas, capsicums and baby pumpkins
It always surprises me that while we’re in the height of summer and enjoying blazing sunshine in the day, that come February the mornings are already so dark. I have the privilege of being woken before 6am most mornings by little voices and hands. In the last week I’ve noticed...
5 February 2024
Slow Sundays
Slow Sundays: Activating holiday mode
Most Sundays you’ll find our little whānau at the beach. We’re spoilt for choice in Whangārei Heads. When our little ones wake up before 6am and we’re struggling to open our eyes, sometimes the best way to kick start the day is to get into the Hilux and head for Ocean Beach.
4 February 2024
AI
3 tricks to get more helpful answers from ChatGPT
Mark and I have been using AI tools like ChatGPT, Bard and Midjourney more and more to help us in both our work and personal lives. In our day jobs we create training content for people in the tech industry and AI is a big focus. Things are changing so quickly that we’re less...
2 February 2024
Cocktails
Garden to glass: Bellini with homegrown peaches
Since we planted our tree a few years ago I’ve been looking forward to being able to make a Bellini with homegrown peaches. The Bellini is a delightfully simple cocktail made by combining peach puree with Prosecco. The sweetness from the peaches pairs with light Italian sparkl...
1 February 2024
Coffee
The best espresso machine for people who don't know how to use one
When I was at university, I had a very short-lived part time job as a barista. I spent an hour shadowing the outgoing barista and then the title was passed to me. I was a terrible barista, and I’ve often thought I should issue a general apology to anyone who bought a coffee fr...
1 February 2024
Lawnmower
Where’s Robbie? Are we giving up on our robot lawnmower?
Mark put up a post in our local Facebook group recently that sparked some concern for Robbie, our robot lawnmower. His post asked for assistance with lawn care, specifically looking for someone to scarify our mainly kikuyu lawn. A few minutes after he asked the question, I got...
31 January 2024
Food
5 reasons why we planted bananas in our food forest
Last week we got another exciting delivery of plants for our burgeoning food forest from our friends at Twin Falls Nursery. Amongst them were six lady finger banana corms (they look a bit like pork knuckles), the part of the plant that produces offshoots that will become our f...
30 January 2024
Uncategorised
From creating Minecraft worlds to curating a living ecosystem
Minecraft was one of the ways Mark stayed connected with his son, Connor, while we were living overseas. Mark set up a virtual server that Connor and his mates could use whenever they wanted to play. When we lived in a high-rise apartment in the middle of Sydney, Mark also use...
29 January 2024
Coffee
Slow Sundays: Resetting our morning coffee ritual
One of the ‘to-dos’ that makes the list most weekends is to sort through one of our sheds or cupboards and pile up the things we don’t use so we can sell them or give them away. A few months ago, after a cupboard sort, I came across an unusual device that I couldn’t remember u...
27 January 2024
Food
Tips to start growing your own food
I’m getting so used to treating our garden like a supermarket, sometimes I forget how many failures we’ve had on our journey learning to grow our own food. There’s been so many hard lessons, we’ve had issues with soil quality, wind, pests, too much water, not enough water.
25 January 2024