Lovely distractions

We’ve been helped through pre-operation anxiety and post-operation healing by some lovely distractions: an Earthsong wedding a Ranui café opening a political 80th birthday party a feminist play a glimpse of change in DR Congo a lesbian film premiere the arrival of gardener Sue. Read more ….  

An Earthsong Wedding

On a perfect Saturday, January 23, Earthsong flowered with splendid banners and huge floral arrangements, and  rang with music, for the wedding of Andy and Jenni, neighbours in our node. The outdoor wedding ceremony began with  harpist Heather singing her own composition, specially written for the couple.           Jenni walked up the garden […]

Korero Café and the Ranui Community Centre

After major renovations, the Ranui Community Centre and Korero Café reopened with a dawn blessing on Friday 29 January.  Local stalwart Buffie Mawhinney and her team have re-used timber and other materials pulled out of the old building in very creative ways for walls and  furnishings .  The Auckland Council, Henderson-Massey Community Board and Community Trusts have all […]

An 80-year-old creates a political party…

Charmaine drove to the Awhitu Regional Park on Saturday 13 February for the 80th birthday party of George Flavell, a kaumatua of Ngaati Te Ata Waiohua, the people of the Awhitu Peninsula and beyond. And what a special event it was, too!  George had arranged for his guests (more than a hundred of us – […]

Vagina Monologues for V-Day

  The Vagina Monologues were written by Eve Ensler, based on interviews with many women, 20 years ago.  We went to a splendid performance by the Shape Shift Collective (students and recent graduates from Unitec’s Performing and Screen Arts degree and other programmes), directed by Unitec lecturer Alexandra Whitham,  at Te Pou Theatre.  It was a  fitting first […]

City of Joy

In the process of looking up V-Day  ( www.vday.org ) we discovered the amazing City of Joy and the V-World Farm, begun in DR Congo by Dr Denis Mukwege, Christine Schuler Deschryver  and Eve Ensler in 2011, with support from Unicef and many contributors world-wide,  to help women rape survivors in the DR Congo become community leaders – TURNING […]

And then a love story…

We went to the premiere of the film Carol, a lesbian love story based on an early Patricia Highsmith novel The Price of Salt, with some reservations, thinking it might be a Hollywood let-down.  But actually we loved it – all our group of eight very different women found it moving, and beautiful in its portrayal […]

Summer at Earthsong

    We’ve been enjoying a peaceful, gentle time at Earthsong over summer – no meetings, emails or cooking teams! – and delighting in homegrown summer vegies and fruit from the garden. We also appreciated a Christmas delivery of delicious citrus and early plums  from Alison and Steve at earthtalk. The sad event here has been […]