Abundance at Maeve Gardens

I spent my last month in Australia getting to know a wonderful group of women, a beautiful piece of land, a vibrant and colourful community, and my own aspirations. 

What a month indeed. I arrived in Lismore, with my bicycle Poppy in tow, back at the beginning of May. Nervous and excited to meet up with my host, who I would be working with for 4 hours a day doing gardening, house building and property/bush maintenance in return for a place to stay and food, I arrived in the dark in Lismore, in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales. 

I quickly sorted out who was who on this lovely piece of land where 7 people live in 4 different homes, and I deliciously explored the weird and wonderful sub-tropical food bearing plants in all the gardens, and asked numerous questions about what was what in the garden and critter world. My hosts were nothing short of dedicated, inspiring, knowledgeable and fun to be around. Jally knew heaps about rainforest regeneration, about local and state politics, about the movement to oppose coal seam gas development in their rich agricultural area, about  the local aboriginal tribes, and about beautiful forests to visit, waterfalls to swim in, and adventures to be had. Lazuli was an amazing fire-side chatter, I learned from her about Re-evaluation Co-counseling and the benefits it can have in activist (or any community) whereby people discharge and are aided by their peers in discovering negative oppressive patterns that they may be practicing. I was welcomed by Lazuli on numerous adventures to visit her friend Sue and her beautiful permaculture garden (I got familiar with the concept of mulch, mulch, mulch), where I learned about more weird and wonderful foods that grow in this area of the world (finger limes, jackfruit, pawpaw, cassava anyone?) and I was patiently taught how to weave baskets out of things from the garden. I was inspired by Lazuli's passion for her garden for growing more food, and by her dedication to anti-nuclear activism. Mostly, I was so amazed to spend time in the special home that Lazuli and her partner Heidi had designed and built themselves, including complex sounding physics and measurements to determine the direction that the windows needed to face at what time of year to maximize summer warmth and minimize summer heat, and the materials that they would use for their home (nearly ALL reclaimed materials!) Heidi was a positive and enthusiastic home builder, and artist, practicing her viola and directing her band's (Deep Blue) new show to go on tour shortly. Deva inspired me with her clothing company whereby she took old and used clothes and redesigned them into new beautiful pieces of art, many complete with her silkscreened prints worked into it. All of these ladies cooked and got together for a meal once a week, and worked together on their land for a day every fortnight, and had a community meeting every fortnight as well. Truly a great bunch of women who a learned a great deal from, whom I received a great abundance from as well.

Abundance. Such a word. A word that seriously describes Maeve Gardens well.

While I was staying at Maeve Gardens, I was living in the space that I affectionately learned was called Ishtar, a colourful caravan which used to be used on the road for a travelling puppet show, was open to the environment, had just a bed and a table for my things, and not much else in terms of physical components. My toilet was the grass and a neighbouring bush bucket, my running water a hose from the rainwater tank, and the electricity for lights was supplied by the small solar panel. Some might call this living arrangement simple, but to me it was huge - filled with such an abundance.

I had an abundance of luxuriously great sleeps in that caravan cozy under the doona and the mosquito net and waking up to the abundance of beautiful Australian bird calls as I watched the sunrise with abundant beauty out the window of the caravan, down into the valley. There was an abundance of evening noises, from the bandicoots and cane toads rustling, to the shrill and deathly sounding koalas that I heard one day in the very early hours of the morning (seriously one was making this sound, and the other was making this noise, it was an intense way to wake up!) There was an abundance of herptiles; from the resident python that spend many of its days sunning itself at Ishtar, to the venomous brown snakes, the tree snakes and the plentiful lizards. There was an abundance of wallabies. There was an abundance to learn about the plants and the edible fruit trees that seemed to be growing everywhere. There was an abundance of beautiful food always being offered and shared. Macadamias, pawpaw, mandarins, limes, lemons, oranges, kiwis, bananas, and more. There was an abundance of beauty all around, from the physical environment of my surroundings, to the spirits and energy of Lazuli, Heidi, Jally, Deva and their friends. I felt so lucky to be a part of such a beautiful community. There was an abundance of beautiful bicycle rides to go on, magical rainforests to tramp through, and alternative towns to explore. There was an abundance of alternative, creative, dedicated people in the broader Northern Rivers area that we were in.  There was an abundance of inspiration as I learned about how two women who knew little about building, designed and built their own off the grid, reclaimed material home from the ground up. Hearing them tell me what they had accomplished really made me dream...There was just so much of everything, even though I was living 'simply'.

The generosity was certainly abundant as well. Heidi and Lazuli gave so much of their time and energy towards working along side me, towards showing my around their home and surroundings, teaching me and inspiring me. They even invited my sister to come up from Sydney for my last weekend on the farm - a time full of hiking, walking, exploring and fireside chats, a time which I will certainly cherish.

Maeve Gardens was a beautiful experience, and surely, the people, the nature, the food - they will draw me back.

The resident Python near where I was sleeping :)

Cute little Koala visitor

Anti Coal Seam Gas Rally in Lismore

Waterfalls were abundant

Ishtar - my lovely gypsy caravan home!

Sue and me - my permaculture/circus/basket weaving friend (check out that basket I made!)

Searching for whales in the ocean at Evans Head (yep saw some!)

Looking over the garden from Ishtar - heaps of macadamia nut  plantations

Lazuli, Krista, moi, Hyungeong, Heidi inside L&H homemade home 

Lazuli moving some of the weeds that we were pulling out - soon to be turned to mulch!

Full moon AND lunar eclipse for my last night at Maeve