Weird day looming with an equally weird week/month/year/decade sitting palpably on the horizon.

We’ve stated our desire to live a life of service and delight people (preferably from a safe and substantial distance) so often. What does that actually mean though? Well, it seems appropriate to get down in writing what we are doing and what we have done.

This exercise is as much for my own clarity as it is to explain to anyone who is interested in our projects. It is difficult to piece together the vast and varied bits and bobs Damon and I are attempting to breathe life into.

Farm

We have found immeasurable satisfaction seeing the biodiversity thrive at the farm. Food is starting to flood in over every season. Food security, and soil and water health is such a tangible and tactile magic. Our composting queen, Pip B, has been working her magic in building our mostly clay soils into a more arable and friable growing medium with the resulting fruit and veg tasting so incredible.

The farm also has three eco-tourism products that work separately and together. These three sites are helping to pay a small team to supervise and further nurture the farm. We see ourselves as selling privacy and a chance to go off grid and digitally detox. Our amazing guests have given us glorious reviews in return for the favour of 48 hours of radio silence. This is the best feedback and gift for us! One recent guest stayed after having experienced a significant loss and couldn’t thank us enough for this time to process. That’s the magic.

It’s not all a box of roses. There are also many challenges in creating the vision. We are having to realign our driveway and security gate and that goes with insane amounts of red tape and fuckery, but it’s a necessary mountain to climb to secure our autonomy and safety, and the privacy and protection of our guests.

We’ve also nearly completed our first workshop space and wellness room (for guest massages) and we are investigating the viability of a sauna, ice bath (or buckets more likely), and hot tub. All these additions require careful consideration when you are an off grid destination and you need to strongly consider your energy generation options. We’ve learned the hard way from our first hot tub that the energy we take for granted on grid can be the difference between keeping the lights on or not when you are using solar energy.

Heaps more happening, but I don’t care to give more away at this point. Suffice to say we will be carefully guarding the sacredness of privacy and peace for ourselves and our wonderful grateful guests.

We have also expanded our net to include a finishing block that will be developed as a farm forestry and regenerative agriculture project. This block will be developed with swales, resilient water and soil plans, and a fully functioning food forest legacy project. This first 12 months all we will commit to is hosting a small herd of grazing heifers and undertake weed and pest control but the longer term goal is to create a highly functional permaculture paradise. Oh, and with horses! And a range of other four legged friends.

Growing food feels like the most meaningful thing we can do as an act of resistance in a clearly failing system. The farm will be hosting volunteers and enthusiasts soon, and the projects will be helped along with many hands. Finding meaningful and efficient ways of selling and distributing food is a priority as the bounty continues to grow.

Faith

I am a witch. Damon is a neurotic mish mash and failed Buddhist and jazz musician (his words), he’s reasonably good at multi tasking and managing things though which is helpful. The kids (while all incredibly spoilt) are a generally neurospicey mix of rationalism, activism, spiritualism and meme/internet scrolling.

I feel very strongly that faith and spiritualism should provide an anchor and freedom to soar and find community and connection. I love to see people on their paths, and have no desire to steer anyone toward following my witchy ways. But I am also very happy to share knowledge and ideas with anyone who is interested. I am no guru/expert or high priestess. I am just a tired woman who is finding strength and purpose standing in my own power, and learning about vast and varied deities and old gods. My practice is solitary, I have no desire to join or start a coven of any description, but I often find myself surrounded by magical humans and it is welcome when it happens.

We are returning to Bhutan in a few weeks for guidance and calm and to bring my eldest son (who recently graduated University and also turned 21) to experience pooja and learn the magical and mysticism of this kingdom in the clouds, protected by the dragon (druk).

Before we embark on that journey, the annual mom and Jamie birthday adventure will see me and my youngest child winging our way over the Tasman sea and into Australia’s red centre. This is a deeply spiritual journey for him and I as well. Aboriginal knowledge and mysticism is something I do not presume to be able to understand in this lifetime as I navigate my experiences of life in the meat suit of a privileged white woman. My interest and reverence for the ancient and sacred truths protected by and shared among the diverse tribes of aboriginal and Torres straight people gets stronger and deeper with every exposure to Australia. The intensity of this magic is palpable in Uluru.

And I have been called to the path of the solar eclipse in August this year. The totality of that event is only going to be experienced in a sparsely populated trajectory of the earth. Iceland and Greenland are the best places to be so we’ve booked to circumnavigate Iceland in August, and will be on a boat off the South East coast of this island of fire and ice.

None of any of this will happen if the geopolitical uncertainty escalates to the point it is untenable to travel away from the safe haven our Antipodean home.

Family

My daughter lives her very best life as a University student in Wellington. She calls me every day and facetimes every Friday to fit check her costume or outfit for whatever bohemian party or event she’s attending that evening. She has forgiven my bumpy evolution and grave mistakes and character flaws and her and her fabulous friends often talk about me in my absence as iconic and authentic.

The other six kids are all various ages and at various stages of their journeys. We are heading over to Sydney where all seven of the children will have five days to hang out together doing various family and touristic adventures together.

I was not supported or appreciated in my role as a mother in my first marriage. Gaslit and scape-goated yes, supported or respected, absolutely not.

7 years into my new relationship with a supportive and patient partner, I am able to be calm, regulated and present for the kids when they are around.

This is a hard fought and vehemently protected culture of care, consideration, authenticity, and honesty. Shenanigans still pop up and smack talk and manipulation still occur behind our backs occasionally, but building a safe space with clear expectations and boundaries while any or all the kids are in my care is our top priority and, generally, we manage it all pretty well.

Urban Edifice

The Kingston street building manifested itself into our lives a year ago and will be a century old in 2027. While it’s not a historically listed building, it provides one of the few remaining examples of early Auckland in this end of town. We are surrounded by mostly soulless and towering modernist style developments in every direction. But at our wee end of Kingston Street we are fortunate to have 3 original character buildings all lined up.

Inside our midtown building is an ancient witchy elevator and four floors. Every inch of the place is slowly being renovated and upgraded.

We live on the top (third) floor, which is technically the penthouse. The 21 and 17 year old boys live in a two bedroom apartment on the second floor. Next to them is a lovely two bedroom two bathroom apartment which we affectionately call the Resting Witch Place, and where the eldest son and his partner also stay to parent the 17 year old if we are away.

They study, party, and live very happily in this beautiful old building. Its location means we are ideal for hosting their friends who may be stuck in town or need safe place to be for one reason or another.

It is by no means a simple or straightforward situation. Not many people would choose such an unconventional living space. But our kids embrace and understand the vision enough that they are both excited and content most of the time and they love being Centre Ville.

The first floor has recently been cleared as it will become a shared creative space with a studio kitchen, small gym, recording studio, and shared creative workspace.

The ground floor once hosted two restaurants. One of those has become my garage and is being renovated as a speakeasy for friends and family to gather occasionally. I can move my little pink electric Fiat 500e into a nearby car park, and up to a dozen people can comfortably commune for salon style discussions or lounge around listening to records.

The main space will become a third space/event space for magical gatherings. We envision open mic nights and live sing-along-Sunday gatherings. A stage, a bar, a finishing kitchen and enough seating for 50-80 people to gather together for safe and inclusive situations is being discussed and designed.

I hope to find a passionate community minded event manager to fill up the space and lock in and deliver regular events. Mocktail and menopause Monday evenings for example. I have an image of powerful and weary goddesses gathering after work on Monday evenings for fireside style ask anything sessions. These will be facilitated by respected health, wellness and business experts. The doors will open early (like 4pm) and a delightful selection of low and no alcohol beverages and perhaps tapas or cheese boards will be offered.

The food grown on the farm will find its way to the city and people can come to feasts to enjoy the bounty and be among inspiring and safe people for a spell.

The rest of the time the space will be very reasonably priced and available for events and gatherings.

This building will also be the physical headquarters for the Finding Persephone Foundation. That is a whole blog and subject of its own which I might share later.

For now, thanks for reading.

I hope if you have been curious about our direction that this clarifies a bit and piques your interest.

We are going to need an army of passionate and purpose led people to pull this all off.

If you are interested in being a part of any of these projects, please DM me on social media.