Kate and William postpone honeymoon

William and Kate postpone honeymoon

Prince William and Kate delay foreign honeymoon as Prince William returns to work next week after bank holiday break in Britain.
Prince William and his new wife Kate Middleton have decided not to depart for their honeymoon immediately and have instead opted to spend the weekend in the UK, St James's Palace announced today.


It had been thought that the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would take two weeks off for the traditional post royal wedding break.


But it appears they want some private time in familiar surroundings after one of the most important days in their life saw their marriage celebrated by the nation and beyond.
They will probably travel to the Queen's Balmoral Estate in Scotland, which will afford them privacy and stunning countryside in which to unwind.


They left Buckingham Palace this morning like a couple very much in love, walking hand in hand to a waiting helicopter which flew them off for their secret weekend break.
Before they boarded the aircraft, palace staff had carried out some of their luggage, which included a bouquet of white blooms.


A St James's Palace spokesman said: "The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have chosen not to depart for a honeymoon immediately.


"Instead, after spending the weekend privately in the United Kingdom, the Duke will return to work as a search and rescue pilot next week.


"The locations of both their private weekend before the Duke returns to work and their future honeymoon, which will be overseas, will not be disclosed in advance."


St James's Palace stressed that the couple had asked that the media respect their privacy over the weekend and during their holiday.


Speculation had been mounting about where the couple could spend their time away together.


They had been expected to travel either to somewhere in Africa, perhaps Kenya where Prince William proposed, or possibly Jordan where Kate spent two years as a child.


There were reports that the couple had booked a tailor made private tour of southern Jordan, including a visit to the ancient city of Petra.

Frilly bamboo edging and a 'no-dig' meadow planting day

Last week we created this, just before my little visa trip back to Melbourne. Its a bamboo edged, no-dig (sheet mulched) meadow garden, a start for us in creating Community Garden Lemon for CLCA.

First we split the bamboo, and cut to 20cm lengths, to pound into the soft soil.


I've never seen an edge like this, and hope it looks good a year from now. I needed something that would curve, they needed a way to use up the large bamboo that overran their other gardens. The curve is a walking path that will be filled in later with bamboo chips, or whatever lovely waste materials turn up when we need them.

Then we started making our 'no-dig' garden, also known as Lasagna, or sheet mulch garden, and crazily popular with Aussie Permaculture enthusiasts - a few hours, and your whole garden looks like someone else's came to visit.
We started with layers of newspaper directly on the existing grass, tucked nicely into the corners, so nothing will sprout back into the light, not this year, at least.



Over the newspaper went straw. In Australia I usually use the softer, more delicious alfalfa hay, but this is a rice district, not a cow district, and I'm thankful for whatever I get.


So over the rather hard rice straw we sprinkled rice husks - because they were there.


On top of the rice husks I was expecting to spread some good old manure. The ladies proudly presented a fancy little bag of pelleted manure from the shop. But they area resourceful bunch, and when they saw me looking puzzled, up they went to the mountains for some fuyoudo (leaf litter mulch). Its dark and beautiful, with threads of white fungi, and smells foresty and wonderful.


We realize we need more 'potting mix' to place around the new seedlings. Farmer Hota dashes out to one of his stomping grounds, and digs us up some treasure.


Under a big pile of branches he had left to decompose we found this rich crumbly mess,


sifted it like cappacino cocoa,
then used it to bless the garden - full of wonderful little creatures, it will really bring things to life.


Mrs Toda, one of the directors, is looking pretty lively


We decide part of the meadow will be japanese mountain herbs, the other side western.
The Japanese side got this red and green shiso again from Farmer Hota. Shiso's companions were nira (garlic chives) mitsuba, miyoga (like ginger), little ferns, and lots of pretty wildflowers I don't know much about, not yet.
The stepping stones for now are cardboard - we wanted to keep our big boots from compacting too much of the gardens fluffy new structure, so made a pretend path. It works just fine, and will some day just get tucked under everything to participate as more compost.


Joining its offcuts - here we soaked them to softness before hiding them under all our layers.


Just as we finished our planting, late for lunch, dirty and spent, the warm rains came down and did the final task - watering our garden, washing off ourselves.
Its a happy beginning, now we just wait and hope it succeeds.

Can you do this on a balcony? Why not! Ive never seen one, but somebody will one of these days. Just make the layers thick enough, make sure they are well watered and not sloshing over the edge, and don't forget to send me the photo



So now I tell you why its called a lasange garden - its of course about layers, but also getting the right balance of 'pasta' and 'meat sauce' - the carbon-rich straw, paper, rice hulls, and the nitrogen rich manure and whatever else you have.
And its going to be delicious.

No Worries Concrete at Asabas Permaculture Garden

The secret to laying concrete seems to be this:
Don't worry.

Just like making a cake

Living here and running workshops with the incandescent Asaba-san, I started seeing that most of us worry INSTEAD of acting.

Asaba never worries. She just gets into action, doing whatever preparation is needed for whatever festivity she has freely chosen to dive into.

Today, it was cement.


Plus stringing up some Summer Vines, and a practical lesson on reppotting orchids. Happy Participants, happy plants, Happy Asaba, watching her garden transform itself. Just ask Cecilia over to Run workshops, teach her 'Don't Worry', and it all happens.
A few adjusments, compromizes and mistakes will be made along the way. Don't worry.
That's the deal with creativity, after all.

Tempting gourd and cucumber vines

onto the bridge with a tasty ball of string.

Guests came from around the corner, and around the country.

Mrs Morimoto and the gang collecting Fuyoudo soil from our mountain.

The wonderful Morimoto family drove the 7 hours from their old farmhouse in Gifu to attend, all on their tempura-oil powered vehicle.

The elegant Nishibayashi Family drove 5 hours from Nara.

Guys, that is such a complement!

Bento lunchbox lunch in our back, back garden at Shyomyoji Temple.

No Chairs, no wrappers, no bills, no worries. So long as you decide to enjoy cooking your bento box lunch the night before. Inspiring company and settings help.


We started the morning with a presentation introducing the wonders of Permaculture, and how it can make life riveting.
We saw David Holmgren's ingenious passive energy house,
the beautiful universe of Rainbow Valley Farm,
and the inspirational story of Famer Iwata, who really doesn't DO anything to his kiwi orchid now - he set it up to care for itself. And we can do that too, with our lives.

After lunch and garden creation time, we ended the day with a presentation on balcony garden design - tricks to get yourself into action, get rid of the uglies, and surround yourself with only things you love. Without designing love into it, balcony gardening is just too hard to be worth it, or to succeed.
Just like life, maybe.

Ready to build on the foundation we created in Workshop #4 last week - the Daku wall.

This wall solves a few problems

• How to get rid of the unattractive yet useful cinderblocks
• How to keep Daku the dachshund out of the edible garden
• How to keep the raised beds raised.

Don't cry Daku. Weve planned a special little digging spot for you, where all the interesting composting and hidey-holes will be happening. You will love it.

Make no little plans

Daniel Burnham, architect and city planner, said about his master plans for Chicago and also the World's Columbian exhibition:
Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will themselves not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die

Burnham could just have as easily been talking about his plans for Washington DC and the National Mall, known as the McMillan Plan. Burnham was also the architect for one of my favorite buildings in DC, right off the National Mall pictured here: Union Station.On June 9th at 8:30pm, the film Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City will be shown on the National Mall at 4th street NW. Joan Allen, the film's narrator, will be attending. You may be familiar with the screen on the green series, which I love; just call this a precursor to the upcoming season!

The McMillan plan was designed by Burnham (along with a host of others including Frederick Law Olmsted, Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Charles F McKim) in 1901 , expanding upon L’Enfant’s original 1791 plans for the National Mall by designing the Lincoln Memorial, the adjacent reflecting pool and the Jefferson Memorial, seen on this plan below.

These ingenius plans turned DC into the beautiful city we enjoy today. The City Beautiful movement from that time period touched nearly every major US city, thanks the Columbian Exhibition, and remain today among the most visited sections of any city.

I hope you can visit the National Mall on June 9th to watch the film!

Blackberry picking weekend picnic, for Shrove Tuesday pancakes

Wild blackberry photo by Cecilia Macaulay

If only my painstakingly cared-for balcony berries were as lush as these irrepressible wild blackberries. My own berries, searching for sun, went trailing over the edge of the balcony where I cannot see them, enjoy them, but most importantly, can't get an idea of how much transpiration is going on, so I let them get woefully thirsty.
Still, now Ive acknowledged my trespasses, they are forgiving me, and putting out green shoots back on the abandoned canes.


According to this ABC interview on Australian Blackberries, this prickly pest plant dominates an area the size of Tasmania, takes $70 million + from our economy, all so I can enjoy a nice blackberry crepe with cream on our Shrove Tuesday. I enjoy imagining an innocent, eccentric Baron Ferdinand von Mueller dancing though the bush, strewing seed, glowing with pride in the imagined gratitude of future generations, who thanks to his effort would have self-growing food in the summer, and never die when they stray off into the bush.

In fact, the Baron was the same extremely capable fellow that established Melbourne's amazing Botanical Gardens, and probably didn't dance much.

Dominic, Katie and Lon picking berries, photo by Cecilia Macaulay

My sister Katie and the gang went up to visit my brother Dominic on the weekend. Pulling out these bushes was one of his jobs, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it, with it looking so pretty and hopeful.

Dom lives in a cubbyhouse behind the pub, at the Whistle stop cafe. He used to just view it while waiting on the platform for the train to take him home from work - that is no longer necessary.
Hey, with all those free blackberries, work is not really necessary either.

So the day before our Lenten fast, 40 days of sackcloth, ashes and repentance, Have a Mardi Gras, or Gross (fat) Tuesday (mardi) gobbling down all the sugar, eggs, butter and rich things we can, while the going is good.

And of course, the blackberries, never forget the blackberries.

Vasili's Zorba with Cecilia and Lon the wwoofer

Today is day 25 of having Lon the WWOOFer blessing my house with his help and his gorgeous spirit. We found a perfect way to document and celebrate his last day - a videoed lunch, interview and of course Zorba dance with Vasili, for his Vasili's Garden community T.V. program.




Inviting Vasili over was a bit like letting a puppy loose in the garden. Irrepressable, goes to all the corners you don't want him to, and eats anything. For lunch, we gave him a Japanese cross-cultural experiance, and a taste of all the really interesting winter veggies you COULD grow on your balcony or garden, that I'm working myself up to trying to grow.
Lotus Root, Japanese giant raddish (daikon), and Persimmon balcony cuisine are the next stories I'm posting - gorgeous and delicious.

Thank-you Lon Kazunori,

WonderWWOOFer.
What will I do without you?

Gardenpartying: Permaculture party for pot-plant wrapping

Paul Bongiorno, actor/actrobat/permie,

and Myriam Lewis, wall painting restorer

It was fun. It was delicious. And today was just the rehearsal. I got all these new ideas for how to make the next pot-wrapping party, Feb 15th, enchanting.

Illustrators know, every new thing needs a first draft. Parties too.

Sharon Macaulay the town planner, Sandy The Mosaic teacher/artist

Holding it in place with old elastic,
so we can straighten up the hessian stylishly before wiring it on.

Finished result, with dark and light pink gauze ribbon,
matching the hessian's pink stripe.

People went home poised to transform things, with some ready-cut hessian.
Of course you can't do something totally new in one go, by yourself (you can, but the odds are against it) . I'm looking forward to their photos.

Help my doves and I - dovecote and cage to create

Design by Tage Anderson, Denmark. Photo by Bent Rej

I just got two doves, beautiful just like angels are beautiful.
These aren't my doves.
I can't show your my doves photo, because they are in a cage so tiny its kind of obscene.
They have been there two days already.

Does anyone in inner city Melbourne have a large bird cage they can lend me short-term?
Or is there anyone who would like to join me in making a proper structure this week?

I have just bought a metal arch structure, which I plan to cover in dovewire. Of course, I will settle for chickenwire.
But there is a terrible and clever cat after my lovely doves. I must not fail in making the door secure, but I don't even know how to make the door a door.
As always, I'm up for bartering my Permaculture skills for practical construction help ( balcony design, container gardening, decluttering, blog creation, Japanese translation, sign writing...)

Not that I'm clueless about cage making.
Once, in Tokyo, I came up with 19 bunny hutch designs. My Japanese rabbit came up with 20 methods of escape.
Here is young Cecilia, trying to figure it all out

Tokyo 1998 Cecilia and Muffley

Cage design Tage Anderson, Photo Bent Rej

The aim is that after spending a few weeks in the big cage, they are happy and know that my garden is their home.
Then they can fly free, and return to their raised, cozy dovecote when they wish. Thats the next construction job.

Dovecote by Joe Polaischer, Rainbow Valley Farm New Zealand. Photo by Cecilia.

Myriam Lewis my wondeful WWOOFer, from Holland, packing the ornaments from the 'tree' today.

The dead cherry tree in my courtyard gets plenty of costume changes. Post for a raised dovecote could be its next incarnation. Its lustourous bark is very beautiful, suited to refined gentleness of these birds.

If you have any good dove ideas, my birds and I would be glad to hear your comments.