In My Mothers Kitchen

21/10/2026

Really looking forward to presenting at Green Thumb Farm and seeing the amazing work they do. 🌱🥦🥕

Our last workshop of 2026: food, mood, and the ground beneath us.

On Saturday 7 November, psychologist Kristy Howard joins us to explore how growing and eating real, seasonal food supports mental health. Kristy works at the intersection of lifestyle medicine, nutritional psychology, and therapeutic horticulture, and is currently completing a PhD at RMIT researching how our food environments shape the gut microbiome and our health.

Sat 7th November, 09 am - 11 am | $35 (+ booking fee. Price includes GST)

Book: https://greenthumbfarm.org.au/workshops

02/09/2026

I love this time of year. Everything is a bit of a schmozel after a season of rest. There is still harvesting of the previous seasons produce (hello pumpkins), rotten fence posts, weeds in abundance and the planting of spring seedlings. A mix of old and new. Areas that need tending, others that need a bit of work. But the energy of outward growth is returning.

It is the messy inbetween - where both remnants of the past and plans for the futyre coexist. It is a time of dreaming, planning and sowing seeds whilst reflecting on past successes and failures. A call back into the world but with less demands.

It is also a time to pause and be curious. To see what needs tending or repairing or cutting back to support the new growth to emerge.

This is our early spring garden "schmozel". Its a bit of a work in progress - some new, some old, weeds, an overgrown strawberry patch, a new garden fence made of anything we had laying around, and our ever present duck Penguin' to oversee it all.

What seeds are you sowing this season? What might need tending, or repairing or cutting back to support their growth? What lessons from last season are important to remember as you are sowing spring seeds.

In gratitude to the winter, the pumpkin vine, the rotting fence, and the weeds for caretaking the garden whilst weve rested inside.

Now time to dream and plan and tend gently.

28/08/2026

Just like the reptiles and blossoms and daffodils,the warmer weather is bringing me outside to bloom once again. Ive had a delicious winter away from the socials.

Time to streych my weary bones, step outside again, and grow.

In gratitude to the sun, the wattle blossoms and the daffodil bulbs about to explode open, coaxing me back out into the world again.

And in gratitude to the winter that allowed me the opportunity to be still.

21/05/2026

May is the season that weaves lady finger bananas, slightly burnt banana bread and threads of community into our lives.

And lady fingers are exceptional weavers of the threads that bind community together.

The challenge with lady finger bananas is they often ripen all at once. And there is only so much banana recipes one can stomach. Thus they are shared. A text message. A gift at the gate. And slightly burnt banana loaf.

In gratitude to May and the human and non human weavers amongst us.

07/03/2026

Sometimes when the mind feels busy or the body feels on edge, slowing the breath can help bring a little steadiness and grounding. Wherever your feet are, nature can tend.
A gentle breathing practice I often share is:
🌹 Imagine walking into your favourite garden & smelling the roses
Take a soft, slow inhale through your nose.
⏸ Hold the scent for a moment.
🌼 Then imagine blowing on a dandelion
A long, gentle breath out through your mouth, imagine the seeds (& your worries) drift away.
“Let the garden tend you.”
You might try this for a few breaths and notice what shifts.
Like many grounding practices, different things work for different people — take what feels supportive and leave the rest.
This post is for general wellbeing information and isn’t a substitute for individual psychological care.




MindfulBreathing
NatureBasedTherapy
WomenAndWellbeing

07/03/2026

Sometimes when the mind feels busy or the body feels on edge, slowing the breath can help bring a little steadiness and grounding. Wherever your feet are, nature can tend.

A gentle breathing practice I often share is:
🌹 Imagine walking into your favourite garden & smelling the roses
Take a soft, slow inhale through your nose.
⏸ Hold the scent for a moment.
🌼 Then imagine blowing on a dandelion
A long, gentle breath out through your mouth, imagine the seeds (& your worries) drift away.
“Let the garden tend you.”

You might try this for a few breaths and notice what shifts.

Like many grounding practices, different things work for different people — take what feels supportive and leave the rest.
This post is for general wellbeing information and isn’t a substitute for individual psychological care.

04/03/2026

Sometimes when the mind feels busy or the body feels on edge, slowing the breath can help bring a little steadiness and grounding. Wherever your feet are, nature can tend.
A gentle breathing practice I often share is:
🌹 Imagine walking into your favourite garden & smelling the roses
Take a soft, slow inhale through your nose.
⏸ Hold the scent for a moment.
🌼 Then imagine blowing on a dandelion
A long, gentle breath out through your mouth, imagine the seeds (& your worries) drift away.
“Let the garden tend you.”
You might try this for a few breaths and notice what shifts.
Like many grounding practices, different things work for different people — take what feels supportive and leave the rest.
This post is for general wellbeing information and isn’t a substitute for individual psychological care.

18/02/2026

From kitchen garden to PhD 🌱

I’m quietly excited to share that this year I’ll be starting a PhD in Health Science with the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences at RMIT University in addition to my clinical and group offerings.

The research will explore how our everyday food practices and the places we source food from connect with the gut microbiome. But at heart, it’s really about food as relationship — with place, soil, seasons, community, and one another.

Research doesn’t always begin in a lab. Sometimes it begins in a garden - in soil under fingernails, shared produce, overgrown strawberry patches, and homemade cherry pie.

I feel very grateful to be able to deepen my learning while continuing to do the work I love, and I’m thankful to the many conversations, stories, and lived experiences that continue to shape how I think about health.

And I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to speak for the role of food growing in understanding our relationship to place.

Bucketloads of gratitude 🌱

27/11/2025

This.

You are invited to treat yourself with tender compassion, as if you were a fragile creature being cared for by something magical and kind. By first offering yourself that gentleness, you cultivate healing energy within, which can then be shared outward, spreading kindness and beauty into the world as effortlessly as pollen carried by the wind. It’s a reminder that self-nurturing becomes a gift that naturally ripples into collective blessing.

© DailyShaman 2025

27/11/2025

It was a lot of fun reflecting on my work and sharing my knowledge and experience about the benefits of therapeutic horticulture and time in nature with UQ Contact magazine for the November issue.

https://stories.uq.edu.au/contact-magazine/gardening-and-well-being/index.html?fbclid=IwVERDUAOUzwlleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR7ftFanyD1uB3ueSNC21u618rdy3XPbDNLhA5fo7KgEH9mK2G_Sbblxl0CWBg_aem_BqQSOcKWZ1GBD_dcsTDSaw