Goose Park Blog
November 29th, 2008Our next door neighbor, Jacqui, is an extremely talented flax weaver. She has put up a site that describes her flax weaving in great detail. She has also made some of her individual pieces available for sale. The site is called Goose Park Blog.
She rang me up the other day and said, “I’ve put up this site, but nobody’s coming to visit. Do you know what I can do to get people to visit my site?”
I said that I had an idea about how to get a few people to have a look. *grin*
Jacqui and her partner B (I don’t know if he wants me to mention his name) are living totally off the power grid. They have solar panels and a Pelton wheel microhydro system. It’s a BEAUTIFUL place. Jacqui also loves her geese, so don’t forget to read all about them if you’re curious.
Jacqui has offered to pay Becky and me a commission in honey (she’s a bee keeper too) if any of you decide to buy some of her kits. I like the idea of an affiliate relationship that compensates the referrer in honey. HA
I know that many Kiwis are familiar with flax weaving, but I had never seen it and was taken aback by it when I saw it for the first time. Jacqui makes each piece by hand from wild flax that she harvests on her land. Anyone who has created anything with natural materials will find this fascinating.
At a minimum, I thought that you guys might be curious to read about what’s going on next door to the Farmlet / Cryptogon operations center.
Jacqui also takes special orders — how cool is that? The Pook’s New Year’s present to herself is the world’s most gorgeous wastepaper basket for her office. The uglay plastic one will be booted out to the garage.
I share Jackqui’s fondness for geese. Of all the pets I’ve ever had, the most delightful was my goose, Gundagonde.
It’s probably cruel to keep only one goose, since they’re very sociable, but one of my original pair died.
Neighbors found him an endless source of amusement–mainly because he was the proverbial “junk yard dog.” Geese are very territorial. Children used dare each other to cross my yard.
Gundagonde once climbed right into my daughter’s car to attack her boyfriend. You have to have a taste for high drama to enjoy geese.
A goose who’s lost a fight will often swagger and honk proudly–pretending that he won the encounter, as Jacqui describes.
Geese are wonderful animals–fierce and courageous almost beyond belief, and loyal. They will take on an animal several times their size in defense of their territory. And they’ll usually win. Though affectionate, they don’t much like to be hugged–which they find profoundly disconcerting. Few things are as surprising to a goose as being picked up and carried around. I had to do this sometimes, because Gundagonde resisted retiring to the shed, even in very cold weather.
Having a pet goose is kind of like having a pet dragon. Your fondness for the vicious monster wil puzzle to others.