our garden

is our joy. Mango is doing most of the work, i have my own small patches as well. We also share a little pot plant nursery of fruit trees and flowers. Most of our plants are fruit: tomato, cucumber, capsicum, chili, pawpaw, passion fruit, pineapple (about 300 plants), strawberry, okra. We don't eat okra, we are growing it for it's beauty and fast growth.

It is almost one year since we moved into this house and the pawpaw plants we have grown from seeds are all flowering and 4 trees are also fruiting. Our neighbor gave us three small seedlings of passion fruit and they have been also flowering and fruiting for a few weeks now. It does not take long to get a few varieties of fruit. Cucumbers grow very fast, they love the tropical hot sun. We also grew a few cute and very sweet mini watermelons. Mango is planting every pineapple top from all pineapples which get mostly juiced into a tasty and don't forget, healthy drink. Yum! Yummy and healthy, perfect combination. We can say that about all our meals.

I am growing flowers as well, i usually don't know their names, but they are beautiful as all flowers are. Beautiful, colorful magical, mysterious, adorable fragile flowers. I love them. I've collected seven different kinds of orchids.

I am growing aloe vera as well. Aloe vera is an amazing miraculous plant and they have always been in my garden since i experienced their natural positive healing power, over twenty years ago.

It is easily visible, how all plants are benefiting from the rain season. Rain water, is the best water, fresh and clean. The sun is also busy, shining almost daily, and it never forgets to say hello between rainy showers. The fruit compost is turning fast into top quality top soil, feeding our garden well. We are following the wisdom and practicality of Vegan Permaculture, mulching our garden with hay from grass cuttings.

Birds, butterflies, grass hoppers, bees and frogs are also enjoying our garden. They are all our pets. We enjoy their freedom, beauty and company.

Garden is a very essential part of my life and i am glad, that everywhere i have lived since i was 23, i have been able to have one. I'll never forget my first gardening experiences, sowing tiny seeds of flowers and vegetables wondering how it is possible,that from such tiny seeds a big plant is going to grow. How impatiently i was looking forward to the seedlings to come out from the soil, and the feeling of happiness and amazement when they finally did. My compassion for growing plants grew along with them.

Life is beautiful



me and cherry tomatoes in our garden

the secret life of plants

is a title of book written by peter tompkins and christopher bird. here is text from the book cover:

astounding discoveries about the physical, emotional and spiritual relations between plants and man

a plant attached to a lie-detector reacted violently when an expert thought about burning one of its leaves.

a chemist became so attuned to his house plants that they reacted excitedly when he made love to his girl friend 80 miles away.

a plant repeatedly identified with a sweep of the needle one of six volunteers secretly chosen to 'murder' another near-by plant.

'this study is sometimes merely astonishing and often almost incredible. from antiquity to the present, it marshals facts, revelations and scientific theories from many disciplines that add up to a startling hypothesis: lowly vegetable matter - the carrot you peel, the onion you slice - seems to possess feelings, intelligence and hitherto untapped powers of communication, not only with fellow plants but with man and possibly with mysterious presences in outer space.'

end of the book cover quote



i enjoy taking pictures of plants, especially trees fruit and flowers

i always adored plants and i naturally believed they are alive and able to feel and react to hot, cold, love, hate and so on.

many years ago, i would occasionally visit a friend, and the kitchen he was occupying the most was like a jungle, full of beautiful indoor pot plants, obviously super healthy and strong at first glance, radiating with life and a healthy glow of many hues of green colors. the first time i visited the friend, i was amazed by his green house kitchen, and i asked: 'how come your plants are looking so well?' back in those days, i was a very young unexperienced plant grower. he smiled very pleased that i noticed and expressed curiosity about his plants, keen to answer: oh, i love my plants, i play great music and i sing for them, i talk to them, i make sure they have enough water to drink, that is why they look so great they feel happy and they make me happy as well. i believed that it was his true love for plants, that made them so outstanding.



purple flowers

here is another plant story from a long time ago:

one summer night i was chatting with my mum in my parents living room decorated with many pot plants and after some time our conversation turned to them, mum was telling me their history including interesting stories from their lives. the last plant she spoke of was a little ficus. "i got this ficus as a present from my friend, he works at skalna's (name of the village) nursery, and i go there often to buy plants and flowers for civic celebrations like welcoming new born, or personally on behalf od the town congratulating elderly citizens on birthdays, and so on. it has been five years since my friend gave me this ficus, and the plant is still the same it hasn't grown an inch. i have lost my patience with it, it does not grow and tomorrow morning i am going to throw it out on the compost heap." i said: "hmm, that is strange, other plants are growing well and i am sure you are taking great care of this one as well". my mum said, "yeah, something is wrong." then she spoke directly to the plant expressing her disappointment also in her voice talking very firmly: "you silly ficus, too lazy to grow, i am going to throw you out tomorrow for sure". i felt a bit sorry for the plant, i don't like any kind of punishment, but i kept my feelings to myself and soon after we went to sleep.

as usual i slept in and when i woke up in the late morning as soon as i ran into my mum she was telling me with big excitement: "guess what happened? you know the ficus i spoke to last night? it has grown 2 new leaves over night! this is amazing." i found it difficult to believe and i followed her on her way to the living room, and there i could see that she was right, the plant had grown and i would not have believed it if i hadn't seen it, and i was very excited as well, saying this is a miracle, i am sure that the plant must have heard you." mum said: "yeah, i am sure as well, the ficus got afraid of being killed and grew." since then the ficus grew every day a few new leaves and in about two months had reached the ceiling and it continued growing along the wall. amazing.



cute and yummy watermelon from our garden

i have been for many years now, a very enthusiastic gardener and i love to grow indoor or balcony pot plants as well. at times when i travel and i leave for 2-3 months my plants are taken care of by someone else, they are visibly suffering while i am gone. when i am leaving the plants look strong and healthy and when i return from my travels they are almost dead. i never give them any extra care, i just water them when needed and they recover very fast, and within a few weeks they regain their healthy look. i am always amazed by such fast recovery and because some plants look almost dead, i feel like i am resurrecting them. it feels good.



me

i am enjoying summer fruits: nectarines, grapes, melons, bananas, lychees, longans, cucumbers, tomatoes, mangoes, passion fruit, oranges, pineapple, jackfruit and the best of the best mighty durian. i am sharing most of my fruity meals with my sweet partner mango, he is having avocados as well, i stopped eating them about 3 months ago.

enjoying summer time and the rainy season.

life is beautiful

me and water

i was looking forward to seeing him, i was curious as to what positive changes his raw food diet was having on him, the first and last time i saw him, was in thailand, in 2006, while traveling along with mango, enjoying our fruitarian holiday in the tropics, with focus on the mighty durian.. yeah, i am talking about harley, the big 811 enthusiast.

it was at the end of the year 2009, or maybe the beginning of 2010, i am not sure, i was sitting under a huge mango tree next to the communal kitchen at fruitopia, along with, mango and our fruitarian documentary crew david and emile. we were all enjoying the beauty of a tropical summer day.. freelee, also joined us, and we were all chatting away, when her boyfriend harley, arrived.. full of energy as always, almost manic, he greeted us all with a smile and hug, and as soon as he sat down to join our small group his eyes landed on me and he said with full confidence to me: "you are dehydrated". oh, why me? why not others? i asked myself much later on.. but then i felt a bit annoyed, but i did my best not to let it get to me and i answered: "so, you really think i am dehydrated? after being, fruitarian for 24 years, eating raw fresh fruit full of water, not feeling any discomfort, including thirst?" i do not remember how our conversation exactly followed, but we ended up having a short debate about it and i stopped it after i realized that we were both too sure about correctness of our eating and drinking habits, as i am not keen on talking in circles, our ideas about drinking reached an end. i also noticed that during our conversation harley was eating at least a one kg bag full of dried bananas, followed shortly after by drinking a fair amount of water. i thought, no wonder he is thirsty, the dried fruit is deprived of it's best value, water. it is old and processed. i said so, but i am not sure any more of the answer, i am sure i would be able to remember it, had it made any sense.

in our short conversation about my dehydration, when i asked: "why should i drink water, if i am not thirsty? And why should i drink water even if i were thirsty? " then i added by way of clarification: "if i were ever thirsty i would drink or eat raw fresh fruit, i believe it would rehydrate me much better than water. harley said to me :"well, you have to drink even when you are not thirsty". "hmm, that does not make sense to me, i believe in my body's innate intelligence and were i to get thirsty i would drink just as when i am hungry i eat" said i. but harley told me: "you have to eat and drink way before you are hungry or thirsty". and i honestly forget his reasons for this belief, i admit i'm not very keen on memorizing things i can see no sense in.

honestly i didn't know what the symptoms of dehydration were, i'd not had any health problems to look into it. i am someone who enjoys eating and drinking raw fresh fruit and benefits great health from doing so, and i didn't feel i had need for such knowledge.

a little later, while talking with judith, who along with the rest of her family is a long term raw fooder, i mentioned my conversation about dehydration with harley, she looked amused and said: "if you had been dehydrated for twenty four years, you would surely be dead already." i fully agreed with her. what she said made sense to me.

well, i am truly happy with my raw fresh fruitarian diet, and am not looking for any changes in it, like starting drinking water just because someone says i should. i would do it only if i felt thirsty and only if I was unable to quench my thirst with raw fresh fruit.. So since i don't experience thirst, i can happily let go of such a notion.

Installed within my blog I have a little gadget called fedjet, a small program that shows me visitor statistics. I rarely look at the page, but a few months ago, when i was perusing it, i noticed there were a few visitors reaching my blog through 30 bananas a day, harley and freelee's forum. so i had a look to see what page of that forum the links came from and saw it was from a debate about drinking water while on a fruirarian diet.

here is the link: http://www.30bananasaday.com/profiles/blogs/fruitarianism-water-and-why?xg_source=activity&id=2684079%3ABlogPost%3A534145&page=2#comments

here is some text written by harley i've cut and copied from the thread:

Maybe you gang will become the new wave of vital 'fruitarians that dont drink water' or maybe youll join the pile of bloated, isolated, fatigued, emaciated and binge prone 'fruitarians' that we have today?

My housemate died last year from renal failure. We take hydration real serious and she used to talk just like you peeps are talk'n now. Its spooky.

the conversation on the link i've pasted here is long and it took me time to read it all, there are more words from harley and freelee as well, and i disagree with both of them. but i agree with almost everything that others had to say, i could see a lot of sense in what others had to say in the debate, but to my amazement, harley and freelee ignored it all.

i think this article is getting way too long, and i hope i've made my point and i'd like to stop here. i am going to cover in detail this important topic in my fruitarian book. yes, i am still working on it.

and whoever is curious to heear about the symptoms of dehydration, here they are:

Symptoms of Dehydration: Introduction

Often the first symptom a person with dehydration experiences is thirst. By the time thirst is experienced, dehydration is already occurring. Not all people, especially the elderly, may experience or be aware of thirst in the early stages of dehydration. Other symptoms may include dry mouth, dry lips, sunken eyes, inability to make tears and little or no urine production

In infants symptoms of dehydration may include a sunken fontanel (soft spot) on the top of the head, no tears with crying, and fewer wet diapers.

Other symptoms can include headache, rapid heartbeat, fatigue, weakness, lightheadedness, dizziness, and dry skin.

Untreated severe dehydration can lead to serious, even life-threatening complications, including postural hypotension, lethargy, kidney failure, shock, coma and death....

i've copied these symptoms of dehydration from here:

http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/d/dehydration/symptoms.htm

dear readers of my blog, i swear that i never experience any symptoms of dehydration, and therefore i am sure harley is wrong.

with raw fresh fruit, life is clear of confusion



pineapple, pawpaw and tomatoes in our kitchen, the mighty fruit full of true water of life, hydrating successfully my body and soul.



me enjoying bush walking and taking pictures, usually i walk bare food, but when ground is way too rocky for me i wear socks, so my very sensitive feet don't get hurt



yahoo, down the hill i go, still taking the pictures..



i am easily amused by insects, rocks etc.. this time on my way getting ready for serious sun exposure..



and when i had enough of relaxing in hot spring tropical sun, i jumped happily into the beautiful natural creek. i love to swim.

life is beautiful

summer and me

the beautiful summer has arrived on time, here in hot tropical far north queensland. spring was hot, but summer didn't hesitate and showed me it's powers straight from the start. and yes, i love it. summertime is my beloved part of the year.

it is a year now since i moved up to mareeba, leaving the big city sydney behind me, and it was a great change, my life is more enjoyable. how? i don't feel comfortable when temperatures drop under 25 degrees celsius. and i love raw fresh fruit to eat and i get a bigger choice of variety and quality up here in the hot tropics.

talking about fruit, the mangoes have been in season since the beginning of december and i love to blend them and drink them. so far the mangoes on our table are free, they are lying everywhere under mighty mango trees. mango is harvesting them and i am preparing sweet yummy drinks for us.

on our weekly trip to our friend j and his family, to get fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums, and at time some other fruit as well, there are several jack fruit trees, and when we are passing them by i never forget to admire them. at times i have said: "mango, we should stop here one day and get some jack fruit, it looks like no one is harvesting them, they are always some composting away under the trees." two weeks ago, on our way from j, close to the jack fruit trees a man was on the front of his property, mango stopped our car and asked the man if we could harvest some jack fruit from his tree, the man replied: " go for it, take as many as you like". so while i was chatting with the friendly man, mango went to the huge jack fruit tree only a few meters away, i was surprised, because i never noticed it, it was a bit hidden behind other trees. the tree was blessed with abundance of huge jack fruit. mango harvested two of them, soft and ready to eat, and he joined our chat. we are welcome to harvest jack fruit at any time, so we got one yesterday. j also gave us yesterday one watermelon, eleven pineapples, some capsicum, tomatoes and lychee's for free.

i am having fruitarian fun under the hot tropical summer sun.

life is beautiful



nice bunch of mangoes on the tree in our garden, the beauty of summer fruit



mango is chatting with grass tree on our way to have a swim..




me after several swims in davis creek, enjoying last minutes before leaving back for home.

spring and river

the second month of spring is almost over, and i am having a lot of fruity fun i am enjoying my life much more, since having become fruitarian. i am feeling blessed to be one, and during the last 5 years sharing my happy fruity days with another one, sweet fruitarian mango. together we love to share fruit, our garden, swimming and a lot of other fun.

the winter time was nice and hot throughout the days, and even nights and early mornings were warm enough, but the beauty of the spring is, that temperatures rise up and it is even warmer, and that, i love.

i also love to swim in our near by barron river, and with warmer days and nights of advanced spring the river is warmer as well, and i can stay in for much longer and swim much further up the river. i love swimming up stream, against the strong current, observing the banks of the river on my way. adoring the new luscious green colors the spring has painted on the brand new tree leaves, and all the plants are growing more vigorously showing off their new radiant green hues. and i enjoy floating down the river, and until i feel cold and swim again. and as i swim and float, observing the river banks, i see new birds nests. i've noticed that birds are more busy chirpy and more of them. such scenes give me euphoric giggles. the sky is always marvelous and full of beauty. yeah, water is a big passion in my life. i don't drink water, i never feel thirsty, i get all my pure water full of life from raw fresh fruit. yum. i don't drink water, but it is still an essential part of my life, i need water to swim in, and i have lived near water for over 20 years.

with warmer temperatures the mighty fruit is getting more sweet and that is another exciting part of spring.

me and mango we both love often pineapple and orange, also often pineapple orange grapefruit, at times pineapple orange grapefruit mandarin, at times pineapple orange grapefruit mandarin tangerine, juice and it is almost always our first meal of the day we share. very rarely it is watermelon. mango usually wakes up earlier than me, and he eats an avocado or two. if i ate an avocado as my first meal of the day, i would feel sick for the rest of that day. i can handle to eat avocado only during the late afternoon. watermelon is coming into season, and we recently got our first ones, from the first harvest of our friend farmer j, we visit him once a week, for a chat and to buy some fruit, mainly tomatoes and cucumbers. we eat and drink a box of each weekly. well, lately it is only me who is drinking tomato juice, mango prefers to eat them. so when i make for us cucumber juice i also make 1/2 a litre of tomato juice for myself. i drink almost 1 liter of cucumber juice and soon after tomato. mango has at times only 1/2 liter of cucumber juice, at times he has almost one liter like me. and it is very rare for us to skip our another favorite meal of the day, blended paw paw, usually we share almost 1 litre each. often we share tomato cucumber red and green pepper avocado salad, at times with red hot chili pepper. me and mango we share most of our meals. he may have some avocado alone, and me rarely one or two bananas. i used to be a big banana muncher in my first fruitarian days, more than 23 year ago, i could easily eat twenty bananas a meal a few times a day, plus some other fruit, mainly sweet watermelons, and mangoes when in season. back to the present, me and mango at times love to share whole frozen durian from thailand, because the local durian is not in season yet, and we enjoy sharing grama chamas, tree grapes, white sapote (another fruit on top of our favorite fruit list), ice cream beans, grapes, rock melon, water melon. ready to eat tamarind from the tree in our garden is falling down, but it's first fruit is still a bit sour for me, so i leave it for others. mango is having a little bit of it, most of them are given away.

the mangoes on local mango trees are getting bigger and some of them are even beginning to show their lovely orange colours.

life is beautiful



colorful fruit ready to peal and cut into yummy salad



me at fruitopia



i am in my element while choosing freshly picked fruit for us



i am swimming smiling



me and river



i love swimming



mango is having river rock fun



mango and his water rocks art



natural beauty of the river bank



mighty barron river

spring and mango

beautiful, glorious spring has been with us over one month now. oh, yeah, i love spring time with its bounty of cascades of flowers, full of life, showing off their lovely scent exquisite colors and various shapes. the truth is there are plenty of delicate flowers to admire all year round, but the spring is the most generous flower season of the year.

the most exciting for me are the flowering fruit trees and later on when tiny fruits are developing into fully grown sweet and juicy yummies. that's the beauty of living in hot tropics of far north queensland, there are always fruit trees flowering and fruiting.

mango trees already celebrated early spring with bunches of tiny flowers which within a few weeks had transformed into cute baby mango fruits. well, it's exciting watching them growing bigger over time until finally they reach their full size and color. some yellow, some deep orange, some light orange, and some with grassy green skins but once the skin is pealed and the fruit is ready to eat, bursting with sweet mango nectar, a bright orange color shines through like the summer sun. i love to watch my food developing on mighty fruit trees. it is so much more fun, than going and buying them in shops not even knowing how the plant they came from looks like. the best way for me to obtain my food, raw fresh fruit, is to grow my own fruit trees and harvest fruit from them, or second best, to eat fruit i've harvested from trees of my friends who love nature and don't use any harmful chemicals on their land.

or support other local fruit growers, producing their fruit with love and care, and buy yummy fruit from them. me and mango we do it all, we are growing some fruit in our garden, we get some from our friends, and we buy some at the local fruit markets. the fruit is of great quality and not expensive. at times we get free fruit presents as well.

there are a lot of beautiful events arriving with spring time and i may write more about them in my next post. now it's time to go out and enjoy it.


cute mango flowers


baby mangoes and ready to eat pumpkins


sweet baby mangoes and bright blue skies


healthy trees produce healthy fruit


new shiny life on old mango tree


me and bunch of oranges. at times we get our fruit from supermarket, this time yummy oranges on good special. yeah, loads of fresh raw orange juice ahead :)))

our fruitfull life

is yummy and sweet just like most of our fruit is. sweet as the best quality of the mighty durian. mango says i am a good girl :))) that is also sweet. well, life is guaranteed to be sweet when two sweet soul twins, are sharing the fruitarian lifestyle, eating fruit and only fruit day after day after day, and not getting sick of it, on the contrary, we as time goes by are falling in love with it, and not only with sweet tasty fruit, but also with each other.

sweet mango has finally, after a long break, gotten into writing his raw vegan fruitarian book, he is writing almost every early morning, and at times on and off throughout the day, at least for a month now. he is very pleased about it. so am i.

mango is also very pleased with me, and i am very pleased with myself, because i have also gotten into writing my own raw vegan fruitarian book, which i began writing a few years ago already, but then i lost all texts due to a big bang on my laptop, where the old one died and new one was born in some computer factory and we bought it on ebay, well, to be precise, mango did because i am not very computer savvy. loosing my texts was not easy for me, and it took me a while before i got into writing again. i believe that mango's great example inspired me. i am writing now mostly during the mornings and at times a bit throughout the day and also occasionally at night. i am enjoying it more than ever, and always when i finish my writing session my spirit rejoices in euphoric glory. i am writing in english, and i am going to translate the whole book into my mother tongue, czech language.

what else is new? well, our old car, a toyota camry made in the year 1990, is having some technical difficulties, we were told at a garage that fixing it would cost a lot of money and therefore we were lately looking for a better second hand car. it was not as simple as it may seem, i am very fussy and i would not have a sedan, i like only station wagons, on top of it, i need an automatic and power steering, not out of fuss, but it is required by law, because of my disability, i drive with the help of hand controls. we are lucky we have an expert for such modifications right here in mareeba. well, we have been looking for a car for a while and there was always something missing on the ones advertised in our local paper, or as is popular here on the side of the road. and one night, just as i was loosing patience, being no longer able to drive the old toyota, due to the power steering being a bit stiff, and i love driving, and the break from it was is getting a bit long, i thought to myself, i hope that our new car arrives soon, i am sick of looking for it, i want if off my mind. and guess what, the next day, after me and mango returned from our joyful swim in the near by river, mango was looking in the local paper he had collected from our mailbox, and soon after he said to me: "look there are two cars for sale" i looked at the adverts and my intuition made a choice for me, i could feel that one of those cars is ours. i said to mango: "please ring about this one" while pointing out on ad for a daewoo nubira station wagon, and he did, and after a short chat, i was not happy with all the info he gained, so i rang as well, got the info i needed and off we drove to a garage in atherton, about 30km away, where our new car was having a windscreen changed, it had had a rock flying in accident. as soon we arrived and i saw the car i said ok, we are bying it, i fully believed my strong intuition plus the car was exactly what was on my mind, lol. the owner was a typical aussie friendly easy going guy, and the whole transaction was easy and without fuss. because the car was not registered, but had road worthy papers, registering would be easy, but until it was, the car could not legally drive on the road. as luck had it, the car owner had his towing trailer with him as he had towed his car from ravenshoe in order to have his windscreen replaced, about 30km distanced from atherton. well, i asked him if he could tow the car to the mareeba car registry office, and he said yes, he had brought with him all the necessary papers as well. so we gave him our mobile number, then we drove to the bank and got the cash out, went back to see the guy, gave him some deposit and off we were on the way back to our home, picked up the forms at mareeba car registry, and at home, having fruit juice, waiting for his call, drinking juice filling up the forms and it didn't take long, he said he is almost there, so we jumped in the car, went into the office continued filling out the required forms, and when we finished, mango went and began processing them with the clerk, and very soon the car owner arrived, he gave us the papers needed to finish it all, mango gave him the money and taking the car from the trailer said his goodbyes and left. after a few minutes all the paper work was done, and mango was driving our new car and i followed him in our old one. mango said the car is very smooth powerful and easy to drive.

this story reminds me of my strong intuition, and how important it is for me to follow it, to enjoy smooth path of my existence. i don't need to worry about anything, just be, live in the moment, with faith, that all i need is going to be surely provided.

me and mango are often swimming in the river, not far from our house, and it is always a great adventure. i love to swim on my back, looking at the skies and trees, butterflies, dragonflies etc. the river current has lost some of it's strength so i can swim much further, exploring new natural beauties along the way. and it was mango who noticed first a big wild fig tree very close to the river, loaded with still green fruit.

sun is shinning and love is growing, so are fruit trees in our garden.

me and mango, we are enjoying raw fresh fruit and we are drinking most of it, red or yellow papaya is on our menu almost daily since we moved up to tropical north, we also have daily orange juice, at times it is citrus fruit, made of mandarine, grapefruit and orange mix, at times only orange grapefruit, or orange mandarin. we also drink often orange pineapple juice, at times we mix banana in it as well. sometimes we have tomatoe or tomatoe cucumber juice. i am sure we are drinking other fruits but i can't think of any at the moment. we are eating avocados mixed with tomatoe and cucumber all pealed. at times we add red hot chilli as well. occasionally we enjoy jackfruit, black sapote, yellow sapote, and mighty durian. yum, yum, yum.

all is good in our fruitfull fruity life,

life is beautiful



i am harvesting sweet coffee berries



me and coffee berries at mareeba



fruitopia in red



i am reading from my laptop in our living room big bed