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A selection of our writings from 2009 to the present. If you'd like to keep up to date with our latest posts, please subscribe below.

The news and high views from Tree Elbow (this week)

 

Hello dear Subscribers and laissez-faire readers,

We seem to be in a pattern of weekly blog missives. We’re going along with it as there is energy for that. Here, on the southern ridge bone of the Great Connecting Range in Djaara Mother Country, winter has momentarily returned with overnight temperatures plummeting to 1 degree celsius. This chilly weather system has coincided with our water heater springing a leak, the tank of which we drained and which, in turn, has meant we can’t light our wood stove so as not to damage its water jacket chamber. So we have been rugging up and sitting with the gratitude of what this hearth means in our life, when all is well with it.

In other news, Zephyr has stepped back into a creators role for Artist as Family. Zephyr experienced the full horror of modern drone warfare in Ukraine earlier this year, and escaped with his life, while he lost a number of comrades who had also joined the Ukrainian army. First Person View (FPV) attack drones have become an ugly part of modern warfare, meaning that soldiers – people – can be tracked and attacked with flying ordnance by a remote controller. Another cowardly gift from late industrial capitalism. As part of his recovery from the trauma, Zephyr has taken up using a FPV drone for peaceful operations, and gifted us this footage he took of Tree Elbow’s spring garden this week, to help promote our forthcoming house and garden tours. Thanks Zeph!

Zephyr is setting up a small business with his drone, so please get in touch if you’d like to employ his services in central Victoria. And, please get in touch if you’d like to attend one of our full-day house and garden tours (January 18 & April 4), which also includes time in the nearby commons that we co-steward with our neighbours and our goats. Meet Pav, the newest member of the blackberry munching herd.

This week we’ve been listening to Tommy Castles’ music. Tommy composed the exquisite soundtrack for The New Peasants. One of our favourite compositions from the soundtrack is called Bike Scavenger (ft. Carl Dickens). This music enters the film as Patrick fixes the wheel of his bike trailer to ride up to the local tip – our hardware store – to collect materials. The New Peasants will shortly be available to view online, and for peeps in this neck of the woods, Radius Gallery is holding a screening and Q&A on November 23, MC’d by David Holmgren.

In other news, The Pretty Good Cricket Podcast has just dropped Episode three. This week Blue Wren and Black Cockatoo dive into a sodden pitch and welcome in their first guest.

Well, that’s our neopeasant round up for the week. For those of you who have requested a video from us about hosting men’s and women’s circles, stay tuned. We are on to it. We love hearing from you in this quiet cul-de-sac of the web, so let flow in the comments section for a little more connection.

Meg on Futuresteading, New Peasants news, and a second drop for The Pretty Good Cricket Podcast

 

G’day from beautiful Djaara Mother Country, where a droughtish spring is getting lashed with heavy droplets from the heavens of the many conspiring sky gods who bring such gifts. Received with gratitude. We have a few things to share today.

Meg attended (virtually) the Aotearoa, premier screening of The New Peasants, while Woody and Patrick were at cricket training last Thursday evening. Meg said the questions came from such an engaged audience and it was inspiring to feel the energy for change in the Nelson community.

If you would like to organise your own community screening, please get in touch with Happen Films. And. if you live near us in Central Victoria you might like to attend a screening and Q&A with us and director Jordan Osmond at Radius Gallery in Hepburn on November 23, starting at 5pm, and MC’d by David Holmgren. We’ll post a link for tickets shortly, or keep an eye out on the film’s website (click image below for link).

Speaking of Hepburn, our family (as players and nourishers) participated in playing against Hepburn Cricket Club on Saturday. It was an exciting game of community cricket, which Mark and Patrick unpack on their Substack page, The Pretty Good Cricket Podcast. As captain of the under 16s for Campbell’s Creek, and a key player in seniors, Woody had a magnificent day with both bat and ball. He scored an unbeaten 48 runs and took 4 wickets across both matches. Go Woody! Here he is with fellow teammate, Mitch, after they put on a 25 run last wicket partnership for the seniors.

In other news, Meg and Jade have a goodly yarn about ageing, grieving, menopausing, eldering and much more on Jade’s podcast, Futuresteading.

Well, that’s our news roundup. A reminder (as mentioned in our last blog post), we have two upcoming house & garden tours coming up on January 18 and April 4. Bookings are open; just email us and we’ll book you in.

Forthcoming house & garden tour, screenings in NZ & NY, solidarity raffle for Palestine, & a side project involving cricket and men’s health

Hello dear subscribers,

It’s been a while, and spring is finally springing here at Tree Elbow University in southern Djaara country.

We have a few things to share with you. Firstly, we are opening our home and garden again on Sunday January 18 and Saturday April 4 2026, and if you’d like to book a place on either tour, please message us or leave a comment and we’ll get in touch. Each tour (10am – 4pm) costs $75 per person, and includes a neopeasant morning and afternoon tea. We are just beginning to plant out our summer garden, which will be in full swing by mid January and which we’ll be harvesting from in April. Come and say g’day!

Secondly, we have now sent Yara Dowani at Om Sleiman farm – a permaculture, teaching and agroecology farm in the West Bank of Palestine – the fruits of the raffle money we raised from the film screenings of The New Peasants that we personally attended. We raised just under $1200, and were able to send the irrigation part that the farm needed and transfer the remaining money into their account. If you missed it a few months back, here is Meg speaking with Yara from Om Sleiman. Thank you to everyone who bought tickets at the screenings, and who donated via our website.

Thirdly. Speaking of The New Peasants, the latest news is that this feature documentary by Happen Films about our family’s lifeway is about to be premiered in New Zealand and in New York, at the Ceres Food Film Festival. If you feel called, please share with friends in Nelson, Aotearoa and in NYC.

And finally, we’ve been involved in supporting Blue Wren and our friend Black Cockatoo launch their new podcast, The Pretty Good Cricket Podcast on Substack. The Pretty Good Podcast is where men’s care meets regional cricket in Djaara country. We share with you the first episode here, as a taster for what is to come as the season progresses.

If you’d like to listen throughout the summer, be sure to subscribe.

Well, that’s it for now. If you have any questions or comments, please get in touch.

With spring warmth,
Artist as Family