Big Tree Farms ~ Bali

Like we need more reasons to go to Bali! Big Tree Farms is producing guaranteed organic raw cacao products, and many other delicious foods. Seems that up until now most of the ‘raw’ cacao on the market has been heated over 118º.  So the chocolate we’ve been loving all this time isn’t roasted like commercial chocolate, but we’ve yet to experience super-uber-optimal best cacao ever! Big Tree Farms are supplying Essential Living Foods & The Raw Food World.  And then we’ll take it higher ❤

 

Food Inquiry

Our foody times are a changing, again. Many of us share relationships based on what we eat. Or ate. Friendships forged over the juicer, round the chocolate bowl or in an enema grove may stand true, but what happens when the very substance which brought us together is no longer mutually agreed upon. Recently the consumption of raw & non-raw animal substances [deer antler, butter, meat, colostrum etc] as food or medicine has increased & there are interesting reactions in the community. This may sound silly ~ there have always been different beliefs as to what constitutes a perfect diet: cacao, 80/10/10, fruitarians, blendarians, juicers, superfoodists, fasters, natural hygiene, instincto, sun gazers, the Essene diet etc. but this is taking it outside the ‘raw vegan’ box, particularly by people who so strongly advocated the living foods lifestyle not so long ago. Hey, we all like to try & dabble, we’re long past [I hope] counting percentages & we know deep down we’ll always come back to something that works, if it works. I’m an experientologist – all about reaching forward for more, better, higher & brighter.

So, while seeking the best choices for yourself, watch for the results in people’s eyes, skin, belly, sleep quality & energy levels; their disposition, inquiry of mind, spiritual practices & alacrity. If someone is saying they feel great but they looked clearer, fitter & sexier before – watch & learn, whilst looking elsewhere for direction. What works for you works for you.

My background is cleansing – for me the answer still lies in the colonic tube. If something is overly acidic & clogging, it’s long term results will not be radiant health. Me? I’m too vain to get off this raw-gravy train: anything other than living food gives me bad skin, more lines, grey hair, physical heaviness & darker moods. And juice fasting? Ha, forget skin products – I lose 5 years in 5 days, moisturizing only with olive & coconut oil! The last juice fast was tough, but oh so worth it… ✘

 

Funia

Too much fun made way too easy: Photofunia! Discovery of the year & time-troll of today. In bed w/ chocolate brownies, a big pot of bengal spice & movies – creativity knew no bounds – instant vision boards…

 

Juice Juice Baby

I love my other work too! I’m part-way through a DTC juice fast with a client.

Each time I juice fast something new comes up & something old resurfaces. Fasting invariably clears space for new ideas & people. Decisions make themselves fairly easily, amends unsought are frequently offered, creative ideas gathering dust are re-sparked.

Once, that is, you get through the ‘whose f*ckin idea was this, I just want some chocolate” stage. Taking a fraction of your life to witness your eating habits & patterns, comfort cycles & boredom avoidance techniques whilst on the Skinnyfication program, is invaluable. Juice it up x

45th Wedding Anniversary this w/e ❤

 

Bump

Weddings & pregnancies are so beautiful to photograph because everyone is happy, at least 2 people are in love & at least 1 of them is glowing. It’s a privilege to witness. I love my work.. x

 

Beautiful Sensual Awakened

The very gorgeous Lauren Kinsey invited me to grace the pages of Awakened Raw Beauties. I am honored! The questions she asked reminded me of where I’ve come from, shone a light on where I am now & had me juicing up a storm, to get to where I’d love to BE. Thank you Lauren x

 

Star Tickle

Competitions tickle my imagination! A little wary of commissions, competitions are my private butt-kick projects. Jasmine Starr, the most amazing of wedding photographers, is hosting one for tickets to her workshop. Brief: self portrait containing at least 1 star in the image. Still semi-bed ridden with flu, fueled by Chemical Brothers & Underworld, here are today’s offerings..

 

NLRC & SHAE

I allow myself 1 NLR [non real life] crush a week. Then I must let go & move on [similar to the premise of the movie 'I Hate Valentine's Day'. Sucky movie, great premise]. The NRL part keeps me out of trouble, & the 1 week deadline keeps things fresh because hey, there is only so much mischief that this Naughty Girl can manage in 1 week. Other unexpected treats have unfolded along the way: 2 weeks ago, my NLRC was the charismatic & talented Jeffrey Vincent Parise. Via him, I discovered my new favorite photographer Allan Amato who I WILL meet & assist; and Society HAE – where, due to the sweet generosity & support of Black Lily, I am featured in the Society Pages this week. Thank you Lily ❤

[Last week's NRLC was Dave the Raw Truck Driver - check out this video of him, brought to you by Dan aka Life Regenerator. This week's NLRC has yet to be discovered..]

 

The Raw Rockstar Community

I’m lucky enough to always find myself in great company: Philip McCluskey has created a Rockstar Community of Bloggers @ Loving Raw. Check us all out ~ mine is the latest blog ❤

 

Healing Cancer Naturally [How Dickon saved his balls]

My gorgeous friend Dickon Walker called me last year after receiving his testicular cancer diagnosis, seeking methods to save his balls, whilst avoiding the advice from the men in white coats. 18 months later he is cancer free, expecting his first child & more handsome than ever. Tuesday October 20th he is giving a talk about his health journey @ Manna in Brighton @ 8pm..

 

In England’s green and pleasant land ~

This rambling patchwork [see, 2 days back & the words are pouring out again] of a Qito blog will show up on Facebook as a Note. And on several other groups I enjoy, as a feed. All I do is press Publish & it’s automatically done for me. Magic. Long gone are the days of typesetting and printing presses. Gone are the days of cut & paste & photocopying. Backing up my new hard drive today after the recent Apocalyptic crash, I’m shocked by how much stuff I have stored, how many external hard drives I own [embarrassing] & well yes, how times have changed.

I am from here. England to me is about history. We like to preserve. To hold on. To sustain and maintain. Antiques, houses, cars – everything. I grew up in a low ceilinged house marked in The Doomsday Book [William The Conqueror 1085], so I laugh when people from Elsewhere tell me their 50 year old house is old. I LOVE being Elsewhere, where the architecture is more often than not: clean, uncluttered & wider, bigger & lighter. My tastes are more minimalist Zen / Shaker, than cluttered trinket laden mantles & fluffy flowery valances.

Yet, wherever in the world I roam, these road signs [road signs particularly irk me], colours, windows & guttering, street corners & accents are my DNA. They may not be my preferred choice anymore, but they are home. They don’t resonate with me the way other places do, I still get claustrophobic the further I am from London airports [and London] but there is a huge relief being in the same country your passport is from. No more ‘itinerant wandering alien’ with no rights [but that's another subject]. English sun dappled lanes, green air, jumpers [sweaters], socks & slippers. Clothes is what makes the seasons work. That and copious amounts of tea (from 2 litre electric kettles! Joy).

Food: I’m hungry. I’ve been spoilt by the heirloom tomatoes & abundant organic produce in the Californian farmer’s markets. The local stores here are Waitrose & Tesco & I feel like little they stock will truly nourish me. The overly-chilled plastic-wrapped romaine is not speaking to me. Everything here is expensive – superfoods are prohibitively so. The only way it makes sense to eat the foods I want & need is to have trade accounts everywhere again & have juicy big deliveries. Time to go find me some late season nettles & wild foods in these verdant lanes. I’ve almost immediately reverted to blended foods – something I haven’t even thought about since I last was here.

The past month was a humdinger! I don’t know anyone who hasn’t gone through something vast in the last 6 weeks. Our internal horizons are being called to change. The lessons are bigger, clearing faster & YES we love our jackass mothaf*king teachers: Ho’o Ponopono. So much gratitude to Mama Mango & Papa Smurf for the time I spent with them in the last few weeks. Many friends blow me away with their grounded wisdom – thank you for having my back when most I needed it. This time, acceptance made leaving America [& seeing Jacquie for a final squeeze] easier than expected. Everything felt/feels unreal & surreal – which made my departure, sleepless flight [five movies - a record!] & arrival kinda floaty.

For the first time ever I watched someone I knew surf. No biggy if you’re from California, but ‘I’m not from round here’. So thank you Eddie Sunburst for my first surf shoot, & for re-entering the freezing surf when I wasn’t quite done having fun. And for the Big Sur journey South to LA – stunning.. ❤

 

Hitting The Ground Running

I’m returning to GMT & the left side of the road within this waning moon.

I already have a couple of clients lined up for Deep Tissue Cleansing – private juice fasting programs in your own home. There’s no better time of year to jump onto the skinnyfication train, ease your way into the season change & clean your cells before the default “It’s cold, I need potatoes” kicks in. Winter is much easier with green juice in your belly..

I’ll be making & selling chocolate again, taking photos & making a little mischief ✘

 

Once Upon A Time..

Again my time in America draws to a close. What a roller coaster trip on so many levels! How amazing lucky this girl is. So many challenges and blessings wrapped up in one. Such a huge thank you to the very many friends who have supported, nurtured & hosted me during this expedition of the spirit. Your belief in me & mine in you is soul food ༻

The rest of the world beckons ~ who knows what lies ahead*. There’s often the expectation that I’ll go back to London, and maybe I shall. But having spent over a year outside of major cities I’m happy for a greener life. My old life is long gone, so there is nothing to step neatly back into. Whatever I make, I create anew. I’d love to grow some food (me – did I really say that?) and really, all I need is clean water, WIFI & superfood deliveries to be happy. It’s time to visit Camilla in Siwa methinks, do some private cleanses in India, Winter in Ibiza, Christmas with the Stevens & photography in Yemen – Oyster (not card) comes to mind. *It will be massive, of that I have no doubt.

It’s not easy to leave (to be missing Epic Eden!) – when your heart is so firmly embedded somewhere, it’s a wrench to let go. America pulls me back again and again like the strongest magnet. Being elsewhere is like the toughest break-up ever. The feeling that you’re in the ‘wrong’ time-zone, on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. But, I will come quietly – it’s gentler that way..

I am back in touch w/ Yvonne again. Yesterday she said to me “You need to live a life of internal integrity, & I think that everything that you go through is always attempting to aim you in that direction. It isn’t like that for everyone, but I don’t think that you are going to be allowed to get away with anything less” Hmm! As long as there is chocolate..

 

Laurel Canyon

For the first time in forever I had a whole week to myself. I was gifted an amazing, huge, quirky house in Laurel Canyon, all to my alonesome. Bliss. I watered the garden naked – bringing the roses and periwinkles back to life; swept the yard with tree sap between my toes & wrote; drank tea & slept alone. Awoke alone. 2.5 days in silence (till Creamy rang from Ecuador – how could I refuse?). Catching up on Suki-time – I was renewed & refocused. Quiet days of not needing to go anywhere, or leave the house. For this itinerant alien bouncing from place to place for a year & always surrounded by loved ones, this bare-assed solitude was precious. I love big spaces, gorgeous light, windows & doors open, bare feet; and I love LA – that you can wake up to a eucalyptus sunrise less than a mile from Sunset Boulevard is delicious. Self portraits feel vain to me, but with light & space like this & no models to play with?!.. Thank you Jeni & Paul ✖

 

Health Etcetera

A new all-raw residential retreat near Winchester, Hampshire is opening very soon. Currently the only one of it’s kind in the UK, it’s perfect travel distance from London. Owned and run by Rian Torres a ‘Health Warrior amongst other things’ & with my kindergarten friend Emily Hutt onboard moving & shaking things, it will be the destination to look out for!

Rian is also running workshops & day classes – please support the growing community ❖

ps. And there’s a group on FB