“FINDING BEAUTY IN THE EVERYDAY”.

Heather Cole launched Country Trading Co just as the Global Financial Crisis hit, and saw the same trend to then. “So many people are now giving things a go for the first time: baking bread, making yoghurt and cheese, preserving fruit, fermenting veges and quite a bit of home brewing too.” Their new plant-based yoghurt starter proved an instant hit. “It’s handy if you’ve got a can of coconut milk in your cupboard and we’ve even had customers making ‘sour cream’ out of cashews and yogurt from rolled oats and coconut.” Order from countrytrading.co.nz.

Most gardeners would agree that one of the joys of gardening is

This concept of appreciating nature was also adopted by the Lockdown Mandala Challenge Facebook group, which quickly attracted 1000 creative members. Mandala, which means “circle” in Sanskrit, is a sacred symbol in Hindu and Buddhist cultures, but these geometric patterns also catch the eye on a purely aethestic level (who remembers the wonder of looking through a kaleidoscope for the first time?).

The Lockdown Mandala Challenge saw imaginative displays of flowers, fruit, sea shells, buttons, beads and autumn leaves.

Blenheim gardener Trish Grammer spent six hours artfully arranging her entry (above right). Judged one of two winners, she made her mandala “on impulse” over a rare wet Marlborough weekend. “I haven’t made one before but I find their symmetry appealing, and the mixture of texture and form. Autumn here has the best weather – it’s calm and clear – so the leaves continue to change colour and fade until the first frost.”

The other winning entry (below) was by Martinborough ukelele player and artist Sam Auger, who used bits and bobs from guitar picks, pegs, safety pins, nuts, bolts, washers, nails and bold red geraniums.