Have been thinking and talking about diaspora to friends and family: people leaving homelands, why, what they leave behind, what they take with them for the voyage, what they hope to/actually find in the new land, what they plant and harvest – literally and metaphorically. Somehow roimata toroa got into a conversation (think it started off on frigate birds) and I was fascinated by how and why albatross cry and various explanations (stories & scientific) for this. These ideas tied in with korero going on about Matariki and that's what inspired 'The Seven Sisters, the hibiscus and the birds' poem. I feed the birds every day, sometimes with Vogel's bread because Vogel means 'bird' in German, and they seem to like the one that has the 'ancient grains' in it and I end up eating the French stick crappy stuff if I feed out too much.