The history of the Moonflower family

A long, long time ago, in fact over ten thousand years ago, on an Island somewhere in the south Pacific Ocean was a beautiful enchanted forest.  At the middle of this forest, existed a large oval meadow, surrounding a pretty, little cottage, and around the cottage was the most beautiful garden you can imagine.

The cottage had a red roof and a red door and the entire home was crafted from kauri out of the forest.  Close by a rambling stream with the purest water drifted through the property.

OK try to imagine it then!

No, more beautiful than that, in fact so beautiful it had its own guardian, a happy witch called Asil Gnittuc.  Asil spent all her time caring and nurturing the garden which was filled with flowers of all different shapes and sizes, every colour was represented in the garden.  It also contained the most wonderful vegetables, herbs – all the witch needed to live on.

The cottage and garden were well protected by the surrounding forest which consisted of fifty-foot-high kauri and twenty-foot-high manuka tree’s, strong flax, kowhai and a magical plant ‘grosia’ created by Asil herself, used to fill in all the gaps left by the native forest so no one could see through to the meadow and garden.  In fact, the only way you could find this meadow was if you flew directly over the top – very safe since there were no planes or helicopters in those days.

The forest was filled with a thousand different types of birds, they made beautiful music every day, and woke Asil every morning.

Asil loved all her plants, but her most favourite of all was her stunning moonflowers.  The moonflowers flowered at night and were the prettiest of all the flowers, tall and beautiful they would dance in the breeze and provide a magical happy feeling throughout the late evening until dusk.  They then withered and hid until the following evening.  They were always at their brightest and happiest when the full moon shone directly down on the meadow.

Life was wonderful for Asil and her plants. Until one horrible day.

It was a Munday (Asil’s calendar is a little different to ours) and just before noon she heard the most horrible screaming, screeching, whining sound.  To Asil’s horror she recognised the sound of her horrible, wicked sister ‘Annod’ flying on her broomstick, she must have found her somehow?

Annod, always teased her when they were kids, unlike the friendly, nature-loving Asil she liked to destroy beautiful things and although she was unable to hurt people due to a spell placed on her by a wise old auntie, she would make their life’s miserable by destroying the things they loved.  Annod destroyed all the gardens Asil cared for when they were young.

Annod despised Asil as she was the family favourite and had decided she would only use her magic for good.  Annod would use her magic for evil and cause misery. Her one goal in life was, in fact, to make Asil’s life a misery.

They were both raised on an island halfway around the world and Asil had never thought her wicked sister would be able to find her, hidden thousands of miles away, but somehow, she had.

Annod swooped over the meadow and immediately attacked Asil’s beautiful purple roses destroying them all, Asil distressed summoned water from the stream and fired it straight back at her sister, pushing her over the forest.

Asil knew her sister would return once she got her strength back, and would keep returning until all the garden was destroyed.  She went back into her house and looked for an ancient spell given to her by the same auntie who had taken away her sisters’ ability to hurt people.

The only problem was, it would only work once.  She rushed out to her garden, it was starting to go dark and she spotted her beautiful Moonflowers, they had to be saved.

She waved her wand and muttered the ancient words ‘plantasious humanis’ concentrating her spell on her beautiful moonflowers. They all disappeared under the soil.

Thirty minutes later Annod swooped in for a final attack and plundered and destroyed the garden.  She entered the cottage and Asil had left.  Asil had taken off knowing once her sister had figured it out she too would leave the island.  Asil decided she could never to return, but her precious children would now be safe.

Ten nights later the full moon rose and shone brightly over then meadow.  What came out of the soil that night was the most beautiful beings ever created by a witch on this earth – The Moonflowers.

Fast Forward ten thousand years…

Ingrid moonflower, always knew she was different from other people on the Kapiti Coast.  Her family had originally lived in a beautiful forest on Kapiti Island but a few hundred years ago, her great, great, grandad had decided it was time to move to the mainland.  They landed at Waikanae Beach and made a home there.

Ingrid’s dad was a natural when it came to gardening and made a great living teaching and helping other people on the Kapiti Coast how to care and nurture their plants.  Ingrid also had this natural gift but was pursuing a different career. The family for generations were vegetarian, only drank water, exercised every night, were always smiling, loved their lives and made the most of every day (and night) and lived long, healthy lives.  In fact, if you checked records at the local medical centre – they do not exist.

When she was young, Ingrid attended Waikanae Playcentre, where she enjoyed playing with the other kids but found she needed a nap by lunchtime, especially when the sun was at its peak in the day sky.  She always seemed to get a second wind around dusk and would stay up far later than any normal kid.

At Kapanui Primary School she again did well, getting on with nearly every kid, she had a caring and nurturing nature and became very popular.  She was especially known for her ability to play and stay up very late at sleepovers.

The same pattern followed when she attended Paraparaumu College, sluggish in the afternoon and more energised in the evenings, although a natural in the science’s and biology, she had a calling to pursue a career looking after and caring for people.

She had some clear differences that set her apart from many of her friends, but as a teenager, she seemed to fit into the pattern of life they led quite easily.

Present Day

Ingrid is studying ‘Psychology’ at Victoria University, her passion for learning about and caring and nurturing people had provided her with many options.  However, working out what made people tick, fascinated Ingrid more than anything else.

Her natural abilities and knowledge that seemed to flow through her blood vessels were how to look after plants.  She knew if you cared for and nurtured plants, providing them with the right food, sunshine, water, and keep the nasty bugs from destroying them ‘dad said they were created by a horrible witch 10,000 years ago,’ then you had the formula to could grow big healthy plants.

She wanted to know how you grew big healthy people.

Ingrid worked best at night, she studied hard and found she had abundant energy when the moon was at its biggest and brightest.

Her days from lunchtime on would be a struggle, she wondered if her true ancestors were from Italy or Spain, she had read they took afternoon siesta’s and rested until dusk.  Her father always laughed when she mentioned this, he always said many of the family had left the island hundreds of years ago and shifted to these countries.

At the weekend’s, she was the life of the party, able to stay up all night, her happy caring nature making others feel great as well.  None of them had as much energy or could stay up as long as Ingrid, it was her ‘power’ they told her.

She is now into her third year at University, she is troubled by the need to stay in bed until very late in the morning and doing very little in the afternoon.  So, she studies at night, catches up with her lectures on-line in the evenings.

She can be very grumpy if you try to get her up early, but her parents understand.

After all, they do all their gardening and business activity after 4 pm and in the summer, they reduce their work to a few days per week.  They have staff who take care of business in the morning and early afternoon and are happy with the overtime during the hottest months of the year.  ‘Do you think that is why the family was given the name Moonflower?’ they often would ask each other? When they need, they have plenty of energy in the evening and early hours to catch up on paperwork.

What Ingrid has learnt so far is people are like plants with only one major difference.  You need to care for them, nurture their whole being (Body, mind and soul), give them the right food and regular water (at least eight glasses a day).  The big difference is they need to move, her studies seem to confirm an absolute minimum of thirty minutes walking a day and her recommendation is one-hour movement or more every day (or night if you are a moonflower).

The other thing she figured out, there are more moonflowers around the world but for some reason, they had different surnames.  Apparently, they changed their family name for safety?

What do you think? are you a moonflower?