Thankful Thursday

Dear CCC

You are a talented young lady.  Your art is not what I have always thought of as conventional art.  Some of it is probably art that I would have walked past with little thought other than possibly to pass a quick comment on how beautiful a piece might be.  Last year when you took me to see your work at the graduation exhibition you explained a great deal about your work and the thought processes behind it - some of which we had already discussed.  You also told me a little about some of the other artists and their work.

This year you are producing more work which I admire for its sheer beauty but which I am also beginning, with your help, to understand.  I am looking forward to seeing it at the exhibition in May. 

Yesterday you blogged the statement by Toni Morrison "At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint, or even remember it.  It is enough. "  

Now Toni Morrison is, I understand, one of the USA's distinguished novelists as well as being an editor and professor.  I confess I'd not heard of her.  So her words should presumably be given some weight and credence.  I'm not sure that I agree with her.  However I'm pretty sure that there is enough debatable material in those words for several doctoral theses.  I may well come back to them.

I want to tell you how thankful I am that that you share your knowledge and thoughts and your art with me (and many others of course).  

Thank you dear CCC for making me think.

Yours gratefully

Crazy Uncle  Graham

Can Cows Be Grumpy?

Spesh aka Pat thinks sheep are cute.  Sorry.  Lambs may, just may, be cute but sheep....never.  Anyway Virginia asked whether  Highland Cattle which have been appearing on this blog are ours.  They are not.  They belong to neighbours.  The Cottage is on the edge of The Family's 5-acre 'lifestyle plot ' and the paddock in front belongs to our neighbours although their house is not visible from either The Cottage or The House.

These are cattle grazing in The Family's paddock next to me.  Is it my imagination or is the bullock on the left frowning?  And in the bottom photo is he bemused or about to ask me something?

The Apple Harvest

It's a bit earlier than usual but this morning a crew arrived and picked a crate or two of apples from the orchard in front of The Cottage.  I'm not sure why because its a couple of weeks until those particular apples are usually ready.

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Do I Look Satisfied?

How Exciting Can Life Get?

I was talking to a friend last night: a person of considerable talents; a person of deep and ingrained social beliefs; a person with a desire to improve the world or at least some part of it; a very serious person but a person with a highly developed sense of the absurd; a person I respect - a lot.

The conversation has made me slightly uneasy because it reminded me that, in my youth, I too wanted to change parts of the world.   I had never felt the need nor desire to challenge my parents (who allowed us freedom on the tacit understanding that we never turned that freedom into licence) but I challenged the establishment of my small world in local government.  I still have strong(ish) beliefs and hope that I also still have my sense of social and personal integrity.  However I no longer have the desire to challenge nor to change as I once did.

I do, though, still have a sense of the absurd.  So when our conversation ended I wondered to myself what had happened in my world during the day that was of any significance.  This is what it all boiled down to:

Boiled down to!! I put three eggs in to boil and one exploded: big bang too!

Catriona thought that my thumbs were both weird and awesome.

Martin decided to cut down the 2 1/2 year old gum tree behind The Cottage - they grow at a fantastic rate and height (and there is already a complete paddock of mature ones ready for felling for firewood).

This morning it is no more.

and the second trailer load is filled with the remnants

In the meantime I have a dead ride-on mower at the front of The Cottage

And I played a croquet match.  My day was full from start to finish.  But of what?  Insignificant trifles.

Pekapeka Wetlands

About 40 minutes drive South of Napier are the Pekapeka Wetlands.  Until fairly recently it was like driving past an area of inexplicably dead trees sticking out of a wilderness at the side of the main State Highway south.  Now it is a splendid area which has been transformed into an oasis of floral diversity consistent with the original wetlands area which encourages wildlife.  Paths, viewing areas and boardwalks give easy access to the wetlands.

I went there yesterday for a very quick visit whilst trying to get more photos of the arid landscape in 

the area.

I have chosen this view because I could see over the railway line that bisects the site into an area where there were many birds.  At this distance they cannot be seen on the photo at a focal length of 4.8mm.

If, however, I increase the focal length of the lens  to 15.6mm I can see rather more detail but less total area:

If I further increase the focal length to 144mm then we can see that there is plenty of wildlife on the water.   There are Paradise Ducks and (I think they are) Grey Teal.

A further enlargement of the above picture shows some interesting, if less clear, detail:

I shall be returning with more time and, hopefully, more success in capturing some other species.

Thankful Thursday

The hills of Southern Hawkes Bay are as dry as I have seen them in the 8 summers I've lived here.  I took these photos on Monday.  No significant rain is expected until March.  Everything will, however, survive.  Rain will come.  No one will starve or die for lack of water.  For that we should all be very thankful because there are many in the world who this very year, this very month, this very week, this very day will die because they have no water (and many more will die because they have no potable water).

A Weekend Away

It's Tuesday.  The weather is absolutely wonderful.  The sun is shining.  There is a slight cooling breeze.  It's perfect.  We were away for the weekend at a golf croquet tournament in Wanganui.  The weather excelled itself which is more than I can say for my play. There were flashes of my old self with some wonderful wins and there were some flashes of utter mediocrity too.  However my partner and I did manage to come runners up in the handicap doubles which was a reasonable result.  I'd never played with Clair before.  In fact I'd never met her before.  We did, however, have something in common.  We both drive Mazda MX5s.  Hers is called Rossee.  Unlike mine, Rossee races in the New Zealand Targa Rally.

 

I hadn't played at Wanganui for a couple of years.  It's a lovely club with a lot of lawns and a wonderful location up on a hill overlooking the (not-so-beautiful-from-this-angle) city. 

The Club's notice board amused me:

PS It's Wednesday now.  I started this on Tuesday but it was that sort of a day!

Thankful Thursday

Did you have 'midnight feasts' when you were young?  First please bear in mind that I was born in a country which had food rationing at the time.  I used to take some morsels out of the food safe.  I'm not sure when refrigerators became commonly commercially available in the UK but I don't recall any friends having one back in the late 1940s when I was a nipper.  I would take them to bed and then after lights-out (and after my teeth had been brushed!!) and using a torch I would consume the prized morsels: a midnight feast.  Of course they were never a true feast and occurred well before midnight.

I was reminded of them this evening.  After I had been out all day (croquet, gym, physio etc etc) and out at a friend's for dinner this evening Wendy, Martin and Richard appeared around 1015 pm, on their way home from being out for dinner, to catch up and find out about my arrangements for going away tomorrow.  We all had a wee dram of a nightcap in memory of the Scottish heritage.

So at midnight (I shall cheat: this post will be predated to the time I started it - before midnight!) I got myself some cheese and nuts and am having a midnight feast.

It makes me realise just how lucky we are to be able to eat on a whim when so many of the world's population cannot even eat to sustain themselves.  That made me think further about the colossal waste of food due to the discovery of horsemeat in frozen meals in Europe and the fact that obesity is such a major problem in the world.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if instead of such a large percentage of the 'first world' being unhealthily obese the excess food being consumed was shared with the starving.

We can but dream.

In the meantime I am exceptionally thankful for my midnight feast and all that it represents.

If.....

you are one of those of my friends who is wondering why I have not responded to an email, sent an email I would usually have sent, phoned you (sorry Mo!), commented on your blog recently, acknowledged a Facebook comment or responded timeously to Words With Friends then this post is aimed at you.  It is also aimed at the few who have wondered why my posts have been a bit erratic recently.

The answer, my friends, is blowin' in the wind.  Sorry, Bob, as a teenager of the sixties, I know that your words were not flippant as mine are but, hey, they just came out.

I've had a very full life recently and it's even more full at the moment and the coming weekend I shall be away.  All good stuff and I'm not - absolutely not - complaining but it seems to leave few moments for sitting and communicating with those not immediately in front of me.  I was settling at the computer down late this afternoon to write when Martin's brother over from Scotland popped in.  Six hours later having rustled up a family meal everyone left after a great evening.

All this has been compounded by the erratic nature of my internet connection at the moment.  It seems not to be available at the times I am available. I'm just hoping that when I've written this I will be able to post it on Blogger. 

In the meantime please bear with me.