Sculpture Walk at Waiheke

Did the sculpture walk on our last visit to the island, always a treat. This year there were 25 diverse works. It was Anniversary Day and very hot on the island. My friend Janet came with us and was good company. The views were stunning and the headland a great setting for the sculptures.

The evening before we went to the opening of the miniature sculptures exhibition in the gallery and also the Mike Morgan one. He was there and I had a word with him as I bought one of his paintings several years ago. The little 2 storey villa he painted was in Cowan St, just around the corner from us. It is called Solo mother with little house. He paints the same little houses, including ones like the 2 we had in Clarence St, 76 and 78 before we moved down the road to 95.

They had some nice Waiheke wine at the opening - Obsidian wines.There were a lot of people there so I didnt take any pictures of the small sculptures but we did go back a day or two later and look at them at leisure and savour them. The image of the quirky ceramics are items in the gallery shop by Brendan Adams.

Cabbage tree, pohutukawa, and Agapanthus above Little Oneroa

Weekend in Ponsonby

Spent the weekend at home for a change as both Orewa and Waiheke have holidaymakers in them. Quite enjoyed the change and did a variety of things - domestic and pleasurable, not that I find the domestic unpleasurable. Washed the curtains in the diningroom and put upsome new stripey ones I bought at the op shop (new). They look good. The old ones from the 70s will go in my study for sentimental reasons. They hung in our first little cottage in Clarence St.

Went up the road on Saturday morning and bought a pair of bermuda shorts and some 3/4 pants suitable for my exercise class at the Y which starts up again tomorrow. They were $8 each at the op shop and I bought a 1500 piece jigsaw for $4 so did quite well I thought. The jigsaw is of antiques and nicknacks on a very crowded table. Fortunately the last person to do it put it back in the box with large sections intact so it will get done a bit faster than from scratch. I have it on the dining room table and it is likely to be there for a few weeks to come.

Had a swim this afternoon down at Sentinel Road beach at Herne Bay. It was resanded before summer and is a nice little beach to swim in with the Harbour Bridge over to the right and the Chelsea sugar works across the ditch.

Pukekohe Post

Happy New Year to you and yours from deepest Ponsonby. Today we ventured forth to pastures new on the train in our quest to get to know Auckland again. Must be twenty years when we were last in Pukekohe, rather a nondescript little town with a main road of shops,with the station and library off to one side and not much else to recommend it. There is a pioneer cottage with shuttered windows which is only open twice a month on a Sunday so missed out on that. The library was worth visiting, a very large "bookopolis" they call it, with plenty of computers (but didn't seem to be free to visitors as they are in Auckland City libraries) . Nice to relax for a while and read the newspaper in one of their comfortable armchairs. Had the most delicious muffin - spinach and olive with a bit of onion, and cheese on top, and coffee at the cafe outside the library - Mocca it was called, then browsed the art in the community art gallery, also part of the complex. There was some interesting crochet sculptures , sort of firm like porcelain and the more traditional landscapes and still lifes. Nice jewellery made in the area too, but not as appealing to me as the selection in the Community Gallery on Waiheke.

Meandered through Pukekohe then the 20 or so kms on the bus this time, on the way to Papakura where we transferred on to the train again where I read my book "Native wit" by Hamish Keith all the way to the Britomart. It is worth reading for its expose of arty Auckland in the 1960s and beyond.