Islington Bay on Rangitoto Island

The middle photo was taken on Motutapu Island which has undulating grassy slopes in contrast to Rangitoto's basalt.

Waitemata Harbour

These photos were taken on our Historical Society trip to Islington Bay where Rangitoto is connected to Motutapu Island by causeway. These are photos leaving the confines of the Harbour passing Devonport, North Head and looking back to the Harbour Bridge and Auckland.

Auntie Mollie

Went to a funeral yesterday of a long lost aunt and caught up with cousins Merilyn and Terry, Ian and Wayne, and Stuart's wife Janet. Helen and I stayed with Stuart and Janet on one of our hitching trips to the Dunedin capping week in the 1960s.

Terry boarded with our family at 199 Jervois Rd when he came to Auckland to start an apprenticeship as a mechanic with the Post Office.

Mollie had been in a resthome for over 20 years at Pakuranga , close to one of her sons. She was a cousin of my father and aunt Dorothy. Their mothers were sisters, Eva and Flora McLachlan from Christchurch. She was born Mollie Stuart in 1916 so she was 94. I suppose I last saw her at Auntie Dorothy's funeral (d. 6 May, 2000 at the age of 92) and before that about 30 years ago, at my father's funeral in 1977.

She grew up in Coalgate where her parents had a trucking business, marrying coal miner Fred Mitchell in her early 20s.

They shifted around a bit, ending up at a coal mine in the King Country for several years where I recall our family visiting them in our Morris Minor. We had a bach at National Park where we used to go in the August holidays for skiing at Mt Ruapehu.

Then they shifted to Rotowaro near Huntly, then Mollie shifted to Huntly after Fred died and from there to Pakuranga in 1990. She was a prolific letter writer and Dorothy kept in touch with her in this way. They were favourite cousins. It is a shame our families lost contact but I hope to see cousins Terry and Merilyn again.

Peaches and Preserves

Spent the afternoon making peach chutney with some of the Golden Queen peaches from our Ponsonby tree,then made some picalilli with some cucumbers and celery I had been given a few days ago. Sorted out some nice vintage jars to put it in.

This week I decided to sort out some of my vintage preserving jars for disposal as I don't think I will be doing much preserving anymore. Anyway I still have a few of the ordinary Agee Utility and Special jars I can use.

Crown Lynn

Went out to New Lynn on a little expedition today and took in the excellent Crown Lynn display at the New Lynn Public Library, near Lynmall. Marvelled at the great variety of designs many of which I remember from my youth when there was a Crown Lynn shop in Ponsonby. I never kept any of it but my mother had a few pieces, which E has added to her expanding collection. Thought I might as well sell a vase I had, on Trademe and it was only up for a few minutes before being snaffled up this evening, by a collector I presume. Still have another vase which belonged to Aunt D which I will keep, a posy bowl with koru design similar to one my mother had, and a plate in the Ponui design. Auckland Museum has a good display of Crown Lynn in its decorative arts gallery too.

These Were a Few of my Favourite Things

until I sold them on Trademe, as part of my ongoing streamlining project.
The plate was a Royal Doulton Syren and had belonged to my Aunt Dorothy. I used it off and on but not often.

The little picture was of Ward Beach in Canterbury and was done by W E Richardson, the brother of her friend Agnes in the 1950s or 1960s. It was bought back by a grandson of the artist.

The brown coffee pot was done by Auckland potter, Peter Holmes in the 1960s. We gave it to our mother for a birthday present. Nowadays I just use a smaller brown pot I got in Germany, from the same pottery that the big rum pot came from. I made a rum pot on a few occasions - you start with rum, adding berries such as strawberries, raspberries, cherries, blackcurrants etc as they ripen, along with a measure of sugar, and morte rum to cover. At the end of the berry and fruit season it is left to mature over the autumn and early winter to be savoured in a little glass with a spoon to fish the berries out with, or over icecream in a bowl. Yum.

Getting Crafty

This is a picture of 2 little girls at the Parnell Rose Festival late last year where Knitterati had a stall. They were very keen to have a flower each and I made them one and they helped choose and sew the button on. They were a bit apprehensive of the safety pin at the back but agreed to have them pinned to their sleeve instead of to the front of their clothing.

The beanies in the lower picture are on their way to newborn Ben Henry. Knitterati are participating in an art event as part of the Auckland Festival and I have been in training and practising the pattern. The event is called Knit Bright, at Art Station on 12 March, Saturday from 6pm-midnight. We will be creating beanies for newborns , for the project of the same name already in existence. People can come along and knit too with us, and there will be another artist , Niki Hastings-McFall doing her collective art installation at the same time.

Headland Sculpture

Went on this sculpture walk on Anniversary Weekend and accomplished the 2.5km walk in a couple of hours, approaching it from Matiatia, a steady climb up the hill, just a little muddy in places after the big storm on the Friday evening.

Garden

The past few weeks have seen our landscape gardener, Tony working in our backyard when not called away on other maintenance jobs. Thankfully it has all come together especially when I viewed his before and after photos. It just remains for us to do some planting - mainly edibles seeing it is our back/kitchen garden. Hopefully it will be somewhere where we get round to sitting out in, seeing as all the work has been already done for us.

Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas! Ours got off to a good start yesterday. Most of the day was spent cooking. I made little mince tarts in mini muffin trays. Then I made a pavlova. I had the egg whites in the freezer to use up but the cake was not a success - it burnt on the bottom because my oven is too hot and too small. It either cooks too quickly top or bottom. I performed surgery on it and removed the bottom and we had the good bits in big pieces, topped with cream and strawberries, kiwifruit and banana and it tasted OK.

About 8.30 D and I went up to Franklin Rd to look at the lights. Most of the houses there are all lit up and it is a lovely atmosphere. By the time we got back it was present opening time. A grand affair this year in the sitting room with the Christmas tree lit up and the soft lamplight. Always a bit moving and melancholy. Hope there are many more of them, I thought.

D gave me the usual diary which I love (Nancy Tichbourne flower paintings, and other things I knew about but forgotten he had bought, E showered us with gifts - me, a book, a large cake of grapefruit and fig bath soap, a new special water bottle for the gym, a red leather label for my suitcase. I gave her a chocolate fondue set I had bought in Smith and Caugheys sale and wished I hadnt. Thankfully she was thrilled with it, also a beach towell which she also liked, a diary, and other bits and pieces, all chosen to please which they did.

E had her poloroid camera there and took some vintage style little square photos, D took a couple of ordidnary ones. I didnt have my finery on, so didn't want more.

It is now 9am and time for a nice breakfast of the things we like - in my case, musli and toast with my homemade strawberry jam, and a cup of fresh milky coffee. We will have our meal of the day - ham, salad and potato salad, when Pamela and Markus, and Eli, as her friends call her, come round.
So here's wishing you a very happy day with you and yours too.

Christmas

Happy Christmas from Ponsonby and Downtown Auckland.

Art by Eli

E gave me these paintings she did for my birthday. The first is one of her favourite author, Carson McCullers, the second is of her cat Casimira. Casimira is a gentle cat, a bit timid because she was ill-treated by her owners when only a kitten. She has become less so since E got her a playmate in the form of a cute tabby kitten, Scout. One of them has a penchant for bringing birds, dead or alive into the house.

Sing a New Song

Have been active on the music front with our choir giving three performances over the last couple of weeks. It has been fun going out in to the community singing to people with similar disabilities to our own. The first was to a group for professionals who have had strokes. When we were thanked the organizer of the group said he had been moved to see the big improvement in people in our choir group who had had strokes and whose language had been affected. Now after some months in the choir they not only talk better but sing beautifully too.

The next was to a group of stroke people with aphasia (loss of language). They enjoyed our carol singing and we enjoyed singing to and with them, as they joined in with familiar tunes and some carols.

Have been spurred on by the Young@Heart Chorus whom I went to hear with other members of our choir this week at the Civic . They are a group of older people in their 70s and 80s from North Hampton, Massachussetts, who sing pop and rock music mainly from the 1970s and 80s. They were excellent and had 5 New Zealand people to swell their numbers. They sang a medley of NZ songs too which were among the tunes I recognized - 10 guitars, Poi e, How Bizarre, and something from Flight of the Conchords repertoire.

Then on Saturday we had our own concert in a lovely old church, St Lukes on Remuera Rd, singing all lthe songs we sang during the year and some carols. There were about 60 or 70 people there - friends and relatives, and parishioners of the church. All this has been a new experience for me and quite exciting.

Hobart

Had a lovely time in Hobart, rather a compact city like Wellington. Weather was warm but windy which is better than cold or rainy! Went to museum, art gallery, pier area with historic buildings and fish restaurants where we went to in the evening for some seafood chowder. Indulged in a buffet lunch at the casino where we went with friends on our previous trip in 1993. Got on a bus and went to the botanic gardens and came back from a tiki tour over the bridge and into the burbs. Havent seen anything much to buy not even in Target.

Visited the State Library which had very spacious seating areas and free internet (10 minutes!) and also a lovely museum of decorative arts attached to it.