An Auspicious Occasion

Well the first auspicious occasion passed memorably. I had the first of several callers around noon , good friend Marlene bearing a beautiful book wrapped in tapa cloth - a book about textile artists of NZ , right up my alley. I had made plenty of little sandwiches and had them almost ready . Started with a Bristol cream sherry which was also a birthday present.Then there was a ring at the door and there were Theresa and Sophia, with a bunch of pink roses and greenery and a nice present, a jewellery roll.
By the time they left and the next lot were expected I was feeling very tired as befits one of advancing years and had a little nap - my friend Pat Cowley came (a friend from St Marys Days) for afternoon tea, my friend and neighbour Margaret came too and there was quite a jolly atmosphere with lots of laughter. She left and then Pamela arrived w ith a lovely handmade card and some handcream. So you can see I was thoroughly spoiled. I had made some mini savoury muffins too and of course there was the piece de resistance - the Rocket Kitchen apricot almond cake . Gave people some to take home for their spouses in true kiwi party fashion and there was just a small wedge left by the end of the afternoon. Had another nap when they left in preparation for dinner out at Fortuna with another circle of friends.

Murder in the Library

This was the title for the Ngaio Marsh biography book launch which we went to after work last night. Joanne Drayton, the author was in attendance and after the usual glass of chardonnay we settled down to an interesting lecture on the history of the crime fiction genre and Ngaio's place in it. I had bought a volume of the dictionary of New Zealand biography recently and was reading the article on Seager who was the superintendent of Sunnyside Mental Institution in the early days (1863-1887) and it was mentioned in that article that Ngaio Marsh was his granddaughter. I spoke to Joanne Drayton before the talk and asked her about the connection and she thought that Ngaio's love of theatre and the way she interacted and mentored her students would have been similar to the enlightened attitude that Seager had for his patients and his use of theatre and drama as therapy in those times when being in prison or a mental hosptial was so harsh. There was a display of Ngaio's crime fiction from the library's collection and I took one of the ones set in New Zealand out to read over the weekend. Will have to read Joanne's book to find out more about her life.

Stayed in Auckland last weekend and went to the Art Gallery to a tour of the latest exhibition Landscape and Light given by the curator Ron Brownson. This is landscape in a wide sense of the word and covers a lot of media. It is a very interesting exhibition and it was good to see some new works (Ava Seymour photocollages of state houses, and, punks in 1960s K Rd as well as old familiar ones ( a Colin McCahon painting of Takaka night and day , another, part of his Urewera mural, a Charles Blomfield one of the Waitomo Caves, a Bill Hammond painting of birds waiting to be stuffed in Buller's studio).

Rushed from there via McDonald's to St Patrick's to take in most of organ concert by Douglas Mews. It was good to hear the organ resounding loudly to the strains of two Brahms Choral preludes and other works (we didn't have a programme and have forgotten the rest of the composers and titles of the works we heard).

This month and next month there are 4 or more concerts in St Patrick's - choral and organ which will be good too go to too.

Lectures and launches

Over recent weeks I attended 3 lectures on Hochstetter , Hamel, a photographer and Augustus Koch, draughtsman, artist and surveyor given in conjunction with a Hochstetter exhibition in the library. They were very interesting.

The first was on Hochstetter and given by Sacha Nolden, who is writing a book on Hochstetter (and one on Reischek) and who also curated the exhibition in the library. Hochstetter came from Vienna and his world expedition was on the ship, Novara. They first called into the Cape Colony where Sir George Grey was governor, then to Ceylon, Singapore, China then to Sydney and Auckland in December 1858. He looked at coal resources in South Auckland and the Drury area, travelled to Kawhia and Pirongia , Taupo then went to the South Island and Nelson where he looked at mineral resources there especially gold, copper and coal. While he was there he had some contact with the German settlers in Ranzen and Sarau. Soon after he left NZ and on board the Novara were 2 Maori chiefs who went back to be trained as printers in Vienna. They later went back to NZ via London where they had an audience with Queen Victoria.



The second was on Hamel and was given by John Webster who is the curator at Ewelme Cottage in Parnell. He went out and about with Hochstetter in the Auckland area and his pictures are in Hochstetter's book published in both German and English with some years between the two versions.

The third was on Augustus Koch and given by Prof Ralf Brednich from Victoria University in Wellington. Koch was a pioneer photographer in 1858-59 and draughtsman. There is a short manuscript of his life in the Turnbull Library. He came to NZ for the second time on the Novara to illustrate the shipboard newspaper. He had been a political cartoonist in Berlin where he studied art at an early age. He was also a draughtman and surveyor and did some sketches which were included in Hochstetter's book. One was of the mission station church at Taupiri, another of artifacts they saw and also carvings at Tokaanu and Ngongataha . Twelve of his sketches were published and Hochstetter took the rest (round 100) back to Vienna where they disappeared. A lot of the material ended up in the Museum of Natural History in Vienna and while we were there a few weeks ago we trekked out to see if we could see some of this material, particularly Reischek's treasure trove (some pirated from Maori caves) but the museum was closed and has been for sometime they say. Koch later went to Napier where he was surveyor with the Land and Survey Dept., shifting to Wellington as Senior Draughtsman in the Public Works Dept, from which he was later made redundant. He earned his living as an artist, cartoonist , drew maps as he had done in Hawkes Bay, and was an illustrator eg for the book, Famous grasses of NZ by John McKay.

On a more mundane level I went to the launch of Paula Ryan's Summer Collection with friend Pamela at Smith and Caughey's after work on Wednesday. Over a glass of bubbles and canapes we looked at her stylie black and white clothes, with an occasional touch of colour . I liked them and went back to look at them on Friday and will try some on on another occasion, but they are hellishly expensive.

The next night we both went to the launch of a book on Charles Heaphy by Iain Sharp from the Special Collections Dept of the library. Heaphy was multi-talented - a painter, explorer and writer. Iain gave an interesting speech on his research, mentioning Papers Past a digital resource which has fulltext NZ newpaper articles from very early on. He mentioned a court case Heaphy gave evidence in in the 1870s in and showed just how much was to be found in these early newspapers and how Papers Past made it so much easier. We had some prints of his, put out by the Turnbull Library a few years ago but they have been sold on Trademe as we had too many prints. The picture accompanying this post is a Turnbull print of Aorere-Golden Bay (circa 1843) possibly by Charles Heaphy. We still have this lovely print with all boats in the cove and Maori hanging their fish to dry. And a book, also a reprint of his narrative of his travels in NZ. Didn't buy the book at the launch as there was a queue and I was feeling a bit tired after the rather nice chardonnay and dips and crostini so just went home.

Watch this space for next week's launch!

Lexulous.com

Am over my bereavement and have just had my new game of Scrabble in this reincarnation. Pleased to report I won but only because I had some much needed practice with good friend Marlene this afternoon who trounced me.

Another busy week with a trip to Orewa on Saturday to carry on with the weeding. Just a day trip as we had the German Reunification Day lunch at Sorrento where we met up with other German fellow travellers and some of our friends like Rosa and Marianne.

This years speech covered the early history of Germany from its founding in the 9th century as the the Holy Roman Empire, its name expanded to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in the 17th century. The first Reich was the Kaiserreich when the King of Prussia became the Kaiser of Germany in 1871. The second Reich was the Weimar Republic which came into being after the First World War after the Kaiser resigned and went to Holland into exile. We all know about the Third Reich . The speaker got faster and faster and the effect of the Lindauer was getting stronger and stronger that I didn't take much more in. However there was a toast to Germany, a lovely buffet lunch with salmon, beef fillet and chicken with various salads and apple cake and cheese cake for dessert.

Worked some of it off this morning at the Y and will carry on tomorrow.

Pam took this photo last week at Eaves Bush at the northern end of Orewa.

Bereft

I am feeling rather deprived as the Scrabulous site has closed down, euphemistically called taking a coffee break. Rather a long coffee break. I think it has something to do with copyright and Matell and them threatening them. Scrabulous.com has 600,000 members so a lot of us will be feeling the same. Consequently I have a lot more free time but no inclination as yet to do anything more constructive in it.

Went to the usual lunchtime concert in the library on Thursday, the last for the year. Friday there were drinks and a barbeque after work put on by the staff social club which I went to too.

Went to Orewa on the weekend to make a start on 3 months of weeds, one large plastic sack for each month so far. Had a nice visitor on Sunday, Pamela, with whom we had a nice walk along the beach and into Eaves Bush. With the start of daylightsaving we had a late departure round 7pm and felt we had made the most of the day.

Monday and Tuesday I went to the Y as usual and having burned up all those calories in advance , indulged at a cafe up the road in the afternoon with friend Theresa whom I usually meet up with in the school holidays.

Dined at the Ponsonby Food Hall after work then attended a lecture on Ostpolitik and the fall of the Berlin Wall by Peter Wilton, a New Zealander who has lived in Berlin for 37 years. It was interesting hearing about the events some of which we experienced ourselves in the early 1970s when we were in Germany.