Switch on your radios!
Tuesday 30 August, 2005
My super-talented friend, Sarah Laing, has had one of her short stories adapted into a radio play! You can hear it this evening after the 9pm news on National Radio 101 FM. I read an early draft of the story and it was witty and wry with great, quirky characters.
So tune in tonight and enjoy some high-quality local talent!
Congratulations, Sarah! You're a star!
Posted on 30 August, 2005 | 11:16am | 1 comments |
anti-fragrance movement
Monday 29 August, 2005
Here's an appliqued bag with: patch of The Carny's - Wellington all-girl punk band. The small writing says 'Anti-Fragrance Movement' which I love, coz I think 'Fragrance' has to be one of the naffest words in the world, too. The rose is off a linen doiley...the yellow heart to give it an 80s touch. I love raw edges and cross-stitch made punky! Waa-hoo!
Posted on 29 August, 2005 | 2:27pm | 2 comments |
I confess!
Monday 29 August, 2005
Here are some little felt brooches I made on the weekend. I went a bit mad with needle and thread and appliqued stars and flowers and punk patches on to vests and skirts and t-shirts and a bag. Time to tuck the thread away for a bit before I end up looking like an walking patchwork quilt!
I'm always trying to think of new and interesting things to talk about on here, so I thought today I'd do five confessions...
1) I am a retard when it comes to zips. I can't get them to zip up and often have to ask Fraser to zip up the boys jackets for them. (He always does it right first try...)
2) I own and am loving the Gwen Stefani album...I know, I know...its putrid pop pus...but damn it's so catchy and cute. I love that 'Hollaback Girl' song, and I love all the name-dropping of fashion designers and the numerous eighties touches. Sometimes the record sounds like Human League, sometime New Order, sometimes Gwen sounds like Chrissy Hynde, sometimes the singer from Altered Images...it's all very cheesey, very eighties, highly derivative, not very intelligent...but it's so much fun.
3) For the first time EVER last week, I tried something on in a shop ('Supre') and thought to myself..."I'm too old for this." ARGH! I'm a creaker! Still, you will probably agree that 32 is too old to be wearing a hot pink tartan frilled rah-rah miniskirt with silver skull hip-belt. Tee hee! I thought about getting it and wearing it over some black tight jeans and converse sneakers...then I thought, "hang on, this is scarily close to the outfit I wore to the Form 2 Social in 1985!" Time to get a grip, Helen.
4) I can't walk past a mirror without checking myself out, even if I'm having a 'blah' day and its just to pull a face at myself, scowl at my zitty skin and greasy hair. I don't think its vanity so much, more just plain old self-obsession...ha ha...(or is everyone like this with mirrors?)
5) Sometimes I can go for an entire week without going anywhere except the walk between home and Willoughby's school...and sometimes I like it that way. I'm quite a home-body.
My sissy-in-law and I were talking about some of the stranger parts of having your life online the other day, and I reckon one thing that sucks about having a blog is that your friends catch up with you by reading your blog and STOP EMAILING OR CALLING OR WRITING TO YOU! So for all those lurking mateys of mine...it'd be nice to hear from you...at least leave a comment!*raspberry + wink*
Hope everyone in New Zealand is enjoying the sunshine. Long may it last!
Posted on 29 August, 2005 | 1:49pm | 4 comments |
rockin' Mama
Sunday 28 August, 2005
I've been so well-behaved for so long now...being pregnant for nine months and then the whirlwind that is having a little baby...there hasn't been much time or room for mischief...
Maybe its the springy springness in the air, and because Magnus is now eight months old and becoming less baby-like and more little-boy like all the time...I don't know why exactly, but I really feel like getting all glammed up, right down to nice underwear, expensive perfume, new pink fishnet tights, and a skirt that twirls up when I spin around and going out, drinking maybe a smidge too much wine so that I get all cheeky and fearless, and dancing the night away...
Luckily, there is an event on the horizon. My lovely friend Lisa is getting married in October and she is having a fabulous celtic band play at her after-wedding party. We've arranged for Willoughby to stay with his grandparents, and we've decided to splash out on a hotel for the weekend...waah-hoo!
We'll still have Magnus in tow, but when you're used to two kids, only dealing with one feels like a big holiday...
Come October, I'm going to get me some gladrags and paint the town red! (Well, maybe light peach - I am still breastfeeding, after all.)
Posted on 28 August, 2005 | 1:23pm | 0 comments |
more reasons The Smiths rule
Friday 26 August, 2005
Do you like my scary Dolly? Willo asked me to draw him "a scary dolly called 'Etch'" so here she is...
I just finished reading John Harris's 400+ page book 'Britpop! Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock'. So now I know way more than I ever wanted to know about Oasis and Blur...those chapters proved to me that they are ego-maniacal idiots - yep, even Damon! (A horrific discovery about Damon is that until he started to go out with Justine from Elastica HE DIDN'T LISTEN TO MUSIC AND DIDN'T OWN ANY RECORDS! For a music-freak like me, this dropped him right through the floor in my estimation.)
I mainly read the book because I wanted all the goss about Elastica, Suede and Pulp (I love you, Jarvis!) and to sniff out Smiths references. I wasn't disappointed on the Smiths front - there were lots of little mentions here and there...but two anecdotes stood out...
Firstly, when Brett Anderson (Suede) was a nobody-architecture-student, dreaming of stardom, he advertised in NME for band members and cited The Smiths as his main influence.Then he got home one night to discover that MIKE JOYCE FROM THE SMITHS!!! had left a message on his phone, saying that he'd read the advert and just wanted to say hi and have a chat! How cool is that? Brett and Bernard Butler then went up to Manchester and hung out with Mike Joyce for the weekend and Joyce played with them on a demo-tape. What a top man!
When Oasis were first starting out, Noel Gallagher met Johnny Marr's brother by chance one night. He gave him an Oasis demo tape and joked that he'd love it if it was passed on to Johnny. The following week, Johnny Marr RANG NOEL UP AT HOME!!! and said he liked the tape and did Noel want to hang out? So he and Noel went shopping together that weekend. Aw, bless!
I find it amazing that these guys, so rich and famous, took the time to be so encouraging and friendly to those musicians coming after them.
Brett Anderson later met Morrissey, but was disappointed: "He IS painfully, awkwardly shy. But I didn't find it charming, I found it boring. He is like some sort of useless teenager."
Moz responded by saying that: "despite his claims to the contrary, I have never met Brett and wouldn't wish to - he seems like a deeply boring young man with biscuit crumbs in his bed. He'll never forgive God for not making him Angie Bowie."
Haha, I can forgive bitchiness when it is accompanied with wit. Maybe if I talk about the Smiths often enough on here, one day one of The Smiths will ring ME up and invite themselves around for a cuppa?
Posted on 26 August, 2005 | 11:51am | 1 comments |
sexy, sensational sleeeeeep
Wednesday 24 August, 2005
Magnus has slept through the night! Twice in a row! I didn't want to mention it yesterday, coz I figured it was just a fluke.
We have this weird, steeply angled sofa that tips your body backwards and we've discovered he loves to be wrapped, like a human spring roll, in his wool blanky and quilt and then nestled into the 'crack' (kinda) of the sofa. Its so steep there is no danger of him falling off and he loves the whole swaddled, wedged thing. When I go to him in the morning, he's all toasty and in the same position he was when I put him to bed! Yaay yaay yaay - there is nothing like solid sleep from 10pm to 6am to get a woman feeling fabulous and flirty and funky again. I'm sure the day is actually glowing!
I babysat my friend's daughter, Niamh last week and she said: "Helen, do you have any friends who are having babies?"
"I sure do" I replied.
"You need to tell them that I have the most perfectist name for a baby."
"Ok, honey, I will. What is it?"
She scrunched her eyes shut in rapture and said..."Sparkles!"
So anyone about to birth their baby out there...there is the most perfectist name for you. Cute, huh?
Here is one of my 'brain dumps' - things that are bubbling around my mind at the moment:
silhouettes and shadow puppets - The Veils - using Willoughby's art in my art - what my garden COULD be - boy wearing wings - too much dairy - wearing skirts - making felt brooches - learning HTML because I don't know how to code links on the new site - new wooden spoon - stripy converse all-stars! (wish list) - try to always use a quiet voice* - new polka dot shirt - cold kumara salad - the smell of daphne - do I give up my dream of being a writer? - being here now - Frankie magazine - rediscovering early 90s britpop: Suede, Elastica, Pulp - punk rock cross stitch (photos soon!) - the challenges of being the only vegetarian in a house of meat-eating boys - Chagall - Japan - the red of rose-hips and pittosporum berries - birthday next month - itching to dance - Le Tigre's 'Eau de Bedroom Dancing' song - dreaming of going out and drinking too much some time in the future when I'm not breastfeeding anymore - Michelle Tea - fitting my 'skinny' jeans again (yaay!) - planning a baby shower - assembling a picnic box for summer with pink bakelite tea set and little jars of tea and jam..oh, I could go on all day...
(*do any other parents out there 'come to' sometimes and realise they've been semi-yelling at their kids in a horrid, agitated voice...or is it just me and I'm going straight to hell for being a mean mama..?)
Can I just end by saying that I've just discovered Hubbard's 'Berry Berry Nice' cereal and it is absolutely lush with sliced banana and apple juice. It's suspiciously pink so I don't want to read the ingredients too closely, but the yoghurt covered raisins! the big lumps of dried strawberry! the whole dried blackberries! and the yummy oaty, nubbly cereal that stains the apple juice pink. Oh yum yum yum yum yummy yumster, starting the day with pink food has gotta be good for you...I think I need a second bowl...
Posted on 24 August, 2005 | 10:09am | 3 comments |
talk about the weather
Tuesday 23 August, 2005
I talk about the weather a lot, don't I? I think it is because when you are an at-home Mama...the weather is a big factor in how the day will be for you and the kids. Will it be raincoats on the way to school and soup for lunch and indoor games like jig-saws and stories? Or will there be gardening and trike-riding and feeding the ducks?
The rain is back after just two fine days, but I don't mind too much because I planted lots of strawberry plants, agapanthus, geraniums and marguerita daisies in the last two days and today I am approaching the weather like a true greenthumb: "The rain will be good for the garden."
The rain is also a good excuse to get into some crafty goodness. I'm going to re-cover my dining chairs and make a summer skirt from a floral 1970s cotton sheet I found at the op-shop last week.
Have you noticed how time zooms by when you are engaged in some creative act that makes you happy?
I read an article in the Utne Reader about this idea. The author, Jay Griffiths, called it 'wild time':
"Once, all time was wild: everlasting, undefined, unenclosed, unnamed, a mystery. Wild time was free - the open-handed hour, the open-hearted day. Wild time thrives in the spirit of play and in nature. Wild time is absolute tranquility in the present moment. PLAY is stepping outside of ordinary time, into wild time.
I'm off to have me some wild time while the baby sleeps.
Posted on 23 August, 2005 | 9:13am | 0 comments |
funeral
Monday 22 August, 2005
Fraser's grandmother, Lotus, died on Saturday and her funeral is today. She was a very traditional, elegant, old-fashioned lady, who loved flowers and beautiful things. She was an amazing knitter and weaver and made lovely singlets and a sweet lamb toy for Willoughby.
Funerals are always a time for reflecting on life: celebrating the life of the deceased and resolving (again) to make the most of your own. Here is a poem by e e cummings that swells my heart with its joy and optimism. The perfect poem for the day of a funeral, a sunny day, a quiet Tuesday in spring...
i thank you God for this most amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings: and of the gay
great happening, illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears are awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
Rest in peace, Lotus.
Posted on 22 August, 2005 | 9:26am | 0 comments |
a wish for summer
Sunday 21 August, 2005
It's sunny today. Hooray, hooray! I'm starting to feel like I might kick this cold soon and I'm getting inspired about gardening again.
This is something from an old journal, that sums up how I'm feeling today...wishing for the summer to come and dreaming of feeling enlivened and energised once more:
THIS SUMMER WILL BE DIFFERENT
This summer I will be free. This summer I will be a fresh, sun-baked, sweet-smelling, salad-eating, car-driving, hop-scotching, hacky-sack playing, baby-hugging, lovely love-making, creatively engaged , writing, photo-taking, ideas building, sun-bathing, bare-shouldered, skin glowing, yoga-demon, tomato growing, basil eating, lemonade ice block sucking, skirt wearing, gin and tonic sipping, perfectly chilled out, totally chillling SUMMER PRINCESS....
bring on the sun!
Posted on 21 August, 2005 | 3:20pm | 0 comments |
magical heater and hyacinth
Thursday 18 August, 2005
Iíve been a slack blogger lately, I know. Weíve all been ill and my throat infection is so bad now I can barely swallow. Joy! Here is a self-portrait called ìsnotty nose and green tongueî. HmmmÖhave I put you off your breakfast/lunch/dinner yet?
But a happy thing is that spring is more and more in the air, everyday. Here is my hyacinth bulb that I transplanted from the garden to a pot so I could enjoy the springy smell inside the house. If your computer had ësmellovisioní you could sniff this picture and smell itís intense, almost sugary, very green-smelling scent. Yummo.
In other exciting news, my parents bought me this fabuloso heater at the Napier antique auctions.
Iím so excited. Iím in love with it. It was made in 1951. I love the little Japanese scene on the front, I love the colour, I love the chrome, I love the shape, I love the ëZephyrí label, I love the fact that it still works! It reminded me of this quirky little song by the Muttonbirds:
Frank bought a heater,
An electric heater,
The elements were made of wire and clay,
He reached out to touch, and he heard itís voice say,
"Come on and plug me in,
I want to feel that heat begin,
Don't move till the morning comes,
And you can fly up to the sun,
So come on and plug me in,
Plug me in,
Plug me in."
Frank liked his heater,
His electric heater,
Upstairs alone with the elements,
He dreamt of gold and frankinscense.
And he heard his heater say:
Come on and plug me in,
I want to feel that heat begin,
Although my body is rusting through,
I have carried this song for you,
It's from the sphinx and the serpent too,
So plug me in."
Canít you just imagine my heater talking? I think it would have a deep, elegant female voice and it would ask to be positioned in a patch of sun and then demand a Cherry Brandy.
Posted on 18 August, 2005 | 9:39am | 1 comments |
Feel Good Movies
Monday 15 August, 2005
So the baby is sick, wheezy cough, red cheeks, snot everywhere. Willoughby has had a vomity bug. He's not very good at making it to the bathroom in time so the washing machine has been going permanently washing sofa and cushion covers, towels and many changes of clothes. I've got a throat and ear infection and would really like a day or two off mothering. The weather is freezing and bleak. To top it off, I have rampant PMT. Time to find some comfort...
When I'm feeling blah, I really like to get the boys tucked in at night and then indulge by lying on the sofa under a rug with a big mug of peppermint tea or nip of whiskey and watching a movie. The movie has to be a) quirky b) pretty or at least, visually absorbing and c) must, absolutely must have a happy ending. This is no time for art-wank ambiguity or grown-up stoic realism! I like squelchy emotions, teenage or twentysomething angst, chic-geek reject anti-heroes, misunderstood underdogs, 'revenge' films, magic realism, beauty, tear jerkers...oh, I have such bad taste!
I want to share with you my all-time top-ten favourite feel-good movie list. I've watched all of these movies many times. To me, they are like that favourite old mohair cardigan or your Mama's vegetable soup - pure comfort. They are in order of rank. They make me feel better everytime:
1. Amelie (French)
My all-time favourite movie. French actress Audrey Tatou is ethereal and delightful as Amelie. A quirky girl who 'walks to her own beat' and after some confusion, finds a place for herself in the world. Lushly shot in shades of mainly green and red, this film looks gorgeous and the story will leave you uplifted and hopeful. (Some people say it is too sugary, to them I say "Go back to your Lars Van Trier films, misery-guts.")
2. Pretty in Pink (American)
This films has it all - Molly Ringwald in her prime as an op-shopping, craftster, quirky-girl (see Molly do deconstruction with her op-shop ball dress twenty years before the term was invented!), her endearing boy best-friend Duckie (the scene where Duckie sits dejected on his mattress on the floor while the Smiths play "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" is one of my all-time favourite movie moments), cool second hand record store with punky/mod thirty something lady-owner...ahh, I could go on all day. Sure, it has a syrupy ending and it sucks when her boss-lady goes 'straight' (she looks so dull!) but there are many fine feel-good moments in this film that I've loved since I first saw it at fifteen.
3. Carrington (English)
The Bloomsbury group are one of my many obsessions and I have read the biographies of each member. This lovely film tells the story of friends/life companions Dora Carrington and Lytton Strachey. It doesn't have a happy ending, but the idea of all-consuming love is cheering somehow and the costumes, houses and repartee of Bloomsbury England is lush. Key comic moment: Strachey, in his interview with the committee to excuse him from conscription to the army, languidly inflates a rubber ring, then sits on it, wriggles comically and sighs, "I'm a matyr to the piles."
4. Bedrooms and Hallways (English)
I like the characters, I like their clothes, I like Leo's rambly studio flat and his taste in crockery...this film is a sweet comedy-drama about lurve. The main character, Leo, is gay, or is he? I like this film for the way it depicts sexual confusion, the importance of friendship, the mens' encounter group is hilarious without being too disrespectful to men, and their slightly ramshackle, boho-London is just so appealing. Some people think the ending is naff (gay boy turns straight) but I say, "Hey, it happens! (very occasionally!)" Key comic moment - Leo, in the wee hours of the morning, is trying to turn his mind off thinking sexy, lusty thoughts. Picks up the autobiography of Margaret Thatcher. Ha ha!
5. 'Love and Other Catastrophes' (Australian)
Melbourne looks so lovely and autumnal, the characters are all so real (I'm sure I've flatted with at least three of them before) and their trials and tribulations are so believable. This movie has the gooey-ist, most loved-up ending ever, but is a nice peek into the world of young, urban, modern love. (Stylee clothes and interesting boho flats an added bonus.)
6. About A Boy (English)
I love Toni Collette's character in this film, with her activist's-angst and her birkenstock clogs. (Key comic moment - her son throws a loaf of her leaden organic, wholemeal, homemade bread to the ducks - clocks a duck on the head and kills it.) Hugh Grant plays himself to perfection (vacuous, spiritually barren) and again, a happy ending to make your fillings ache. Classic 'revenge' ending - the geeky kid triumphs and all the grown ups are happy, but in a (kinda) believable way.
7. Ghostworld (American)
Two geeky outsiders go through that tricky transition between high school and adulthood. I like the way Thora Birch's character is so confused and itchy in her own skin that she sabotages positive things in her life. I can relate to that. Key comic moment: she is in the comic store in tartan, brothel creepers, Ramones t-shirt and green hair. Obnoxious, stylier-than-thou shop owner disses her 'neo-punk' look. She spits at him "this is real punk, as in 1976 punk, not neo-punk, you jerk!" storms home and dyes her hair black. Oh, I understand that "I am a world of one and no one understands me" vibe so well. Happy ending? Sorta....poignant bus pulling out scene, anyway.
8. Stealing Beauty (American)
A good one to watch in the heart of winter, as it is set in a sizzly, Tuscan summer. Features lots of pretty, rich bohemian people getting about in not many floaty clothes and jadedly working on their tans. Liv Tyler is convincing as teenage girl on the verge of her adult life, and it has a realistic losing-virginity scene. Jeremy Irons is wonderfully voyeuristic and melancholy as the dying artist. The film bubbles with heat and sexual tension. It reminds you of lust, warmth and long summer nights. Added bonus is a soundtrack featuring gems like Hole and Liz Phair.
9. The Secret of Roan Inish (Irish)
I love the myth of the selkies - beautiful raven-haired women who change into seals. This film is about a wee city girl's return to her family's Island (Roan Inish) and her brush with the selkies. It's a children's film, but is absolutely delightful and absorbing and there is much here for the grown-up viewer. I showed this to a group of very jaded, media-savvy fourteen year old girls when I was teaching and it had them in tears. Makes you believe in magic again.
10. Zoolander (American)
Okay, okay, I know, this is a Ben Stiller film and it doesn't meet my earlier criteria of quirkiness or pretty sets or great cinematography. It's a Hollywood by-the-numbers comedy. But, IT"S VERY VERY VERY FUNNY! Honestly! Absurd, over-the-top, at times repellant, but extremely funny. I've watched this film four times now and almost wee-ed my pants laughing each time. Also features a wonderful appearance by David Bowie as himself and superb, camp, male-models-so-stupid-they-blow-themselves-up scene backed by Wham's 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go'. So funny your tummy will ache, afterwards, I promise. (Warning: you must suspend disbelief before viewing.)
There you go. Get thee to yonder DVD store.
I bet there are some key films I have forgotten or perhaps you have one you think need to go on this list? I'd love to hear your favourite, feel-good suggestions...
Posted on 15 August, 2005 | 11:21am | 3 comments |
skulls
Wednesday 10 August, 2005
Here is the skirt that I decorated with embroidery and applique.
I have a bit of a thing for skulls. I have a purple velvet hoodie with a pink skull and crossbones on it. I have a skull on my purse. I have a little bag decorated with a skull and crossbones with a little pink bow on her head.
Why skulls?
It's partly a punk-rock thing, partly a pirate thing (I love pirates) but it's also a buddhist/existentialist thing. It's common in Theravaydan (Thai) buddhism for the monks to have the skulls or sometimes the whole skeletons of deceased monks in their meditation rooms. The skulls serve as a reminder of impermanence, of mortality and this brings them back to the importance of now, of the present moment. Sometimes I like to freak myself out by pushing gently on that bit under my eyebrow where I can feel the eye socket of my skull...(try it...can you feel it?) I visualise the skull under my face. It would look like any other human skull...we are individuals and yet we are all the same. Whenever I run my fingers around the edges of the leather skull on my purse, I think "Yeah, that's right. The permanent present. That's all I've ever got." and sometimes it makes me chill out, relax, focus on my surroundings a little more closely. Of course other times, standing in line at the supermarket, or waiting at the bank I just think "Yeah, wow, great, celebrate the slow queue, the horrible flourescent lights and the rude checkout lady. Woo hoo" because I'm only a buddhist, not a buddha.
Ha ha.
What motifs are you obsessed by? Why?
Posted on 10 August, 2005 | 11:26am | 3 comments |
five things me me
Tuesday 9 August, 2005
Jenny tagged me with this game, ëFive Things Me Meí, so here goes:
5 albums in your iPod:
- Human League ëGreatest Hitsí
- Sleater Kinney ëDig Me Outí
- Fat Freddyís Drop ëBased On A True Storyí
- My Bloody Valentine ëLovelessí
- The Brunettes ëHolding Hands, Feeding Ducksí
5 Movies Youíve Seen Recently:
- The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
- Amélie
- I Heart Huckabees
- Senseless
- Coffee and Cigarettes
5 nice things that happened to you lately:
- Three of my favourite people are having babies
- I sat on Ben and Paulineís sunny deck in Wellington on Saturday and had wine and good eats with a big bunch of my best mateys
- Drew bought me a pink-footed Krishna statuette and a ënativeí plastic doll from Fiji
- Lovely snail mail entering my letter-box (pink fluffy stripy socks! long letters! photos! chocolate! hooray for mysterious packages)
- Signs of spring coming in the form of fat buds on the trees and daffodils starting to flower
5 MP3s on your playlist:
- Cloudboy ëCup of Rosesí
- Sleater Kinney ëWords and Guitarí
- Le Tigre ëLes and Rayí
- The Black Seeds ëSort it outí
- Björk ëItís not up to youí
5 friends youíre passing this to:
Posted on 09 August, 2005 | 11:51am | 0 comments |
the birds
Thursday 4 August, 2005
Birds are everywhere this week.
It has been cold and frosty enough in the mornings for the Waxeyes to come down into town. They sit on my twiggy plum tree and I feed them our porridge scrapings and toast crusts. They look so delicate and ethereal next to the 'tuff' street birds - the sparrows and the blackbirds.
There is a tui who lives at Terrace End school. When I go to collect Willoughby in the afternoons, he sits in the oak tree and sings 'hello'. There is also a bristly, gummy tree at the school which is festooned with monarch butterflies - literally hundreds. It's the sort of phenomena where you have to rub your eyes because you can't believe what you are seeing.
My friend Sarah has had a bird week, too. She had two cockatoos fly up to her window this week. Imagine that? Poor things, freezing their exotic butts off in Wilton. And she has been drawing tuis all week for a client.
The other interesting 'bird' thing about Sarah is that she lived next door to this eccentric old woman, 'Mama Mykos', who feeds multiple loaves of bread to pigeons each day. This means that you can be sitting in Sarah's lounge drinking tea and suddenly the air outside her window is full of swooping pigeons, like a scene from Hitchcock's 'The Birds.'
There was an item on the news this week about how around Wellington kereru are dropping out of trees. It has been a bad winter for the miro berries that they live on, so they are coming into town and eating off people's guavas and tamarillo trees. The fruit sits in their gut and ferments, which makes them drunk, and then they fall out of the trees. The bird specialist on the radio said that when he treats them they seem "woozy and dehydrated". I'm sure we can all relate to that!
The little notice in the picture above appeared in our letterbox one day. It made me smile. Unfortunately we hadn't seen Lydia's budgie. I wonder if she ever got it back?
I do love birds. Do you have any bird stories?
I'm off to 'fly' to the land of the drunken kereru and the feral cockatoos for the weekend. See you monday.
Posted on 04 August, 2005 | 7:34am | 1 comments |
ta daa
Monday 1 August, 2005
So here it is!
The much-hyped new site design. I wanted pink and girly, but in a calming, non-saccharine way - have we achieved it? What do you think? Now you can actually TELL me because you can register and leave comments! We've also updated all the other pages - take a stroll around and see. I'd love some more photos for my sock gallery so get snapping and emailing...otherwise I'm likely to come and knock on your door with a knapsack full of stripy socks and my digital camera in my clammy hand.
I'll be sitting by the computer eagerly awaiting the inaugural comment...put me out of my misery.
Posted on 01 August, 2005 | 10:48pm | 4 comments |
poems online
Monday 1 August, 2005
The new issue of online journal Blackmail Press is 'live' and features poems by me and also friend Shelley Trueman. Another lovely friend, Tania Brady edited the issue. Go check it out - lots of great women poets.
One of my poems is called 'Glamour Gardener'. This isn't the person the poem was written about. It is my darling friend Lisa who graciously posed for me in freezing conditions in a skimpy and slightly musty old frock. I took a whole bunch of wonderful photos of her...I'll share more soon. But here is one where she looks like a glamour gardener:
Styling Credits: Dress - photographer's own, apron - photographer's own, shoes - model's own, extremely weedy vegetable garden - photographer's own.
Posted on 01 August, 2005 | 10:44pm | 0 comments |
no praise, no blame
Sunday 31 July, 2005
"Who would you be if there was no praise and no blame? Whatever is left after you ask yourself this question - that is your essential style."
-Quentin Crisp
Posted on 31 July, 2005 | 3:48pm | 1 comments |