Peak Pohutukawa

I heard this phrase the other day and they might just be right.  The Pohutukawa are in bloom early and with a vengeance.

In the Baking Isle

Look!  Three, yes three, types of condensed milk. I do love the baking isle.

Summer!

Summer is officially here and it's going to be a hot one if the start is any indication. This means we are taking it easy...

And dealing with the inevitable sandfly bites

Training Pigeons

Not something I'd really thought about but then I saw this.  Also I do love that I live in a place where just because you're government doesn't mean you can't have a sense of humour.

Relegated

The car has been relegated to the driveway to make way for an abundance of flax.  From left to right- four weeks worth of donations to my projects from weaving friends, fresh flax from a weekend in Hawkes Bay and partially prepped flas also from Hawkes Bay.

Holidays

I'm recently back from three weeks away in, chronologically - Lisbom, Shropsire, Glasgow and Shanghai.  Apart from catching up with people the main highlights wee architecture and food.  Here are a few of the many photos, more to come.

Proper Voting

Today is Election Day. In Aus this is a big deal and all the voting places I have ever used were schools or churches and they made it a real experience by fundraising; sausage sizzles, cake stalls, the whole shebang.  In NZ it is not such an event but today my local school has made me feel like a proper voter...

I voted and I supported the bake sale!  I didn't eat it all myself, my fellow weavers were the beneficiaries.

No Lemons

Life has not given me any lemons but it has given me cabbage tree heads care of one of my weaving friends. With a reputation for using other's leftovers and unusual materials of course I said yes. So this lot has been sitting in my garage for a bit over a week.

Today I finally had the time to make a start. Striping the leaves (under supervision)

And the first row of a rain cape, Ti Kouka/cabbage tree leaves are known for their waterproof qualities.

Views of the Mountain

I spent the weekend back in Taranaki at a full immersion Maori language weekend. It was fantastic and particularly wonderful being with friends and seeing the mountain every day.

And here it is again, in a slightly different form.  This is how we learned the names of five rivers running from the mountain to the sea, all their marae, communities and sub-tribes.

China, Spain and Greece

This is the middle weekend of our annual two week food festival, Wellington on a Plate.  It has kind of passed me by but today I did go out to the Food Truck Rally to get some lunch and it turns out, dinner too.  So, dumplings, churros, spanakopita and baclava.  Yum.

As you can see the weather is not that flash, what you can't see is a biting southerly. 

I really love that I live in a city where the official weather warnings include (regularly) whether the wind is strong enough to take your trampoline. 

Yesterday - Sleet

Today - this...

Tomorrow - who knows.

Cool loos

I haven't posted signage for a while but I spent most of Friday at the Wananga at Otaki and spotted these - Maori loo signs with poi and taiaha.

Dressing Appropriatly

Today has been cold, 8 degrees maximum, wet and windy, a proper southerly buster. Flights and ferries were cancelled and I decided that the best thing to do, other than layer up, was wear my flash Wellies to work.

And it looks like they may get another outing tomorrow. 

Fog and a Full Moon

The trip to work this morning started normally but once the bus got to the Esplanade we could see that things were about to take a turn.  The twinkly lights of the motorway disappeared into a thick bank of fog topped off by a full moon hanging above.

Hangi time

Part of the Matariki celebrations at work this week was the chance to order hangi.  It was the real deal too, that wonderful smokey, cooked in the ground flavour. A few of the team ordered so we ate lunch together on Friday having repurposed a book basket trolley to do the pickup.

 

In other news the British and Irish Lions are in town to play the All Blacks which means thousand of travelling supporters for both teams. The site of the demolished building over the road from work has been turned into a car park and is currently hosting a fleet of camper vans. 

Happy New Year!

This is the time of year that the stars of the Pleiades, known here as Matariki, rise signalling the beginning of a new year for Maori, a time of remembrance of those who have left us during the previous year and a time of preparation for the next growing season as well as sharing food and stories.  It is increasingly being recognised and celebrated around the country and tonight there were fireworks in the city to start a week long festival.

One of the great things about living where I do is a lovely view across the harbour to the city from the end of my street. So I didn't have to go very far to enjoy them.

Going Wild

Another weaving weekend has meant that I have finished my third cape.  This one is not just flax, it has a layer of cabbage tree leaves that give it an extra 3D effect and make it look totally wild.

Weavers at work

Having missed three weeks because of work stuff it has been great to get back to weaving. This weekend was one of our occasional weekend weaves, lots of talking, eating and cups of tea as well as some actual work.

Much Pomp and Ceremony

This week saw the opening of the new exhibition at work, He Tohu, celebrating 3 landmark documents; the Declaration of Independance, the Treaty of Waitangi and the Women'sSuffrage Petition.  The were moved from Archives NZ in the wee small hours of the morning a month ago with a huge amount of ceremony and care.  Yesterday the public exhibition was opened by the Govener General and an impressive array of significant others.

The crowd gathering prior to the arrival of the official party

Some of the wonderful korowai/cloaks worn on special occasions such as this.

 I've only had a quick look but the documents, all from the 1800s are in a beautiful wood lined room with all the mod cons; light and humidity control and state of the art cases.

Sleeping under the Mountain

I spent most of this week at the annual Māori Librarians conference in Rotorua.  We stayed in a beautifully carved whare on the marae at the local Polytec. I managed to nab a sleeping spot underneath the poe carved in Taranaki style, all curvy and with the pointy head that honours Mt Taranaki.  Lots of great sessions but one of the highlights was listening to one of the master carvers that Rotorua is famous for, particularly surrounded by work like this.

I'm Back!

March and April have disappeared with a combination of a lot going on and nothing really happening.

In March I returned to New Plymouth for Womad.  Having had a pretty average summer it was wonderful to have 3 straight sunny days and, as you can see, I managed to get my food list ticked off too - Hungarian fried bread plus goat curry and dumplings, great accompaniment to fantastic music and catching up with friends.

 April was a bit all over the place with Easter and Anzac day plus a very, very early start to take part in the moving of 3 historic documents from Archives to the National Library, more on that in a few weeks when the new exhibition opens.  April also saw lots of weaving and, as you can see I still have my 'helper'.

On Anzac morning I went to my closest commemoration, at the local railway station where there is a flagpole that was the focus of the very first Anzac remembrances on 25th April 1916.  The flag was raised and wreaths laid, the one on the far right was laid by families from the local kindergarten and is made of lots of little red handprints (and a few green ones).  Having been up at 1.30am a few days before 6.30 was a snap!

Slightly More Normal

The building over the road from work is now almost completely gone, what's left is foundations and a bass relief mural that used to be at the back of the foyer.  Those in the know are very relieved that it survived and eventually it too will go but to a new home rather than the tip with all the other deconstruction mess.

There has also been another small step back towards normal.  My usual bus stop came out from behind the protective fencing a couple of weeks ago and as of last week is functional again so I'm back to a quick dash across the road at the end of the day rather than a trek (a whole extra 5 mins) down the hill.

Quiet but busy

January has been pretty quiet, partly because the weather has been awful but also because of being back at work and really just keeping on keeping on.  I have however caught up with a friend down from New Plymouth and gone to the football/soccer.  Wellington lost to Brisbane but the most interesting thing is this...

trees - if you didn't know it you would never guess you were in a capital city.  In other news the weaving continues.  All of this

has become this, a Pākē or cape.  It's not really flash but it does make a lovely sound when it moves.

A Quiet Break

A quiet Christmas and a quiet New Year have given me lots of time for weaving prep.  My 'helper' is still keen so I'm thinking that my next project might need to be a cat nest.