Taking Advantage

After a big year (new job, new house, all new routines) and an even bigger week (whole new computer system at work) I succumbed to the lurgy.  Just a bad cold but enough to put me out of action for the weekend and give me a properly impressing husky voice and a half-way decent cough.

One of the outcomes of this has been the addition of a doona (or duvet depending on where you are) to the sofa.  As you can see the girls are taking full advantage.

Projects

I have found a weaving group to join and have also acquired 2 projects to exercise my mind and eventually my fingers.  The first came in a box from a lady in the South Island that I heard about from a weaver at work.

All of this will make a little feathered korowai/cloak, dolly sized. The other project is a lifesize cape that I'm learning to make from weavers in the group to catch up with what they have been doing.  Lots of thinking and planning needed for that before even gets to the stage of having things together.

New Post!

Yay, a new post! My Mum's benchmark of properly cold is snow on the Rimutakas, the line of hills at the top of the Hutt valley.  Petone is at the sea end of the valley and yesterday it snowed.  Not where I am but very close and with a lovely southerly coming off the water it was properly cold.  This was the view out over the harbour to the city...

 and this, if you look carefully, is snow up on the hills from the end of my street.

Spotting Kate

I work in a part of town that is close to Parliament and if you look carefully, has Kates all over the place.  Kate Sheppard drove the petitions that made NZ the first country in the world to give women the vote in 1893.  She stands in our foyer...

 and if you look really carefully we have lovely Kate walking lights!

Doing Science

At work one day this week we noticed this...

We waylaid a passing curator and found out that they were testing the degradation of a type of photograph in sunlight.  Cool eh.

A Little Atmosphere

I go past the Petone wharf every day on my way to work but Wednesday provided the perfect combination, weather closing in and traffic so bad that we were stationary at the perfect spot.

Off the Grid

I have just come back from a week off the grid at Parihaka, back in Tarakani about 40mins round the coast from New Plymouth.  The community there was established in the late 1800s and is well known for it's history as a community of peaceful resistance.

First was the monthly Rā or Days which are held every 18th and 19th and then I was part of hosting the annual Māori Librarians and Information Workers conference.  On our first day we heard stories of the history of Parihaka and from local people who are working to record, preserve and pass on history, practices and taonga/treasures.  On the second day we walked the land, visiting spots that we had heard about the day before.

On top of one of the surrounding lahar or volcanic hills looking out to sea

From the same hill looking inland over the community

And I finished my weaving project too! 14 little baskets for speakers gifts.  The Anzac poppy brooches were woven by another committee member and the little mountains made for us by a local potter.