Nature brings to every time and season some beauties of its own.

Charles Dickens

In the light of all the dreadful things that have been happening around the world I am endeavouring to keep track of sending Christmas cards to friends and family and posting presents, stocking up on essential supplies like cans of tomatoes and chick peas, gardening and reading a National Library interloan that has to be returned by 7 January. It is a lovely time of year with all the fun of Christmas parties and events. Even travelling by road is enhanced as motorists in Marlborough are tempted by roadside stalls selling cherries, apricots, raspberries and strawberries.

   I am trying to ignore the end of the world this Friday as predicted by the Mayan calendar. Many people it seems want to concentrate on food and drink while the world ends. I love a poem by US poet Billy Collins. The sentiment in the poem is to be doing what you love while the world returns to chaos. Apparently Jason Kerrison one of the judges on NZ s Got Talent has built a concrete bunker up in Northland and has three years’ supply of food stored. He feels people are changing from a materialistic way of life to being 'more inner-directed and spiritual'. A group has set up an eco village in Motueka near Nelson with a view to being self sufficient (NZ Listener, December 15-21).
   
   All very resourceful, but surely this is a pessimistic view of life? In the same issue of the magazine scientist Brian Cox says we should raise our eyes from the ground and look up at the stars but even he doesn’t have a lot of faith in the world going on forever on this 'little ball of rock we call home'. Imagine all the art, music and accumulated knowledge being obliterated.

   A draft decision on the new salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds could be announced this week.  People are being advised to keep an eye on the Environmental Protection Authority’s website.  The final decision is expected on 22 February 2013. Also a letter from the CEO of NZ King Salmon was published in the Marlborough Express commenting on Leona Plaisier’s petition.

Some random thoughts:

Can the devastation caused by Cyclone Evan in Samoa and Fiji be attributed to climate change and deforestation?

After the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, people are asking if changes to gun control laws will be enough? Mental illness among other issues needs to be addressed also. I read a very interesting article placed on Facebook by a friend, written by a US mother with a troubled story of her own to tell about her son's behaviour.

It was such a sensible decision to keep Salisbury School in Nelson open. The girls who attend deserve to be able to learn in an environment free from bullying and possible abuse.

The Green Party wants a second international Internet cable. This seems like a good idea as the Internet is a vital means of communication now. So many businesses rely on the internet. You can't even read the newspaper or a magazine now without seeing thumbprints you can scan with a smart phone for more news. One morning I couldn’t get a Telecom connection to check email and reply, do my banking, do online research, follow up on the day’s news or tweet.  Also I have recently joined Pinterest, an online clipboard for photographs so the Internet has certainly taken over my life.   It’s hard to believe all this technology has become essential in what feels like a relatively short period of time.  Sometimes I complain that it is all so time consuming but really I love it. I always have. I got a computer as soon as they were on the market in New Zealand, an early Apple followed by a Toshiba laptop and later a mobile phone - whenever they first appeared.

   Technology takes you into a space that writers and artists inhabit while they are creating art, a world within a world, and when you emerge you need to remind yourself what time it is, whether you have eaten, and what other things you need to do with your day.

 

 

 

 

 

It always seems impossible – Until it’s done. 

Nelson Mandela

[Source: www.facebook.com/101PowerfulAffirmations quoted in This and that, a free monthly Marlborough publication.]

Yesterday, 12/12/12, was fun.  Spent the morning at Bookchat making a miniature driftwood Christmas tree. Pam, one of the staff, is very talented and had made up kits for everyone so they could make the tree on the spot while she issued clear instructions.  Then I headed off to Le Cafe, my favourite cafe, for an end-of-year lunch with Picton Poets and shared original poems in a seaside setting with great food, wine, coffee and scenery. One of our members who broke her leg made a supreme effort (with the help of a friend), and joined us after weeks of being home bound.  Seeing her happiness at being there made it more enjoyable for the rest of us.

    In the evening I went to an interesting art exhibition with my ‘temporary’ neighbour at the Diversion Gallery on the waterfront in Picton. Artist, Dick Frizzell collaborated with poet Sam Hunt and created a silk screen work incorporating words from ‘The Harpooner’s Song’ that talks about living in Picton, whaling in the Marlborough Sounds and in Nantucket.  Gallery Director Barbara Speedy took time out to explain a complex multi-layered lithograph by John Pule to us both and handed round pieces of Christmas cake she had made herself.  We half expected Sam Hunt to walk in the door and proclaim in his usual gravelly voice.

    The aim of the Frizzell/Hunt art work is to raise money for a National Whaling Centre in Picton, Te Tari Tohorā o Waitohi*.  Along with the art work there are other items such as flash drives for sale in the shape of a whale, some are preloaded with images and information about the various whale species. There are also boxes of paperclips in the shape of a whale.  More information about the merchandise is available on the website http://www.aworldwithwhales.com

*Waitohi was the original Maori name for Picton and has been retained in a number of place names around the town.  It would be good one day to have a dual name on the map, Waitohi/Picton, like the NZ Geographic Board is suggesting.

   Other artists' work is also available to view at the Diversion Gallery and there is a selection of unframed prints in a set of drawers that you can ask to see. The gallery used to be at the Grove Mill Winery but fortunately for us and for visitors has been relocated to Picton.

   Picton Museum is also hoping to build an extension to house two boats associated with the whaling industry in the Marlborough Sounds.  Both these ventures will attract visitors and complement the existing ‘whale watch’ experience in Kaikoura. With the suggestion of the ferries possibly moving to Clifford Bay by 2020 Picton needs such attractions to become a destination in its own right.  I am still thinking through the ramifications of this so will comment further in a future blog.  The proposed move is certainly causing concern and now the Government is soon to appoint a ‘commercial director’ to head a team of experts developing the proposal.  More information is apparently available on the Ministry of Transport’s website.

   It’s good to read that Steffan Browning from the Green Party accepted Leona Plaisier’s petition on the steps of Parliament after all those other MPs refused earlier this year. See www.marlexpress.co.nz  (Wednesday 12 December 2012).  Leona has collected 11,000 signatures for her petition against the proposed salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds. Laura Honey was on hand to document the event. We look forward to seeing Laura’s documentary Against the Current in the New Year.

   Tonight I am going to the launch of Michael Ponder’s latest novel, Four Kings, at Paper Plus in Blenheim. This thriller is set in Zimbabwe and is a sequel to his previous novel, The Windsor Conspiracy. Michael Ponder is well known as an artist and also for a book, The Good Oil, which he wrote while growing olives.

      Now I just need to find time to see The Hobbit, screening now in Picton and Blenheim, make a gluten free Christmas cake and deadhead and feed the roses with a concoction recommended in the NZ Gardener. Thanks to the library I keep up with the latest issue and don’t have masses of magazines accumulating to be dealt with ‘some day’. The pile of newspapers on the verandah is waiting to be turned into ‘hot logs’ over summer with a handy gadget purchased by mail order from a Nature company in Nelson. One weekend newspaper makes a great log for the fire. Fortunately today it’s sunny with a light breeze here in Picton and it might even reach 29° in Blenheim.

 

 

 

Little by little, one travels far. 

 J.R.R.Tolkien

Springlands School has won an environmental award for its contribution to the conservation of rivers. The students formed an environmental group called ‘Go Mad’ (Make a Difference), and created a Writers' Walk on the Taylor River. I blogged about this earlier in the year. The poems set on stone on the banks of the Taylor River can be found near the Beaver Road Bridge.

   Another initiative of the group was to install blue plastic fish near storm water drains to alert people to the fact that some pollutants would harm fish and native plants. The fish are inscribed with ‘Drains Rain only’.  Isn’t that great? Other schools have since joined in and there are around 300 blue fish in Marlborough. The School Environment Award is presented every second year.

   There is a great write up (and a lovely photo), in today’s Marlborough Express about Clara van Wel winning NZs Got Talent. Currently in Auckland giving interviews, appearing on television and so on, she will be back in Marlborough soon to catch up with her friends. Apparently three of her original songs will be available on iTunes very soon and then in the shops later and Sony is producing a CD in February next year. By the way the editor wants to know what we think of today’s paper.  I love Tuesday’s paper because it covers the arts – in a paper that one could say is a big follower of sport.  On Tuesday there is an arts' page but I might prefer the arts to be widely reported every day.  Just look at the range of work by artists and artisans on display in the mall in Picton from now until the end of February.

    I have just received email images (digital photos), of my book on display at the Frankfurt Book Fair. What a thrill to see it on the stand in the company of other titles along with the NZ Society of Authors banner: Principal advocate for the professional interest of writers.  www.authors.org.nz
   
   Today I have been reading about Cook’s Second Voyage and about all the different versions of the manuscript as outlined by Beaglehole.  I had momentary doubts then about my aim which is to present to the modern reader Cook’s actual words and thoughts while he was in Queen Charlotte Sound. I guess I will have to include some kind of an introduction.  Cook confessed to not being a writer, to having spent all his life at sea and to have progressed from 'seafarer to Commander'.  He must have spent such a lot of time writing. My transcribed notes for his Second Voyage that only deal with the time he spent at Ship Cove in Queen Charlotte Sound amount to 13,000 words so far. Cook would sometimes have been cold, sometimes wet and suffering from rheumatism but his powers of observation of geography, people and native fauna and flora and the meticulous record of longitude and latitude, tides, wind and weather are remarkable.
   
   The three writing groups I belong to make me aware how each word has to be carefully chosen then scrutinised for its value. What is the essential thing you are trying to say? I must say that when blogging I don’t seem to have the luxury of putting a piece of writing to one side to edit at a later date because it’s the immediacy of writing about what’s happening right now that appeals to me about blogging and tweeting.  

 

 

Wine is bottled poetry – Robert Louis Stevenson

Note: For some reason my blog appears with Pacific time as the header which is a day behind NZ time so I have decided to write the date in brackets if significant.

Tourism NZ has now labelled New Zealand ‘Middle-Earth’ so that’s fine though my father seems a little bewildered by the analogy and I don’t know what Captain Cook would have thought about it seeing he was convinced NZ was in the Southern Ocean.  This information we gleaned from reading The Press while waiting to see a nurse at Wairau Hospital to check my father’s pacemaker. I tried to explain but it’s a bit like trying to explain the Internet, Google and Smart phones.  Being interested in the share market he does get the success of a company like Apple.

   Since he had his stroke he doesn’t always remember about the pleasantries like ‘Good afternoon’, ‘thank you', and so on. The first thing he said to the nurse was that he had heard some upsetting news on the radio which he wanted her to confirm. It seems that if someone with a pacemaker is cremated the device can explode. She reassured him that the doctor would know so he wasn’t to worry. He has a plot already marked out at the Picton Cemetery alongside my mother so he really doesn’t need to be concerned.  He just thinks someone should have told him instead of being informed through the media.  ‘Well seeing you’re talking about it’, she said, ‘let me tell you that a pacemaker doesn’t prolong your life. When your ‘natural time comes to go’, it won’t stop you.’ Sometimes I wish I didn’t have to accompany him! My neighbour later told me that there is a doctor in Dunedin who has a museum of pacemakers and some get sent to him when they are removed.  Earlier ones she said were quite large.  I don’t think I’ll tell my father that.

The Hobbit

   One thing I really like is live television.  While I’m writing this (Wednesday 28 November), I’m half listening to TV One screening live from Wellington for the build up to The Hobbit movie, the red carpet, Tamati Coffey speaking elvish and sporting those ears and an interview with Peter Jackson (in red sneakers), Mark Hadlow and the Air NZ Boeing 777 aeroplane flying over Wellington decorated with hobbit images. Independent Booksellers’ Page and Blackmore (Nelson), recently posted on Facebook to remind everyone that it was first a book. I own a rather battered copy which belonged to my mother. Who’s your favourite hobbit and will you go to see it at the movies or wait for the DVD?

Artisan market

   The artisan market in the mall is attracting a lot of interest.  There was an article in the Marlborough Express yesterday. There’s furniture, carving, fabric work, weaving, photographs, books, cards, herb labels and jewellery. Great gifts for Christmas and the mall shop will be of interest to the tourists over summer.

Literary awards

   Congratulations to Leona Plaisier (mentioned in my last blog), who received a Local Hero’s medal last night (27 November), along with 5 others, from the Marlborough District Council. Also congratulations to Sam Hunt, Greg O'Brien and Albert Wendt for winning the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement (worth $60,000). The awards were established in 2003 when Helen Clark was Prime Minister and recognises writers of fiction, non-fiction and poetry who have made a significant contribution in these genres. This was the same year the USA invaded Iraq.
   In 2011 I went with a poet friend to hear Sam Hunt at Le Cafe in Picton. It was crowded and the audience really enjoyed the performance.  In the 1980s I lived in a house across the road from the inlet at Paremata where Sam Hunt resided in his boatshed.  I never met him though and only ever saw him giving poetry performances.

Sam Hunt

 

   A few days after the performance in Picton I was talking to someone who told me how she and her girlfriend used to fish in front of Sam Hunt’s boatshed at Paremata and she told me about all the bottles.  So I put the ideas and experience together and came up with the poem below. When I read it to a poetry group I belong to and reached line 10, one or two people admitted to being less than enthralled by the ‘familiar gravelly voice’.  Vive la difference!

 A Good Night

A crowded cafe,

impossible acoustics

chairs scraping on a tiled floor

audience fuelled by wine

merlot and a dash of lemonade

in the sav, a tall lean figure appears

he says, ‘you notice I’m wearing glasses,

first time I've seen the audience in 40 years.'

‘Steamy’, says Sam, to an expectant crowd

referring to the windows, he laughs

and recites in that familiar gravelly voice

interspersed with colourful language

F... and Shit and Christ—

the audience love it.
 

‘Where do poems come from’, he asks,

overheard snatches of conversation

lines drawn from years of experience

chance encounters, love affairs

he ends with a Hungarian lament

and three poems about Picton,

whaling, Cook Strait, and above all

friendship, we are desperate to touch him

to share a personal memory,

to connect, but we don’t get a chance

he disappears in a flash of legs

daddy-long-legs – on stilts.

But more fragile than before

thinks the girl who used to fish

in front of his boatshed at

Paremata, back then the bottles

told the story of a good night.

 

© Julie Kennedy, 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We write to discover ourselves.

Grace Paley

 

Thank goodness for Steffan Browning of the Green Party. He is prepared to accept the petition from Leona Plaisier of Pelorus Sound opposing the expansion of salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds by NZ King Salmon.  He says he will ensure that it is tabled in Parliament. About 11,000 people signed the petition, many of these online. Several National Party MPs who Leona approached earlier had refused to accept it and present it in Parliament. Thank goodness also for the Marlborough District Council who held firm to the belief that the current Marlborough Sounds resource management plan should be upheld despite Government’s thoughts to the contrary.

   Here in Picton and the Marlborough Sounds we might not have a major river to protect as they do elsewhere like on the East Coast (see November Forest and Bird magazine), but the waterways of the Sounds are our taonga (treasure). One prominent Picton family in the early 1900s had a seawater swimming pool at the bottom of the garden in the area where the Picton Marina is now and there were seawater swimming baths on Shelly Beach (opened in the 1880s, rebuilt 1911 and operated until the 1930s). The concrete remains can still be seen near the Queen Charlotte Yacht Club. With all the boats and shipping and possible pollution it is unlikely any local residents would want to swim there now (2012). Fortunately the Council is also concerned about this and is actively monitoring the water quality of various beaches and posting results on its website.

   A big congratulation to Shayne Olsen and Louise Bright, the owners of Lochmara Lodge Wildlife Recovery and Arts Centre for winning three awards at the Westpac Marlborough Chamber of Commerce awards, including the Supreme award (Marlborough Express, 19 November). If you are ever visiting Picton take the short boat trip over to Lochmara Bay or visit the lodge while walking the Queen Charlotte Track. This was the place where the concept of Eco Artists NZ was developed. It is a privilege to belong to this organisation and to be able to contribute to the support of the environment www.ecoartists.co.nz

   Last night I went to ‘Dickens’, a one-man show touring New Zealand and the world and Picton. What a performance, such a memory, such energy.  A full house and an appreciative audience. As my ‘temporary’ neighbour said it just goes to show if you bring a class act people will come. She recently went to hear Fiona Pears at Le Cafe, another excellent performer. She bought a DVD not just because of the music but because it had been recorded in Christchurch Cathedral, something that can never be repeated.

   Talking about performers the best of luck to Clara van Wel, one of 12 finalists in New Zealand’s Got Talent. A 15-year-old Marlborough College student she writes her own songs, impressed the judges early on, and has captured the hearts of many with her talent. “I just like words, words are cool, words are fun”, she says. She received some encouragement from the school’s librarian, Colleen Shipley, who is a member of the NZ Society of Authors Marlborough Writer’s group that I belong to. Clara has advice for other young people: “Never listen to anyone who tells you, you can’t do it”.

   Thanks to my other neighbour who has just left a small bag of kindling at my back door. It is still cold even though it’s November. Keeping warm takes up so much energy. And I wish my computer would get over its obsession with fragments! That’s the way I write. You would think it would have got used to it by now.

   Here’s a teaser from my book, a work in progress. I think I am getting near the end. The November weather seems fairly similar and all those gales and difficult sailing conditions mentioned by Cook don’t look good for the ferries moving to Cloudy Bay. It’s such a relief for passengers when they enter the calm waters of the Marlborough Sounds after the turbulence of Cook Strait. That’s usually when I head to the cafeteria.

From: Captain James Cook’s Journal

Voyage II, November 1773

Tuesday 2^nd.  Fresh gales with rain.  At 2pm passed Cape Campbell at the distance of one league, consequently entered the Strait with a fresh gale at south so we thought nothing of reaching Queen Charlottes  Our expectations were in vain, at 6 o’clock our favourable wind deserted us and was succeeded by one from the north which veered to the NW and increased to a fresh gale. We were at this time off Clowdy Bay [Cloudy Bay], we spent the night plying. Our tacks were disadvantageous and we lost more on the ebb tide than we had gained on the flood.

[Ref: The Journals of Captain James Cook, Voyage II: The Voyage of Resolution and Adventure, 1772-1775, edited by J C Beaglehole].

Note: Cook named the Sound, Queen Charlottes Sound, after the wife of King George III of England. It is now known as Queen Charlotte Sound. Also sometimes Cook writes ‘Clowdy Bay’ and sometimes ‘Cloudy Bay’ as it is now referred to.

 

 

A writer is someone who writes – John Braine

I have just been to a weekend Writers’ Retreat at Mt Richmond estate. It’s an old forestry camp that was converted four years ago into a cafe and motel complex by an English family. Each unit has a name like ‘Charlotte’ instead of a number like 27. They even had a grater so I could grate apple for my muesli.  The food was superb with gluten free and vegan options and the spa was very relaxing.  It reminded me of a writing weekend I went to many years ago with Michael King. He bought in various speakers to give advice like Christine Cole Catley. She told a story, I don’t know if it was then or maybe much later, about Michael King’s mother.  Apparently she used to ring him up and say ‘Are you busy Michael,  or just writing?’

   The ‘just’ says it all. People don’t seem to consider writing as work. I wonder why because it certainly requires concentration and sacrifice. There are so many other things you could be doing but for some of us if you haven’t put pen to paper or typed words into a computer, life doesn’t feel quite right.

   I have also joined a co-operative. A group of Marlborough artisans have got together and rented out a vacant shop in Mariners Mall in Picton opposite the entrance to Fresh Choice. The market is open seven days a week from 10am to 4pm. This is such a great initiative. You should have seen the number of people in there today. On the first day two of my father’s books about Ngakuta Bay sold and also one of my historic Picton postcards. The woman who bought it said, ‘I love post offices’. She was especially pleased to see the historical notes I had put on the back saying when the old Picton Post Office was demolished (1991).  She said that she and her husband had been trying to remember ‘just the other day’.  I am thinking of producing a postcard of Captain Cook standing on the beach at Ship Cove conversing with local Maori.  The image is out of copyright and available from National Library archives in Wellington.

   What a worrying report on an earthquake in Wellington — barges and helicopters as the only method of transport!  I have to go to Wellington in February for a Katherine Mansfield conference. A sculpture of KM is to be unveiled in Lambton Quay while the conference is on.  

  On Thursday evening we have our monthly Writers' meeting in Blenheim. Those of us who have been published are to talk about our experience. We also have to write 100 words on: 'If you've got it, flaunt it.' Also looking forward to an evening at the Gillan Gallery where winners of the inaugural Blenheim Bookworld short story competition will be announced. Then on Monday there’s a Charles Dickens evening, a visiting one-man show, at the Picton Little Theatre. So November is turning out to be a very literary month.

 

 

Every morning at nine o’clock I sit down and await my muse. If she hasn’t shown up by five past I start without her. Tchaikovsky

A big week.  A Kiwi jockey came second in the Melbourne Cup, Barack Obama has been re-elected in the USA, and this weekend there is a Writers’ Retreat at Mt Richmond Estate near the Rai Valley, Garden Marlborough and the Marlborough A & P Show.

   This weekend I am going to a Writers' Retreat at Richmond Estate near the Rai Valley township. Yesterday I picked up a carton full of books to take with me containing the journals of Captain Cook edited by Beaglehole, four large volumes and a series of charts drawn on the voyages.  I have interloaned the Journals twice before but have never seen the charts. I will be working on the Second Voyage during the retreat as Cook visited Ship Cove three times on that voyage and so there are a lot more journal entries to be transcribed.

   On 12 November until February 2013 there will be an artisans’ market in Mariners Mall in Picton. I am taking part with some local books for sale and also some cards that I have produced.  Also Reflections, an anthology published by Picton Poets in 2012 will be for sale. The idea is for this to be a cooperative venture with two volunteers on each day.  There is a charge for each artist to cover the rent but no commission on sales.

   This will be the first time since Garden Marlborough began that I have missed it because I opted to go to a Writers' Retreat instead.  I usually attend a workshop or a lecture or go on a garden tour (by bus), but most of all I enjoy walking around the market seeing all the stalls in Seymour Square on Sunday.  So many stalls filled with items to do with gardening, jazz music playing and the smell of coffee and food wafting in the air. This garden fete would be one of the highlights of living in Marlborough.

    I don't know what's happened to the weather, it’s so cold usually in November we can turn off the heating and stop lighting the fire, but not this year.  It takes so much energy keeping warm.  I remember when we were at school at Labour Weekend we had to put away our winter uniform and start wearing our summer uniform.  Many of us continued to follow this regime but not this year.

   This afternoon I’ve been invited to an open day at the Picton Visitor Information Centre (i-SITE).  This is for tourist operators in Marlborough and I offer heritage walks for cruise ship passengers. Congratulations to Rachel Holland at Picton i-SITE.  Also congratulations to the Edwin Fox committee who were joint runners-up in the Heritage and Environment category in the Trust Power Community Awards and also to the Picton Maritime Festival committee who won in the Arts and Culture category. These awards are in their 12^th year and acknowledge the work of volunteers and organisations in Marlborough. Next year we should consider nominating the Marlborough Writers’ committee. The group meets monthly and is a sub branch of the Top of the South Branch of the NZ Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc).