Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot nothing is going to get better. It’s not.

 – Dr Seuss

 This is my first post for a couple of weeks. It’s been a busy time recently.

A copy of the final report and decision into the NZ King Salmon farms can be viewed at the office of the Environmental Protection Authority, level 10, 215 Lambton Quay and at the Picton and Blenheim Libraries and also on the EPA website:

http://www.epa.govt.nz/Resource-management/king-salmon

   Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee is quoted in the Marlborough Express (11 March), as not being able to understand why people are so against setting up the four new farms (!). An appeal by ‘Save our Sounds’ group has been made.

    Now Marlborough residents are also concerned about the possible loss of medical services at Wairau Hospital. They say they will fight any decision to close surgical services. Marlborough could lose services with all acute cases being sent to Nelson and retaining only elective surgery here. A petition by ‘Save our Services’ can be signed at the Marlborough Express office or online at www.marlexpress.co.nz

   And of course don’t forget about that other big issue, the possibility of the interisland ferries moving to Clifford Bay, that lovely journey through Queen Charlotte Sound being lost to the expediency of transport and the effect on Picton and the whole Top of the South. Did you know that William Fox surveyor and agent for the New Zealand Company when he was looking for a port for the Wairau in the 1840s chose Picton with its enclosed natural harbour over what he considered to be the exposed coastline of Cloudy Bay/Port Underwood. He made several watercolour paintings for the Company to prove his point! One of these is Bird’s eye view of Waitoi dated 1848. He spelled the name of the settlement incorrectly, it should have been Waitohi and then the name was changed to Picton in 1859.  

Picton Pestival

   On Saturday the inaugural Picton Pestival (correct name) was held at Waitohi Domain in Picton to raise funds for Kaipupu Point Wildlife Sanctuary and to raise awareness of the necessity of pest eradication. The Kaipupu Point Wildlife Sanctuary opened on 17 March this year after seven years of hard work. I am currently working on a timeline to show the progress. The bush covered area on Kaipupu Point was gifted to the Crown (us) in 1973 by the NZ Refrigerating Company who owned the Picton Freezing Works known to workers and locals as the ‘Picton University’. There is a sign at the Shakespeare Bay Lookout to commemorate the workers and the site. The land on Kaipupu Point that forms the Sanctuary is 60% owned (managed and maintained) by DOC and 40% privately owned by Port Marlborough.

   At the Pestival there were stalls with different kinds of traps like the cages we know and another by a company called Goodnature that works using compressed gas and a steel-cored piston www.goodnature.co.nz  I would love one but at around $150 it’s a bit expensive for my budget. Years ago when I was woken at night by loud thumping noises on the roof I used to borrow a cage from my father, set the trap and when I caught a possum I would  ring my neighbour who owned a farm to come and dispose of it. When my father caught one he just used to go for a drive along Queen Charlotte Drive and release it into the bush. What was the point of that I asked him? He just shrugged his shoulders. I guess the question of how to dispatch it without a gun was the reason though he never said. Then the numbers of possums in my area declined because our neighbourhood had a conservation-minded young man living nearby. He has unfortunately gone down to Christchurch to help with the rebuild and the possums are now back on the roof and hissing in the cherry tree.

   Getting back to the Pestival a Wellington group ‘The Shot Band’ entertained with live music on stage, there were activities for children like face painting and decorating tiles with small stones, stalls with food and beer, cider and wine and a range of speakers. The highlight was economist Gareth Morgan offering his views in the speakers’ tent on conservation. He emphasised the importance of ‘natural capital’, making the most of the environment we have in NZ and in particular making money from it through tourism. At times he was provocative suggesting that it’s no good having a ‘Halo’* project if birds that are attracted to Picton and Sounds gardens from the Sanctuary then get caught by a domestic wandering cat. He suggested that cats are OK as long as they are contained. He explained this further on a TV3 interview with John Campbell. He said cats should either be inside or if outside contained in a wire enclosure. Is this practical I wonder?

   Gareth Morgan upset people who see their cats as companions and also by suggesting that if the cat passes away that it not be replaced. He said he was quite surprised by all the media coverage after his earlier comments on cats and read about it when he was in Beijing in China where he and his wife travelled to attend his son’s wedding. The Listener also had a good feature on Gareth Morgan.  

   He also discussed the SPCA policy of TNR – ‘trap, neuter, release’ which I had not known about.  If a cat is found wandering or on a neighbouring property it can be taken to the SPCA where they neuter it and release it back into the community. It’s a different policy for dogs in NZ.  They are checked to see if they are micro chipped. If they are then they are returned to the owner and if not they are euthanized.

   During a Q&A session Gareth Morgan emphasised the importance of community-based conservation rather than expecting the Government to initiate projects. When asked what individuals could do he said to get together with a few others in a group, pick an area and look at how to go about making it pest free.

   A lot to think about. I would suggest you choose your battles. There’s only so much time and energy available. I suppose this is why I am writing this blog, by raising awareness of issues more people might get involved. Certainly becoming a ‘Friend’ of the Kaipupu Point Mainland Island Society and/or volunteering to help with the project is worth considering. When I began this blog last year I thought I was going to write about literary topics.

   Now I hear the Government (think National Party), are talking about restructuring the Department of Consevation (DOC), and this will involve job losses. Let's hope they keep enough staff in the Marlborough Sounds area office to maintain and manage this beautiful part of the world effectively. 

*Halo effect is where people plant native species in their gardens to attract birds and so when they fly out from a Sanctuary there is food available for them to feed on. I bought a Kaka beak, a wineberry and a mountain flax at the Pestival. I already have a number of large flax  bushes which tui love (when they are in flower), and an old apple tree and the row of gum trees in the shared driveway next door seems to attract birds as does a tall sequoia and beech trees on neighbouring properties.

  

 

 

 

 

 

I was working on the proof of a poem all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again – Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

 

Ian Wedde and others at the Millennium Art Gallery, Blenheim

Salmon Farm decision, Marlborough Sounds

Ship Cove trip, Outer Queen Charlotte Sound

 NZ Poet Laureate Ian Wedde and others

Around 100 people (!) turned up at the Millennium Art Gallery in Blenheim on Friday night to hear NZ Poet Laureate Ian Wedde, John Newton, Cliff Fell (Nelson), and Dinah Hawken talk about their concept of 'Home' and to read from their own work on the subject. Later they each read a poem by a poet of their own choosing. The event was organised by the gallery and the National Library of NZ as part of the poet laureate’s programme. Both Ian Wedde and John Newton were born in Blenheim and shared several poems set around Marlborough. Ian Wedde told a great story about how he dropped a watch belonging to his father, an ivory bracelet which belonged to his mother and a scarf  into the sea off Dieffenbach Point in Queen Charlotte Sound, a fitting place he thought for these personal items to rest. Charlene and Peter Scott from Blenheim Bookworld had poetry books for sale and we were spoilt with Seresin Wine (organic).

Salmon Farm decision

   NZ King Salmon has won approval to build four new salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds. The farms are Ngamahau in Tory Channel, Waitata and Richmond in Pelorus Sound and Papatua in Port Gore. Kaitapeha in Queen Charlotte Sound, Ruaomoko in Tory Channel and Kaitira and Tapipi in Pelorus Sound were turned down. The company expects to have fish in the water by the end of 2015. Appeals can be made by concerned parties, the deadline is 21 March [Marlborough Express 1 March 2013. Also see the comments on p.5, all very diverse and at variance.] Steffan Browning from the Green Party says: ‘The decision sets a dangerous precedent’.

And of course we all know that the Marlborough District Council had these areas off limits in its Sounds Resource Management plan.

Ship Cove Memorial boat trip

   On 10 February I went on a Captain Cook Memorial trip to Ship Cove. It was 100 years since the concrete obelisk memorial was unveiled by Lord Liverpool before a crowd of 2000 on 11 February 1913. This date is recorded on the back of the memorial and in the newspapers of the time. We were a party of 90 and you can’t help wondering where everyone else was on this historic occasion. I had expected a small flotilla of recreational boats as well.

   We left Picton at 8:30am on the Beachcomber. Marlborough historian John Orchard provided commentary accompanied by pictorial images and supplied books from his own collection for passengers to read. Environmental information was given by Robin Cox and Roy Grose from the Department of Conservation.

   Cook spent three months in Tahiti observing the Transit of Venus and later, under secret orders to search for ‘the great southern continent’, he discovered New Zealand. Cook spent between 100-105 days at Ship Cove in total on three separate voyages so this is an important part of New Zealand's maritime history. The Maori name for Ship Cove was Meretoto. Cook found it the ideal place to careen and reprovision his ships and allow the crew to rest, and above all Maori were friendly.

   The first site we visited, Hippa Island is attached to Motuara Island by a narrow stretch of rocks. Cook and his scientists set up an observatory on Hippa Island and there is a marker in place on the island. When Cook arrived in the Endeavour in 1769 he found Maori living on this island as it provided an ideal fortress retreat. We could see Long Island on the starboard side of the boat and further out the Brothers. Cook nearly damaged the Endeavour when he sailed close to the Brothers (and of course it was badly damaged off the northern coast of Australia on the Great Barrier Reef on the way back to England necessitating Cook to find another ship, Resolution, for the next two voyages).

   On the first Voyage Cook spent nearly a month at Ship Cove repairing and provisioning his ship Endeavour and exploring the area in small boats. The scientists collected plants and other information and the artists sketched plants and local Maori.

   Roy Grose informed us that Motuara Island which is now a bird sanctuary was cleared of rats in 1992. It took about three months using bait stations. Now they drop bait from helicopters which takes around three hours. Birds that can be seen on Motuara Island are: Saddleback, kiwi (originally from the West Coast), yellow crowned parakeets and you can  hear bellbirds and tui. Along the path to the summit there are numerous small wooden boxes for housing penguins where they can breed in safety. Though we were told that most had already fledged at that time the group I was with did see one huddled inside a box near the wharf. Radio transmitters attached to young kiwi show how they had grown twice the size in one year. Motuara Island had been burnt off in the past for farming but now the bush is regenerating.

   At the summit of Motuara there is a cairn erected by the then existing Captain Cook Memorial committee. There is also a plaque at the base of the viewing platform. From the top of this there are panoramic views of places visited by Cook. Just before Cook left Motuara he set up a post on the topmost part of Motuara Island and ‘took formal possession of it and the adjacent lands in the name of his Majesty’ (George III). Cook named the sound Queen Charlotte’s Sound after the King’s wife. It is now known as Queen Charlotte Sound. Maori knew it as Totaranui.

   Then we went over to Cannibal Cove (viewed from the water by boat), where Joseph Banks reported in his journal on evidence of cannibalism. Cook was not entirely convinced about this but it troubled his crew.

   Around 1pm we arrived at Ship Cove where passengers were to spend an hour exploring the area, reading the interpretation panels and having lunch but first there was a formal occasion. There were speeches including one by a representative of the Captain Cook Society. He laid a wreath at the foot of the memorial to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Captain Cook in Hawaii on 14 February 1779.  Peter Jerram from the Marlborough District Council made a plea for more attention to be given to the importance of Ship Cove in relation to Cook’s visits. This appeal was followed up later in the Council pages of the Marlborough Express.

    Over 2000 people took part in the ceremony on 11 February 1913 (correct date). Many came by small steamer, some from Wellington including Lord Liverpool who unveiled the monument and others arrived in private recreational boats. A photograph was taken of the original ceremony and a
re-enactment of that photograph was taken and is available now at Langwoods Photo Centre in Blenheim. [(03) 578 8887.]

   We then boarded the Beachcomber and headed over to Arapawa Island. John pointed out Bald Hill and other features of interest. He also provided details about scurvy caused by a lack of Vitamin C and outlined Cook's attempts to solve this problem by collecting greens from the area and brewing beer from rimu leaves, the standard issue to crew was 'a gallon a day'. Some of his solutions were successful, others not but Cook had a very good record for keeping his crew healthy on these long sea voyages.

   On Cook’s Second Voyage 10 crew from the Adventure were killed on 17 December 1773 and their cutter disappeared without trace. The ships of Cook and Furneaux had become separated in a storm. Many people feel the incident would not have taken place if Cook had been there. When the boat crew did not return Lieutenant Burney went the next day with several marines to investigate. They found gruesome evidence of the men’s death. Details can be found in Burney’s log included in the Journals of Captain Cook edited by Beaglehole and probably on the Internet. We disembarked at the wharf at Wharehunga Bay. At the northern end of this bay there is now a campsite.  John Orchard displayed weapons used by Maori at that time, among these were both a greenstone and bone patu, an axe head made of iron with a whalebone handle and John also fired a musket demonstrating the time consuming process of loading this weapon. Others were also invited to fire the musket to the amusement of onlookers.

     It was pointed out that the Sounds Restoration Trust is poisoning pines around the Sounds and dead and dying trees can be seen. We passed Amerikawhiti Island and Kiwi Ranch, once a retreat for airmen who had been badly scarred during WW2 and now a well-used and popular camp.

   We arrived back in Picton at 6pm. I highly recommend this historic trip to everyone. Some of the tourism operators offer a short visit to Ship Cove (half an hour ashore), but there is so much to see and admire in terms of the development of the area and to appreciate the significance of standing where the great explorer Captain James Cook once stood that you really need much longer. Of course another option is to walk the Queen Charlotte Track. Ship Cove is the starting point (and end) of the walk. Ship Cove to Punga Cove is public land and Punga Cove to Anakiwa is a mixture of land tenure so track users need to pay to obtain a pass.

   Let’s hope that John Orchard is named as one of Marlborough’s Living Treasures soon*, and that in future Ship Cove, Motuara Island and other parts of the outer Queen Charlotte Sound will be given the recognition they deserve.

* already honoured in this way are Joy Cowley (author), and Duncan Whiting (Theatre Director). This is a kind of civic honour which we in Marlborough believe is a ‘first’ in New Zealand. 

News flash:

Sunday 17 March

Opening Day for Kaipupu Point Sounds Wildlife Sanctuary, Picton.
Hon Nick Smith, Minister of Conservation will open the Sanctuary. It’s taken seven years to achieve this. Access to the Sanctuary is by boat only and is probably by invitation only. I’ve got mine.

15 March

Sea Shanty evening at the Edwin Fox, Picton. Bookings essential.

 

 

It was an exquisite day. It was one of those days so clear so still, so silent you almost feel the earth itself has stopped in astonishment at its own beauty.

The Katherine Mansfield Notebooks, Volume Two, p. 349.  Katherine Mansfield reflecting on the Marlborough Sounds.

We have had day after day of summer weather. Now I am hoping for rain for the garden’s sake. I’m sure plants prefer rain water to chlorinated water issuing from a garden hose.  

   On Saturday (9 February), I went to the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace with a friend from Christchurch (a Katherine Mansfield fan), to see the exhibition ‘The Painted Word’. Paintings and jewellery and wall mounted sculptures were on display in the upstairs art gallery as well as in several rooms in the house. My favourite item was Reverie by Seraphine Pick, a magical painting in the surrealist style with images taken from Katherine Mansfield’s life, some of herself, her husband and her friends.

    Now going back to the first day of the Katherine Mansfield Conference which I began writing about last time. Chris Price talked about her residency in Menton where she was working on a book. She kept a journal which she read extracts from. She said she often wrote this from observations made while walking to the residency from the apartment where she lived.

   Emily Perkins, newly appointed lecturer at the Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University in Wellington, looked at texture and word choice in Mansfield’s stories. She posed useful questions for writers to consider when they are reading the work of others such as: ‘How does a writer do things on the page’, and ‘What are the writerly choices being made’.  She also asked ‘How much is a narrative about change’, and ‘Show not tell, where are the limits? ‘How do you get the balance when you're writing, not too much description, and yet enough?’

   It was difficult to choose what to go to in the parallel sessions in the afternoon. I have already mentioned Virginia King’s talk and equally enjoyable was the session with Penelope Jackson, Director of the Tauranga Art Gallery. She showed a variety of paintings about Katherine Mansfield in her power point lecture. My favourite was the oil on canvas portrait by Anne Estelle Rice now in the art collection held by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington. I have a framed poster in the hallway. Another by Beatrice Campbell Katherine Mansfield and S S Koteliansky is also located at Te Papa. Another interesting painting was a work by Nigel Brown. Interestingly there is an exhibition of his work currently on show at the Diversion Gallery in Picton. I love his use of vibrant colour and his commentary on NZ culture. Apparently he based the portrait of Katherine Mansfield on his mother, a small woman with a similar hairstyle. Another work was by Susan Wilson, an artist based in London who did a series of illustrations of Mansfield’s stories for an edition published by the Folio Society.

   This talk was followed by Nicola Saker who had curated an exhibition, 'Behind the Mask', at the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace in 2011 (7 September to 30 November). This exhibition showed paintings and drawings done during Katherine Mansfield’s lifetime. Nicola commented that the Anne Estelle Rice portrait had a ‘defiant yet wary stillness’. Penelope Jackson had previously commented on the brick red crimson colour of the dress and a possible reference to the tuberculosis that finally killed her. There was a caricature of Katherine Mansfield done by George Banks which appeared in Rhythm, a pencil drawing by Gaudier Brzeska and a large piece by the artist Dorothy Brett, a friend of both Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murry. An image by A S Hartrick called ‘Lilac Time’ refused to be cajoled from its place in the slide sequence.

   The first day of the conference ended with a reception at the Alexander Turnbull Library noted on in my last blog.

   An interview with Dr Gerri Kimber, Katherine Mansfield Society Chair, on her recent discoveries of new Katherine Mansfield material purchased by the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington can be heard on the Radio NZ National website.

www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/artsonsunday

   Next time: Ship Cove trip. I’ve written the outline but it would make this blog too long I think. Also the final decision on the proposed salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds and a report on ‘Writing Home’ the poetry evening this Friday 5.30-7pm with NZ Poet Laureate, Ian Wedde (born in Blenheim), Cliff Fell (Nelson poet), Dinah Hawken (lives in Paekakariki), and John Newton (born in Blenheim, lives on Waiheke Island). We are fortunate to have this literary event. Entry is by koha.  I hope it’s well attended.

 

Don’t lower your mask until you have another mask prepared beneath —

Letter from Katherine Mansfield to her husband John Middleton Murry (late July 1913)

Have recently returned from Wellington where I attended the first day of the Katherine Mansfield Society's conference. The title of the conference was ‘Katherine Mansfield: Masked and Unmasked based around the above quote. This is an interesting concept about how people wear a mask (or face), to show the world so they never fully reveal themselves.  From my reading of her letter Katherine Mansfield seems to be suggesting to Murry that at times he was wasting his intelligence wallowing in self pity.

   The highlight for me was in the evening at a reception at the Alexander Turnbull Library when I picked up a postcard sent by D H Lawrence to Katherine Mansfield. The library had prepared an exhibition of newly acquired Katherine Mansfield papers and Dr Gerry Kimber of the Katherine Mansfield Society pointed the postcard out to us.  Lawrence and his wife visited New Zealand and sent the postcard to Katherine Mansfield in England c/- Lady Ottoline Morrell at Garsington Manor. I had always read that Lawrence wrote only one word ‘Ricordi’ which means a token of remembrance or a souvenir.  In actual fact his wife, Frieda, had written a sentence underneath saying something like:  ‘We are thinking about you even more here’.  Earlier the same evening at the library a young student from the NZ School of Music, accompanied by her sister on the piano, performed two pieces of music composed for cello by Arnold Trowell. He was the young man who Katherine Mansfield first fell in love with, she later transferred her attentions to Garnet his brother but his parents did not approve of the relationship.  

   The plenary sessions of the conference were held in the Council Chamber of the Hunter Building at Victoria University. It has a magnificent stained glass window and was fortunate to be saved after earthquake strengthening was required.

   Angela Smith gave a keynote address about Katherine Mansfield and parties. She talked about the Bloomsbury group, the parties they had, the plays they performed in and how they met ‘to savage each other's words’. She also said that every time she reads ‘Bliss’ it’s a different story and the questions she puts to herself are different each time. This comment appealed to me as a reader. I believe a story needs the consciousness of the reader to achieve its goal and the reader’s interpretation may not always be what the writer intended, indeed Angela Smith's comment suggests that readers can change their opinions too on re-reading a story.

    A highlight for me was Sarah Laing talking about the graphic novel about Katherine Mansfield that she is going to be working on during her residency at the Michael King Centre in Auckland. She showed us some of the ideas and drawings that she has been playing around with using characters speaking in cartoon bubbles. There are touches of humour as when Ida Baker insists that Katherine Mansfield have Oxo to drink and not Milo, and a sequence where Katherine Mansfield sitting in bed looks around the room and sees herself as many different selves,  each figure with a black plume coming out of its head.

   In the afternoon after lunch I sat with a friend in the Bolton Street cemetery, a place of quiet reflection overlooking Wellington Harbour. You would think that the gravestones would be better looked after and indeed one did have a new white picket fence around it and a gate with a shiny new hinge.

   I had hoped to see the Virginia King sculpture in Lambton Quay titled ‘Woman of Words’.  It was commissioned in February 2012 and is created from stainless steel panels, laser cut with phrases from Mansfield's writing. Unfortunately soon after she began work Virginia King was hit by a car and the sculpture is only about halfway finished. In her talk she documented the progress to date of the work. It was one of the most interesting talks I have ever attended as I had no idea how difficult and time-consuming the process of making a sculpture is and the creative imagination required and the heavy labour and collaboration involved.  Neil Plimmer from the Wellington Sculpture Trust outlined the commissioning process. He said something I wish I had recorded explaining the difference between a statue and a sculpture.  

   What I'm really looking forward to seeing, apart from Katherine Mansfield striding along with her right hand out ‘offering the stories’, is the ‘shopping list hair’, long thin pieces of metal inscribed with presumably the shopping lists which Mansfield recorded in her journals.

   More on the conference next week including my visit to the art exhibition, 'The Painted Word', at the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace. Also I went on a day trip to Ship Cove on Sunday for the 100^th anniversary of the unveiling of the Captain Cook memorial, to lay a wreath to commemorate his death in Hawaii on 14 February 1779, and for a re-enactment of the original photograph of the memorial ceremony taken at Ship Cove in February 1913.

    What a weekend!

I found a book entitled ‘How to be Amazing at Anything’. It had only a single page and was just one word long:

                        PRACTISE

(Arguably it could be practice or practise, take your pick, my original source on the Internet, Pinterest, had ‘c’ but I like the active verb better.)

I read an interesting article in Booknotes about how people choose what book to read in this digital age with all the information that's available online now.  There is a box summarising ‘a modern reader’s cloud of influences’ – clever. 

   It made me think about my own choices.  I still rely on ‘word of mouth’ from friends as I have always done - as do others it seems.  Often for me this comes in the form of letters from friends especially at Christmas.

   Online sources would be websites like NZ Booksellers and Guardian Books, sites outlining any novels shortlisted for  the NZ Post Book Awards, the Man Booker prize and other similar prizes like the Orange Prize (open to any woman publishing in English), and online blogs such as Beattie’s Book Blog. One of my favourite sources of books to read is a regular e-newsletter from independent booksellers Page and Blackmore (Nelson), that tells what the staff are currently reading with a brief review of each book. Sometimes these are books that they have received as advance copies.  If I hear a book review or author interview on Radio New Zealand National I can go online to get the full title/author and publisher details. Receiving e-newsletters from Writers and Readers festivals is another good source of literary information like the Auckland Writers Festival regular emails. I might not be able to attend but I can read the books.

   Once I have decided on a book I usually order it online from the library’s catalogue. Sometimes I am informed by the computer that there is a waiting time of 55 days!  Who knows why? Maybe it hasn’t been purchased or processed yet. I put it on ‘hold’ anyway. I’m still waiting to read The Lighthouse by Alison Moore (Booker shortlist).

   Printed sources for me are book reviews in the Listener and several newspapers, (often just given a cursory glance), and advertising flyers produced by booksellers like Blenheim Bookworld. Congratulations to them by the way for winning ‘best window display’ as part of the Marlborough  Wine and Food Festival. They teamed up with Spy Valley wines, crime novels and all that.

   Audio sources like Radio NZ National are very important to me. I don’t always hear the book or author interview but I go regularly to their website and can hear the interview repeated, download it as a podcast or get the details of books reviewed. The BBC has a good book programme that encourages audience participation.

   I like to browse the book shelves in the library. Non-fiction is easier for me to select than fiction. Novels displayed as ‘returned today’ or ‘best sellers’ (seen in a Christchurch library), are not what I am looking for. I need to know that if a novel is to be on my bedside table it deserves to be there and will be a good read.  

      These days I buy poetry books, a small number of non-fiction reference books and seldom buy fiction unless it is by a New Zealand author and has been highly recommended. I ask myself if I won Lotto would I buy more books?  I’m not sure as my three bookcases are already full and my treasured non-fiction books are on the bottom shelf of the china cabinet to protect them from dust and sunlight. Perhaps e-books are the way to go from a storage point of view but I spend so much time on the computer looking at a screen I like words on a printed page and the feel of a book. When I lived in Papua New Guinea I took a suitcase full of novels and records back with me after I had been home ‘on leave’ as it wasn’t possible to buy books in Madang. I swapped the books with an Australian neighbour as we did our bread and baking recipes as it was difficult to buy bread or sweet treats either apart from packet biscuits and white bread occasionally when a boat came from Australia. The shops were busy that day after goods had been unloaded.

   It seems word of mouth is still top of the list according to the Booknotes article, friends and family recommending a book they have enjoyed reading, talking to the local librarian or bookseller and exchanging ideas at a book group.  This is followed by reading reviews both in print form and online, book award short lists (and winners), and authors discovered at Writers' Festivals. When my mother passed away I lost an important part of my literary network. She told me I had to read Lawrence Durrell’s The Alexandria Quartet and ‘anything’ by Doris Lessing. She worked at the public library for many years in Wellington so that was useful and my favourite aunt who passed away recently always had small side tables and chairs overflowing with library books as she too worked in a library, the Auckland Public Library, and like my mother and myself had a lifetime’s interest in reading books.

   Something that occurred to me when I was thinking about all this is when I decide what movies to go to, again apart from personal recommendations, I look at the lists as advertised in the newspaper like the Marlborough Express, the Press and the Sunday Star Times then I either read the actual film reviews in a newspaper or other printed sources or go onto the Internet to decide if I want to drive 25 kms to watch it on the big screen, wait for the DVD, or avoid it completely. I thought it could be quite helpful to have a list of books advertised somewhere each day that people could refer to, new books recently published and constantly being updated as with the movie advertisements. I’m still thinking about how this might be achieved perhaps the book publishers and bookshops could get together and agree on such a daily list. Maybe Facebook and Twitter could tell us what’s ‘trending’ in the way of books in terms of our previous reading record. I don’t mean just best sellers like John Grisham and Nora Roberts (though they would obviously feature), but including books that people like me want to read.  I guess as far as novels go it would be the book equivalent of  ‘art house’ films, the ones with subtitles, the kind of film you go to in an intimate movie theatre to watch, usually called ‘The Lounge’, or rent from a video shop after waiting several months for its public release.

    I'm thinking here about the comparison between the novel The Yellow Birds (one of my top choices for 2012), and any novel with the character Jack Reacher in it, also Pride and Prejudice compared with 50 Shades of Grey – similar themes don’t you think?

 

Reference:

Spring 2012 Booknotes, (p.8, 9).

We all have the potential to clear away the clouds and experience more clear blue sky.

            – Rod Watson, psychotherapist, Wild Tomato, issue 78 January 2013, p.66

I've recently returned from a week in Nelson, my favourite place apart from Picton and Hanmer Springs (and Florence if I’m allowed to count Europe). On the first day I wondered why  people leave their comfortable homes to put up with, in my case a dripping tap over the kitchen sink, a wall clock that had stopped at 11.50am, a set of shelves that  stuck together whenever you pulled out a drawer, neighbours who  wake noisily at 6am, a complete lack of  items like graters,  decent wine glasses, kitchen scissors (and you know how impossible packaging is to get into sometimes),  planes flying very low overhead at all hours of the day on the way to Nelson airport. I wrote a poem about all this years ago.  However the view over the estuary at Tahuna and the silk tree in flower and the relaxation of lying around reading and catching up with family and being able to go and see movies on a big screen without having to drive 25kms probably made up for it all.

   I returned home to find a lovely stone that my neighbour had illustrated for me as I had helped edit her children’s book, A Long Dusty Road.  The stone has a Shakespeare quote on it for my mini -Shakespeare garden.

   I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows ...

   In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Titania, Queen of the fairies often sleeps with her female companions at night on such a bank. Her partner, Oberon, is jealous and decides to play a trick on her.

   Yesterday someone asked me if this was a usual kind of garden for people to have.  ‘Oh yes I said, people do all sorts of things in their gardens’.  Prior to this I had quotes on pieces of paper, laminated and attached to green plastic stakes but they didn’t last in the rain or got blown away in the wind. It sounds like I have many relevant quotes, in reality I only ever got around to creating two!

Proposed move of ferries to Clifford Bay (to be operational by 2020)

   The ferries have been coming into Picton for 50 years, since the advent of the Aramoana in 1962,  well for many years before that if you think about all the small steamers like the Penguin which ran backwards and forwards between Wellington and Picton and Nelson. The trip on the Interislander is rated the 11^th best thing to do according to the Automobile Association’s list of 101 must-do’s in New Zealand. What is the Government thinking!

   Some concerns:

   The first one is mine, see sources for others below.

·         Salt works at Lake Grassmere:  60,000 to 70,000 tonnes of salt are processed by Dominion Salt at Lake Grassmere each year using sea water and natural evaporation, definitely a ‘clean green’ product. Production first began in 1943. See www.dominionsalt.co.nz

What happens if the ferries move to Clifford Bay and the ocean becomes contaminated through shipping and potential fuel spills? Is anyone investigating this?

·         Threat to the habitat of Hector's dolphins, an endangered species found only in New Zealand. The Clifford and Cloudy Bay area is one of six marine mammal sanctuaries.  Five of the sanctuaries were set up specifically to protect Hector’s dolphins. See www.doc.govt.nz

 

·         Risk of collision between ferries and dolphins and humpback whales as this is the route the whales take swimming up  the east coast of New Zealand on the way to Tonga (in Tonga July-October to breed then return to Antarctica to feed; June/July Cook Strait whale surveys

·         Earthquake and tsunami risk. Clifford Bay is rated highly in the Marlborough Hazards Register

·         School closures

·         Possible reduction  in medical services

·         Picton businesses significant loss of revenue

·         Stress for Picton people, especially business owners

·          lack of further investment in existing businesses by current owners

·         Possible fall in property prices

Sources of above: Wild Tomato, issue 78 January 2013, ‘Picton Sailing into Stormy Waters’ pp.41-43; Picton business survey (done independently by Sarah O’Bryan), reported in Marlborough Express, 29 January 2013; ongoing articles in Marlborough Express.

   The Marlborough District Council has signed a confidentiality agreement with the Government not to reveal outcomes of any discussions on the proceedings which is a concern for citizens who believe they have a democratically elected local body.

   Some people are talking about Picton becoming a Destination instead of a place that people pass through on their way to somewhere else, and how good that will be for the town. Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee is quoted as saying:  ‘Picton could become another Queenstown’, but is this a reality? He might ‘love’ Picton and have a holiday house in the Marlborough Sounds but Queenstown as Marlborough’s Mayor Alistair Sowman points out, has an international airport. Others say the loss of the ferries will mean the loss of one million plus travellers each year with a subsequent loss of revenue both for Port Marlborough and Marlborough business owners.  As my father says Queenstown also has Coronet Peak and winter activities like skiing and related festivals so they also have a marvellous winter venue, a time when many Picton businesses suffer.

   I suggest you enter the discussion and have your say at the scheduled public meetings.

   My favourite aunt has just passed away in Auckland, my father’s sister.  Her home was always full of books, art works on loan from the public library and exuberant conversation. It’s a reminder to get on and do all the things one wants to do.

 

I write entirely to find out what I am thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear – Joan Didion (1934 – )

It’s a wonderful day today with an abundance of rain which is continuing all day. The ground was desperate for a good soaking after all the winds we have had over Christmas and New Year. Today the north-westerly wind gusts are strong and a lot of small boats are heading into the harbour for shelter. All the garden furniture has been blown over again and the wind chimes have gone crazy, nothing Gregorian about them today.

   There were so many holiday makers in the supermarket on Tuesday - thought they would have all gone home by now. I only wanted a few vegetables and had to queue for ages. In the process I wondered why so many people were buying marshmallows  then came home, checked my email and realised that the ‘Food in a Minute’ sweet treat this week requires marshmallows among other ‘sweet’ things.

  Yesterday I was on duty at the artisans’ market in the mall. I didn’t think anyone would be spending at all after Christmas so took The Listener to read. Surprisingly it was steady all day and everyone bought something different, doll’s clothes, earrings, a colourful print dress for a two-year-old, 3D cards, a bag for storing plastic bags (some in very elegant fabric), a wonderful elongated cheese platter made out of recycled wine barrels with stains from the red wine still visible. There is obviously a demand for hand crafted goods and items not produced in China. The handmade soap is very popular and the sleep balm (both lavender and spearmint). I read recently that doctors were prescribing more and more sleeping tablets as their patents were demanding them.

NZ King Salmon farms

   Through the detailed reporting in the newspaper on this issue we are certainly learning a lot about the environment we live in.

 Frankenfish

   Horrors, it’s a genetic modification that was developed in Canada. They combined an Atlantic salmon egg that included genes from a Chinook salmon and an eel-like fish called the ocean pout. Apparently these salmon would grow twice as fast taking 18 months rather than three years to reach maturity. NZ King Salmon admits the company has some of this GM material, they say they have to keep up with technology but do not plan to use it and will dispose of it. Disposal of this kind of material is apparently a long and complicated process which they will apply for in the future – worrying. The concern is what would happen if they did conduct a trial research project and genetically modified salmon escaped from their farms in an area such as the Marlborough Sounds. (Marlborough Express 8 January 2013).

King Shags threatened

   There are also fears for the king shag population. These birds, among the world’s rarest seabirds, are found only in Marlborough. The EPA Board referred to king shags as the ‘canary in the coalmine’, as regards the salmon farm expansion. I presume this means if the numbers of king shags start to decline the company will know the water in the relevant Sound has become polluted. NZ King Salmon is required to count the king shags before and after creating the new farms. The Board did not specify what a ‘significant decline’ in the numbers of king shags would be. An increase in algae levels or water pollution from increased nitrogen levels created by the fish waste could be detrimental to the shags. They need pure clear water so they can see and are able to dive deep enough to collect their food. (‘Bird scientist fears for rare shags’, Marlborough Express 9 January 2013). In an earlier article in the Marlborough Express Peter Jerram also wrote an opinion piece on the issue of water quality and the salmon farms.

Rainbow Warrior 3

   Rainbow Warrior 3 has been blessed in NZ while on a visit. It was 1985 when the Rainbow Warrior was sunk and the two French were charged. I can’t decide: does this seem a long time ago or not, and don’t you get annoyed when the TV announcer sounds so knowledgeable when after all they are only reading from a script. I shouldn’t be so critical because last night was the first night for ages that I have actually been able to receive TV One.  It’s been on the blink for days with one second of TV followed by one second of a blank screen and a loud noise – with no apology that I could see. The same thing happened for a few days after the West Coast went digital. I’ve missed two episodes of Vera.
  
   Talking about the media Paul Holmes doesn’t sound too good and the family have asked the Governor General to bring forward the date of his investiture and to have it in Hawkes Bay, possibly at his home. The Bush fires in Tasmania and NSW look terrifying. Several NZ fire fighters have gone to assist. One fire fighter was interviewed on TV and said he was concerned (maybe they all were), about working in that heat as temperatures are in the 40s in NSW and might even reach 50 degrees in Sydney and they are not used to it. It was 35 degrees here on Christmas Day and that was hot. We were sitting in the shade and I suggested moving inside to the air conditioned interior but no-one had the energy to even move.

Top books 2012

Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies (Henry VIII and Cromwell’s England)

Kevin Powell, Yellow Birds (War in Iraq)                     

Top films

   Personally I was disappointed with the range of movies in 2012 and I think 2013 looks much better with Quartet/Les Miserables/Frank and Robot in cinemas or due for release shortly. These are ‘must sees’ for me. If I have to choose for 2012 it would be The Hobbit simply because of the immense admiration I have for film makers who can create such worlds.  At times I thought certain scenes went on too long but in discussion with others they didn’t agree (on the scenes that is – they agreed  that some scenes went on too long but it was a different scene!). Anyway I thought The Hobbit was magnificent.

   Also I would recommend Take this Waltz – a very interesting film about love, lust, infatuation, marriage and commitment and the importance of family – you might have to see it twice.  A film my Christchurch friends say I must see is The Sessions. Well, it hasn’t even been screened here in Marlborough at all.  Is that weird? I guess I will have to wait for the DVD.

Next week:
 
   More on the proposed move of the ferries to Clifford Bay, south of Seddon, and the threat to Hector’s Dolphins, the salt works at Grassmere and Picton’s own future if it goes ahead. Yesterday it was reported that the Marlborough District Council has signed a confidentiality agreement with the Ministry of Transport so they can be kept informed and this was followed up in another article again today (Marlborough Express Thursday 10 January).

Kia Kaha