Look deep into Nature and you will understand everything better.

–  Albert Einstein

Friday, 10 May:  Beautiful day yesterday but wild and extremely windy today with rain forecast.

   A Katherine Mansfield sculpture has just been unveiled in Midland Park in Wellington. Words from her writing are etched into metal and I believe her hair is created from metal strips containing the shopping lists that appeared in her Notebooks. The sculptor is Virgina King. See www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org and Beattie’s Book Blog for photographs.

Salmon farms update
  
   The Ministry of Primary Industry granted $600,000 to the Salmon Improvement Group from the Sustainable Farming Fund to study deformities in king (chinook) salmon in New Zealand. The Marlborough District Council is going to have a close look at the latest monitoring results for NZ King Salmon fish farms in the Marlborough Sounds (Marlborough Express, 26 April, 2013, p.5).

World news
  
   Having just got over worrying about North Korea and its nuclear threat now we have Syria and the alleged use of the nerve gas Sarin and whether US President Barack Obama who says Syria has crossed ‘a red line’ will now be obliged to do something. Israel seems to think he should in case the weapons of mass destruction fall into the hands of terrorists. Fortunately as a distraction I am reading a lovely book about the White House garden and Michelle Obama. It’s very inspiring and yesterday I planted leeks and bok choy and added compost to one garden bed.

Queen Mary and Captain James Cook display [Spectrum 21 April 2013]

   Some of you know I am writing about Captain James Cook and the time he spent at Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound (over 100 days).  I heard an interview with Dame Anne Salmond on board the Queen Mary. Interestingly the captain said that a lot of New Zealand is best viewed from the sea like Auckland and Wellington Harbour and the Marlborough Sounds. The ship is circumnavigating New Zealand following the route that Cook took in the 18^th Century. When they were in the ballroom the captain said there were male escorts available on the Queen Mary for women who didn’t have a partner.
   An exhibition of Cook memorabilia from the Museum of New South Wales is currently on display on board the Queen Mary. There is very tight security. There are letters handwritten by Cook to John Walker, his mentor in Whitby. Also among the items is a handwritten account of Cook’s first days in New Zealand in Gisborne. Joseph Banks, the wealthy naturalist who helped fund the First Voyage thought they had discovered Terra Australis, the continent that was presumed to exist on this side of the world to balance the European continent. This was the secret mission of the First Voyage as outlined in written instructions to Cook. Generally it was thought the purpose was to observe the Transit of Venus. You can hear the interview on Radio New Zealand National’s website. Cook also wrote to his wife Elizabeth in England also but apparently she destroyed all the letters.

Katherine Mansfield Celebration Weekend  

   The programme outlined below makes me wonder if now I have the rights back I should look at having my book Katherine Mansfield in Picton published as an e-book. It’s out of print now. It was selected by the NZ Society of Authors to be on show at the Frankfurt Book Fair last year when New Zealand was the guest Country of Honour.

   I would like to add the photograph of Katherine Mansfield sitting in a deck chair in France as it seems to symbolise the more relaxed lifestyle in Marlborough. Also when Granny Dyer (nee Mansfield), Annie Beauchamp’s mother, brought the three children to Picton for Easter (c. April 1889), when Katherine Mansfield was only 6 months old, I stated in the book that the Beauchamp parents were in England. In actual fact they didn’t go to England until November. Also I would put all  the endnotes at the end of the book rather than at the end of each section.

Programme (to be confirmed), celebrating the 125th anniversary of Katherine Mansfield’s birth in Wellington, (born Sunday, 14 October 1888).
   Note the ferry trip from Wellington to Picton in the South Island on Saturday, 12 October to view places associated with her and her family that inspired her short story ‘The Voyage’. Very exciting.

Celebrating Katherine Mansfield

A long weekend of tours, events and performances celebrating the 125th anniversary of Katherine Mansfield’s birth in Wellington.
Friday 11 October – Monday 14 October 2013

Tentative Programme

Day One (Friday 11th) Registration, Concert & Cocktail Party 6.00–9.00pm
A cello and piano concert at St. John’s in the City followed by a cocktail Party at the Thistle Inn.

Day Two (Saturday 12th) The Voyage 8.00am–5.30pm
A return voyage on the Inter-Island Ferry to visit the homes of Katherine Mansfield’s paternal grandparents in Picton, view the sailing vessel Edwin Fox and visit other sites.

Day Three (Sunday 13th) Katherine Mansfield’s Wellington 10.00am–5.00pm
Morning Programme: Thorndon & Karori: commencing at Katherine Mansfield’s Birthplace and visiting the Zigzag, Katherine Mansfield Park and other nearby locations associated with KM and her stories. Travel by bus to Karori to visit Chesney Wold and Karori School, before proceeding to the Thistle Inn for Lunch. Afternoon Programme: At the Bay: Travel by bus to Eastbourne to visit the cottage at Days Bay once owned by KM’s family and the ‘At the Bay’ house at Muritai. Return to the Pavilion at Days Bay for afternoon tea and a reading of ‘At the Bay’, before returning by Harbour Ferry to Queens Wharf.

Day Four (Monday 14th) Katherine Mansfield’s Birthday 10.00am–2.00pm
Meet at the Sculpture of Katherine Mansfield in Midland Park. Proceed on a conducted tour of the Wellington Writers’ Walk, stopping for lunch on the waterfront.
(The afternoon is free for people to visit Te Papa Museum the shops, etc., before the Celebration Dinner)
Celebration Dinner 7.30 pm. Including readings and items relating to Katherine Mansfield.

To register interest or for further details please contact the organiser: k.boon@clear.net.nz or P.O. Box 22011, Wellington 6441, N.Z or (04)4793264

http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org/

[Note: above item copied from NZ Society of Authors e-newsletter, 10 May 2013 www.authors.org.nz]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.

– Dale Carnegie

I often think that I should have more fun in my life.

   I do enjoy writing as you can get completely immersed in the process but it is a solitary occupation. For this reason I like attending Writers’ meetings and helping others with their writing projects.

   I read in the Listener (6 April), about an author, Elizabeth Strout, who said she didn’t enjoy books in the same way she used to as a teenager so that got me thinking. I think I’m still OK with reading. I’m enjoying Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver and Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan by William Dalrymple, Bloomsbury 2013, and The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin and along Blueskin Road by James Norcliffe. Looking forward to reading Kate Atkinson’s Life after Life and The Elegant Garden (this is waiting for me to collect it at the library though I will probably have to wait a lot longer for the novel).

   I think coffee and/or a glass of wine with friends might be one of my favourite things. We are lucky to have a great cafe here with a sea view and outside tables. I wish the Council would close the road to traffic though as sometimes a delivery van parks directly outside or a huge campervan on the other side completely obliterates the view. Also the historic ship Echo on Shelly Beach has been upgraded. Current owners have cut a hole in the side for easy access and over winter will be opening the ship up on the opposite side and building a platform out over the marina. This should be popular on summer evenings.

   Yesterday (22 April) was the last day of the Cruise Ship Season. There were 2,500 passengers on Radiance of the Seas here in port from 1.00-9.00pm. Many would have gone by bus to Marlborough wineries and places like the Omaka Museum. Others enjoyed the town. Next season there will be 15 cruise ships visiting. See the Port Marlborough website for details when they are posted.

Salmon farms update

   On Monday those parties that appealed the decision of the Environment Protection Authority (EPA), as regards setting up four new salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds have been called to the High Court in Wellington. The session will not be open to the public. For details of who will be attending see Marlborough Express, 19 April, p.4.

Rats

According to the radio large numbers of rats are emerging after the long dry summer followed by the rain and cooler temperatures. My cat caught a huge rat the other day and proudly displayed it at my feet. I quickly closed the French doors so she didn’t bring it inside. I will have to go to the supermarket to buy Talon before it sells out.

Vinyl

 
Did you hear that vinyl records are making a comeback? I still play mine. I especially like the classical records with the crackles and the physical action of having to get up and turn them over to play the other side.  
 

E-book Singles

   In my blog last week and at the talk I gave at Bookchat I mentioned a book by Kathleen Jones that I consider to be the most definitive biography of Katherine Mansfield’s life to date. Here’s some news:

   Bridget Williams Books in Wellington has just launched a group of New Zealand E-book Singles and they've included a stand-alone chapter from Katherine Mansfield: The Story-teller, by Kathleen Jones which deals with Mansfield's last days and her death at Fontainebleau.
It's called 'I think . . . I am going to die' and it's available from BWB in all e-book formats or from Amazon.
   BWB describe it as:
'This moving, beautifully written chapter from Kathleen Jones’s biography Katherine Mansfield: The Story-teller (2010), describes Mansfield’s last days and death at a chateau near Paris, the centre of a spiritual movement led by the mysterious Russian philosopher-mystic Georges Gurdjieff. '
For more info, please go to: http://www.bwb.co.nz/books/i-think-i-am-going-to-die

[Note: Above item was copied from a Katherine Mansfield Society e-news item. These short items of interest are sent out frequently to Society subscribers]

Google glasses and watches

   I am not sure about the watches that you will be able to wear on your wrist that connect to your smart phone and tell you when you are receiving an email or a text. This sounds like an anti social activity to me. Apparently you still have to use the phone to make a call. A radio programme I really like listenig to is 'This Way Up' on a Saturday afternoon on Radio NZ National. It follows on from Kim Hill's programme (after the news at midday).

Boston

   Boston people must be feeling relieved that police have caught the brother suspected of being responsible for the bombings during the marathon. It is reported that he can’t talk and can only write down answers to questions. Have you seen the photograph of the other brother's wife, described as an 'All-American girl' who had been 'brainwashed' by her husband.

Gluten free porridge and Anzac biscuits

   Most of the year I have muesli for breakfast but in winter I like something warm. I have discovered a newish product: Good Health Rice flakes. They make a lovely porridge in the microwave. For one serving put 1/2 cup of rice flakes into a microwave dish with ½ cup of milk or water/milk combined. (I have a small glass bowl with a lid that I use for cooking frozen peas and so on). Cook on High for 45 seconds, stir and cook again on High for 45 seconds then let stand for 2-3 minutes. You can also cook it in a pot on the stove but microwave dishes are easier to clean. I add cranberries or goji berries, milk and yoghurt and dark brown sugar.

   This week I am going to make Anzac Biscuits. I always used to make the recipe from Lois Daish that appeared in the Listener when she was writing the recipe column. I substitute rolled oats with rice flakes but sometimes it’s hard to get the mixture right because they absorb moisture differently.  This can also depend on the temperature in the kitchen .The biscuits either crumble or are very crunchy. Still I will persevere and try the recipe from Joan Bishop’s cookbook, A Southern Woman’s Kitchen. (I will replace the rolled oats as I don’t think they are gluten free though some people might be OK with them.). Any advice welcome. I often make a 'Health slice' which is a similar recipe. This also has varying reults. If it's too crumbly I just use it as a topping for or apple and bluberry crumble or feijoa crumble at this time of the year.

   I am fortunate to own a copy of the above book. I took it out of the library then went to lunch with a group of Poet friends. I couldn’t finish my salad as it was a generous serving so I asked for a small container to take it home. When I got home I discovered that the balsamic dressing had gone all over the book tinting many of the pages a light pink. I had to pay for a replacement copy and was given the damaged book in return. Still cookery books don’t stay pristine for long and it’s a reminder of an enjoyable lunch.

Literary events:

I’m only including the events I am tempted by and some of which I may attend. For fuller coverage of upcoming events the NZ Society of Authors is developing a Calendar of events on its website www.authors.co.nz to replace their current ‘Death by deadline’ section, a phrase I have always loved. Note If I knew more about the design elements of blogging I could put this information into a box of some kind rather than just tacking it onto the end (or the beginning like last week).

24 April, 10.45am. A short story by TOS Branch committee member, Lindsay Wood, will be broadcast on Radio NZ National.

3 May, 6-8pm: Marlborough Museum and Blenheim Bookworld are hosting an evening with long-time owner of Tan’s second-hand bookshop in Scott Street in Blenheim. Tickets are available from Blenheim Bookworld (selling fast). Contact: 578 1712 or email info@marlboroughmuseum.org.nz

15-19 May: Auckland Writers and Readers Festival www.writersfestival.co.nz

17/18 May: author and poet James Norcliffe is taking a weekend poetry workshop in Blenheim. 16 participants are needed for it to go ahead.  See flyers in the Blenheim and Picton Libraries or to register contact: dotscot@kinect.co.nz (Note: only one ‘t’ in Scott).

25 May: AGM, Top of the South Branch of NZ Society of Authors in Nelson @ 2pm at the Hearing House.

7-9 June: AGM, NZ Society of Authors, Dunedin. See latest New Zealand Author for registration details.

14 October: 125^th anniversary of Katherine Mansfield’s birth. Wellington author and tour guide, Kevin Boon, is organising a weekend of activities in Wellington including a day trip to Picton.

 

If her words were set before us unknown and unplaced I think that we would lift our noses like dogs to the wind and smell our country. I think we would know the Picton boat and morning at the bay.

Eileen Duggan writing on Katherine Mansfield, Selected Poems, Victoria University Press, 1994, p.128. 

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My thoughts go to all those people in Boston in the United States who have been part of an horrific and terrifying event. A day which should have been a celebration of life turned to tragedy, three people dead and over 100 wounded, some seriously. It seems so senseless.

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Coming literary events:

15-19 May: Auckland Writers and Readers Festival www.writersfestival.co.nz

17/18 May: author and poet James Norcliffe is taking a weekend poetry workshop in Blenheim. 16 participants are needed for it to go ahead.  See flyers in the Blenheim and Picton Libraries for registration contact details.
14 October: 125^th anniversary of Katherine Mansfield’s birth. Wellington author and tour guide, Kevin Boon, is organising a weekend of activities in Wellington including a day trip to Picton. More on this closer to the time.

   Last month I talked about attending the Katherine Mansfield Conference in Wellington and a new pictorial book Katherine Mansfield's New Zealand at the Bookchat session that I usually attend monthly at the library. March was New Zealand Book Month and the librarian (and Council service centre manager), Eleanor Bensemann, thought this could be a good topic. Some people missed the talk so I will outline it in this blog post.

Katherine Mansfield:

 Born 14 October 1888, visits Picton and the Marlborough Sounds a number of times with members of her family, left New Zealand never to return on 6 July 1908, died in France, 9 January 1923, aged 34.

   Katherine Mansfield was born Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp in Wellington on 14 October 1888. Mansfield was her mother’s maiden name and she took the name Katherine Mansfield in 1907. Until she left New Zealand (never to return), in 1908 Katherine Mansfield came many times to Picton and the Marlborough Sounds with her family to holiday and visit relatives. The first time she came to Picton was in 1889 when she was only six months old. In a letter to John Middleton Murry, who became her husband, she refers to: ‘premier voyage age de six mois’.

   Her maternal grandmother, Grannie Dyer, brought the children to Picton for Easter to visit their grandparents. Arthur and Mary Beauchamp arrived in Picton in 1861. He set up business in Wellington Street. You can see the store in an early Tyree photograph of Picton. In 1889 Thomas Philpotts purchased the business. The building has since been demolished and it woiuld be good to have a marker plaque near the alleyway between shops where the business was sited. Katherine Mansfield’s father, Harold Beauchamp, went to Picton School before the family relocated to Beatrix Bay in the Sounds. This would have been quite an isolated existence.

   The boat the Beauchamps often travelled on to Picton was the SS Penguin.  It hit Thoms Rock (or floating wreckage), near Karori Rock and was wrecked in Cook Strait on 12 February 1909 and 75 people died.  When the boat left Picton it was a lovely sunny day but the weather deteriorated and visibility was limited by the time the boat reached Cook Strait. Katherine Mansfield would have been upset by this event hearing about it when she was in England.

   Also in 1909 Katherine Mansfield’s brother Leslie (Chummie), and her two sisters visit their grandparents and stay at Oxley’s Hotel on the waterfront in Picton. Leslie is not impressed with the hotel and feels they have eaten rather too many scones during the visit. They keep an illustrated journal during the trip which includes Nelson and send this to Katherine Mansfield in England. Arthur Beauchamp, their grandfather, is in bed when they visit and this may have provided the idea for the ending of the story, ‘The Voyage’ written in 1921.

   In 1921 Katherine Mansfield goes to Switzerland and writes many of her best known stories including ‘The Voyage’,  published in 1922 in a collection The Garden Party and other stories’ (includes ‘The Garden Party’, ‘At the Bay’ and ‘The Voyage’). There is a lovely illustration of the ferry done by artist Susan Wilson in the Folio Society’s Collected Short Stories of Katherine Mansfield (just inside cover):

Lying beside the dark wharf, all strung, all beaded with round golden lights, the Picton boat looked as if she was more ready to sail among stars than out into the cold sea.

   In my talk I focussed on the book Katherine Mansfield’s New Zealand extensively revised by Richard Patterson of Steele Roberts. This is a great publication with excellent design work. The only sad thing is the loss of the original cover which was a reproduction of a Frances Hodgkin’s painting, The Picnic, but it may be more relevant to today’s readers. The book now includes more information about Picton than the first edition and two more large photographs. I couldn’t find a publication date for the original edition I own published by Viking, however inside the revised edition it says: ‘the first edition of Katherine Mansfield’s New Zealand appeared in 1974’. I provided details to Steele Roberts about the location of Waitohi House which is mentioned in a newspaper clipping they wanted to include in the Picton section of the book. Mrs Beauchamp and two children stayed there while visiting Picton. The heading on the newspaper column where the notice appears is: ‘More or less personal’.

   Thanks to Mike Taylor at the Picton Museum for his assistance. Several images of Waitohi House can be ordered from the museum’s website at $8.50 for a digital image. The image used in the book shows Devon Street near Picton School with Picton Harbour in the background.

   I mentioned a book by Kathleen Jones which I think is the most definitive account of Katherine Mansfield’s life to date. She does suggest that the boat in the story fragment ‘The New Baby’ is visiting small isolated bays round Wellington whereas I believe the boat was in the Sounds on an excursion and possibly also doing a mail run which Beachcomber Cruises based in Picton still continue.

Tuberculosis (TB)

   How did Katherine Mansfield contract Tuberculosis (TB)? She came from a wealthy background and it is thought to be a disease associated with poverty though it is highly contagious. If left untreated it kills more than 50% of those affected. We did discuss the question of tuberculosis and many of the audience had personal family stories to relate about those in their own families who had passed away from this disease.

   Some thoughts: After Katherine Mansfield had a miscarriage in Bavaria, her close friend Ida Baker arranged for a young boy recovering from pleurisy to come out from England to keep Katherine Mansfield company for a while. He arrived with a placard around his neck like a parcel. Some think he might have had TB and passed it on to her. The Murry’s were very friendly with David and Frieda Lawrence for a time. In 1914 at the time of his marriage to Frieda, Lawrence was coughing blood into a handkerchief but telling no-one.  By the time of Katherine Mansfield’s death in 1923 D H Lawrence himself was seriously ill with tuberculosis. Some think she might have contracted TB from him. There was some discussion as to why her husband wasn’t affected by TB.

Why didn’t Katherine Mansfield go into a Sanatorium?

   I had always assumed that if she had gone into a sanatorium when first diagnosed then she might have lived longer. However listening to some of the personal stories told by people in the Bookchat group people didn’t always survive even if they were admitted to a sanatorium.

   In December 1917 Katherine Mansfield is diagnosed with TB and has her first tubercular haemorrhage. She writes in her Journal: ‘Bright red blood’. In 1918 on her birthday her father Harold Beauchamp arranged for a family relation who was a doctor to examine her. He advised a sanatorium.

   There wasn’t time to discuss the well known painting by Katherine Mansfield’s artist friend, Anne Drey (painting under the name of Anne Estelle Rice). Anne painted the portrait of Katherine Mansfield but held onto it herself. It is now part of the national collection at Te Papa in Wellington. The Director of the Tauranga Art Gallery suggested that the brick red colour of the dress could be a symbol suggesting the disease that was to kill her.

   At the end of January 1922 Katherine Mansfield goes to Paris with Ida Baker to receive radiation therapy from Dr Manoukhin. In early October she goes to Paris again with Ida seeking a cure for TB. She writes in her Journal ‘Risk Risk anything’. This quote of hers is one of the quotations on the circular brick pathway at Anakiwa where the Outward Bound School is. Her great uncle Cradock and his wife Harriet farmed at Anakiwa in the 1860s and the Outward Bound School is on the site of the earlier Anakiwa Guesthouse run by Ethel Beauchamp Hazelwood, a cousin and contemporary of Katherine Mansfield.

  Katherine Mansfield goes to Gurdjieff’s Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man on 16 October 1922 seeking spiritual peace if not a miracle. She thought of him as a guru, someone who could possibly save her life, possibly he was a charlatan. For the first two weeks she was in luxurious accommodation then she was moved to a simpler room. She was so cold she wore her fur coat all the time. She helped in the kitchen and took part in the dancing but did not dig the gardens. She was also advised to sit in the hayloft over the cows as part of the cure.

   On 9 January 1923 in the evening Katherine Mansfield dies at Fontainebleau (approx 60 kms from Paris), aged 34 after another haemorrhage. She had run up the stairs to her bedroom ahead of Murry on the first evening of his visit. Among her family and friends at the funeral were her husband John Middleton Murry, her two sisters Charlotte (Chaddie), and Jeanne, lifetime companion Ida Baker and close friend Dorothy Brett. She is buried in the cemetery at Avon. The inscription on her headstone reads:

   Katherine Mansfield, wife of John Middleton Murry, 1888-1923. Born at Wellington, New Zealand. Died at Avon.

    The epitaph on the grave, chosen by John Middleton Murry, is one of Katherine Mansfield’s favourite lines from Shakespeare: Henry IV, Act II, Scene III 

   But I tell you my Lord fool, out of this nettle, danger we pluck this flower, safety.

 

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!