The Wedding
I went to a wedding last Sunday. There were about 150 there. One of the everlasting memories was being in a room that was in part, a nursery. Children were congregating there, though not exclusively, there was food and general conviviality, it was also the exciting room where the presents were piling up. It really struck me to see how relaxed the children were with each other, introductions clearly not necessary. I would have liked to photograph these two in more detail but I was using the flash, and didn’t want to disturb them.
While the wedding was in New Zealand, there were Bangladeshi and Muslim facets. I came away from the event thinking that if there were more International weddings like this, the world would be a better place.
Leaning Pine
On Tuesday I was in Canterbury on a lonely road near Hanmer Springs driving, travelling on my own. I’d seen a lot of landscape over the previous few days but these sturdy pine trees, all with a precise lean to the left, totally captured me. The prevailing winds in this area are admired for their force, there is even a settlement called Windwhistle. This wind, over the life of individuals such as those in this forest, have, bonsai like, shaped them. I’ve never seen anything like it, their powerful trunks, all at I would say, 15 degrees from the vertical.
This particular forest is very tidy and precise. The trunks have been groomed, the timber has less knots that way. But equally importantly, in this forest there are black cattle grazing on the undergrowth and making it lawnish. One is there as a small black dot right in the middle of the picture. I thank them because they helped this photo concentrate on the tree torsos and helped in giving this landscape, for me, a rush.
When I was little I used to go to the movies every Saturday, in a tiny Northland town called Ohaeawai, this was post-war rural New Zealand. The programme always included a black and white newsreel. For only a few minutes, one Saturday night, I might have been about 10, there was a clip about a garden in Japan where a gardener was, at the top of a tall elegant ladder, using equally elegant scissors, tenderly clipping the dead needles and twigs from a very large pine tree. Over decades it was being made into a work of art. The gardening ethic could not have been more different to that in which I was being raised. Those few electric minutes educated me in a way that has enriched my life.
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Studio View
Here is the entrance to my New Plymouth studio. The entrance is in the centre, right below the power line, one has to duck under the Tamarillo which I’ve been training to form an arch. The pendulous warm-looking red fruit, when left on the tree, are decorative in winter and great for breakfast too.
The blue that you see is the only colour used for the entire house, inside and out, except for the ceilings which are white. It’s Resene Tranquil. I particularly didn’t want to have the window frames looking different.
Below is a photograph of a New Plymouth view that I enjoy, across the road from where the proposed Len Lye centre is to be built, next door to the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery.
It reminds me too of this photograph of the Three Sisters landmark in North Taranaki, an hours drive north my New Plymouth studio. A month after this photo was taken one of the Sisters collapsed during a storm, the middle sister, the ‘skinny sister’.
I have a trust called ‘The Three Sisters Trust’.
Studio View Here is one studio view that I have taken while back in New Plymouth.
Two of the photos on the wall are ones that I have taken in the last few days, on the left the industrial looking one, and on the right the fish fillet. Sorry that I took this in black and white, I was playing around with the settings on my camera. Still maybe black and white is good.
The piano is a restored Seegers, made in England in the 50’s. I like the look of it, it’s quite compact and has a lovely mellow sound. I just tinker around but two Christian evangelists who just rang my doorbell, said that they were sorry to interrupt my beautiful playing! They know how to say the right things! Where do I sign?
I have taken the opportunity to practise over this week, I’ve been neglecting my piano in the last few months.
The two dolls are ones that I have seen and not been able to resist. The sock monkey on the right is one I bought in Christchurch a few days ago. I’ve tried photographing both of these dolls. I have others as well.
The pot plant is one grown from cuttings. It’s a begonia that looks as if it got too near to Chernobyl.
Below that are a couple of steam engines. Sometimes, I fire these engines up, particularly if
friends are here. They have a lot of personality when they are running.
The round white faced instrument measures temperature and humidity. I bought it in Muji in Tokyo. I like knowing these measurements.