Not sure about this

 

Before and after in the hallway - now it's done I'm not sure I like it! Well, I'm going to have to like it, I'm not doing it all again. The door on the left and the light surround are going to be burnt orange. Perhaps that will pick it up a bit. (The tassels are from my Ganesh-pol over the door, a woven tapestry-thing that has Ganesh on it, ensuring that only persons with good intentions enter over the threshold. Ganesh is the god of doorways, remover of obstacles and blesser of new initiatives.)

 

More gardening today. It's scary what a mess the garden can be in before I realise how messy it is. I went to Oderings annual plant-sale. It's become a little ritual, like going to the spring fairs. As usual the controversy over whether retail traders should be open over Easter has raised its weary head. The Christians say no, we should have some respect; the non-Christians say who are you to tell us to respect something we don't believe in. Gardening is my religion; I worship the Creatress every time I go out in my garden, so buying plants is part of that worship. The Easter weather has been gorgeous, warm and balmy and dry, unlike the poor persons in parts of the Northern Hemisphere who are having snow at Easter for the first time in living memory. No doubt our turn will come.

 

I seem to have acquired another cat. Only a part-time one, but little Puss-puss from over the road seems to spend more time over here lately. He went to sleep in the garden this afternoon while I gardened, and was fascinated with the watering. He seems to have hurt himself, and hisses when I put my hand on his back. Poor wee soul, hope he'll be alright.

Today in pictures

Today is a day off for me, so what did I do? I went and had coffee with my friend Maggie at the local cafe. Nice apple and raspberry tart and good talk.
  I continued on with my repainting the hallway, which I started yesterday, and the ceiling of the laundry, which the EQCers forgot. I've gotten tired of the eau-de-nil in the hall and am now painting it a sort of pinky orange, a shade called Romantic. (So of course, singing "Isn't it romantic..."). Lots of climbing up and down  the ladder, tiring really but fun to see the colour change. Will post before and afters after I've finished.
  

             Thomas had a ten-minute "psychocat" session, jumping around things and off things

 

Pretty David Austin rose "Crown Princess Margarethe"

 

 

Explosion of asters and dahlias - the bees love the asters

 

 

Emma bedded down on the drop-cloths in the hallway

 

 

Puss-puss came over for a visit and played with Thomas's favourite toy, a green duster

 

 

(Thomas was on the bed, sleeping off  his "psychocat" session).

The days are just packed!

 

 

 

 

Aliens

Here's a thought. (It's one of those wide awake at 4am thoughts, when one's mind just rambles around aimlessly).
   When you see depictions of aliens, how come they never have genitalia? Or breasts? This must signify that 1) they reproduce asexually (or have hidden genitalia) 2) they are not mammals (or have hidden breasts). They don't seem to be sexually dimorphic, but there are big ones and small ones. From this, some observers have drawn the conclusion that the big ones are male and the small ones female. But isn't this anthropocentric? Perhaps the big ones are female and the small ones male.

Second 4am thought. If you could go back in time and bring something back, wouldn't it be fun to kidnap a medieval peasant and bring him/her back and show him/her round your house? It's full of magical stuff - electricity for starters. It's an invisible energy source that is carried to the house in small wires. It's not hot, but can heat your home and cook your food. It can kill you, but mostly it's taken for granted. And microwaves - sheer sorcery. The food cooks but the cooker doesn't get hot?  That is truly a weirding way. And cars (a wagon without a horse). And phones (talking to people through a wire). To say nothing of smart phones and cell-phones (talking to people through the air). The peasant would probably have a breakdown just trying to take it all in.

So let's put these two thoughts together. Perhaps "aliens" are just humans from a far future time, come back to amuse themselves by mystifying us early-21st century peasants with their advanced technology and genderless sexuality?

Aaargh!

Plagued by annoying children in the Centre today. Mummy says 'Don't touch' so what happens? Darling kiddy touches as much as he/she can and drops stuff on the floor. Their high piping voices just make my teeth hurt. Whatever happened to quiet, good children? Went the way of corporal punishment I guess.

Una pittura bella

 

View across the Veneto plain from the Euganean Hills, Northern Italy. Oddly enough this looks very like the view of the Southern Alps from Banks Peninsula in Canterbury, NZ.

 

    Went to work today. Gorgeous autumn day, but I was at work so didn't see much of it. Life is pretty ho-hum just at the moment, no holidays planned so I'd better get working on it. Italy in September/October perhaps. October is a vile month in Christchurch, it's like a little winter, the weather seems to turn back on itself after giving us spring in September, so that might be a good time to go away. Back to Rome, then south to Naples, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast and Paestum to see the Greek ruins there. Then perhaps into Umbria to Asissi. Perhaps I'll see the new pope. I can't decide yet whether he's a breath of fresh air or the stench of decay from the crypt of the Dark Ages. Any bets on how long he lasts? Or why he goes - assassination, poisoning or stress-induced heart attack?

    Yesterday I went to the library's book fair. Loads and loads of books, almost too many really. I bought about 10 fiction books and a biography of Clark Gable, about whom I know nothing at all, except for his classic Rhett Butler role. The fiction I bought is nothing remarkable, but I like to have some unread stuff around the house in case I can't get to the library, or my choices are bad. I've read several unremarkable books lately - it's so disappointing when you think a book will be really good but isn't.

  Easter coming up, always a nice holiday, so much more relaxed than Christmas. There's not the same driven, compulsive quality as at Christmas, I hope it stays this way. Apart from Easter eggs and massive chocolate consumption, Easter hasn't been as commercialised as Christmas. And I really don't mind massive chocolate consumption at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rope making with harakeke fibre

Had an interesting day today, making rope from harakeke (NZ flax, Phormium tenax). Here a group are extracting the fibre from the long harakeke blades to weave together into a rope that will moor a mokihi (boat) to be part of an exhibition in the new information centre at the Christchurch Botanic Gardens.
    The theme of the exhibition is the use of plants in Canterbury, emphasising how much humans have relied on plants for survival. The harakeke was of prime importance to Maori, used for clothing, baskets, rope work, fish traps and nets, just about everything.
    The harakeke was cut at a pa harakeke, (a place set aside for harakeke cultivation) in a swamp reserve outside Christchurch. The pictures here are from another reserve, Travis Wetland. Christchurch has a great wealth of swampland, and was very rich in food and plant resources for Maori. Mokihi were the traditional shallow-bottomed boats used to travel from one part of the district to another, through the many interconnecting waterways.

  The long blades must be prepared by hand, cut through the outer layer of green tissue, and then stripped and scraped to reveal the long, durable fibres within. These are then plaited together to make a rope.

 

Traditionally, Maori used mussel shells for the scraping, but most of us used butter knives.

 

 

This is the fibre, which is then plaited together....

 

 

...to form a rope.

 

 

Other work for the production of the mokihi was also carried out. Here a ranger cuts raupo (bullrushes). Bundles of this are dried then lashed together on a frame of flax stalks.

 

 

The flowering stalks of harakeke from the previous season are stacked up awaiting storage. These will provide structure and buoyancy to the mokihi.

 

 

The best muka (fibre) is set aside to be used for kete (baskets).

 

So a very enjoyable, productive day in the early autumn sun. We'll go on to make the boat in the next months, and will hopefully float it across the lake with two willing volunteers later in the year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why am I still surfing the Net at 10.59pm?

Saw a funny cartoon recently. A little rabbit is surfing the net; he sees what the time is, says "It's so late! Why do I stay up and surf the Net instead of going to bed?" Next picture he's googling "Why do I stay up and surf the Net instead of going to bed?".
  I know why I do it. It's because if I go to bed and go to sleep the next thing I know it will be tomorrow morning and I'll have to get up early and go to work. It will be tomorrow eventually anyway, but if I stay up I can sort of see it coming, so it seems less traumatic somehow. God, that bloody alarm clock. No wonder we're all stressed. Is there anything worse than being woken artificially? We start the day with a jet of adrenalin and that can't be good, surely. I want a medical study carried out on how alarm clocks are dangerous to our health. How many lives are shortened because of that first thing in the morning fight-or-flight response?  It's groundhog day over and over again.
    "Put your tiny hand in mine....."
(or  "Half-past five, stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition...")