Public sculpture

There is not one single piece of public art in Whitianga my closest town. I intend to change that but it means meeting with the towns' philistines which I hate with a passion. I get sick and tired of defending art and of showing that artists are real people with real jobs. Maybe I should just drop my large vortex into the middle of the main street to reiterate that art is unavoidable. Our region has a long history of the arts but I think the pursuit of money has got in the way and the art community is regarded as sandal wearing curiosities.
So I will have to be underhanded and resort to such things as competition. Paeroa, a town as big as, but lesser in stature than Whitianga is having a large stone sculpture carved by friend Jocelyn Pratt and it was amazing to see the change in facial expressions when this was mentioned.
I know I am getting into a fight which I don't want or need but one has to keep battering at the wall till maybe one small crack might appear.

Yachting

So now I wish I had bought a monohull! I put Chica Bonita on the beach below us just after high tide, which was the easy bit, then had to scrape and polish two 36' hulls before the tide came in again. Eight hours of hard slog for a retired(tired) gentleman with little fitness. I can feel muscles I didn't know I had! She looks good though and will probably go another two knots faster
I didn't paint her bottom (although I am a painter of bottoms!) because I want to bring the colour up the bow in the outline of a woman (her name means lovely lady in Spanish) and turn her long hair into her name but I want to spend more time on the design to get it right.
We've had some great days sailing in the bay with my eldest daughter, son in law and two grandchildren who are visiting from Sydney and Denise slept on the boat for the first time and didn't feel sick which is a bonus but didn't sleep well and I woke up with bruises so it must have made me snore well (she forgot to take her ear plugs!).
I'm loving learning all the systems on board and planning improvements which will keep me off the streets for a while yet.

Perfect paua pasta

So you have beaten the paua from (last post) between a tea towel and mum has told you off because it's (the towel) all black and gooey but she loves you again when you present her with a perfect paua pasta!

Slice the paua, chop some garlic, put a great knob of butter in the pan and cook stirring for around 4 minutes on high heat. NOW YOU ARE BURNING THE GARLIC, BE MORE CAREFUL. Add sea salt and fresh ground pepper, half a teaspoon of green curry paste (OK whatever you've got!), some fresh parsley and a good dollop of fresh cream. Reduce for a couple of minutes until sauce thickens and add to your favourite pasta. Don't forget to taste the damn thing and adjust the flavours.

Key...... Some - use your imagination

Knob - too embarrassed to say

Around - more or less

Dollop - enough to do the job

Don't blame me if mum is still angry!

NZ paua

Our paua (par-wa), or abalone as the rest of the world knows it, is a black footed variety and virtually one large muscle which has to be cooked either very fast or very slow. There is a white part in the centre which, if sliced very thin, can be eaten raw with soy and wasabi and it can be tenderised by wrapping the whole thing in a tea towel and beating the shit out of it.

The meat is prized and costs NZ$140 so there is a big black market trade. And then of course after enjoying it as food you can marvel at the colours inside the shell!

Live music

Wow! We hosted the lovely Mel Parsons last night for her first gig on a nation wide tour to celebrate the release of her debut album 'Over my shoulder'. Beautiful voice, inspired song writing and all delivered with a down to earth country girl (Westport) innocence.
Then there was her band! Keyboard, guitar, double bass and percussion, I don't know about their name (the Rhythm Kings) but they sure could play music! After Mel finished and most punters had gone home they jammed for an hour and treated us to something very special. Sometimes music just works, it can't be forced, the individuals join to become one organism ebbing and flowing between each other and we could see they loved playing music.
So lift that cold, grey day and go out and support live music at a venue near you. It'll rock your socks!

Boating

The joys of boating! I've spent the last three days with my head in diesel motors. Learning a lot though and better now than on the high seas. I've never owned a diesel before apart from an old truck and that never missed a beat, the boat engines (two 13hp nanni kubotas) seem simple enough. One works fine, the other is leaking oil and sea water (water pump seals) and won't run at full revs which I presume is lack of fuel.
I did some single handed sailing yesterday in 20 knots. I'm glad I fixed the auto pilot, it makes things so much easier and allowed me to catch six kahawai trolling and the dinghy and the rudder!! She sails well and seems to catch fish. Believe it or not, some boats don't!

Autumn shades of amber grain

Autumn is upon us. It's 6.45am and only just becoming light and a coolish 10 degrees. Summer is withdrawing her favours but her beauty is still apparent with cloudless skys and little wind. The oyster catcher chicks on the beach are flying but are still a dull black without the brilliant red feet and beaks of their parents and the shining cuckoos' call can be heard no more, presumably on the journey back to the Solomon Islands like a rat from a sinking ship. Frivolous bird, expecting summer all year round!

I love the changing of the seasons here. They are soft renewals without violence. You just get used to one then another nudges you awake and reminds you of a picnic on the sand or dinner by the hearth or birth or decay.

The cold, clear mornings also bring the john dory onto the beach. Disorientated in the shallow water, they are left high and dry by the receding tide and grace my table with their succulent flesh.

Ahhh... a life well lived.

Art and music

A few images from our open studio weekend




Guitars in waiting in Billies' studio

Billie hard at work

My latest sculpture.

We have had a good amount of people to view the art but the festival was a disaster for whatever reason. We only sold 30 tickets and needed 200 to break even. Back to the drawing board.

Art and music fest

Been busy organising our artists open studio weekend and music and wine festival. Weather has been bad but better this morning so fingers crossed.

Chica Bonita, Kerikeri to Flaxmill Bay

John, partner in the crime of the blind leading the blind!

Tuna lunch

Sunset in Shang-Ra-La

Drunken homecoming

Sailing free

I've been sailing!! Brought the new yacht down the coast from Kerikeri over 3 days, about 300kms. Little wind the first two days but a nice 15 knots to bring us home before a 40 knot storm with 200mls of rain hit us. Mate John helped me which was a bit like the blind leading the blind but we bumbled our way through it, learning as we went along. Caught tuna and kahawai on the trolling lines so it was fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yeah!!!
So Chica Bonita (lovely lady) is sitting on the mooring below the house beckoning me like a siren. Might wait until the big swell dies down before taking Denise sailing!
Photos pending (not of Denise, of the boat!)

Man what have you done!

Tuatara

Kakapo

Eagle attacking moa

New Zealand is unique in the world in that it has no native land mammals (apart from 3 species of bat) but has/had a prolific bird life. It was home to the moa, the worlds largest bird which weighed up to 180kg, the worlds largest eagle weighing 15kgs (but with a short wingspan and tremendously strong flight muscles to manouvre amongst tall forests) and many more flightless birds such as the iconic kiwi. Flightless because most of the food was on the ground and with no land predators why fly? Then man came 1000 years ago in the form of the Maori people and brought with them rats and dogs. The rats competed for food and dogs and man killed and ate many species into extinction. The moa, developed over millions of years, was thought to have disappeared in a century. The kakapo, the worlds only flightless parrot, is also one of it's most endangered bird species (after careful breeding by the conservation dept. there are 62 left), it's only defence (from the eagle) was to freeze which made easy pickings. So the moa went and so too did the eagle with no large prey left.

Over time the Maori people developed stratagies to preserve species but then the Europeans came with Cook in 1769 and it started all over again.

The small outer islands provided some protection for species such as the tuatara, known to be 220 million years old, and now are predator free sanctuaries as we try to atone for the damage we have wreaked.

I wish I was a more wordy nerdy

Damn you wordy blogger friends. I find I approach New Post with dread, hoping I'm not going to let the high standard slip and trying to find something IMPORTANT to say.
Is it possible you could talk about something mundane just occasionally. A new kitten is good for me or maybe that brown is your favourite colour. I feel like a small child struggling to keep up with older siblings and always falling short, although I think my poem about the dead mullet had a lot of merit.
I mean it's not as if I chose you as friends is it? You latched on to me as a lesser mortal so your mewsings would sound so much better and if you don't behave yourselves I'm going to ditch you and find lesser mortals than me.
Alright I have to admit I've tried but there is not that many lesser mortals lying around so I'll stick with you until I get a better offer.
Did I tell you the fragipani is flowering for the first time this year.

Music Festival

Been organising a music and wine festival for the 7th March on our outside stage. Don't know if I need any permits but I guess we will soon find out. I've booked seven acts so now have to sell enough tickets at $20 to pay for them which shouldn't be too difficult. 200 would be good.
Topping the bill is a rhythm and blues band from Tauranga called Brilleaux plus locals Soul Sax and Josh Olsen, good friends Avocado Oil, soul singer Kiri Eriwata, touring from Canada Andrew White and tabla player Subhash Gaur.
It's part of an artists open studio weekend which I am also helping to organise to keep our artists living and working on the Coromandel.
I'm good at thinking up ideas but not so good at the continual grind of keeping them running!

Mamaku Project

We hosted the fabulous Mamaku Project on Friday night and they preceeded to blow the audience away with their unique blend of bohemian roots and pacifica dub. All six members are great musicians in their own right with Tui Mamaki vocals, Monsieur Escargot bass/guitar/keys, Craig Denham accordian/keys, Finn Scholes trumpet, John Ellis, saxaphone/bass clarinet and Simon Walker drums. Here is a video of their performance at the Womad festival last year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKqb1gig-6U

Boat

Damn, only got 2 kilometres and one engine didn't sound right. Hardest decision to turn back. Owner is getting it fixed next week.
Some pleebs have been attacking my treepee sculpture on the main street of Hamilton so off there today to bring it home.

Fossils

Just finished Bill Brysons 'Short History of Nearly Everything' which I enjoyed but I am amazed at how often the experts get it wrong! Not necessarily in the exact sciences like how many atoms there are in a sugar cube (I guess when you count to a trillion trillion no one wants to count again to see if you are out by one!) but in sciences like palaeontology it's amazing how each fossil find seems to fit each 'finders' theories. In other words it is coloured by their interpretation and there really is so little concrete evidence of where we came from. All the discoveries of old 'human' bones in our history would only fill the back of a pick up. The conditions for a fossil to be laid down had to be so incredibly right very few have survived.
So now when I hear of the discovery of a 'Mongolese man' or whatever, I will take it with a grain of salt until they can get it right. Or do we want to know?
Off to get my yacht from up north today. I'll be flying down the coast with a good nor wester. Na, na, na, na, na....

Friends

Two great friends called in to see me today. Both wandering free spirits who keep my feet well off the ground.

Joshua on the right from Venezuela is a spiritual brother who I connect with without the means of a cell phone (thank god!). We just seem to bump into one another when something needs to be said.

Michael from Philidelphia, a big hearted peaceful man, walks the world playing a bit of conga and telling stories.

I love them both and they gave NZ a big compliment in saying that with all the strife around the world they think NZers have the right attitude and values to be able to pull through the crisis and could even be a leading light in a new world system.

Heavy stuff. All we want to do is go sailing!

Chica Bonita

The boat is paid for and now we have to get it from Kerikeri in the north to here. Will need at least two days good sailing so will take some tuna lures and a few beers and hope we know what we are doing. Which we don't really but we are fast learners! There is a mooring in front of the house here we can use which will make it easy to keep an eye on her.
So I'll have to trade my dog for a parrot and find lotsa 'pieces of eight' to pay for a transient lifestyle.

Perimeters

Do lines
Define
Or merely
Give volume
To the essence