We went out to Aramoana at the mouth of Otago Harbour.
It was pretty cold but no one else was there.
Grains. Perfection.
|
We went out to Aramoana at the mouth of Otago Harbour. It was pretty cold but no one else was there. Grains. Perfection. |
Well, I was very wrong to bitch about winter not showing up last week, because now it's here doing fairly hardcore butt stuff to us with a tonne of slushy rain and a nice stinging southerly gale. Annnnd it looks like the first sleet of the season is hissing on the big front windows as I write this. I do prefer cold to heat. Better wardrobe, nicer bedding, more time for longform writing. Took < this with the 2nd hand Panasonic Lumix GF1 pocket cam we bought the other day fo cheep. We like the wee Canon S95, but it has some annoying limitations. The GF1 isn't as truly pocket-y but came with a nice retro leather belt case which is cool. Build quality is great too. I'll comment on its performance in the fullness of time. |
The sociopathic insanity of National's punitive 'housing' policy is best delineated by someone at the pointy end of the crisis; read this great no-bullshit piece by Danielle Bergin in the RNZ News. She runs a trust trying to get homeless fams into state housing. Yes, state housing. Because you need a consultant and two flaming angel swords to win that particular jackpot now. Is the same unfolding where you live? It's all starting to sound horribly familiar, isn't it? |
We stopped off on our way up the hill to have a look at the Lady Thorn Dell garden and bust out the trusty wee Canon S95.The Kashmir Rowan (Sorbus cashmiriana) was droopy with fat tassels of milky white fruit and, curious as to why they hadn't all been burgled by greedy birds, I encouraged R to try one, remembering (somewhat) belatedly that they're bitter as fuck when ingested. As bitter as my treachery o_0 |
Madonna may loathe hydrangeas but that bitch doesn't know shit. The great summer heads of the specimens clustered against the foot of the quarry wall turn dreamy shades of absinthe and kulfi and float, disembodied, over their tiers of leathery bay-green leaves. They age well and naturally. Hydrangeas >>>> Madonna. | If I were poor R, I would have left my trifling arse by now, but it's almost like he never learns and I am loathe to entrust him to anyone else. Oh well. I could photograph dead leaves for a whole week. There is very little one can do to improve the composition of such natural scattershot arrangements; even the odd cigarette butt/chocolate wrapper/stray pube just adds flavour. If you do try to edit them, it blows up in your face once you get home and see that your precious images have the dreadful tang of fussy arsehole about them i.e. the photography club curse. I say that as someone who has never belonged to a p-club and has won a couple of photography awards without knowing what depth of field or aperture priority meant. Tee hee. Don't tell anyone. |
Lichen and foliage in the Careys Bay cemetery. Haircut-dodger Felix and Hamish and R on the track up to Scott Memorial on a dry April afternoon. The reward: a view of the world's most incredibly beautiful rooster with a fresh blade of grass in his beak. The deep jewelly tones of his plumage just do not translate digitally, unfortunately. A magnificent beast. |
Chicken photos, by the Lovely R. You can never have too many; they are of undisputed benefit to everyone. People who like chickens always enjoy them and the people who are afraid of chickens can only benefit from the sudden and unsuspecting exposure because that is a fucking stupid phobia. If you were locked in an airtight box full of frantic chickens as a child and electrocuted repeatedly by some remote sadistic agency, I might be able to empathise. But come on now: that's not the reason. |
Then we picked the second round of Prune Stanley plums; after arguing ungallantly about ladder placement, we devised an improvised pole and wire noose contraption which worked really well. Have been planting Cavolo Nero kale (because it lasts well into spring and always comes back from caterpillar assault, plus the robust taste and nutrients levels are primo), leeks, Japanese turnips (the diminutive white ones as per the pic to the left there which will hold all through winter and can be used the same way as carrots and spuds when you're sick to death of those), beetroot, spring onions, actual carrots (three varieties but they'll probably end up looking like mandrakes lol) and silver beet (really over silver beet at the moment because it's been growing so well this year which serves me right for actually watering it) for winter. |
The scarlet runner beans (> and below right) are good this year after a late start. Been slicing and freezing Costata Romanesco zucchinis like a fucking demon for future stews and casseroles; I find the old Italian ribbed varieties are the best for this because of their superior nonsquishy texture. Look, grapes! We have a decent vine over a pergola but I've forgotten which variety it is and the bloody birds always jack them anyway before they're ripe enough for us. Since we have a fucking net we should probably remember to use it. In our surpassing dynamism we also weeded the vegetables and two thirds of the perennial beds, sunk a metal post for the frighteningly enormous and tentacular young Lamarque rose, shifted a metric tonne of unhappily-positioned rodgersias, dahlias, lilies and hostas. Dead-headed a dozen roses. Repotted a brace of delinquent succulents. Then last night I came inside and braised four nice fresh rabbits that Dick the Hunter kindly dropped around to us and now have a mountain of flaky shredded meat in the fridge waiting to be soup and ragout tomorrow. | Feeling smug about the veg situation, especially the leeks, since I always put them in too late and then bitch about the shit results. < Rose Chartreuse de Parme which smells as good as it looks. Below left, unknown but gloriously self-red dahlia. We got up the last of the Pink Fir, Osprey, Red Rascal and Agria potatoes last weekend; Firs are a nice main crop as well as new potato- very clean and quite prolific even if they are a smaller spud. The Agrias were a bit underwhelming. We ended up with a mighty sack full which should last us almost all the way through winter. |
Rain. I think they're cirrus but the literature is fucking confusing, so I could be talking out my arse about that. Could not decide if these are c. uncinus (mares' tails), c. fibratus, or even decaying cirrus vertebratus (fish bones). Cloud nerds can go ahead and classify that shit to their hearts' content in the privacy of their mothers' basements. I love clouds. They are beautiful, transient strangers, a perfect demonstration of the attractions and dissolutions that form and then rescind us. Or some shit like that. |
In morbid news- RIP Lemmy. While I generally thought Motörhead boring except for Ace of Spades, I appreciated the perversity of his modus vivendi and glorious sartorial policy. We are living in a post-Lemmy world. That was always going to be a surprise. Full umlaut salute; snake eyes watching you. | |
That's the best I can do. They made us wait this year, but we appreciate them all the more for it. Clockwise from top: Evelyn: unknown Bourbon, Purplicious x3: Louise Odier x 3: Evelyn, Mary Rose, Scepter'd Isle: Purplicious. | Stare hard, then close your eyes and smell.The best soap broken almond kernels curling ghostly sundried lemon peel afternoon nougat and pistachios perfect toast and butter with heavy pale honey soaking through onto the plate pocket- warmed toffee sunlight on someone's lovely neck golden blooming vines tapping pollen on your forehead morning jasmine crushed raspberries and plums smoky dusted silver-spiny myrrh. |
Above left & below right: Aloe cameronii: this is the greener, more upright, more vigorous and less plastic-looking form of the two I own. The bellbirds came in an devastated the earlier blooms on this plant while feeding chicks. | Left: Aloe schomerii - rare in cultivation, first flower on this plant. Below Lobivia/Echinopsis ancistrophora ssp arachnacantha |
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