Thursday, June 30, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Goodbye to a Friend..
Kevin died this morning.
Friend and supporter
in good times and bad.
I will remember you always
with thankfulness and love.
Teacher, poet and lover of music and books and words and gardens and trees....
Orange and Green will always be our colours my friend.
In-jokes about belief and who we are.
Today indeed I am a sad 'Irish Catholic',
but the richer for having known you.
Monday, June 27, 2011
With love for a special friend..
Maybe you'll remember about one year ago
my dear friend Ann died of cancer.
She had been a loved deputy principal of a very special school.
Ann's husband Kevin has been principal of this school for many years.
Now it is Kevin who is very ill with cancer.
There is a big sadness at the school.
Staff and children and all of us who know Kevin are feeling very sad.
Today two friends, Felicity and Jan, and I
have worked since early morning at my place,
sewing together a quilt made up of small artworks by the children and staff.
We felt honoured to be stitching this work of love together for
the children and teachers..
We worked from 8am until 5pm,
when two teachers arrived to deliver the quilt to Hospice where a very ill Kevin is tonight.
A very special quilt made with a huge love and caring for a special man.
Our love is with you dear friend.
Our love is with you.
Love to a special school with special teachers and children.
You are the best!
my dear friend Ann died of cancer.
She had been a loved deputy principal of a very special school.
Ann's husband Kevin has been principal of this school for many years.
Now it is Kevin who is very ill with cancer.
There is a big sadness at the school.
Staff and children and all of us who know Kevin are feeling very sad.
Today two friends, Felicity and Jan, and I
have worked since early morning at my place,
sewing together a quilt made up of small artworks by the children and staff.
We felt honoured to be stitching this work of love together for
the children and teachers..
We worked from 8am until 5pm,
when two teachers arrived to deliver the quilt to Hospice where a very ill Kevin is tonight.
A very special quilt made with a huge love and caring for a special man.
Our love is with you dear friend.
Our love is with you.
Love to a special school with special teachers and children.
You are the best!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Sunday afternoon..
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
I have just finished reading
The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean.
A young Marina works in the Hermitage Museum/Gallery
in Leningrad at the time of the German invasion.
She helps pack the precious paintings,
removed from their frames, to be taken into hiding and safety.
Marina memorises each work of art,
building in her memory a mansion, room by room full of artworks.
Years later, living in America and suffering from Alzheimer's,
Marina begins to live again the horrific
Leningrad years and we go with her into that
memory mansion in her mind and visit the paintings.
I have loved this book. How wonderful to seek
the paintings on google as I read, and to explore the Hermitage.
I enjoyed Debra's post script explaining how she came to write this novel,
without ever having been to St Petersburg,
and her reaction to her visit there after the book was written.
Alzheimer's has suddenly become especially real to me lately
as I support a very dear friend.
Debra Dean's book is one I will remember on many levels,
and a visit to St Petersburg and the State Hermitage Museum is
definitely on my Bucket List.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
The Longest Night of the Year
tonight.
and today was more like an autumn day,
crisp and warmly sunny.
People are still wearing light clothing.
tonight.
and today was more like an autumn day,
crisp and warmly sunny.
People are still wearing light clothing.
Monday, June 20, 2011
everyday is the journey
the journey
itself
is
home..
Matsuo Bashi
I am reading yet another book about The Camino.
It is becoming an obsession.
I've read..
The Year We Seized The Day. By Eli Best and Colin Bowles
I'm Off Then. By Hape Kerkeling.
The Camino. A Journey of the Spirit. By Shirley MacLaine
and now I'm reading..
Walk in a Relaxed Manner. By Joyce Rupp.
The walk is becoming very familiar.
One day...
Sunday, June 19, 2011
I doodle while I listen.
I was listening to the radio,
to a recording from NZ Post Readers and Writers Week.
The phone rang and someone, probably in India wanted to ask me about my power bill,
and would I like a reduction and 50 Fly Buys.
No. I didn't.
When I returned to my doodling and the radio
Mr A A Gill
UK Restaurant Critic and TravelWriter
was just saying
"I'm part of something really big.. something huge..
a big experiment that is all of us.."
Thursday, June 16, 2011
The Bay of Plenty..
I've been away on a little tiki-tour to The Bay of Plenty.
There is something special about this journey.
Travelling through the lush green of Waikato farmlands
to the steamy place of hot mud pools and geysers.. Rotorua.
This is Mokoia Island in the middle of Lake Rotorua.
The island of Hinemoa and Tutanekai.
Hinemoa swam the lake, to be withTutanekai,
following the sound of his flute.
On the island is a hot water pool where Hinemoa warmed herself after the swim in the cold lake.
A Romeo and Juliet story of forbidden love.
There is something special about this journey.
Travelling through the lush green of Waikato farmlands
to the steamy place of hot mud pools and geysers.. Rotorua.
This is Mokoia Island in the middle of Lake Rotorua.
The island of Hinemoa and Tutanekai.
Hinemoa swam the lake, to be withTutanekai,
following the sound of his flute.
On the island is a hot water pool where Hinemoa warmed herself after the swim in the cold lake.
A Romeo and Juliet story of forbidden love.
I spent two days with my lovely sister.
This morning we went out to Whakatane Heads,
before I set off for home again.
In the far distance you can see White Island,
an active volcano,
I travelled home along the coast to Tauranga and over the Kaimai Hills.
The sky was strangely pale and the sun was strangely ringed.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Mirror, mirror, on the wall...
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
The fact my car wouldn't start this morning,
and then the garage door remote refused to close the garage door,
all together, making me one hour late for sewing class..
and then the garage door remote refused to close the garage door,
all together, making me one hour late for sewing class..
making water rush down the gutters
and big inviting puddles everywhere..
.. might have caused me to feel a little "inverted" ..
but it did not stop me from having a very lovely day
or from doodling a Miro inspired doodle
while I watched
clever people dancing on ice this evening on the tv.
I do like Miro's creativity.
'I make no distinction between painting and poetry.'
said
Joan Miro.
1893-1983
I feel the same about doodling, dancing or scribbling down words.
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