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CoffeeWaffle
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Wednesday, 31 August 2005
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Monday, 29 August 2005
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As promised here are a few more shots from the Takaka Hill on Saturday. I could spend days taking photos in this area. In fact I could spend days just sitting and absorbing the place, without the camera. As it was I didn't get back down the hill till after dark having spent most of the afternoon up there. It's simply one of the most beautiful places I've ever found. The trees in this forest are stunted and gnarled, smaller than usual but they seem ancient.
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9:41:05 PM 
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Sunday, 28 August 2005
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I can't resist a good second-hand shop these days. There's one on the main road through Motueka that I'd been meaning to stop at for a while now. Today on my way home I did. There was a neat little two-seater couch on the footpath outside that caught my eye. Its the perfect size and colour for my place and I ended up buying it and bringing it home with me, to replace the two tatty, old, mismatched armchairs I have. I got it for $125 with a toastie pie maker (that I can use on the coal range) thrown in to sweeten the deal.
I also met Santa. I know you all think he lives at the North Pole all year making toys but I know better. He hides out in a second hand shop in Motueka, and is a great conversationalist. I chatted with Nick for an hour or so while I browsed through all the cool stuff in the shop. He didn't seem surprised at all when I asked if I could take his portrait, in fact he grinned and quickly ducked upstairs to get his hat. Something tells me he had his picture taken a few times before....
7:18:36 PM
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I've just got home after a busy weekend out doing the photography thing. Last year I visited Harwoods Hole, which is part of a huge cave system in the Takaka Hill. Foolishly I left my tripod in the van on that occasion while I walked the 40 minute track through incredible bush to the hole. I was kicking myself and vowed to return there with the tripod (which is essential equipment in the low light under the forest canopy), and yesterday I did. I came away with about 75 photos which I'm beginning to sort through now. Heres a taste of what's to come....
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5:32:57 PM
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Saturday, 27 August 2005
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"The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms, Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him."
Auguste Rodin
10:23:58 AM
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Friday, 26 August 2005
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Thursday, 25 August 2005
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"A bird seems to be at the top of the scale, so vehement and intense his life. . . . The beautiful vagabonds, endowed with every grace, masters of all climes, and knowing no bounds -- how many human aspirations are realised in their free, holiday-lives..."
John Burroughs (Birds and Poets, 1887)
9:49:55 PM
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Sunday, 21 August 2005
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It has become a bit of a ritual with me, on a Sunday morning, to roll out of bed, grab my camera in one hand, and a cup of coffee in the other, and go for a walk up the valley road as the first rays of sun reach the valley floor. Its makes a relaxed start to the day and reminds me there is beauty all around, if you can just see it in the right light. Here are the results of this mornings walk, in the order they were taken, all taken within a few hundred meters of home, in the space of about half an hour .
10:26:45 AM
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Friday, 19 August 2005
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Its a full moon tonight. I've been outside experimenting with some night photography.
10:01:03 PM
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Sunday, 14 August 2005
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Steam rising from the frost covered conifers in the valley this morning as the first rays of sun clear the crest of the hills.
10:25:35 AM
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Saturday, 13 August 2005
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I spent the morning in the garden planting things. Its coming together nicely. The seeds I planted last week are beginning to emerge. Each day now theres something new popping up. I've devised a way to keep the birds from digging up the new seedlings consisting of young bamboo shoots (acquired from a neighbours garden rubbish) gently bent over in semi-circles covered in bird netting. Plants and seeds will stay covered with these until they are big enough that a blackbird can't uproot them while digging for worms.
Springs bulbs are now flowering all over the place; a sure sign that spring is indeed here.
Of course Kaycee's help was invaluable. She supervised all morning from the sunniest spots in the garden.
As I write this I have a big pot of vegetable and pasta soup simmering on the coal range, a dish full of pumpkin, garlic, onion, celery, carrots and potatoes roasting inside it, and the last of the laundry drying on the rack above it, all powered by burning the plum tree prunings I cut up this afternoon. Who needs electrickery anyway? Its smells dam good to. Time to go make some gravy and warm some bread rolls.
7:12:37 PM
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Friday, 12 August 2005
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Wednesday, 10 August 2005
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Tuesday, 9 August 2005
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I took this photo on my way to work this morning. Its the little pond at the south-east corner of the wakapuaka sandflats. I needed to stop the bike and warm my hands anyway.
Observant regular readers my recognise this same scene taken at the other end of the day, almost a year ago.
7:17:57 PM
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Saturday, 6 August 2005
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Today is the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. The Nelson Peace Group floated candles at Miyazu Gardens this evening in remembrance.
Will we ever learn that war is not the way forward?
Peace Declaration
August 6, 2005
This August 6, the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing, is a moment of shared lamentation in which more than 300 thousand souls of A-bomb victims and those who remain behind transcend the boundary between life and death to remember that day. It is also a time of inheritance, of awakening, and of commitment, in which we inherit the commitment of the hibakusha to the abolition of nuclear weapons and realization of genuine world peace, awaken to our individual responsibilities, and recommit ourselves to take action. This new commitment, building on the desires of all war victims and the millions around the world who are sharing this moment, is creating a harmony that is enveloping our planet.
The keynote of this harmony is the hibakusha warning, "No one else should ever suffer as we did," along with the cornerstone of all religions and bodies of law, "Thou shalt not kill." Our sacred obligation to future generations is to establish this axiom, especially its corollary, "Thou shalt not kill children," as the highest priority for the human race across all nations and religions. The International Court of Justice advisory opinion issued nine years ago was a vital step toward fulfilling this obligation, and the Japanese Constitution, which embodies this axiom forever as the sovereign will of a nation, should be a guiding light for the world in the 21st century.
Unfortunately, the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty this past May left no doubt that the U.S., Russia, U.K., France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and a few other nations wishing to become nuclear-weapon states are ignoring the majority voices of the people and governments of the world, thereby jeopardizing human survival.
Based on the dogma "Might is right," these countries have formed their own "nuclear club," the admission requirement being possession of nuclear weapons. Through the media, they have long repeated the incantation, "Nuclear weapons protect you." With no means of rebuttal, many people worldwide have succumbed to the feeling that "There is nothing we can do." Within the United Nations, nuclear club members use their veto power to override the global majority and pursue their selfish objectives.
To break out of this situation, Mayors for Peace, with more than 1,080 member cities, is currently holding its sixth General Conference in Hiroshima, where we are revising the Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons launched two years ago. The primary objective is to produce an action plan that will further expand the circle of cooperation formed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the European Parliament, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and other international NGOs, organizations and individuals worldwide, and will encourage all world citizens to awaken to their own responsibilities with a sense of urgency, "as if the entire world rests on their shoulders alone," and work with new commitment to abolish nuclear weapons.
To these ends and to ensure that the will of the majority is reflected at the UN, we propose that the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, which will meet in October, establish a special committee to deliberate and plan for the achievement and maintenance of a nuclear-weapon-free world. Such a committee is needed because the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and the NPT Review Conference in New York have failed due to a "consensus rule" that gives a veto to every country.
We expect that the General Assembly will then act on the recommendations from this special committee, adopting by the year 2010 specific steps leading toward the elimination of nuclear weapons by 2020.
Meanwhile, we hereby declare the 369 days from today until August 9, 2006, a "Year of Inheritance, Awakening and Commitment." During this Year, the Mayors for Peace, working with nations, NGOs and the vast majority of the world’s people, will launch a great diversity of campaigns for nuclear weapons abolition in numerous cities throughout the world.
We expect the Japanese government to respect the voice of the world’s cities and work energetically in the First Committee and the General Assembly to ensure that the abolition of nuclear weapons is achieved by the will of the majority. Furthermore, we request that the Japanese government provide the warm, humanitarian support appropriate to the needs of all the aging hibakusha, including those living abroad and those exposed in areas affected by the black rain.
On this, the sixtieth anniversary of the atomic bombing, we seek to comfort the souls of all its victims by declaring that we humbly reaffirm our responsibility never to "repeat the evil."
"Please rest peacefully; for we will not repeat the evil."
Tadatoshi Akiba
Mayor
The City of Hiroshima
7:15:43 PM
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Friday, 5 August 2005
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"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn"
John Muir
10:13:15 PM
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© Copyright
2006
Murray Neill
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Last update:
12/10/2006; 7:12:06 p.m.
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