» savouring: fresh picked kiwifruit, with pear and honey yoghurt for breakfast
» delighting: sighting a fantail, dancing in and out of a tree, tail flickering to twist and turn in pursuit of breakfast
» balanced: by two weeks of daily tai chi practice
» anticipating: making our favourite winter dessert tonight - caramel pear pudding
Photo source: adline ghani - publicdomainpictures.net
in
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Yesterday I collected my last two finished ceramic pieces. When I first saw them the glaze results gave me a surprise and caused a slightly perplexed moment of oh?!, as they were not at all what I was expecting.
The combination of oxide and glazes, wiped and sponged back, have yieled a very broken, distressed effect, with the black iron oxide breaking in varying tones of red through black. After the initial surprise I found the effect quite fascinating.
I'll have to wait to share the details of the glaze finish until I have a decent working camera again. As you can see, the video camera's photo mode yields a seriously unsatisfactory image.
Over the five years we've lived in our home it has not been uncommon to spot a Kereru or two nearby, even visiting trees in our own garden. These visits and sightings are a source of great delight to me.
However this summer they have seemed conspicious in their absence. Not just in our garden, but in the surrounding neighbourhood. Fruiting trees where we've spotted them during our school walk in past years have remained empty.
Also I've had a growing awareness of the lack of fantails in our area in the last few years. I miss seeing them, and it saddens me this may be indicative of further declines of these precious native birds.
Of course it's not all bad in the garden, as even in these cold winter days the tree in our back garden is continuing to flower profusely, keeping it bustling with wellfed and noisy tuis. We see plenty of blackbirds, myna's, sparrows starlings, and a songthrush or two. And I'm expecting an influx of silvereyes soon, as the kiwifruit ripen fully.
Birds have always held an incredible fascination and importance for me, especially our native species. So I'm looking forward to doing my bit this week for the New Zealand Garden Bird survey. Taking part in this annual survey is simple. All you need is a garden, public park or school and 1 hour to spend watching visiting birds in the next week (27 June to 5 July). Record the largest number of each species you see at any one time and enter your results online (from 27th June).
It can be all too easy to get bogged down in the little troubles and lose perspective. Sometimes you need to lift your eyes from the ground, see the wider view, relax, and just float on.
So it’s been a small while. June started out full of promise, then promptly rolled right over the top of me, wiping my feet out from under me and sending my head spinning. So much could be said about the past few weeks, and yet I’ve nothing. I’m settling for picking myself up and starting once more. I hope to catch up with everyone soon.
Today is World Environment Day. This years theme is Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change.
It's also Arbor Day. A day for the planting and care of trees. Originating in Nebraska in 1872 it is today celebrated by countries all over the world. Here in NZ celebrations focus on planting native trees to restore habitats damaged by humans, pests and weeds.
Right now I'm heading out into the cold to plant our little psuedopanax. Have you got a tree that needs some love?
