existing's tricky:but to live's a gift
August – September Update I’ve spread a teatowel over the counter in order to bring my laptop close. The sounds of the kitchen embrace me: the soft burr of the timer, the hiss and sigh of the pot on the stove. Outdoors night is falling, the window to my right dark and green, grey sky…
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Piha is on the West Coast of Auckland; the journey out there is as enjoyable as the destination itself. From South Auckland we drive through Hillsborough, Blockhouse Bay, Green Bay and Titirangi – the suburbs getting progressively more wild and beautiful, the road progessively more twisted, narrow and heart-stopping. We follow signs for the Twin Coast Discovery Highway
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Note: this post was first published on the Portfolio page of my website on July 25th. And now, stop. I have been working on this piece for months now, trying and failing to find a way in. I have a lot of thoughts, but I don’t know how to order them, I don’t know where…
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It is the kind of walk that has the power to draw you out of yourself. At every twist and turn there are new tiny glimpses of beauty. Birdsong echoes across the bay. Sunlight pushes through the canope, dappled and dancing across a bed of leaves. You are in turn embraced by the cover of the trees, then exposed to the vast expanse of the skies.
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July Update I saw this headline on the cover of a magazine recently and couldn’t resist borrowing it. Over the past few weeks blustery storms have alternated with cold frosty snaps, the coldest temperatures I’ve ever experienced in Auckland. A freak tornado ripped through Papatoetoe, the hospital is heaving with RSV, everyone is under the…
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“Where are you staying?” Tony asks politely, meaning, when are you leaving. “Oh, you know,” says Zenia with a shrug. “Here and there. I live from hand to mouth – or from feast to famine. Just like the old days, remember, West? Remember our feasts?” She’s eating a Viennese chocolate, from a box West brought…
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Here is a topic I have wanted to write about for a little while: my return to reading, as a working adult. Partly because it interests me to hear similar stories from others, partly because books are such a joy to me that I want to bring them more to the forefront on my blog…
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The path winds for 8km (in one direction) around the Wattle Downs peninsula, overlooking the very tidal Manukau harbour, flanked by an eclectic architectural collection of houses with enticing back gardens. Toward the end there is a little beach
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The Winter Solstice is upon us tomorrow, I am looking forward to longer days of light. On Saturday morning we wake in the small hours to a storm fit to launch an ark. Cosy and warm while the house creaks and groans around us, we let ourselves be lulled back to sleep. When we wake again it is to the sound of continuous soft dripping, as though a shower or a tap has not quite been switched off. It has been raining heavily all week.
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I think it is unlikely I would have spontaneously picked up Klara and the Sun at this particular time of my life. I also don’t think I would have selected it on the basis of its blurb (see above), although I do very much like its cover (cleverly inside and out). But
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It is raining thickly outside, the hills of Karori veiled in grey. I sit at the dining table with my laptop, caught between warm air from the heat pump and the cool of the front rooms of the house. Asterix, our great black Labrador, lies disconsolately at the foot of the stairs, one paw curled…
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This was my first real outing after my exam, back in March. Tucked away in the Waitakere Ranges, hidden among giant tree ferns, a few hours of late afternoon sunshine filtered through the green of the bush and reflected back from the deep blue of the reservoir.
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Right now I’m sitting outside on the deck in shorts and a long-sleeved t-shirt, catching the last of the low (3pm) afternoon sun while K tries to tame the garden, the air heavy with damp soil and cut grass.
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From Devonport Wharf through Maungauika Reserve down to Cheltenham Beach. And back again. Just hopping on here real quick with some photos from an evening walk we took yesterday, after a long day of study. Swimming in the sea is always so magical. Spent today sleeping in, spring cleaning the whole house, changing bedsheets and…
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I associate the smell of woodfire with autumn giving way to winter, dark wet cobbled streets, treacherously slippy fallen leaves, damp socks, dim bike lights, painful chapped hands. This is the season of course that heralds Christmas, the turn of the year, and thus it felt so natural to me that it took a few seconds before it jarred against the reality of warm summer air and blue skies. I could smell wood-smoke on Christmas day
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It’s early morning before work and I’m writing again in the grey of the soft light. The feeling of writing: thoughts running through my fingers, the beat of the words, the shape and sensation of them, the joy of making something tangible out of something existing only in my mind, an exacting almost topographical pleasure.…
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A postcard from the Suspension Bridge Loop Track, 164A Moumoukai Road, Hunua Ranges Another throwback adventure from September, when my weekends were still my own. The Hunua Ranges are located just about half an hour south west from where we live and the drive over feels like an adventure in itself, full of exciting names…
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Hello! I’m in intense study mode over the next few weeks (- on top of full time work -) for an upcoming exam, so this is just a heads up that I probably won’t be posting any updates or reflective pieces of writing between now and then. I’ve got a few ideas lined up that…
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A postcard from Wellington. Hi my loves, I’m recently back from a week of leave spent in Wellington – as you might have gathered from last week’s post. I generally try to use trips away as an opportunity to send out real batches of postcards, but on this occasion I didn’t manage to do so,…
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We set out much later than planned. A younger me would have been upset by this, but these days I have all but outgrown the impulse. “Perfect timing”, K remarks happily as we join State Highway 1, providing just the right amount of affirmation for me to relax back into my chair and let myself…
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Mad to Live 