May

The winter term stretches ahead, bleak and grey. I'm hoping the sun will someday return. Job.... from dull to tedious. And the school morning routines are bleak: arise at 6:15, make 6 lunches, coffee, wake people up, feed the little kids, pack their bags and get them dressed and shod and brush their hair; herd them to the van.
We had a glorious holiday over Easter and right through to Anzac day. April 22nd I had J, B and O down at the beach. It was glorious.

The water was cold, but we all still went swimming. Oscar particularly loved climbing on Awakeri- and jumping off, as well!

A glorious holiday, during which I got in a few hasty sails, a couple of morning motors with the little kids, went swimming and built a long-drop.

Now it's horrendous petrol prices, and the prospect GWBush might just start a war with Iran in a desperate bid to save his "legacy" as president (douple or quits?). I can't imagine congress or the senate voting to give him the sort of powers they did in '02... but with Rove on the case (between supoenas) who knows how it'll spin.

I've been trying to get back into recording some music- a couple of new tracks, and some older songs I'm re-inspired to work on thanks to Sampletank. It's a "sampleworkstation"- but it does the work for you- and it has very good sounds. There's a free version you can download here:, (look for the "downloads" tab) with a limited number of sounds. It's very good. (While the sounds are limited, if you can get hold of the whole range, it's quite complete in its own way, including: a few drumkits, three different guitars, a nice Hammond b3, a good electric piano, and terrific "accoustic" piano, alto sax, and solo violin. I've bought an "le" version that comes with a basic GM soundset, and it feels like I could do anything.... if I only had the skill!

Eat a Peach

Or better still, plant a peach tree.
Of all the trees we've planted, few are as rewarding as fruit trees. And one of the best of these has been the Golden Queen peach.

This is the first year we've got a decent crop- and it's been delicious and plentiful. The birds get quite a few, but there are plenty for us. Some of my happiest childhood memories relate to eating fruit from the tree (not always legitimately), and it's something I want to pass on to the kids.

And tree-ripened on your own tree does taste better. Even when they're firm and not-quite-ripe, Golden Queens are good eating- not so juicy that they drip have to down the chin. At full ripeness, they are sweet nectar (and they drip- but it's worth it).

It's already getting cooler, the seasons shifting gear again. That's part of what gives bite and savour to my current life. The peaches won't be here for long. But they are glorious. And they are here NOW. Bite.

Painting is over: now for a slew of photos.

Awakeri's looking smart. I'm still not totally in love with the colours, but she's ready for the water.

And here's picture of Ollie....

And the twins, with an enormous apple from one of our trees. It's called, I think, "Nonesuch Bastard". Bred for cooking, the apples are pretty sour until they get very ripe. The twins, on the other hand, are very sweet.

Well, that's pics sussed. I guess the next thing is audio...

Picture this.

Of course adding a picture is a simple as clicking on the little picture icon. Shame on me.
This one's stolen off the net: it shows the head of Lyttelton harbour, looking east from the summit road that meanders around the top of the western port hills.
Manson's Peninsula is the long finger pointing out towards Quail Island- right in the centre of the picture. It's 72 hectares/180 acres, with about 12 hectares of forestry, maybe 20 hectares of scrubby gorse-and-broom infested eroding steep hillside, a hectare or two of bush and a series of paddocks.
We live on the other side, about 2/5ths of the way out. I am hoping to do some landscape/house photography soon, and put up some more pics.

2006- DOOM!

2006: Radio NZ has public announcements about the precautions we should have in place for a pandemic (birdflu); there's a lot of talk about peak oil- economic growth worldwide being based on ever-more gluttonous consumption; the New Zealand economy looks like crashing; and the Chch College of Education- where I work- losing jobs, cutting back, hunkering down- and about to be swallowed by a monster....
In the midst of all this end-is-nigh apocolypse-approacheth noise, daily life keeps rolling slowly on. Cars to fix, kids to feed, horses to water. It's easy enough to blank out the noise in the hubbub chez Stowell/Mahy.
Ok, maybe I don't live in paradise- there are mosquitoes, the tide goes out and we're surrounded by mud, and I'm pretty sure paradise has a river or two flowing melodiously- while we get mighty dry.
But life is pretty good for us. There's a spot by one of our water-troughs I've sat some evenings lately- waiting for the trough to fill. There are trees, copses, forest all around, now, surrounding the paddocks. If I'm lucky I'll see the flash of a kingfisher- blue and tan. We've planted a couple of gullies in bush- and bell-birds come for the flax-nectar. Quail are everywhere this year, and a family- semi-comical- usually comes out of the macrocarpas to fossick and dust-bathe on the track.
It's a beaut place to be of an evening- dirty water swirling from tank to trough (lots of mosquito larva) and birds all settling to sleep. One day I'll work out how to post pictures. Until then, I just wish everyone could have a moment or two of this peace.
Ka kite
A sort of postscript: here's the spot. Sorry, couldn't catch a quail!

awakeri

The world seems to be spinning like a top; Christmases rush past, kid's birthdays pile up, weather happens and then suddenly we're into another round: just the same but different.
I've been sanding the boat, stripping paint, musing over it. I've already spent more than it's worth getting Stark Bros to rip out the rot in the port gunwale, replace the rubbing strakes (with two beautiful pieces of nut-brown hardwood) and fix some leaks.
Stark Bros have a cavernous shed next to the dry-dock, and right next to Awakeri was a fishing boat, just finished. Frank said it was a little bigger than is economical to build of wood, but they have to keep staff busy, so they build them on spec...
About 55 ft, and beamy, it looked ocean-going, though I gather it's aimed at the overnight/fresh fish trade. The bronze propeller gleamed in the dusky light. The caulking was fresh, awaiting its first coat of paint. I felt the world was a better place just in the knowledge that Stark Bros in Lyttelton were still building wooden ships.
They did a pretty good job on the Sigrid, but there's lots more to do. The trailer is a mess, the outboard is dodgy, and just the painting will cost a lot of time and another wad of money. But it's not really about money or equivalent value: I'm investing something else in her.
Starting work this Saturday, I loved the smell of it: some paint and saw-dust; a musty salt undertow. I'm pondering paints: everything has changed since the last painting- about a decade ago. Epiglass have become "International". You can't get "Cove Green"- or anything much like it, and I LIKE cove green... Two pot epoxy paints are the rage, but won't go over a one-pot first coat, and I'm not stripping everything back to wood.
But as I start, I'm thinking- she's going to look great. The new rubbing-strakes emphasise her rather graceful sheer. I'm going to fill in the nail-heads, and the cracks in the cabin roof. A beige/cream deck and top-sides, and either a darker green or perhaps royal blue hull.
She's gonna look smart. And I can already smell the salty wind; feel it on my cheek; envisage Godley Head slipping astern.

biting my nine-inch nails

election day tommorrow and it really is (chose cliche) too close to call/ a cliff-hanger/ a nail-biter etc.
personally i think brash would be a dreadful prime minister. oddly enough, i'd rather he was in power with the detestable peters, who he can't possibly get along with, but who is unlikely to roll over for a dry trickle-down monetarist economy.
in the nineties the economy stagnated, productivity did not grow, unemployment was relatively high. what did grow was the gap between rich and poor. that's the one thing brash's policies are certain to increase.
tax-cuts are hard to roll back, and national's proposed cuts would undoubtedly leave us with less government into the distant future.
they'd also move us into an america style polity: the rich richer, government struggling to provide services- and therefore the market as an alternative made to look good- and most of us defined as "not mainstream".
brash is clearly influenced by america. i've never heard phrases like "not one dime", "lousy" and "baloney" used in nz politics the way he uses them. i don't know where he's coming from but this language must be a clue. way out of touch.
as reserve bank governor, he strangled the nz economy in the nineties. on record as believing we need 6% unemployment to keep inflation down. on record as blaming the unemployed. go figure.
labour have run a poor campaign, considering. no inspiring rhetoric, no clear and defining vision, no devasting analysis of national and brash's (he's act's ninth mp...) woeful scenario.
but they do present a clear alternative. LPG would make a good government.
here's hoping.