Combine Harvester

I like that name. There is something

about the vowels that strikes me.

This photo I took a year or so in Central Otago.

I keep coming back to it. There

is something here.

Buddha at Kaukapakapa.

Perhaps 40 minutes drive north of Queen St

in Auckland there is a Tibetan Buddhist community.

They are builders, and in this case very active.

When I was in my mid 20's perhaps, and living in a John Goldwater

house in Campbells Bay on Auckland's North Shore, Erika, to whom

I was married at the time, and I, invited some Buddhists from North America

to stay with us while they sought land here in New Zealand to establish a community.

While not Buddhists ourselves we thought that it would add texture

to the religious make up of New Zealand. There are now, of course,

many Buddhist temples in and around Auckland of many different persuasions some of whom don't get on, but this was early days.

Eventually the two who had been living with us, one a nun, bought a run down farm at Kaukapakapa and began setting up what they had come here for.

I have visited there often since then, they don't evangelise, the temples are very special,

and the Buddha is, I believe, the biggest in NZ. The Dalai Llama has visited here.

Meanwhile about 10 years ago I took this photo and it was quite popular. This one is on a wall in Devonport.

Auckland Walls

I visited Auckland last week and caught up with several

friends, many of then have been friends

for decades.

I was surprised at the number of my works that I saw.

Here are some walls in Devonport.

The orange topped heap on the bottom right hand corner of the

bottom photo is my fault. I came in and plonked what was in my arms

down on a couch. I apologise for that.

Are We In Progress?

In my studio here in New Plymouth, there are entities sitting, lying, and generally lounging around patiently waiting for me to get on and finish featuring them in The Final Photo. All of them have had me take pictures of them before but time drags on.

Here are a few. I used to think that these plastic bottles, dug out of an Invercargill rubbish dump a couple of years ago, were Clowns, but I now believe that they are Spacemen. Had most helpful e's from blog friends re the background to these bottles.

The penguins were part of a set, 6 or 7 I think. One or two have gone feral since they arrived here in New Plymouth. I bought them at Auckland Museum when I was wandering about in a preoccupied daze about 3 months ago, concentrating mainly on my notes that I had been working on, I was a finalist in the Montana Book Awards and while not necessarily expecting to win my category I did want to have something gracious to say whatever the outcome. Extemporaneous speechifying does not come easily to me. I have to work on it.

More Orchids at Auckland Museum.

Orchids

Three Studio Views

Spots Before My Eyes.

I'm in what I could interpret as a time

of lean pickings, so when I feel my eyes being sucked in

by sharp Geiger Counter clicks I really sit up

and take notice.

I was recently offered a meal prepared by a friend who has the

impressive initials of RR. These cucumber slices were the very first

to appear on the table. I immediately reached for my little pocket Leica.

This cat photo below is the only one that I felt compelled to take

in a recent walk around the Auckland Zoo. Zoos used to be

rich picking ground in my early days but I seem to have

moved to other quarries. Still I am ready to revisit. I like to keep an open mind.

I would speculate that the spots on this magnificent animal are the main reason why

I picked up my camera at this point. I waited for

quite a while to get the best profile but that didn't happen. Looking straight at me would have been the ideal but I had a 3 year old with me and she had other priorities.

This photo below is not a work I would exhibit. It's the spots that are important I believe.

Broken Arrow

Two or three years ago I started making some shapes in polymer clay with the intention of turning them into brooches. Fimo is a polymer clay although in this case I used a Palmerston North equivalent.

I glued cheap clips onto the back of a couple of them and even had the temerity to wear them a few times. Didn't feel that confident and now they are in a shoe box. There's probably about 20 of them.

At one stage though one of my favourite cheap clip brooches fell on the floor and the end snapped off. The combination of the body of the brooch and the snapped off tip I responded to, so with white chalk on the kitchen blackboard, I made this drawing. I like this drawing but better still, since this last weekend, I feel that I want to get the shoebox out again. If you see someone wearing on his lapel a shape like this but with the tip reglued then introduce yourself.

Red Rose

About a year ago I took this photo, here at my New Plymouth studio.

I know the approximate date because this is a Dublin Bay rose that I have growing in a pot, and as well as doubling in size over the last year is about to flower again. This bloom in the photograph came from last years blossoming.

I made a print at the time and it's been up on one of my walls since then. Now I'm having another look at it.