The intertidal zone

Thanks to all my friends and family and the sun and the dog and birds and people who inspire me, not to mention life itself. . .

Oil is spilling. Marchers are occupying. An egg is cooling.

Yes, we too would be lost without our Apples. By these means we have bitten into the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We are changed. The question’s being asked, who can take the place of Steve Jobs? I guess the answer has to be no one and everyone. David […]

I thought the tomato probably wanted to speak for itself. I brought it inside and had a look at it: When it’s grown up, closer to Christmas, we’ll hang a few of these on it:

While in Australia I went out looking for wildflowers but it was too hot to snatch more than a couple. Well, that’s my excuse. All that foliage is a fiddle to draw. I chose simpletons. I read only one book (and started another): May Sarton writes in Journal of a Solitude: ‘ … we have […]

We seem to be on a camera-free holiday ( is it a holiday? perhaps a 75 percenter) but have a few pics from when we were here last year in the Bouddi National Park. I didn’t make it quite as far along the rocks this time — I had bare feet; the stones were sharp, […]

Biddy’s deaf now. She can’t hear the cracked tones with which she asks for her dinner. Or the caught-a-mouse yowl that’s replaced her former mild enquiries. From being stand-offish and remote, she’s moved in close. Where I am, there Biddy wants to be. What could be nicer than a sunny table top with a lumpy […]

There are so many deep and serious questions to ponder at present, in particular, which is also to say, in general, how to make the best response to each moment of life in this ravaged, beautiful world. However, I find that my drawing pen refuses sobriety. When it revels in absurdity, what can I do […]

First, there was high tea at the high table in the Hippopotamus Room for the BNZ Literary Awards. (This article highlights Chiao Lin, the young writer I chose as winner of her section. Too typically, she is under-mentioned elsewhere.) From Wellington, Kate and I hit the road. Pretty much the first thing I did was […]

In the mail today: Next week I will shuck off my slippers and therapeutic neckscarf, and scratch about for something that will pass as ‘business attire’, catch a plane to Wellington airport, and thence be professionally driven to the BNZ Literary Awards, where I will add my voice in praise of NZ writing, especially that […]

  You may have noticed that the things I draw are simple and relatively small. For example, I don’t know how to draw acres, or even square inches, of snow. I was glad to see yesterday that the oaks on the edge of the golf course were holding it in modest handfuls. Today I had […]

I had to practise a bit to make a budgie that didn’t look like a sparrow or an Easter chick. If nothing else, I think this one has the cheeky eye. Noddy used to strut around the dinner table. While we children behaved ourselves and ate quietly, he shrieked and scraped butter straight off the […]

Find a nice big roll of polar fleece. Ask them to snip you off a small piece. Take it home and measure your dog from stem to stern. Cut your coat according to your cur. Cut four holes, two quite big and two very small. Sew on two buttons. Cotton calligraphy is optional. Call your […]

We grew up in a cherry tree — the biggest we’ve ever seen. We knew it by heart, each shiny hand- or foothold on its banded, silver limbs. Its base was a receptacle for children. You pulled yourself up on the shallow stump always leaking amber gum. Then you climbed your chosen route, to the […]

R tells me a man would not have this dream. I’m inclined to agree that it’s unlikely There was a horse race, too, in my dreams, but horses are much harder to draw than sleeping bags, and besides, my horse and I came last. I didn’t really mind. I was just glad I’d managed to […]

It’s said that none of us here in the south is getting enough vitamin D for optimum health. You have to spend almost two hours in the wintry sun to garner the daily dose. That’s with skin exposed and, presumably, without Chilean ash cloud subduing the sun’s rays. Thinking to take a good half dose […]

  Been thinking about thoughts and feelings this weekend. How they feed one another and how much say we have in the direction they take us. Yesterday I woke with the blahs: what on earth am I doing with my days which seem to be running together like watercolours with a wet brush dragged through […]

We have to go outside to get to our bedroom, so at least once a night I’m looking up for stars and moon, which makes me wonder about, you know, the space between here and there and beyond, and what the true nature and substance of God and the planets and galaxies might be, whether […]

Things have been rather subdued today: I, the housemates, the air itself, which was filmy with ash from the Puyehue-Cordon-Caullevol volcano in Chile. Perhaps it’s autumn, now spent (‘having been used and unable to be used again’) and mutely awaiting the next scene … … which began late this afternoon: darkening skies and clouds racing […]