manawatia a matariki

 This weekend New Zealand Aotearoa celebrated our first official Matariki public holiday. Apparently it is the first and or only known indigenous celebration to be made official in the colonised world. 

Matariki is celestial so the timing varies like Easter. It is when the Matariki stars rise in the east. This cluster of stars is also known as Pleiades and the Seven Sisters. 

It signifies the Maori New Year, a time to be with whanau (family), to think of those who have passed recently, to reflect on life and make plans for the future. It coincides with the Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere signalling that the days will now get longer and it is time to plan and prepare for the next crops. Never a year went by without my mother reminding me about the shortest day and the relief of knowing that the days were now getting longer.

Manawatia a matarki - Happy Maori New Year. 

Sunrise on the 21st June, the shortest day. 

day 29

ANZAC Day. Lest we forget. Great Uncles killed in WW1.

Leonard Lawrence Beresford, died at Messines 7 June 1917	Walter Rex  Beresford, died at Gallipoli  8 August 1915

https://play.stuff.co.nz/details/_6151967422001

https://play.stuff.co.nz/details/_6151953522001

day 28

Nita Eileen. Passed away 3 years ago today. I wonder what she would make of this pandemic?

2018

2018 is a year that I am pleased to see the end of. As Lizzie would say, “annus horribilis.”
Not that there weren’t any good times. Let’s remember them.

armistice day

11/11/2018
100 years since the end of World War 1.
Two great uncles killed in the war.

where's you mother when you need her?

When she was 83, I asked my mum to teach me to crochet. I kinda left it a bit late considering the plethora of crochet hats and ponchos fashionable in the 60s. The requirement was to make a crochet blanket for my first grandchild which I diligently achieved. But lately, I've been fantasising about a crochet throw for my sofa. Like I need another blanket? This reminded me of the Granny Square Book I purchased on a whim during that crochet phase. I hunted it out, finding Mum's instruction book tucked inside it. I had hunted for that book when mum passed away last year. Turns out I had it all along.  I chose the flower centre square I would like to use - oh so confident! Then off I went to Knitworld and purchased a selection of the most delicious coloured pure NZ wool ready to begin. But that's where progress ended. The afternoon was spent on the sofa willing myself to remember how on earth to do this? Youtube to the rescue. Gradually the synapses began to connect and it started coming back to me. I'll keep practising the simple granny square for a while before attempting the 'intermediate' flower pattern I fancy. Let's face it, a knitter and a crocheter I am not!

fig and ginger jam

This is the taste of my childhood. I made it for the very first time and it tastes just like Grandma used to make. She had her own fig tree, purely for the purpose of making this jam.

Nita Eileen

Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

Nature’s first green is gold, 

Her hardest hue to hold. 

Her early leaf’s a flower; 

But only so an hour. 

Then leaf subsides to leaf. 

So Eden sank to grief, 

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay. 

Mum passed away on the 23rd April, in her 90th year.

Daily it seems that everything is still the same, but everything is different.

the boys

...have been to stay. Late January, the weather warms up and you wonder why you wanted it too - 30 degrees in Hamilton is hideous. All the junk mail says 'Back to School" and makes me want to scream! because you know you have to go to work and... Nice to play with the grandies.

 Ice creams at Duck Island.

 Paddle pool time. 

Pilots at Punnet.

...and a happy new year!

It's already the 17th of January - half way through the first month of the  year - and I have only just found time to get back to my blog. Last year I did my inaugural year of Project365. It was a highly stimulating project to undertake. At times I absolutely loved it and at other times I just wanted out but I persevered and completed on the 19th December. I will continue to post to 365 but not every day and that's a relief. I hope to post more regularly this year to Spooling. Well that's the NYR (new years resolution) along with a whole heap of others, will see how it goes.
The new year involved a week in Coromandel Town on the Coromandel Peninsula. Coromandel is one of my favourite places in all the world. If you've never been there put it on your bucket list. And yet again we discovered new places to visit - Waiau Falls and the Siamese Kauris. I've yet to visit New Chums beach, Stony Bay or Kennedy's Bay so there is plenty of exploring left to do.

Merry Christmas

Christmas' come and Christmas' go, 2015 was no exception. The prodigal son came home for a visit, the Tauranga contingent had an 'orphans' Christmas and the grandies went to Napier. The pictures tell the story.