Here’s some photos of the Massey Visiting Artist apartment where I am working during the day. The apartment is FREEZING. Thank goodness for tea – the instant hand-warmer. Here is the view from the living room – I can see the steeple of All Saint’s Church from the sofa where I sit to work. And out …
Last weekend I had a yearning to go on a mushroom/toadstool hunt in the bush. I took my family out for a ramble around a bush track on the Woodville end of the Manawatu Gorge, looking out for autumnal fungi. I was not disappointed! There were some wonderful red toadstools. Bright orange fungus: Tiny ethereal … Continue reading mycology walk
Next Wednesday, 12.30pm, Theatre Lab 5D14, Massey University Wellington my dear friend Maria McMillan and I are giving a talk/poetry reading. It’s my first duty as visiting artist at Massey. We’ll be repeating it the following Wednesday 24 April, 6pm, at the Palmerston North City Library. I invited Maria to share the reading with me … Continue reading celebrating a long apprenticeship
I took a walk to a nearby section where an old house had recently been demolished. They are building shops there. I dug up a wormwood plant and rescued an iron gate from a skip which I’ll use as a frame for beans in the vegetable garden. When I walk I am looking for stray … Continue reading picking up what the wind drops
Some neighbours moved out and left two mattresses on their front verge. (Where they then stayed for some weeks, until finally the real estate agent selling the house hauled them away. Isn’t it funny how people think if they leave something on the curb it suddenly counts as ‘rubbish’ and will magically disappear….?) I love … Continue reading abandoned mattresses
My writing has taken off over the last couple of weeks, which is a relief because I was feeling a bit barren and uninspired after the summer hols and obviously needed a good few weeks of thinking time before anything was ready to come out. Towards the end of last year I applied for and … Continue reading a sudden break
I’ve always wanted to visit the great heavenly hall of the Norse gods, so am very honoured to be not only visiting, but reading poetry there this Sunday. I wonder if we will be served Sæhrímnir? (A boar-like beast cooked & eaten each day in Valhalla, which then appears whole again in the morning.) Of course … Continue reading Poetry reading in Valhalla
This time next week I will be sipping chamomile tea to calm my nerves because I’ll be mere hours away from chairing the Palmerston North leg of the Rocky Outcrop Tour of Kirsten McDougall, Ashleigh Young and Pip Adam. Who are these people? They have a blog for the tour – you can read a … Continue reading Rocky Outcrop hits The Swamp in just one week…
It’s quite the year for foxgloves – they have self-seeded everywhere and are growing tall and pretty, especially around the front porch. People don’t seem to use front (street-facing) porches, but mine gets the morning sun, so I put a little table made from an old sewing machine base and chair there for morning cups … Continue reading porch sitting
I nipped southwards to visit Emma last weekend. The trip began with a southwards train trip at dawn and ended with bus journey through the Manawatu Gorge at dusk. I met Emma in Wellington for some city rambles before we went over the Rimutakas to Featherston. Here is a photo essay of the weekend: Continue reading a southwards weekend, in pictures
Helen Lehndorf 