End of year thanks to: nature

Ocean, sky, beach, mountains, trees, flowers and birds . I have really appreciated the beauty of nature greatly this year.

Onetangi beach, Waiheke

Mt Ruapehu

Maungawhau

Sunset over Auckland

Phoenix Palm in the rain

Pukeko in the Domain

End of year thanks to: the Blogosphere

Thanks to the blogosphere for keeping me connected, informed, inspired and entertained. And for the company on quiet days.

Today I have particularly been enjoying: Awkward Family Photos, Stuff White People Like, Passive Aggressive Notes and The 'Blog' of Unnecessary Quotation Marks (I like that because I am white).

Image from The 'Blog' of Unnecessary Quotation Marks

End of year thanks to: the library

Image from Auckland City Libraries

I have to thank APL (that's what people in the know call Auckland City Libraries - apparently) for keeping me entertained this year. For forgiving me when I was irresponsible with their library materials and for their courtesy reminders that were intended to help me return my books on time. Also for the renewal service which was handy when I didn't get those books back in time and for helping me to fix the security in my browser so no one could steal my library details.

Long Live the Public Library!

And I love, love, love their online Advent calendar. There are some cute kitty images that someone I know might like :)

Auckland City Libraries have this great function on their site where you can view your reading history. It would seem that aside from a smattering of Marie Claire, World of Interiors, Belle, Vogue, Australia Home Beautiful, Instyle and the odd Bust on Monocle (both hard to come by) magazine I did manage to read several books this year!

So if you are looking for summer reading here are the highlights that I gleaned from my reading list.

Fiction:

Jasper Jones, Craig Silvey - because Jasper was on our list of names for our children

One that I would highly recommend to anyone. It won prizes people!

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Maggie O'Farrell - a wee bit tragic, about a women who wrongfully ends up spending her life in an mental asylum

The Birth House, Ami McKay - A book about old school midwifery in Nova Scotia. Fascinating, probably more for us Lady folk.

Sing Them Home, Stephanie Kallos - It included a character called Bonnie who was a 'self-proclaimed archivist'.

The Memory Keepers Daughter, Kim Edwards. - Not sure why I hadn't read it sooner.

As the Earth Turns Silver which I talked about here.

Non-fiction:

The World Without Us, Alan Weisman - I just really like this book.

The Urban Homestead: your guide to self-sufficient living in the city, Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen - A little bit American, but some nice ideas.

The Big Day a guide to getting married in New Zealand, Kerril Cooper and Denise Irvine (highly recommended reading if you are getting married!)

Summer reading:

Well I am currently reading Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides, which at this rate will take me to January!

Not sure what I'll be next, anyone have any ideas?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Despite a generally bah-humbug attitude towards Christmas, I could never be a complete killjoy. We have a tree... of sorts, and there are even a few pressies under it. I put up fairy lights over the window and along the bookshelf (I didn't take a photo sorry) and I helped Mr Jones make gingerbread men for his work Secret Santa.

Here's our 'tree', a little bit lopsided, but quite sustainable. Only thing missing is that pine smell. But apparently real trees have lost their scent due to genetic modification (see National Radio audio file, called Smell at about 36:36 in the file).

See if you can spot the gangster gingerbread man, the abominable gingerbread man, the corrupt corporate gingerbread man and the Mr Burns "I bring you love" gingerbread man...

I really liked the controversial biblical bed scene billboard put up by St Matthew in the City church this year. I thought it was brilliant AND it worked... if your looking for me on Christmas Eve I'll be at St Matthew in the City (I won't bore you with a discourse on my religious beliefs and why I would go to this church).

I'm dying to tell my Secret Santa story. Sometimes when you have an idea it just takes on a life of its own! So much fun, thanks to Mrs $1 Pies for organising it. I can't wait.

Roll on Xmas... I think.

Anniversary

Happy 1st wedding anniversary Mr and Mrs $1 Pies!

The ghost of Christmas past

Ahh Christmas, how you love to creep up on us all. It got me thinking about Christmases that have gone before...

2005 - Our first Xmas in Auckland. I insisted on having a tree. You can't really tell from the bad photo, but it is decorated with white agapanthus flowers, burgundy and silver ribbons, matching baubles and candy canes. Xmas day was spent apart. I went to Nana's and Mr Jones went to his parents house.

2006 - Xmas together alone at Solscape (comes with my highest recommendation) in Raglan. No need to cook a meal, we just grazed on snacks. Extremely relaxing and indulgent, although I'm not sure if our families have forgiven our selfishness.

2007 - Xmas day at Nana's new house with my immediate family and Uncle. I had a pescatarian feast! Mr Jones at parents. The evening was spent at Mum's and with the cousins.

2008 - Xmas together again. At Mr Jones' parent's for a delicious BBQ lunch. Needless to say the evening was spent asleep on the sofa too full to move!

It can be tricky juggling two families needs at Xmas, but family is important so we keep juggling. This year the plan is:

Xmas day BBQ at Mr Jones' parent's place. Xmas evening travelling down the line for Boxing day celebrations with my side of the family. I would love to have a tree and trimmings but I'm not sure if I feel christmassy enough yet.

Keep thinking and questioning

While we were on our honeymoon we brought ourselves a gift (several actually, but that's another story). We couldn't take it home because it was in an exhibition at Tairawhiti Museum. So it didn't arrive at our house yesterday.

It is by Lina Marsh.

The embroidered state houses (there are 21 in the series, all different) represent a "life of dependency" and if you look beyond the convenience of state housing you see how trapped people become in this lifestyle.

I guess this is not your typical honeymoon 'souvenir'. Instead it is subtle and powerful that I hope will remind us to look beyond the everyday and to question situations we take for granted.

Computer clean up

In a bid to become more organised I have been giving my PC a wee bit of a makeover. I tided the desktop and folders, brought a webcam, signed up to Skype (for my overseas friends and potential international job prospects) and downloaded this new desktop wallpaper for free from Design*Sponge.

I hope it makes my computer happy :)

Urewera National Park School Camp

School camp with my brother and 49 other 11-13 year olds was an experience I will never forget.

Especially the seven hour day tramp! It was 700 metres uphill (twice the height of the Sky Tower) and covered about 12kms in distance.

Honeymoon

Here are some photos from our trip around the East Coast - now officially known as 'Eastland'.

Married! And on to new projects...

Here I am. Married!

Props to Kristy R for this photo - it is one of my favs

The past month has gone by way way too quickly. We are still in the process of sorting photos, write thank-you cards, catching up with people, and generally sorting out our house and lives. We are getting there slowly but surely. Post-wedding things that have happened in the past month:

• A fantastic Eastland Honeymoon
• Nana's 80th Birthday
• School camp with my youngest brother in the Urewera National Park
• A mean cold and a stomach bug
• Job quitting, followed by hunting

Now I am trying to mentally prepare myself for Christmas (not really my thing) and putting a good amount of effort into finding a 'proper' job. More about this another day.

Sneak Peeks

In 9 days we will be married. Here's what I did today.

Made pompoms for the hall in these colours,

ate my lunch in the sun,

and practised making vegan cupcakes (it was about taste not presentation at this stage):

Photos aren't great, but today I don't care.

Now I am off to some Architecture week events involving more cupcakes, and creations by 400 Architecture students.

Sometimes things in life don't make sense

My cousin's 17 month old son died. That doesn't make sense. Not at all.

Much love, rest in peace James

Oh happy Friday

Off to Whakatane for the weekend!

Have had a very busy week, working mostly, but have managed to have some fun.

Highlights included:

Book buying (well when I say buying I mean voucher spending)

A Julius Shulman book of course!

And the latest book by Alain de Botton

Film Society Screening of Agnès Varda short films.

The Rita Angus exhibition at the City Art Gallery

A delicious curry dinner last night, a tax return and the first 3 pods on the broad beans (not much luck there so far due to the lack of bees, but things may be improving)

Have a good weekend everyone, till next week...

Photo day no. 2

Here are some more photos:

A strawberry in my garden.

The furiness of the leaves is something I hadn't noticed before.

Nana's amazing orchids 1 (first use of the tripod) and 2

I know this photo is a bit out of focus but I like the graininess of it and all the empty space.

As you can see I am still learning about photography and since I only have a run of the mill digital camera there are limitations. This week I am experimenting with the tripod and programming my own settings.

P.S. Told you my Nana's orchids were amazing. She says the secret is neglect, they don't like attention - who would have thought!

Build mode

I just read that James May from UK's Top Gear is building a LEGO house.

Insight on National Radio yesterday looked at waterfront development in Auckland and Wellington. And they interviewed one of my Planning colleagues from the university.

In NY state they are planning to build a Woodstock Museum. The design competition winner has proposed a building made from sustainable materials including hemp, and with a pattern on the side of the building that will spell out 'peace'. - I kid you not.

I have just started listening to Smart City Radio, it's pretty good.

Hurricane Katrina wiped out New Orleans four years ago (on the 29/8/2005). After watching the Spike Lee doco I was wondering: what has happened since then? Apparently not a lot, if this 4th anniversary round up is anything to go by.

The city has regained only 75% of its pre-storm population, approximately 36% of the houses are empty and the feral chicken population is out of control.

Makes you think about the permanence of our cities. Maybe LEGO houses are the answer...

Source: ArchDaily

Site I like

I was trying to find the site for Build Your Own New York when I stumbled into Coolthings.com.

So many goodies (too many actually) My two favourite items were:

The Frames Wallpaper

and

The Dunk Mug

In the neighbourhood

For some reason (i.e. one not known to me) the retailers in Eden Valley have decided to join forces against tagging. What has resulted is some colourful and interesting new graffs, which are sure to scare those tagging hooligans away.

This one is so clever, I only just got it now!

It may well have been inspired by the efforts of Dan Tippett and DLT at the Kingsland Train Station. Unfortunately if you want to see this mural you'd better get there quick, 'cause its days are numbered due to numerous changes being in our neighbourhood made for the Rugby World Cup. A real shame if you ask me.

Thanks to Timespanner for making sure this was brought to our attention and for the photos. On the plus side thanks to our forward thinking community board has made sure their will be plenty of new art works from Dan and his crew gracing our neighbourhoods blank walls in no time.

What I have been doing while not blogging

Here's a brief update:

Have seen two movies - Coco Avant Chanel and Sunshine Cleaning. I liked the first one more than the second one.

Coco Avant Chanel is not a good movie if you actually want to know about Coco Chanel. But it is a biopic so I guess a bit of embellishment is to be expected. I really liked the costuming and set design. Audrey Tautou is fantastic. I like the sincerity she brings to this role. But I thought the ending was a bit abrupt and over-laboured.

Sunshine Cleaning was just okay. Once again a poorly ended movie. I am guessing it must be a hard task to come up with a good ending for a movie... maybe?

Also went alone to one of the talks in the series of Mayoral Conversations. Last night was Rita Justesen talking about the revitalisation of the Copenhagen waterfront. Unfortunately, the venue was truly appalling. Aotea Centre 'conference facilities' are not good at all. The room was the wrong size and shape, so no one could properly see or hear the speaker. The screens for projecting the presentation on to were too low. As a result everyone was bobbing side to side, up and down and arching their necks to see. I would like to point out that it is advertised on The Edge's website as being "New Zealand’s premier conference destination, an unrivalled complex in which to do business." I beg to differ. So as you can tell this was a big distraction in being able to enjoy the event.

My conclusion on the mayoral conversation series: Don't go. The wine is no longer good, the venue isn't likely to be either, the speakers are okay, and the dumb questions people ask are likely to annoy you. In the future I am planning to watch them on YouTube.

On the up side, I am now thinking of adding Denmark onto my list of places to go. It looks pretty. Copenhagen - "It's Chic. It's Exciting." And it has interesting architecture. Maybe my love of architecture and interest in urban planning is thanks to my Danish ancestry?!

Some photos of Copenhagen from: VisitCopenhagen.com

My new favourite icey treat

Don't think I am trying to sell you something (just sharing, honest) but...

I can't wait for summer so I can fully enjoy Smooze. They are vegan, gluten free and delicious. I am totally addicted. Turns out I am not the only one either. My only hope is that the claims they make on the package are all true!

Source: New Leaf Vegan Society

Garden of Eden

Here's a story about something interesting that I have been keeping an eye on over the past few years. It starts with an inner city site, known as 17 Kelly Street, Mt Eden. A site that could best be described as prime estate. Being considered prime real estate has meant this site has been fought over by various parties for many years and like all good battles it has not been without its controversies and victims.

I don't really need to tell you all this because if you go here it tells you all you need to know. But in case you don't here's the long and short of it:

In a previous life this site was home to a dental training school. Before the site was a dental training school it was earmarked as a public reserve (pre 1940s I think) but it never happened.

During it's time as a dental training school in the 1960s and 1970s they used to "throw spare amalgam out the window." As a result the soil, plants, and trees on the site become contaminated.

Fast forward to 2000 when ESRI (a crown institute who became the lucky owners) decide they no longer want the site and begin the process of selling it. A process which becomes the subject of much controversy. Before they can safely sell it they spend about $1 million on decontamination.

ESRI then sell it to a developer (who just happens to be the former CFO of ESRI) with an elaborate plan to develop the site into 22 high-density 'luxury' townhouses. The City Council was thrilled of course, because this area of Mt Eden is zoned for population growth and the development ticks all their boxes. The local residents were not so thrilled because they don't want a high-density development next door, they want a park. The local iwi are also not impressed because they have a Waitangi Tribunal claim related to this area.

Nearly ten years after the debacle first began, several resource consents and angry resident meetings later, in 2008 the developer pulls the plug on the development and the site goes on the market, later becoming subject to a mortgagee sale.

In the meantime, the unused site has been surrounded by a 100m wall. Far too tempting for taggers, the wall is soon covered in graffiti, which the owner paints over with grey paint every few days. The residents become annoyed by the tagging, but even more annoyed by the ugly grey paint. So they arrange 2 mural painting parties, inviting artists to come and help cheer the place up. The owner paints over them in the grey paint. The residents paint more murals, the owner paints over them again. The Council gets involved. It starts to get nasty.

Photo from NZ Herald article about Kelly Street Walls

By now you can probably appreciate the history of this site is long, complicated and involves a lot of angry people. Now one year on from the development plans being scrapped, the future of the site is still unclear. The local residents continue to fight for the site to become a park, a decision which the Council is yet to accept. And then just when you thought enough has happened here, one last development has occurred in the past few months that gives you the sense that this story is far from over...

The Garden of Eden Project

The Site

Blue Tree

Yellow Tree

Birdhouse

Earth Drum

Wall of Life