Archive for April, 2015
There was an old lady…
Posted in Uncategorized on April 25, 2015| 4 Comments »
Easter at Piha
Posted in Days Out, tagged piha, Surf Life Saving, West Coast on April 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »
The wild west coast beaches were playing pretty nicely over Easter so we heard out to meet up with our lovely friends and do a spot of body boarding in the big waves. I spent hours in the water with Lucy and then on my own just mucking around in the waist high stuff. The beach certainly deserves it’s reputation for demanding care and respect. The power of the water sucking out after a big set of waves is quite incredible. Even if it’s just around your knees and thighs it’s easy to see how swimmers lacking experience and/or confidence can get into trouble quickly. We saw the guys in the boat pull a few people out and drop them back at shore. It’s good to know they are there watching over everyone.
Guys! Guys! Guys!
Posted in Days Out, Kids will be Kids, tagged Art, Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, Sculpture on April 13, 2015| 3 Comments »
The title of this post was the exclamation of choice for Lucy as we wandered around the always interesting and beautiful Brick Bay Sculpture Trail. She clutched her trail guide like it was a very rare pirate’s treasure map, found in an attic behind a faded black and white painting. For her and Emily it wasn’t just a trail map it was a detective game! Perhaps the easiest detective game in the world because everything was in order and plain sight. But a game nonetheless. Hence the exclamation of ‘GUYS!’ every time she found the next ‘clue’.
I love and celebrate my girls ability to be entertained by art. We don’t try to explain anything or make it into something it’s not. It’s just a nice walk in amazing setting looking at cool and unexpected things that someone has wrought out of absolutely nothing into something. One minute there was no idea and no sculpture. Then the prototype of an idea formed and the act of bringing it into existence shaped that idea and guided it as the artist rendered this abstraction into this thing we laughingly refer to as ‘the real world’.
We made a coffee table at the weekend and the process is the same – The idea started the form taking shape and the emerging form directed the idea. I’m not sure I could sell it for tens of thousands, but it’s a nice table made from leftover wood. There’s a post about it on this page: https://fitzhughs.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/coffee-table/
Talking of tables the food that they serve in the glasshouse restaurant at Brick Bay (that you eat whilst sitting at a table – what do you mean tenuous link?) is simply fantastic. That’s all there is to say about that. Go there – eat it. I cannot bring you the experience through words. You have to put the Salmon pate in your mouth yourself.
As for the sculpture park here are a few photos of the day.
Coffee Table
Posted in Interesting Stuff, tagged Table, Timber, Upcycled, Woodwork on April 12, 2015| 2 Comments »
A quick days sawing, planing, sanding and screwing turned a few of these…
… into one of these…
Timber courtesy of a house up the road that was throwing a whole bunch of these dirty planks out with last years inorganic collection. A quick rub with Danish oil to finish the job.
What never gets tired? The zoo…
Posted in Days Out, tagged easter, giraffe, zoo on April 3, 2015| 1 Comment »
it’s fair to say that the value we get from our friends of the zoo passes is fantastic.
Good Friday here in NZ so we decided to head to the zoo and flash the plastic (laminated zoo passes that is) like some back stage animal groupies at a big concert.
The weather was glorious today, just that perfect warmth for t-shirts but without frying.
The finest moment by far was the unexpected close encounter with a giraffe. He was eating his meal one micro morsel at a time delivered up by a range of variously excited, nervous, curious and terrified adults and children. We got in before the veg ran out and the zoo keeper was so very impressed by Josie’s extreme excitability that she pulled her back for a special photo – see below!
The kids followed the holiday activity – a detective trail in which you learn all about eggs. Topical!
