It is the colour of the wood that I like. It is similar to the trestles with planks that I bought. These drawers are rough and ready, opening and shutting them prove that, just a little too clunky to save up for. Made from recycled timber. I think I might be trying to get over the phase of false old stuff by becoming more familiar. It's not working.

This bowl of string made me want to buy it and line it up on my shelves, I find the old world look of the labels and waxed paper made me want to touch the display. Clever marketing. It doesn't matter if it is false. I wonder when this phase will pass. String is very handy but I have many rolls and balls stored at home for immediate use. The string stayed in the bowl. Koko's again, 743 Mt Eden Rd, Epsom, Auckland.

I have found somewhere that sells recycled objects for the home. Re-using wood, metal, animal products etc, not particularly fine traditional things more quirky and individual. You could say it is false shabby chic maybe.  So I took my camera along and asked if I could take some photos. Once I had sorted the focus out with help from Diane  (mental block or had it been too long?)  I took some. I also bought a recycled trestle table made in China from European Elm, I'm thrilled with it. Quite heavy. No effort made to refine or hide earlier use, guess you could say it is almost honest. Will post a photo at a later date.

Michele

I was filled with apprehension and almost a reluctance to start this new project called 100 Strangers. Diane and I wandered round the International Airport looking for suitable people to approach. Diane soon saw several people she would like to talk to but you had to be quick, and when one stayed still for a moment she was a natural interviewer. Later on when we needed a coffee break and my score was still zero I saw this couple several tables away and with my heart in my mouth I went and said 'excuse me' and introduced myself. Michele was very easy to talk to and showed an interest in the project and my camera, so much so it was only later when I started breathing properly again that I realised that I had asked hardly any questions.  I think she looks reflective and sad at this moment.








Saturday 10th November 2012.
Post Script. I have abandoned this project, after giving it a brief trial. Continuing for sometime to approach strangers and take photographs I never gained the confidence or familiarity  with the subject matter. I found that it was not that I  was not interested in the process of discovery more that I was not interested in the end result. Perhaps an area that one day I might have the maturity to look at again.

We visited the Auckland Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and to listen to Greg Bowker talk about the art and craft of being a press photographer for the NZ Herald. We had lunch in the cafe afterwards. A warning here - how can they justify their high prices! the underneath car park was no better. Pity, I would visit more often, if both were more affordable.

Something had to happen, and soon because the groundwork I'd done on understanding my camera was fading away. The notes, the lessons, the instruction book, all were like a foreign language. Diane and I decided to see if we could get back into some sort of routine and today we started. Six photos of the same thing and I chose shadows. We had spent the morning inside trying to sketch heads in the Brick by Brick Cafe and finished photographing around the area outside.

The first one is taken through the holes in the back of the chair, looking down at the table pedestal, second is the sun shining through the chair holes onto the wall. The next is the sun on the wall, dappled light echoing the circles. Forth is other holes in the chair and five is a line or strip of light again echoing on the wall and then a closer look at the holes in the chair.

I have a birthday in the right month for a few of my seasonal favourites - red figs and Bluff oysters. These figs are off our tree. Even with netting to protect it from the birds we cannot grow enough. When we drive around the lanes and byways we look for gate sale fruit and have found a grower not far from Ian in Bombay. I think the season is nearly at an end and the feast will be soon be over. The figs are simmered  in sugar, water and vinegar for at least 3 hours, drained and then dried for a couple of days over night in a fan oven at 50 to 60 degrees. We have hardly had a summer this year and most of our figs may never ripen.

A new tool. After trying the local engineering, scrapbooking, hand tools, hardware and gasket making shops I drew a blank. There was a place in India that would supply in 4 figure numbers but I only required one. Martin found an old piece of mild steel pipe (from under the bench!) that was welded and from that he fashioned this, turning inside and out on the lathe, and hack-sawing through some solid round for the strike end plate. This was welded on to the pipe and turned again. There are 4 small holes in this plate to aid removal of the the paper from the tube once it has been cut. Then to the case hardening company where they tempered it as best they could - mild steel can only be changed so much before it becomes really too brittle. All for a charge of course. So now I have a tool that will punch holes in paper, card, and leather. I intend using it to cut decorated paper rounds which I will emboss with my initial and use to seal down the flap on envelopes.

The Washingtonia I planted 30 years ago is no more, cut down, shredded up and the stump ground away. I had planted it on the edge of the eaves and it was too close to the house. Disturbing the lie of the land, dropping fronds in storms, lifting the fence and moving it south. Sad that I will not hear the summer breeze in its leaves again, or look up into the leaves and see the bright blue of the sky.

We saw this spire from quite a way off and it reminded us of Greece. Then when we arrived at the intersection we could read the notice, it was Havelock North's Greek Orthodox Church.

The scale of this framing is deceptive, nearly the height of a three storied building, it's down at Craggy Range.

At first glance I wondered why this interested me and then I realized that it was the intricate disturbed shadow pattern on the curtain.

There is something about texture or repetitive patterns that makes my eye try and find the odd one out.

A slightly off upright compass-weather vane, but that's not why I took this photo. I liked the proportions of upper featured area. It must have a technical architectural term but I don't know what it is. Do you?

One of the columns supporting Craggy Range Winery and restaurant. Sandstone I think, with a fascinating grain, from memory the whole front of the  building was glass and this stone.

I confess it's another photo from the highway and moving car. It is not so typical of NZ landscape to me, we were descending from the edge of the North Island's central plateau. It was a hazy summer's day and I was lucky to see this far.

Garden sculpture, aging well and just beginning to be colonized by spiders.

Whilst visiting a rural studio we were able to get up quite close to the nest.

Yes, you might have guessed - we sat at table number 5.

Just the right touch for a garden lunch on a beautiful day.

Just on dusk and the lights are coming into their own. This composition is a bit strange. Why didn't I move to the left a bit?

On the road up to Te Mata Peak. 

It's that time of year when the grapes are nearly ripe, these are growing at Black Barn.

We stopped on a very busy road by the wetland and it took me sometime to cross over. There was only a little open water, a few swans and ducks dibbling, it looks peaceful but wasn't because of the constant roaring of traffic going by at high speed.

The sun never shines here, more from under the bench.

Engineers stock, bit like a housewife having flour, sugar and shortening. You can make good things. Nothing contrived here, just the garage floor under the bench as it is.

This is not an advertisement, I was trying to see how close I could get to the condensation on the can. Click to zoom in. Arggh there is too much I don't know. At West Haven marina we sat in the cafe on a rainy day sketching the things around us and catching up with things happening in each others lives.

The other day I was asked where was the best sunset I have ever seen, after a brief moment to consider I replied it was on the Manukau Harbour. I was surprised by my answer and even days later consider it correct. Yesterday coming home from a morning out with Diane, I took a photo of the calm on the out going tide. The sky was huge with clouds, almost navy blue in places, the harbor was stunning again. There is something that draws me to the water and it's ever changing shape and colours.

David Trubridge has a quite a following amongst some, we visited his workshop/gallery when we were down in the Hawkes Bay. I was rather taken with the photographs behind the front desk. I am still looking to find a similar location to try it for myself, rough tussocky country, with hills and fence lines, sheep tracks in tawny shades, three panels I think, and then early morning shots of smooth dark green hills with the light making amazing sliver shapes of bright green, again three panels.

A very pleasant way to finish a leisurely lunch.