Second of this series of pictures…
Factoid: I sang here in the school choir when I was kid. No idea what happened to my angelic voice, or the angelic me for that matter…
Church Tower and Spire
Month: March 2019
Church Bell
This is the first of a series of posts where I have photographed places of religion and spiritual belief buildings .Not that I regard myself as religious, but we are all spiritual. The use of symbols and styles of architecture always intrigue and interest me.
Factoid:Tucked away behind the simple wooden church is a little hall where I sometimes meet with others of like mind. Curiously, it has nothing whatsoever to do with religion but there is a spiritual bond there for sure.
The City ,To The West, Clouded
The view from Orakei Marae across the harbour to Auckland City on Thursday.
Clouds looming and rain in the offing.
But the focus for me is the calm water.
Finding the calm place in the midst of disturbance.
Stillness is serenity.
More Avian Pose
I know,I know….after the previous post, it’s like another scene from Alfred Hichcock’s ‘The Birds’. No need to be concerned, the avians are stuffed and strung up. Nonetheless, just a little creepy…
Avian Pose
This shot was taken at a museum, and carries on yesterday’s theme of things left suspended. Taxidermists and curators recreate the miracle of birds in flight. Entry to the museum display is free, but there are strings attached…
Where did they fly whilst alive?How high did they soar?
The Hanging Tree
Just hanging around? Hung up on something? Left hanging?
Hey, don’t hang up on me….
Is The Sky The Limit?(Song by Grant Hart)
As I was penning the words to the previous post ‘Radiate Away’ ,this was the song in my head. Grant Hart was the co-leader of eighties indie rock legends Husker Du and died last year aged 56.
The song, one of his last, and described variously as”symphonic” and “elegaic” , lyrically probes the limits of existence .It finishes on the repeated words “radiate, radiate away…radiate ,radiate away”, before a satellite signal bleep repeats and seems to fade into space…haunting….
Radiate Away
Everything,and everybody,has a centre or core from which it or their essence radiates away from.The spider’s web.The yucca tree.You.Me.
Lose that centre and you have no outward effect or influence.Compromise your essence and your impact is diluted.
Nurture and look after what is good at your core!
Misty Tamaki Toetoe
This morning, by the river, before the sun broke through….
No Footprints ( Song by Bruce Cockburn)
Refer the last post ,‘Footprints’ – the sea will erase our tracks.
This beautiful song is from one of my all-time favourite albums ,’Dancing In the Dragon’s Jaws’ .It was released in 1979 by Canadian artist Bruce Cockburn. Really worth picking up the now forty year old album if you can find it. Stunning lyrically and musically , a deeply spiritual record .The cover art is reproduced here so you will know it when you see it – really striking and original in its own right.
As he sings so eloquently here:
“Leaving no footprints
when we go
only where we’ve been
a faint and fading glow”
Footprints
Shot of a deserted Northland beach, with just the footprints between the rocks to remind you that you are not the only one around. The incoming tide will take care of that…
Footnotes
Footnotes.
You know,those reduced font clarications , expansions and extra stuff about matters in the main body of a narrative that you are directed to check out by the author.
At the bottom of the page.
If you can be bothered.
Me,I like them. The flow of the story might have got disrupted ,or sent off on an unwanted tangent by their inclusion,but often there is factual gold or weird shit that adds so much to the tale.There may be a whole other story there that is just not for the telling this time around.
Sometimes you hear expressions like “a mere footnote”.As in,unimportant,not the main part of the story or happening.
How many of us feel a bit like footnotes to life?That the story we are in sort of refers to us without including us in the main text. Well, we all get sidelined or bumped to the bottom of the page from time to time.
But maybe you get there because your story is just too interesting,full of tangents and departures, and plain weird shit, to fit in neatly. Be just a little grateful if that’s the case…!
Urineel
It’s been a heavy few days in NZ,and this is posted for some light, erm, relief.Spotted on holiday last year,men’s toilet in Motueka replete with bright red eel drainpipe.
Could say something about phallic symbols but maybe an eel is just an eel ,when it is not being a drain of course…anyway, it made the necessary a bit more fun.
Eel leave it there…..
Fix Me In
Why should I confine myself
to the image
they would fix me in?
-from the poem ‘Ghetto’, Guy Tirolien
A distorted view of me….
Making The World Seem Right
I have dealt with the theme of hope briefly in the last two posts. Rainbows are of course a symbol of hope and peace in many cultures and beliefs. But I love this succinct quote:
” Rainbows have a way of making the world seem right.”
– Anthony T. Hincks
Yucca In Flower
Another, closer look at the yucca flower from yesterday’s post ‘Soft Beauty vs The Harsh Spikes’.
And today we look closer at yesterday’s tragic mass shooting in Christchurch – the shock subsides, the “why? and “how?” of analysis starts. But hope and love, the soft bloom of the heart, are constant. They are what will get us all through this.
Soft Beauty vs The Harsh Spikes
It was on my mind early this afternoon to post this picture of a flowering yucca tree in my garden.It is a very occasional event,and quite startling in the juxtaposition of soft,creamy bloom nestling in the crown of spiky leaves.
I got home from work to the horrific news of the mass killing of Muslim worshippers here in New Zealand today,at mosques in Christchurch.
Shocking beyond belief in a generally peaceful and tolerant country.
Been glued to news updates for the past few hours; many others are hurt and the death toll may rise.
Wasn’t gonna post but my mind and heart are still racing , so I put this up in remembrance for the dead and solidarity for the innocent living .
A soft bloom of hope rises from amidst the harshness of hatred.
I wish you all peace tonight and hope for tomorrow, Andy.
Uncovered Skeleton
A bay near my home I love to swim at, but when the tide recedes there are the beautiful stone formation patterns left from some ancient geological upheaval, in regular lines , like the ribcage of an uncovered skeleton.
Water Into Stone
Low tide waves appear to morph into stone….beautiful curving patterns repeated.
The Water Garden(Song by Brian Eno)
This is the perfect soundtrack to my other post from today “Water Into Stone”, from the ambient/electronic master Eno, whose music has been a lifelong companion for me. It sounds like what I see . Whoever came up with the artwork was obviously on the same wavelength (excuse the pun) as me, just more spectacularly!
Ebb Then Flood 