Three views as a massive sea fog hits this morning…
Month: May 2019
Wavelength: Signals And Wires
The old radio station at Musick Point, Auckland sits atop a peninsular clifftop ; its signals guided military ships and planes in the Pacific during WWII . Now, the humming of the wires is generated by an amateur radio ham group that keeps the spirit of the place alive.
Regardless of the messages sent, the symbols of the power of the airwaves always resonate with me.
Stations.
Frequencies.
Transmitters.
Aerials.
Signals.
Wires.
The magic of radio – on the road ,in the dead of the night : words, voices ,music – always the music.
Connection.
“And I can get your station
When I need rejuvenation
Wavelength
Wavelength
You never let me down, no.”
‘Wavelength’, Van Morrison (1978)
Rangitoto/Blood Sky
Rangitoto is the volcanic island that dominates the entrance to Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour.
It’s Maori name means ‘Blood Sky’; hence the treatment I have given to this shot, taken today.
Rangitoto is an absolute icon, born in violent eruption but today a calm and reassuring presence of nature, and for me, of home.
The Serenity Prayer
You may well have seen or heard this prayer before (actually it is just part of a longer prayer written in the early 1930s by US theologian Reinhold Niebuhr) , most closely associated with Alcoholics Anonymous and other recovery programmes.
It is however a design for life and wellbeing for anybody really.
You don’t have to be religious; you can call on your own understanding of the divine.
And even if you are a dyed in the wool atheist you can permit yourself the assets mentioned in the words to be used at your disposal to meet most life situations.
I use the prayer more often than my own ego would like, for the simple fact is that I often don’t have a f**king clue about how to react to certain things.
If nothing else, it gives me a pause before I might plow on ahead and do some damage…
Portrait: The Antique Dealer
I took this shot of an antique dealer in a provincial New Zealand town coming back home from further afield .
Needed to find a special birthday gift for my wife ,entered the bursting at the seams but tidy shop .Managed to be talked into ,and sold, a gorgeous blood red coral necklace.
This obliging gentleman even hung it round my neck for size. This in a really conservative town! But I was happy with the likely fit for the donee. Really excellent and knowledgeable customer service. We got on like a house on fire, and in talking found we a mutual acquaintance. NZ is truly the land of two degrees of separation.
The charming man posed for a picture before I hit the road again. I really like this one, the emperor of the emporium seated on his throne ,surrounded by pre-loved vintage homeware and curios.
Plenty of history ,a heap of passion, and great facial hair!
Within Our Arc
Artwork in an arched alcove…try saying that ten times at speed…
Or, ponder this: If asked to describe ourselves ,we focus on our nature and attributes.
But what of our influence – that arc, or sphere, or ripple outwards?
Our essence projected on the world.
What does our arc look like? Where can we effect change ?
Divining Water
….sometimes it is just obvious…..
The Experiences And The Meaning
” We had the experiences but missed the meaning “
– T.S Eliot , ‘The Dry Salvages’
I went down to the water’s edge earlier this morning, the sun penetrating the sea fog, the light quietly spectacular. There was a fleeting moment of soul connection and calm.
Then, as is my wont, my mind ticked over to what I needed to do today, tomorrow and into the near future.
The moment was gone and the experience had lost its meaning.
The sun and the water had not changed, or maybe imperceptibly.
But I had moved on.
How many little moments or experiences are lost just like that, as I am “elsewhere” even though physically present?
And then the best I can hope for is that the meaning of the experience will come to me in hindsight.
Just a reminder to myself to be mindful and soulful, even in the smallest experience, for it may not occur again.
Five Lamps In Winter
You Don’t Need My Light Right Now
It’s getting a bit gloomy , I can see you fading.
Much as I want to shed a little light on matters, help you out, now is not the time.
Night has not fallen yet .Perhaps it won’t .
I will stand by regardless my friend.
If you lose your way ,I can be a lamp in the dark.
Just switch me on if you need me ,okay?
Entangled
“Sentenced to drift far away now
nothing is quite what it seems
sometimes entangled
in your own dreams “
– ‘Entangled’,Genesis (1976)
I listened to this old prog rock song for the first time in years in the last week, and took the photograph about the same time.
I am not sure whether the song and its lyrics influenced the shot, but certainly not consciously.Maybe though at some weird unconscious level in the way that music does,evoking a mood or place.
The album the number comes from was one of the first I ever purchased .I drift back in time and see myself as a geeky 14 year old reading the lyrics intently from the beautiful cardboard gatefold cover, while the vinyl record spun on the rudimentary turntable in my bedroom. I played that disc countless times(entranced with ‘Entangled’!)
I was a bit of a dreamer as a teenager and the music took me back in an instant to my younger self.
So too the tangled tree branches in their veined pattern,to some more recent troubled and nightmarish times.
All is dream.
ebb then flood 