I’m reposting “BROKEN DREAMS” on request from one or two people…

Being widowed is no picnic…

I was widowed over ten years ago and now days I can talk about  it more easily. At the time our dreams for the future were shattered.

If your husband (wife/partner) dies suddenly, that is quite different from someone dying  from the ghastly cancer.  I wouldn’t dare suggest how others might respond. They are all totally different journeys. I nursed my husband for months, and this article is about how I managed my grief.

If these words help even one of you I will be pleased. Everyone’s experience is quite different so we mustn’t judge others on our own journey, it seems to me that our lives prior to this tragic event have a huge bearing on our ability to deal with this and move forward. Some folk are not emotionally able to move on and hit a brick wall.   What goes before has  a huge bearing on who we are and how we cope with life’s curve balls   People don’t choose to react negatively, I’m  sure of that. They just cannot see light at the end of the tunnel. I’m not talking about the elderly here, more about people in their prime of life. Make no mistake, it’s tough. 

Letters to my parents – 1968

In February 1968 I traveled to Australia as a young Karitane Nurse. Recently the letters I wrote home were discovered, my Mother had kept them all and some of the snippets, I think, are worth repeating here. Remembering  I was raised on a farm in Central Otago and then I had been to boarding school so I had a rather sheltered up bringing!!  My letter writing was prolific, 3-4 pages hand written most weeks. Postage was 7c Airmail to New Zealand.

Destinations Magazine – online now.

Hello everyone,

Just a quick note with these two links – I am absolutely thrilled with this article about my trip to Greenland. Comments always welcome and please do share with your travel minded friends.

The first link is to the magazine, the second link is directly to my story.

http://destinationsmagazine.com/category/stories/

http://destinationsmagazine.com/stories/eastern-greenland/

Destinations Magazine is free to subscribe to so feel welcome to tick the appropriate box.

Mark this date in your diary 13th June..My exhibition ICE  opens at Exhibitions Gallery, 19a Osborne Street, Newmarket, Auckland until 2nd July.

Double Exposures in camera –

Creating double exposures in camera is a lot of fun..one is never sure what the result will be, it is akin to waiting for a roll of film to be processed.  Double exposures are one of photography’s most creative techniques, giving photographers endless possibilities to produce unique and inspiring photographs. 

Experiment and enjoy the surprises. Funnily enough I have sold a few of my doubles and won awards too so there is method in my madness! Simply put, double exposure is a combination of two different images in one frame to create a unique photo.

On being published –

It is ironic that my last blog in January started off “I might be gone for some time” ..at the time I did not  realise I wouldn’t write another blog until now!! And this one many of you may have read  somewhere in cyber space over the last few days! However  for those who have not…please enjoy. There is no real reason, new grandchild, trips to Sydney, rain, a new exhibition looming, brain fade..all of those reasons.

No one would have been more surprised than me when the Editor of a Photography Magazine I subscribe to called me last week. “Lynn he said, I’ve trawled through your Flick’r account ( 10 thousand images)) and I would like to do an article about you.” Once I picked myself up off the floor and checked my in box there they were ..about 35 images he wanted to see the high res originals!! Seriously some dated back to 2009 and all I can say is thank heaven Lightroom Library worked a treat and most of them I found that day!!

‘I MAY BE GONE FOR SOME TIME’

Last year I blogged about the Rural Women’s  speech writing award I presented  in memory of my Mother Pat Rowley. The award is The Rowley Brooch and you can read about the award  here. Jenny Malcolm from North Otago won the Rowley Brooch in 2016 and to my delight went on to win the National Awards in Wellington.

Myself with Jenny Malcolm on the left

Jenny has kindly allowed me to reproduce her speech here. all contestants were given the same topic from the annals of history.

Captain Lawrence Edward Grace “Titus” Oates (  1880 –  1912)  was an English army officer, and later an Antarctic explorer, who died during the Terra Nova Expedition. . Oates, afflicted with gangrene and frostbite, walked from his tent into a blizzard. His death is seen as an act of self-sacrifice when, aware that his ill-health was compromising his three companions chances of survival, he chose certain death.  As he left his tent he said  “I might be gone for some time”.

Topic “I may be gone for some time….” Time 3-5 minutes.

Here is Jenny Malcolm’s words  and interpretation of the topic; and I can assure you her delivery was exceptional. 

’tis the Season to shop…

 

I love wandering around the shops at this time of year..so many amazing unique gifts. Of course I can not buy them all and I don’t need any of them; perhaps that is why I like to window shop and share my discoveries of the unique, practical and bazaar!!

Blush in Gladstone Road Parnell is a very attractive florist shop  but they are different from most florists. The wreaths are from Blush in Parnell. They also sell a range of bespoke gifts such as this beautifully packaged tea and cute soaps, miniature orchids and bespoke books.  these beautifully packaged message soaps come in about 20 shades of pastel.!

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Locally made South Island Gin – The Source $120.00 a bottle makes a unique gift.

Rose Rabbit New Zealand Orange Liqueur –

The Cardrona

New Zealand Single Malt Whisky

‘the reid’ Single Malt Vodka –

Check out the website for ordering on line.

A couple of books to consider – 

An extraordinary diary from ‘The Vietnamese Anne Frank’, now in paperback I hear is a great read…its on my holiday list. 

Dang Thuy Tram

Last Night I Dreamed of Peace is the moving diary kept by a 27-year-old Vietnamese doctor who was killed by the Americans during the Vietnam War, while trying to defend her patients. Not only is it an important slice of history, from the opposite side of Dispatches and Apocalypse Now, but it shows the diarist – Dang Thuy Tram – as a vibrant human being, full of youthful idealism, a poetic longing for love, trying hard to be worthy of the Communist Party and doing her best to look after her patients under appalling conditions. She wrote straight from the heart and, because of this, her diary has been a huge bestseller in Vietnam – 350,000 copies sold in 2005 alone. Rider brings the first English translation, in book form, to the Commonwealth markets. But there is more: how the diary came to light is also an unusual story in its own right. Fred Whitehurst was a US intelligence officer on the scene just after Dang Thuy Tram was shot. He came across the diary and, instead of burning it there and then, took it home. His brother translated it and so began an odyssey that took 35 years, to find Thuy Tram’s family in Vietnam, and return the small brown book to them. Remarkably, in 2005, Fred Whitehurst tracked down the young doctor’s mother who graciously accepted it from this former GI who, as a result, was able to complete his own journey of reconciliation after years of bitterness as a Vietnam vet. $29.95rrp. Paper Plus etc. or as an E book from Amazon.

Below is my own personal bespoke coffee table book, this makes a beautiful gift. Buy from Blurb.com US$109.99 or more depending on Blurbs Pricing and currency. 🙂  Large Format Landscape, 13×11 in, 33×28 cm  98 Pages – Preview available on line –

ICE are photographs taken in Scoresby Sound East Greenland and Jökulsárlón  in Iceland.

My favourite Iceberg photo from the book.

 

These cotton robes and sun hats scream SUMMER from Isobel Harris in Newmarket.

Seletti are in Queenstown and Auckland… lots of fun and quirky gifts. These fabulous “sitting” monkey lamps are $790.00 or the neon Letter Lights.

 

Whitestone Cheese are an award-winning NZ company.  An original wooden gift box containing six award-winning varieties of our range. We courier New Zealand wide and will include your message in the box. $50.00 Check out their full selection.

 

Give a Kowhai tree this Christmas… it will help with your Carbon Footprint too.36 – 43cm high baby tree in wooden planter containing high quality potting mix.

• Purpose designed Trees Please! gift box made of sustainable untreated plantation pine (45cm high)
• Copper tag for recipient to mark the occasion and date the gift is received.
• Information on care, repotting and planting tree for best results.
• Complimentary Trees Please! message card

Mugler is the new perfume from ANGEL and the  bottle is a limited edition for Christmas. Stunning – I was naughty and bought myself this Christmas present!!

Fragrance notes: bergamot, praline, vanilla/patchouli/musk

                                  

So those are my best pics for this Christmas season.

Have special times with your family and friends…love one another and enjoy every day!!

 

Expedition Greenland

One of the worlds sought after Passport stamps – Greenland.

Somehow I’ve booked myself on an ‘expedition’ to East Greenland. I have no idea what I have let myself in for other than an adventure and a chance to see Icebergs!! It is my 70th birthday present to me!! We keep being told ‘you’ll never do it younger’ so I did it!   – Greenland is the largest island in the world but also one of the worlds most sparsely populated regions. It originally belonged to Denmark.  Pop.approx. 56,483 and only about 150  live on East Greenland. I am publishing my personal diary here so please enjoy and put this trip on your bucket list!

Day 1

We arrived at a small airfield and joined our charter flight, duration  90 minutes to Constable Point in our twin prop plane…. We flew over vast  flat waste land before seeing a few mountains to the north-west of Iceland. Suddenly below us were small white dots , actually icebergs and as we approached Greenland the sea was dotted with hundreds of icebergs sunbathing beneath a clear blue sky. We dropped onto a dirt runway and were ushered into a half-dome shaped shed with 58 pairs of rubber waterproof boots neatly lined up!

Essential Iceland – a day trip.

Essential Iceland  is my short story about a one day trip I did in a very large truck from Reykjavik in Iceland generally to the heart of the country.

This was advertised as an all day trip. The Visitors bureau did not mention we needed to bring lunch and I presumed it would be supplied – anyway Valdi, our fabulous guide,  took us to a gas station to buy some sustenance. ( it is on their website but I had not been privy to that.)  Once on our way Valdi gave us lots of geological information about the mountainous region surrounding us. We headed north and then in land on sealed roads.

We passed the home of the only Icelandic Noble prize winner Halldór Laxness. Awarded in 1955. Laxness wrote poetry, newspaper articles short stories and novels.

‘Independent People’ is his most famous book set in the early twentieth century, it recalls both Iceland’s medieval epics and such classics as Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter. And if Bjartur of Summerhouses, the book’s protagonist, is an ordinary sheep farmer, his flinty determination to achieve independence is genuinely heroic and, at the same time, terrifying and bleakly comic.

I wonder if the recent movie ‘Rams’ was inspired by this famous Icelandic read.?

ICELAND in brief.

Iceland is perhaps similar to New Zealand..it has many waterfalls, lush green hills, volcanoes, glaciers and geysers and it is an island. The  roads are two lanes  however unlike NZ they drive on the right. And to be honest it is totally different so do some research and plan a vacation! To discover why Iceland and Greenland are mis-named check out this. They were cunning back in those days!!

Below: Reykavich