Of cream cakes and a white marble road

The cream cakes and doughnuts scarf before it is felted.

I started making merino felt again after visiting Ann-Marie at the Retrotonic shop on the corner of our street, School Road. I had previously made a pig’s nest of trying to make some felted slippers off an internet site. But AM is such an inspiring soul that I rushed home and knocked out two scarves. One is supposed to be like a moth’s wing, it’s all twisty and brown. The other is a concoction of cream-cakes and doughnuts. I’m really pleased with the final result and can't wait to make more.

The last leaf.

Today, walking past orchards rapidly undressing for winter, I saw a ‘last leaf’ hanging on a tree and remembered the story of the woman determining her fate by something as flimsy as a leaf. 

Did you ever read the short story by O. Henry about a young woman with pneumonia who lost her will to live and vowed to die when the last leaf fell off the tree outside her window? The rain and wind did their best to dislodge it but the leaf held on stubbornly so that the young woman lived, at least till the end of the story. By what star – or leaf - do we live?

Louise and I took a step into the unknown when we decided to drive through the rain to Harwood’s Hole… a large sunken hole on Takaka Hill. Oh my goodness. The skinny up and down road was mostly marble and slick. We got as far as an old festival site on Canaan Downs and a bit of beech forest. All part of the Abel Tasman National Park. 

After this, the white marble path steepened with some larger chunks, so, to save the trusty wee Nissan Pulsar possible damage, we set off back down the hill, stopping to coo at a trio of highland cattle perfectly suited to the ambiance of this place. I hope to return soon in a four wheel drive.

A couple of days later we helped make a ‘compost cake’ of green and brown layers. The ‘cake’ ended up being a large brick-shaped object about four foot high. The ingredients – fruit and vegetable waste, horse manure, fresh grass clippings – had been gathered over some time and were waiting nearby. Bio dynamic concoctions were added the composting process. This task was a satisfying experience and not as smelly as you might think. You just don’t think twice about smoothing horse poo over grass clippings with your hands.

We took Dad to Mapua and he took a great fancy to the fish and chip woman there. He so loved the pub on the Mapua wharf he refused to leave so we buggered off to the cluster of crafty wee shops in old corrugated iron sheds. I met a woman called Helen running a design shop. She’d been there for a year or so, from London, to keep an eye on her parents in Dunedin. The climate there was too cold for her so she perched at the top of the island. She stayed on when they died.

When we got back to the pub, Dad had scarpered. He’d gone back for more fish n chips and a chat with the woman. Incorrigible!

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L and I are leaving for Dunedin tomorrow. We are going to drive down the west coast.

A protected persimmon tree - overripe fruit falls off in globules.