A Nor’west Season

Waiting . . .

the nor’west arch a pale slash

along cloud-filled sky,  promises heat—

big bluster coming

beating in across the plains    lifting

roofs              tossing down

trees                              a dog howls

into the sun’s glazed eye

falls back into shadow

beneath a car body

propped on a rusted jack    waits

for the lull . . .

—

© Helen Lowe

Published, Crest to Crest: Impressions of Canterbury Prose & Poetry, Ed. Karen Zelas, Wily Publications, 2009

—

Although I have posted this poem here before (yes, it is one of mine), back in 2010 as it turns out, I am posting it again today because up until yesterday we’ve been having a blast of nor’west weather.

And a norwest winds means stinking hot—by NZ standards, that is. (I imagine anyone from India, Australia, or Africa will probably be sneering right about now. 😉 ) It’s not just heat, though: the norwester can be pretty destructive once it gets up a head of steam.

Yesterday was the culmination of the latest round of norwesters and what I call meltingly hot—until the southerly blew on through bringing some up-from-the-Antarctic, off-the-southern-ocean cool.

So today seemed a good time to honour the norwester, which is one of the defining characteristics of life in this part of NuZild (aka NZ.) I explain a bit more about that in the 2010 post: see the link above, or here.

The Wall of Hebe 😉

You seemed to enjoy last week’s Wall Of Hebe so I thought I’d give you another taste of summer in the form of yesterday’s writing spot.

I was keen to write, but it was such a great day, with lovely sunshine and enough of a breeze to be pleasant, but no “big bluster”, that I didn’t want to miss out on the outdoor goodness.

So I decided to have the best of both worlds and take my laptop outside to a wee nook in the garden that offered sunshine, shade, and a comfy Cape Cod chair. (They really are comfy, too, with those nice wide arms for the mouse!)

That summery writing nook…

In fact it worked so well that I plan on doing it again soon, if not later today or tomorrow. (The deities of weather must be consulted!)

And yes, I did get some words written. Not only that, I resolved a plot conundrum that has been bugging me since the end of last year and generally stymieing the muse. Nice to know that manuscripts as well as computers can be “debugged.”

So now it’s a case of Onwards, Onwards.

I hope to have an enjoyable and productive week ahead–and trust you all may do so, too.

KimFalconer

Kim Falconer’s latest post on the Supernatural Underground features some of the books coming out this year that she can’t wait to read.

There are a lot of interesting  titles on the list, including Seanan McGuire’s Middle Game and another Mercy Thompson novel from Patricia Briggs.

Probably the two books I am most interested from Kim’s list, though, are both by fellow Supernatural Underground authors:

1. Where Oblivion Lives by Teresa Frohock

Where Oblivion Lives is the first novel in Teresa’s Los Nefilim novel series — but you may recall that I read the initial Los Nefilim series of linked novellas in 2016. My post is here:

What I’m Reading: The Los Nefilim Trilogy by Teresa Frohock

The short version is that I enjoyed them and am thrilled there’s now a sequel. Better still it’s a novel trilogy. Best of all, Where Oblivion Lives is getting really positive advance notice, including a starred review from Publishers Weekly. So if you like the sound of the Los Nefilim novellas from my post above, then maybe you should check out Where Oblivion Lives…
.

The Bone Throwers by AK Wilder

The Bone Throwers is scheduled for release in September and as yet there is no cover or synopsis, but I understand that it’s a YA Fantasy based around oracular bones.

To check out the oracle for yourself, click on:

The Bone Throwers

You can shuffle the cards yourself to find out more. 🙂

To check out the rest of Kim’s list and maybe spot a few good reads you havena considered for your own 2019 list, go to:

Can’t Wait To Read 2019

You can find out more about Kim and her writing by visiting her web portal:

Kim Falconer

I thought you might enjoy these photos of one of the hebes that’s currently flowering-like-crazy in my garden.

I suspect the flowering-like-crazy part may have something to do with our summer being far wetter than usual this year, since normally the summers where I live are very dry.

Whatever the reasons, this particular plant is pretty spectacular this year. And I’m not the only one who thinks so: the bees were going crazy for it the day I took these photos. In fact there are quite a few in both photos but they’re blending into the photo background. 🙂

Hebes are endemic to NZ and one of the country’s most popular garden plants. This particular plant is a garden cultivar and I’m pretty sure it’s moniker is “Icing Sugar.”

J Church, the friend who took this pic, of another hebe in the garden, did a better job of capturing the bee 😉

It certainly makes a colourful start to the week, although I shall be focusing on the gloom-shrouded Wall of Night, with its bitter peaks, rather than walls of hebe in the garden—except on my breaks, of course!

Festive goodies

Sadly, the holiday is over now, but it was fun while it lasted. And I have the pics to prove it. Here are a wee few to be going on with. 🙂

Fun With Food
Foodie goodness is a big part of the festive season, from fruitmince pies to turkey with all the trimmings. As it happens, I did make fruitmince pies and a few more festive goodies….

A Southern Hemisphere Christmas meal for midsummer…

But it can be far too hot in the midst of the Southern Hemisphere’s midsummer to spend hours with a hot stove to achieve an ‘all the trimmings’ extravaganza.

So we went for salmon fillets with some salads of awesome—which worked pretty well, overall. Just sayin’ 😉

Lake Heron

Fun With the Great Outdoors
One of the great things about having the Christmas-New Year holiday at midsummer is that it’s a great time to get outdoors.

Despite some rain at times, we still managed to get out and about.

Initially we went to Lake Heron, which is close to the country I explored in my Driving To Edoras post. Grey skies aside, it’s a tranquil spot, even if the mountains were obscured by cloud.

The next day, we did a number of bush walks, in which fern, mountain beech forest, and swift-flowing creeks all featured.

And finally checked out the mighty Rakaia Gorge.

.
If anyone wonders what the Telimbras River in The Wall Of Night series *might* look like, the Rakaia makes a useful starting point.

I guess some of you may be holidaying still, in which case, I hope you’re having a great time.

But do spare a few seconds to commiserate with the rest of us who’re back workin’… 😉

‘There is nothing–absolutely nothing–half so much worth doing as…’ putting one’s feet up with a book… 😉

The first of every month being my regular blog gig on the Supernatural Underground, this year I decided to get all chillax:

“I love the whole idea of the new year, with its official marking off of the old and welcoming in fresh starts.

Most of all, though, I love the opportunity to chillax after all the pressure of Christmas—you know, decorations, food, presents, full on family-and-friends time—followed by New Year’s Eve retrospectives and serious party time. Which is all fabulous and fun, but not precisely relaxing, especially when it all comes at the one time!

So New Year’s Day is for finally kicking back, putting my feet up, and mixing up such delights as lying on the couch reading a book or watching a great TV show or movie.”

To find out more about my chillax plans  “to read” and “to watch”, check out the full post here:

Time To Chillax: Happy New Year

And the very happiest of 2019s to you, one and all. To the fullest extent of my modest powers, I wish you peace, success, and prosperity.

May your new year be full of amazing vistas & every mountain climbable.

It’s New Year’s Eve, the day when we not only wave the old year farewell but reflect on all that happened within it. From a blog point of view, there can be no better day to look at the ten posts that really grabbed your attention—as “…On Anything Really” friends and readers, regular followers and visitors—during the course of 2018.

As with past years, I shall order the most-read ten posts chronologically from the year’s beginning to its end. So without further ado, listward ho!

via Wikipedia: Statue representing Janus Bifrons in the Vatican Museums

1. January 1 — Looking Back, Looking Forward; Farewell 2017, Welcome 2018

In which I reflected on the nature and origins of the new year celebration, as well as my overall experience of 2017 and my hopes for the year ahead — all of which clearly “spoke” to quite a few of you, as well, which is nice.

2. January 29 — Ursula K Le Guin, 1929 – 2018

“Ursula K. Le Guin passed away last week at the age of 88, after a long and prestigious life in letters…” These words mark my personal tribute to this great author, in my view one of the most accomplished writers and significant voices of her time. I am not surprised, therefore, that this post was among the most-read of the year.

Why this cover, you may ask, which is among the oldest for this novel? For me, it has always best captured one of Ms Le Guin’s most significant works.

3. March 5 — Fab Spaceships Of SFF

I had a great deal of fun writing this post, so am glad you seem to have enjoyed reading it just as much. The post was sparked by UK author, Gareth Powell’s “Top 10” — a timely reminder to me of how much I love spaceships in literature and film/television. [Coughs] That would be a LOT!

“The Heir Of Night” map: artist, Peter Fitzpatrick

4. April 28 — The Wall Of Night Series Map

I’m always pleased when a post on an aspect of my own writing takes your fancy, in this case The Wall Of Night series’ map. Although I put together the original, the professional rendition of my hand-drawn ideas was the work of artist PJ Fitzpatrick.

As the next three entries show, it’s pretty clear what sparked your interest in the mid-part of the year. This post series, which is currently ongoing, turned into a bit of a monster, but it seems to be a monster that you liked, so it’s all good. 😉

A “farmgal” goes on a journey…

5. May 7 — Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes #1: A Farm Boy/Gal Goes On a Journey

This may just be the most deeply embedded of all the epic fantasy tropes, which have their roots deep in myth, folklore, and fairytales, so it seemed the right one to kick off the series. It’s probably a reflection of the series’ overall popularity, with several more of the posts crowding on the heels of the top ten, that this first post is also one of the three that made it onto the most-read list.

6. May 28 — Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes #4: Apocalypse Now

Who doesn’t love a good apocalypse? From Ragnarok to Station Eleven, apparently “…on Anything, Really” readers do, because this is one of your “big three” instalments of the post series. 🙂 Yours truly had a lot of fun writing it, too, though maybe not quite as much as…

The Return of the King: entrance to the Paths of the Dead

7. July 9 — Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes #7: Fortunately, There Was A Portal

From fairy hills to the wardrobe and Platform 9 ³/₄, and the Gates of the Dead to the Gate of Ivrel, portals are one of the great staples of both Science Fiction and Fantasy — which may also explain why y’all were very much on board for this post. 😉 And yes, they do feature in my own writing, because you can never have too much of a good thing, right? Right! 😀

Writing on…

8. August 27 — About That Book Then: Time For A WALL#4 Update

I believe the title of this post says it all, but I was and am grateful for your interest in the post and the support shown via the comments. Thank you.

And there it is: Edoras, aka Mt Sunday

9. November 19 — Inside Middle Earth: Driving To Edoras

Again, you appear to enjoyed my account of driving to the site of Edoras, in the hinterland of the Hakatere Lakes and on the road to Erewhon and the Southern Alps, as much as I enjoyed the actual adventure—which was fabulous. Just sayin’

A matter of perspective: a totara tree and me.

10. December 3 — Meetings With Remarkable Trees: Peel Forest

I suspect my “true colours” as a tree person are pretty well nailed to the blog mast by now, but just in case anyone missed the memo, I shared my meeting with the marvelous giants of the remnant Peel Forest earlier this month. Long may they continue to stand tall.

—

And there we have it, the ten most-read posts of 2018. Thank you all for dropping by and reading what I have to post; thank you, too, for reading and supporting my books. I hope you continue to call in, and maybe even leave a comment or two in 2019. I also hope that it may be the year when I bring you the Very Good News that I have typed “the end” on WALL#4. In fact, I’ll raise my glass to that, as well as to all of you. 🙂

Happy New Year!

we children

we children
when the days stretched
over the horizon, sprang
from our sleeping bags, threw
on our summer uniform, left
mum and dad dreaming, ran
barefoot through the bush, the river,
to the beach

we children
popped washed up blue
bottles, chased cantankerous
crabs, rescued stubborn sea
creatures from rock pools, buried
each other below sand castles, built
forts manned by katipos, cooked ourselves
in the sun

we children
got seaweed in our hair, sand
in our bum cracks, stranded
by the tide, wrestled the ball
from everyone’s Dad, rang
rings around them, stained our clothes
green, looked forward to doing it
all again tomorrow

now brother
you live over the horizon
and I no longer swim
in the sea
.

© Janine Sowerby

First published in The Press

Reproduced here with permission.

Note:  Katipo(s) are a native NZ spider, often found in driftwood on beaches;
they are also NZ's only naturally occurring poisonous spider (we've gained a
few imports of recent years.)

—

This is one of my favourite NZ summer holiday poems, which captures both the quintessential Christmas-New Year holiday but also a wonderful nostalgia for the holidays of childhood past, seen through the bitter sweetness of adult recollection. Janine Sowerby is a friend and fellow poet and writer, working across a range of media.

“There were lights everywhere, marigold windows in the shadowy walls of houses, and golden lanterns hung before the doors, and every light reflected in the river so that it made two. For in those days people still called Christmas Eve the Feast of Lights and set candles in every window and lanterns before their doors…”
~ Rosemary Sutcliff, The Armourer’s House

So here we are on Christmas Eve — Rosemary Sutcliff’s “Feast of Lights” from her novel The Armourer’s House, which is set in Tudor England.

Royal Fireworks Suite — a Christmas & New Year favourite

I have been thinking about this particular quote ever since I featured it last Monday, chiefly because I think the “light” aspect of Christmas—and festivals with similar timing, such as Hanukkah, Lucia’s festival in Sweden, and even Hogmanay (New Year) in Scotland—is probably more powerful in the Northern Hemisphere, than here in the south.

The deep midwinter, albeit NZ style 😉

That’s because in the north, Christmas and other light festivals fall on or close to the winter solstice, at the darkest time of the year, when the early drawing in of night, together with the midwinter cold, encourage candlelight and firelight and the atmosphere of romance and mystery that goes with that. Their promise is the return of the light, a promise that is captured in Ursula le Guin’s Earthsea, with the festival of Sunreturn.

Or as my friend and fellow author, Mary Victoria, put it on Twitter:

“Winter Solstice…It’s one of my favourite festivals… because I find it useful to remember that even in our darkest moments, the light is on its way back.”

Light and colour all around us

Which I get, because the Maori festival of Matariki—fast becoming a NZ festival—has a similar focus. Christmas, though, falls at what is the summer solstice for us: the longest days and—if we’re lucky—sunshine and “life’s a beach” moments.

Light in the sky

Yet all the same, there’s still something magical about a Christmas festival where light is everywhere in the natural world, lingering through the long evenings until one can light a candle in a meaningful way. And even then the night sky is deep blue velvet, the stars warm and bright, rather than a frosty black sky with icicle stars… (As I recall midwinter from my Swedish days.)

Glass, flowers, colours, all create an atmosphere of light

So in terms of the Rosemary Sutcliff quote, Christmas Eve here in the south can still be a Feast—or festival—of Lights, only in this case the light is from the natural world all around us, rather then the glimmer of firelight and candle flame.

Either way, I hope everyone who is celebrating has a very Merry Christmas Eve and Day.

And to everyone else, just have the best of days, whether beneath northern or southern skies. 🙂