First releases (and catch!) of the year
I got my first catch for 2007 on Monday! It was one of the books I released in Wellington, Internal Affairs by Jill Tweedie. And the finder joined Bookcrossing, too! Let’s hope that’s an omen of lots of successful releases this year.
I’ve had a very productive day today, plus a very very long walk. I wanted to go into town today, but also wanted to go to Hands to get some craft supplies for another secret project I’m working on (this time for the Wellington convention). For the first time in ages it wasn’t raining, and in fact the sun was making an effort to come out from behind the clouds, so I thought I’d make the most of the weather and walk over to Hands (which is only about half an hour’s walk from here), then catch a bus from there into town.
After a pleasant walk I got to Hands and found the things I needed, and was about to head to the nearby bus-stop, when I looked across the road at the walking path which runs alongside the railway line, and remembered seeing the other end of it in Riccarton. I’ve often thought it looked like a nice walk, so, feeling more inclined towards walking than sitting on a smelly bus, I decided to follow the path down to Riccarton and catch the bus from there. But as I neared Riccarton, the path passed by the back of Girls’ High, and I realised how close to Hagley Park I was. And the central city is just the other side of Hagley Park (although “just the other side” is a bit misleading – it is a very large park!), so I thought I might as well forget the bus altogether and just walk through the park…
And I was glad I did, because about then the sun properly came out, and the park and Botanic Gardens were looking wonderful and summery all of a sudden. There was a large group of people at the boat pond sailing remote controlled model yachts, so I stopped to take a few photos:
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My path through the Botanic Gardens took me through the rose garden, where the roses were in their full summer glory, looking spectacular:
[album 128913 030107roses01.jpg thumblink] [album 128913 030107roses02.jpg thumblink] [album 128913 030107roses03.jpg thumblink] [album 128913 030107roses04.jpg thumblink] [album 128913 030107roses05.jpg thumblink] [album 128913 030107roses06.jpg thumblink] [album 128913 030107roses07.jpg thumblink] [album 128913 030107roses08.jpg thumblink] [album 128913 030107roses09.jpg thumblink] [album 128913 030107roses10.jpg thumblink]
(That last photo is totally out of focus, because my camera’s auto-focus can’t cope with having only one colour in the photo (one day when I’m rich I’ll get a proper camera that lets me do the focusing!), but I actually like the way it turned out)
I finally reached the central city just over two hours after I’d left home – not a bad wee walk! And of course, I released a few books on my walk: Immortality at Any Price by William Cooper, The Warrior King by Doris Leslie, and The Only Problem by Muriel Spark
My main mission in town was to get a couple of picture frames: one for “Cat Dancing”, the picture of my avatar I bought in September (which we did get a frame for ages ago, but as we hadn’t decided where to hang it yet it was sitting on top of the bookshelf, from where I managed to knock it off last week, damaging the frame in the process (luckily the picture wasn’t harmed, though!), so we needed a replacement), the other for a paperweight MrPloppy had made many years ago in his high school art class (using that clear acrylic stuff that you can embed objects in – he’d created a little undersea scene with shells, weed and a seahorse) – his mother had found it while cleaning out some old boxes, and sent it over to us, so I suggested as we had no use for a paperweight we could mount it in a deep frame and hang it as an artwork instead.
Suitable frames found, and a few other minor messages completed, and I headed home – by bus this time 🙂 (I really enjoyed the walk, but doing it twice in one day would be a *bit* much!). Once home, the first task was to get the pictures hung – I wasn’t going to risk ruining another frame by leaving it lying around! Hanging “Cat Dancing” was easy (once we’d finally decided exactly where we wanted it), but MrPloppy’s seascape took a little longer, trying to work out the best way to mount it (in the end, I super-glued it to the glass of the frame), and then getting it square. It ended up looking really effective, so it was worth the effort (I’ll try and remember to take a photo sometime).
Once that was done, the rest of the afternoon was spent on my convention craft project. I got it about half-way finished, so I should be able finish it off tomorrow (and maybe post a few photos, in a friends-only entry so as not to spoil the surprise for convention-goers).
So overall, a very constructive day!
Currently reading: Eldest by Christopher Paolini (another one borrowed from meerkitten)
Currently listening to: The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
Thanks for sharing the pics, they’re beautiful! If my eyes aren’t deceiving me, I have two of those roses in my own garden, Oregold (the yellow) and Moon Shadow (the ruffled amethyst).
Nice pictures!
We’ve walked "just across" that park a few times. It’s quite a step!