Newsworthy

I’m enjoying a hot cup of tea in the warm kitchen, where we’ve been spending much of our time lately. It’s very cozy sitting by the Stanley wood stove. We were staying in the hop kiln while we waited for our container to arrive. The day it was supposed to arrive, we were informed that it was in Sydney instead. I’m not sure who was more surprised, us or the captain. He must have really bad aim. Wrong dang island altogether. Now they tell us it will arrive in Nelson port next week.

The hop kiln was cold, so we decided to move into our house. We’re glad we did, and we’ve been loving it. The worst of the winter seems to be over, or at least it won’t get colder than it has been. We’ve been treated to several magnificent sunny days followed by cold nights. The wood stove warms the kitchen quickly, and provides a cozy ambiance. With several hot plates at the ready, and a warm oven always on, we’ve been cooking and baking plenty.

Quinne is on winter break from kindergarten for three weeks. She has two more weeks left. We’re enjoying the quiet time to work in the garden and get the house organized. It’s very peaceful here, and the snow on the mountains make them look endearing in their winter attire. Here’s a view from a short walk around the corner from our house.


I haven’t been able to get out to take pictures as much as I’d like. I stayed in yesterday morning and watched the kids playing in the hallway. Like many old New Zealand houses, the hallway of our house is very wide, and runs the length of the house. I scratched my itch to take pictures by pointing my camera at the kids. The light was very interesting coming through our glass-paneled front door. Then I had fun with post-processing…


Amy and I are off in a helicopter to the Kauharangi National Park next month.

Hello All. Amy here. I've come out of my blog writing hibernation to share Oliver's exciting news with you. You see, if I didn't announce Oliver’s news, you wouldn't hear about it. And besides, I want to be the one to toot Oliver’s horn for him.

So, about that helicopter ride in Kauharangi National Park… the reason we get to go on it is that Oliver won first place in a photography competition, and the prize was a helicopter trip for two plus a fancy lunch in a lodge in Kauharangi National Park.

The photo competition was part of the Motueka Festival of Lights. People in town were invited to submit photos in a few different categories. Out of over 450 entries, this photograph of Oliver’s won 1st place in the category “A Portrait In Low Light,” and 1st place overall.


Oliver’s other exciting news is that he had his first story printed in a newspaper. Last week we went to a lantern festival. Oliver took many great pictures, and when we got home he wrote an article about the event. The next day he phoned the paper, asked if they would be interested in purchasing his article and a photograph to go with it. Sure enough they wanted to, and the article ran on the front page of the paper. Here’s the article:

FESTIVAL OF LANTERNS
by Oliver Weber

The Motueka Japanese Garden came to life on Monday evening with a flurry of little people. With one hand wrapped around their parent’s hand, and the other holding their gently glowing lanterns, small children wandered through a magical world of gnomes and elves during the annual Festival of Lights lantern walk hosted by the Motueka Steiner School for the general public.

The melodic procession of bundled children stopped along the way to peek at the displays of mythical creatures gathered among the undergrowth. Under a crystal clear winter sky, a small group of Motueka Steiner School students played the traditional German lantern festival tunes on their recorders to accompany the bobbing lanterns. The lanterns were a perfect symbol of inner warmth that represents the inward turning aspect of winter.

Earlier in the day, families gathered in the Motueka library under the guidance of a group of Steiner School parents to carefully create the beautiful candle lanterns they would later use to light their way through the garden. Due to the popularity of the lantern walk, we can surely expect the gnomes and elves to make future appearances at many more Motueka Festivals of Lights lantern walks.


Oliver back. Thanks Amy for the toot. The funny thing is that I wrote the article so that they would publish the picture, and they printed the article only. They intended to publish both, but for some reason they inserted the article only. I actually wrote the article because the school deserves publicity for the magic experience they create for the little children in the communithy. It’s a wonderful experience for the little kiddies. Here’s the picture the paper didn’t publish…


I was keeping a very low profile so that I didn't ruin the magic of the moment, so I didn't use any artificial light. It's not easy when the only light is from candles in a lantern. The first lantern festival was at Quinne's kindie where I took several pictures of the kids in the garden walking around with their lanterns, and they turned out really well. The local newspaper photographer arrived also to take some pictures. When I told her that the teachers would rather that we don't use a flash, she looked stunned and promptly disappeared. She wrote a nice article, and I let her use one of my pictures for it.

It was really Quinne and I who won the photo contest. I couldn’t have taken the picture without her. I explained that to her, and she was very happy that we won the competition, but expected to be the one to join me in the helicopter. She’s so kind hearted that she understood when I told her that I would take Amy instead, and she happily settled for a fluffy instead.

Well, time to put another log on the fire. Good night from a cozy corner of a warm kitchen on the top of the South Island in the middle of winter.