south

Maybe one day you'll be here too. We'll load up a car or a campervan with big, old quilts, sunscreen, cameras and film. The chilly bin will be packed full of home brew, strawberries, cherries, and ice coffee. The days will be so long and the sunsets so showy and the nights so sparkly with stars that you'll think you've landed in some idyllic pastoral painting from the Renaissance and all you need is a dusky maiden in a cotton dress falling all off her shoulders, some sheep and a lute. And I'll promise you this. We'll drive through picture postcard after picture postcard. The hills and mountains will roll and tower and loom. They'll be snowcapped of course. Pink and purple lupins will border everything you see like trimmings on linen. The water will be the colour of a peppermint sorbet and rocks will magically skip along more times than you've ever managed before. Yeah, you'll be tired. And grumpy at times. All that driving and those long walks in the middle of the afternoon take a lot out of you. But moods like that won't last. For there's dolphins and whales and keas and seabirds to spot. Mince pies, chips, cheese rolls, and lamingtons to scoff. You won't want this to end. Though it must. 

♥ Photos all on 35mm film by Rob and I ♥

the island of the chair

The place where you live is empty. You're alone. You just loaded the dishwasher and it's humming in the living room downstairs. The windows in your room are wide open and in the distance, a car alarm screeches then suddenly stops. This chair and you have a date. It's your fate for this afternoon. Anchoring you there is this book. And together you float. And you drift, and you murmur, and the air feels salty and the silence feels like a blanket of calm (not the smothering anxiety that weighs it down  on a Monday morning when you know there'll be a lot to do). You and the island of this chair and the author of your choice. There'll be nothing else for a while.

Humble Recommendations for your Island of the Chair trip away:

♥ for people who only read books from authors who've won prizes - The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
♥ for the person whose heart is always on their sleeve - On Love by Alain de Botton
♥ for the closet historical romance reader - the Pink Carnation Series by Lauren Willig
♥ for the music lovers - A Visit from the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan
♥ for people who never miss an art exhibition - Henri Matisse: Rooms with a View by Shirley Neilson Blum
♥ for the melancholic - Gold by Dan Rhodes
♥ for someone concerned with forever books - A Room with a View by E.M. Forster 

slow letters and seasons greetings

There's something cold about the internet. Peering into a light source, tapping into keys, half your attention on the tv or a text message or something out the window. In the lead up to Christmas, I've received so many wonderful things. But you know what I loved the most? Your words. Scrawled on a bit of paper, telling me your thoughts, your handwriting travelling across the page in loops and curves. Seasons Greetings and have a wonderful holiday. Write me a letter where you're going. Let's ditch email for a while. Go to the post shop, choose the nicest stamp, lick the back, and press it onto an envelope. I don't mind if it takes a while. We've got time.

Have a beautiful holiday season, lovelies.

pipe dreams in viennese thrift shops

The bag below comes from a thrift shop in Vienna. I dragged my friend round various metro stations and through broad, sleepy, leafy avenues on a brilliantly sunny day. Not knowing what to expect of Viennese thrift shops, instead of the kooky, poky little shop I'd imagined, we wandered into what was basically a warehouse full of stuff with trucks beeping and reversing and a distant horizon made up of furniture, shelves, and old electrical equipment. I think I drove my friend crazy rifling through cardboard boxes of teaspoons, running my hands along the spines of rows and rows of books, and standing rooted to the spot gaping at chandeliers and faded lampshades swinging up above me. I wanted to take everything back with me to New Zealand, knowing full well that it was a pipe dream.

♥ Fancy some armchair travel? My travel posts are here ♥

tremblement de terre

We had such a big earthquake in Wellington yesterday. Living here, you get used to the ground shuddering underneath your feet but yesterday, it wasn't so much a shudder but a huge jolt. It sounded like thunder cracking, followed by the clatter of things falling off the shelves downstairs. We crouched under a too-small table, clutching hands, eyes wide. When the shaking finished, the first instinct was to take the stairs and run outside where everyone else was gathering, pale and bent over cellphones. My green vase full of pink peonies had dropped to the carpet, seeping water. To calm the nerves, we found refuge at a cafe with linguine, drinks, and rum chocolate cake. After that, the earth was still again.

♥ Dress is vintage ♥ Cardigan is thrifted ♥

number one

This is what I want for Christmas. I want blushing peonies streaked with red and pink, sponge cake with cream and strawberries and chocolate buttercream icing, lots of sun and laughter and ridiculous Secret Santa presents. But most of all, I want you to make an extra effort to look after each other, and I swear I will too. With uncertainty and struggle on a global scale, it gets easier and easier to look after bank balances and only those nearest to you. But this is exactly the time when we should be pushing past individualism, navel-gazing, and isolationism and instead, be making a concerted effort to look after those who might be left behind if we don't grab them and pull them along with us too.

♥ UNICEF NZ Buy an Inspired Gift
♥ Oxfam Unwrapped
♥ Wellington City Mission
♥ Salvation Army Food Banks
♥ Downtown Community Ministry