Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
Our 5 year old is currently fixated on volcanoes (dinosaurs too!). He gets me to read passages out of a reference book before bed every night. The book is full of terrifying facts about the things but he laps it all up. As Auckland is built on a dormant volcanic field of 50+ volcanoes, it's all a bit unsettling really especially in light of recent eruptions in Chile and on-going earthquakes in Christchurch. Experts say we are due to erupt again in the next "hundreds to thousands of years".
In the weekend we took the kids up a few for a look at the real thing. Once on top they were amazed to be able to walk inside the craters and imagine what they must look like when they erupted. Long may they sleep I say!
Rosa and I get busy sketching while the other 2 explore Mt St John...
Mt Wellington and One Tree Hill (Mangakiekie)...
Mt Eden viewed across the crater of Mt St John...
In the weekend we took the kids up a few for a look at the real thing. Once on top they were amazed to be able to walk inside the craters and imagine what they must look like when they erupted. Long may they sleep I say!
Rosa and I get busy sketching while the other 2 explore Mt St John...
Mt Wellington and One Tree Hill (Mangakiekie)...
Mt Eden viewed across the crater of Mt St John...
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