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...
Another sketch in my series on the well known Herne Bay landmark that is about to be chopped up and taken away for sale.
It will join a bunch of other old houses at a yard for second hand houses in Kumeu, West Auckland. Often the old villas end up on lifestyle blocks on the edges of the city. Not a bad thing in some ways and certainly better that demolition!
Strangely though, this old (110+ years) house, constructed from thousand year old kauri timber isn't deemed to be historic or require any heritage protection. Take a drive around any of the inner city suburbs and you will see the same thing happening here and there.
Comments