Author Archives: ordinarygood

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About ordinarygood

I believe that ordinary goodness can make a difference in the world. So I am constantly looking for the ordinary and the good things around me that make my life meaningful and which can make an exceptional difference to the world, little bit by little bit. I have two other blogs. I am a parent coach and educator at http://frazzledparents.wordpress.com where I provide online solutions to parenting problems using email question and answer services. My other blog can be found at: http://koruknits.wordpress.com where I post about the knits and crafts I make.

“North Bound” by Naomi Arnold and “The Brain that breathes” by Jodi Wilson

I had reserved these two books from the local library and they arrived at the same time with my name on them. I have finished “North Bound” and I am now reading about our brains and how to live well in the world that feels very overwhelming at times right now.

I am not a tramper or hiker so I would not have walked the Te Araroa trail even when I was much younger and had knees and ankles that were not creaky. I love walking in the bush in Aotearoa but generally it is a walk there to soak up the smells, the bird song, the beautiful trees and ferns.

I am full of admiration for Naomi Arnold’s “four seasons of solitude” on the trail as she walked the trail on her own. She endured so much pain, times that required endurance in many different situations and also relished times of great joy and wonder. The trail traverses urban environments, mountains, rivers, our unique dense bush and plains all of which bought unique experiences or problems to solve. Her near miss in a violent thunder storm will stay with me, likewise her joy and delight at hearing Whio ( Endangered Blue Duck) whistling on a remote river.

She met a wide variety of fellow trail walkers but also people off trail and generosity was the predominant feature they offered to her.

I was also struck by how many trail walkers had come from different parts of the world to walk the length of Aotearoa. It certainly has a place in our tourist attractions.

I enjoy memoirs and this was a very different one but a very enjoyable one.

I will report in on Jodi Wilson’s book when I have finished reading it.

Redundant technology

We received notification that our internet charges were going to rise so to reduce that monthly bill we decided it was time to disconnect our landline. The landline no longer operated via the very old, but very excellent copper systems of old and the voice over internet meant the phones could be difficult to hear clearly on. So with mobile phones used all the time now, the application for disconnection was made online and required 30 days to action or a charge would be incurred. We waited the 30 days.

I have just listed the phones and all the associated paraphernalia on a Zero Waste Facebook page in the hope that someone can make use of it all.

What happened to the other Morrison children?

Following on from my previous post. What happened to John and Louisa Jane Morrison’s oldest child Thomas Henry (Harry), their second son George ( my great grandfather) and their 5th child John Frederick (Jack) after Louisa died in 1878 of tuberculosis? Records show John Morrison remained in Thames until 1879.

Early Thames circa 1870’s. Auckland Library Kura Collection.

Harry was 12 years old that year and had likely completed his schooling. When he enlisted to serve in WW1 he stated that he had passed the fourth educational standard. It is likely that Harry lived with his father and worked in gold mining in Thames. Harry responded to the call for men with mining experience to form the New Zealand Tunnelling Company. He was Sapper 4/1571.

George was 8 years old and is registered in 1878-1879 at Kauaeranga Boys’ School, although his attendance was not regular. Huntly School records show George registered there in 1880 and 1881 which fits with his father’s electoral roll registration there in 1881. George’s attendance was very poor and by 1882 at the age of 12 he had likely left school. Where he went after that until he registered to vote in 1893 is unknown. John disappeared from records in all likelihood to avoid the police warrant that had been issued by the Court in Thames for unpaid fees for his children in the Thames Orphanage.

John Frederick, aged 4 went to the Parnell Orphanage and then to the Thames Orphanage where he was cared for until 1885 when Mr Charles Hart applied to the Orphanage committee to employ him in Thames. John Frederick was joined in Mr Hart’s employment by his younger brother Charles William in 1891.

All of John and Louisa’s children grew to adulthood. 4 of the 6 had children establishing the New Zealand branch of the Morrison tree.

Martha Maria FARRELL, KNIGHT, nee PERRY 1835-1926

I would love to find descendants of Martha in the hope that they might be able to confirm that back in 1886 she took in 3 of my MORRISON “orphans”. My great great grandmother Louisa Jane MORRISON had tragically died in Thames, NZ in 1878 leaving 6 children.

Her husband John had to continue to work to support his family and so 4 children were sent to an orphanage in Parnell, Auckland. They were returned to Thames, NZ when the Orphanage and Training School was opened in 1879.

The first child to leave the orphanage was Elizabeth Annie, known as Lizzie. She was taken in to assist Mrs SMITH of The Miranda ( the stretch of land across the Firth of Thames from the settlement of Thames). Mr Thomas Edmund SMITH and his wife Rhoda SMITH had recently moved to the area and were opening a hotel.

Lizzie’s sister Louisa Margaret was the next to leave the orphanage but records do not show her destination. A newspaper snippet on Paperspast (paperspast.natlib.govt.nz) offered some further information recently that a Mrs FARRELL of The Miranda had applied to have the youngest MORRISON child, Charles William released from the orphanage in order to join his two sisters who were already in her care.

Again no official records have been found to confirm these details. Mrs FARRELL and Mr SMITH were named as executors on Martha’s husband’s estate so they obviously knew each other. In another interesting piece of information there is an Elizabeth MORRISON registered on the 1893 electoral roll in this area. My suspicion is that Lizzie had remained in The Miranda at least until this time.

Martha had 2 daughters from her first marriage and they both had families. I have researched a variety of sources but to date nothing more has come to light.

Any leads would be gratefully received.

Saying Goodbye to a tree

We live on a section that has a lot of trees on it. We delight in the bird life that lives in and visits the garden. But there is also the need to keep trees trimmed.

We have found a company that has done a very job for us in the past and they have come today to do another trim and tidy up. I am constantly amazed at the agility of the aborists as they trim a tree into shape while perched in a swaying tree.

This visit has included the removal of a very large Silver Birch tree from near the front of the section. It had begun to drop a lot of branches in the very high winds that seem to be part of the climate here now. The tree had grown so large that any large branch shearing off could have damaged the house, garage and shed. So the decision had to be made. I hate seeing trees cut down but we have a lot and we encourage native trees to grow here now.

I have taken extra photos of the tree in the last few days so we have a visual record of how it once looked. It will be interesting to see how much the next big southerly wind hits the house as this tree was in that line. However it will be reassuring to know a potential hazard has been removed.

Hastings

I like reading memoirs and I was drawn to Dick Frizzell’s book “Hastings. A Boy’s own Adventure” because I spent my high school years in Hastings and Dick’s younger sister Lesley was in my form class throughout those 5 years.

Dick is 11 years older than me and male, so his experience of the city and surrounding areas was different to mine. However there were plenty of similarities which I enjoyed remembering.

It was enjoyable to be reminded of Windsor Park and to learn more about its earlier days as well as features that had disappeared; Te Mata peak and its consistent place on any visitor’s “must do” list, and a small group of shops that were familiar to me. I suspect both Dick and I worked in the chemist shop there as a holiday job and could share some similar stories about customers. His employment in the Meat works and the Watties factory all struck familiar notes from my friends experiences during holiday jobs. Hastings was an easy place to earn good money at those places during the 1950s and 60’s.

We also shared a teacher who seemed very old to me as a third former and who taught English. Dick remembers him in ways that I instantly recognised from his hair cut, for his devotion to cycling to and from work and his penchant to reminisce. The latter was used widely by students to avoid the subject work as he drifted off on a tangent.

The book certainly reads as a “boy’s own adventure” with some life-threatening and hair-raising events, with some typical teenage antics, with some rural experiences, and family traditions. There were chapters which made me laugh out loud and others which were hard to read. The agonies of growing up and the teenage years were realistically described. The chapter about his mother was moving. She had been a strong supporter of his artistic abilities.

He used a pencil to write this memoir and believes this makes all the difference to writing.

He won a prize at High School for English and Art which explains his ability with words and his known talents as an Artist.

Books

Here are the four books I have from the library at the moment.

I have reread Helen Lehndorf’s “A Forager’s Life”. I particularly wanted to remind myself of her use of the term “desire lines.” Helen describes these as “…..where people have, over time, made a visible path…….If I spot a desire line, I always want to walk it because locals know where the best shortcuts and hidden gems are.”

I dipped into Juliet Batten’s “A bach for All Seasons” to refresh my memories of that bach and its links to her latest book “The Pohutukawa Journal.”

I enjoy Bill Bailey and his many and varied talents and skills. This book “My Animals and other animals” is easy to pick up and just read chapter. Each story can stand alone.

I have yet to begin “The farm at Black Hills” which is set in North Canterbury.

The weather over Easter has made reading a welcome activity. We have experienced sapping humidity and unseasonal heat and now cold and wet.

16 years since I began this blog

Earlier this week WordPress told me that it was 16 years since I began to blog. I remember feeling a sense of trepidation as I wrote my first few posts.

I see that I only have 1 GB of space left here for photographs or images. My digital photos nowadays are around 5MB each so to save space I will need to resize them. The quality may well be diminished which is disappointing as I enjoy taking photos and using them on the blog at times.

I’ll consider my options when the space is full. In the meantime Happy 16 years.

“Groundwork: The Art and Writing of Emily Cumming Harris” by Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson.

I am not a Poet nor an Artist but I love history, genealogy, and Herstory. Last weekend in an online newsletter this book was highlighted. I was intrigued with the story of Emily Cumming Harris who came with her family to Aotearoa/New Zealand in 1841.

Two researchers have written this book and have also recorded their search and findings on this blog. http://emilycummingharrisblogs.auckland.ac.nz

In an interview with the authors, one described their search as a “Treasure hunt” and an Archivist had commented that there are many, many of these hidden stories to be found in the Archive records of our country.

Emily Harris was a woman who documented colonial history, wrote poetry, was a well known botanical artist in the 1880s and 1890s, contributed to the findings of explorers to the sub-antarctic islands by painting the specimens they returned with and last but not least she marketed and sold her art to bring in an income.

It is very likely that more will be found about this woman’s prolific contributions to poetry and art. For now I have reserved the book from the library as I am keen to read it.

Still life

Here are our freshly washed cherry tomatoes, large tomatoes, Packham pears, Royal Gala apples, the last of the Nectarines and some Grapes. When Covid first struck and there was uncertainty about how it was transmitted I would wash ALL of our groceries and fresh food before putting it all away. I no longer wash grocery items but the habit of washing all the fresh produce as it comes into the house has remained.

The light into the kitchen and the colours of the fresh fruits made for a lovely still life image.