Work in progress
A year ago I said was going to highlight the latest pages as I wrote them, but nope, another 31 have gone up since without a peep from me here. All of them are about, and by, my parents, 23 of them by Dorothy. The remainder continue on Cliff’s WW2 experiences after Alamein. Dorothy’s are…
I thought I’d share a photo of Mum and Dad on their wedding day in May 1945. I hope our photographer friends won’t mind my saying that, poor quality as it is, it’s my favourite. Cliff met Dorothy when she was 19. I love the look on her face. Imagine a relationship of six years,…
It’s taken a while, and quite a lot of “research”, but I’m finally done with v1 of Heather’s family. Far too many of the Sharpes are called James, and if not, Thomas. So the three key men in the family line-up are James, James and James. What a relief that their wives are Harriet, Amelia…
I had to dip my toe in the water sooner or later, so here goes with Heather’s family. I wanted to start with her mother’s side, about whom we know very little — nothing in writing and very few photos — because Joyce hardly mentioned her parents. Next, move on to Amelia Gartmann’s family —…
Concrete Dreams is what I called my third post about the ferro years 1974-8, the first two being about Brian Donovan and NZFCMA. The third was supposed to be about my personal involvement, and so it was, but inevitably it focused just as much on the people I worked with and learned to admire over…
I’ve written a brief biography of Brian Donovan, one of several remarkable people who showed up during our “concrete boatbuilding” days from 1972 to 1981. When I say brief, it’s 8000 words with plenty of photos, anecdotes and design drawings. At this stage it’s a first draft, so corrections, comments, additions and amendments are welcome.…
We started building a ferrocement boat with Ken and Dianne Adams in 1972, with romantic dreams of going cruising. Heather and I even lived in the boatyard at Span Farm for a while, and I got involved in a little monthly published by the NZ Ferro Cement Marine Association called at different times a Newsletter,…
I’ve decided that in future I’ll highlight the latest pages here, but having written a few months ago about my strange adolescence — why the wheels fell off a bright kid, what it took to get me on the road again, and why Heather and I headed off in rather unexpected directions in our twenties —…
Here I was minding my own business and Adrienne decided to post about my latest on Facebook. Suddenly I have readers! Thanks Adri, the feedback was encouraging. Must try it again some time. Here it is — Heather, handcrafts and Earthworks in the 1970s and early ‘80s