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, … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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

It’s been fourteen months since my last blog post — I just checked. Mind you, I’ve published 20-odd pages since then, with probably as many again that I’m not yet ready to press Go on. But can I ask a favour? Think of yourself as Reader #2, and help me … Read more

Last Anzac Day my nephew Peter asked me if there was any way he could access his grandfather’s war stories to read to his kids. I had to disappoint him but said I was working at publishing them online. Well, it took the best part of a year but, finally, … Read more

There’s a scene near the end of Dr Zhivago (the movie) where the sick Zhivago sees Lara, his lost love, walking down the street as the tram he’s on passes her by. He struggles to get off and catch up with her but collapses and dies. She walks on. We’ve … Read more

I’ve now taken Cliff’s story through to the Battle of Alamein. 1942 started off reasonably well for him in Palestine and Syria, then outside Alexandria with part of 6th Brigade. They were away from the front line until the middle of July. After that, though, they were living in slit … Read more

I’ve now taken Cliff’s story past his convalescence in Alexandria after he was shot up in late 1941 at Sidi Resegh, outside Tobruk. After recuperating he headed to Palestine for more of the same, and rubbed up against the Poms, the Jews, kibbutzes — plus lots of oranges! — before … Read more

The home page and navigation have proved confusing, so the nav. is now Mark 2. I’ve also posted more of Dad’s stories.

Thanks to an assist from Stephen, the menu structure is now working more or less the way I’d like it to. I can relax! Thanks, Stephen.

The Pigeon Holes menu is very much work in progress. In fact it doesn’t work :(. I haven’t figured out how to do it yet, but I want you to be able to browse stuff by year (eg 1935-40, when Dad was working on the farm) and also by category … Read more

I’ve posted a few articles from late 2001 following Queensberry’s first Northern Hemisphere trade shows and seminars. They were exciting, and so was the related travel — from the edge of the world to the centre. Interesting to recall that I thought Kiwis were amongst the least insular of people.

I’ve posted what I wrote about our 2000 road trip. Heather liked it, and it reminds me what a good time we had. And it was the start of our international business! I’ll deal with the business side of things later. Meanwhile, pretty much all I’ve done is add a … Read more

A bit of preliminary styling thanks to Heather. All blemishes are my own work. And the first section of my father’s stories are now up online. Feels like progress.

After dithering for months the only thing I could say with certainty was that this site isn’t a blog, and that I don’t know where to start.

 So I’ve decided to start in the middle, with a blog post :-/ Next on the agenda is to finish publishing Dad’s stories. … Read more