The music puts me in mind of friends far away. We have a spare room here if anyone ever wants to visit. Meanwhile, I have stored various things in there for our next garage sale in February. Selling things you do not want from your front garden, garage, carport... is a wonderful way to meet the neighbours, lovely recycling and it's easy to weed, prune and plant while also flogging off unwanted items. This next garage sale, a friend from across the road and I plan to collaborate. If you want to sell anything too, let me know and drop it off here. Come along and sell it yourself on the day or donate to the recycling cause.
The music's playing on, it sounds so surf-like, rolling water.
Whenever I think of large bodies of water now I think of the Pacific Ocean. The months it took my ancestors to sail over here from France on the Comte de Paris, and on the Lady Jocelyn from England. After my own, (cruise) ship voyage across the Pacific I can see how adventurous they were to travel here. The Comte de Paris is shown below. It looks so small, think of those sails flapping in strong winds, tearing, having to be repaired on board. The four or five metre swells they may've encountered, higher than my house, dips and troughs of massive water. What friendships they must've created in the stress and excitement.
http://libeau-family.org/comte-de-paris-descendants
My ancestor stopped at Napolean's grave on the way and took cuttings of willows there. He planted them along the Avon River in Christchurch. They grow there to this day. Francois Leleivre saw the wisdom of planting trees and so did my grandmother on the other side of the family. Her father, a Ward from Worthing, England sailed out here with six children and his wife, then rode on horseback up the North Island to find land. They planted oaks there, near Cambridge, North Island, NZ, and called the place The Oaks. It is now owned by another family but those oak trees flourish on the hill round the house.
On my parents' property they planted many fruit trees, a kowhai on the lawn, and my grandmother had already planted trees on their place over the road. She then went along the private road behind their place and put trees all along there. I grew up thinking trees were a normal and necessary part of life. Their sighing and strange movements in the wind on dark nights were supposed to make me run, run, run for the lit back door and safety in our house. Their lovely greening in spring or year round colour fitted the world so well, and when I climbed them those trees provided a sanctuary from a world of talk, people, neatness and duties. Trees have their own kind of order. The rough and smooth and flourish of them inspires and intrigues. Close to a tree, I always feel calmer, belief in the world's goodness is easier there.
We need more trees if this world is to be a decent place for human beings to live. Find a place in your heart for giving to others, you'll also find more happiness than is possible any other way. Give trees to Australia, they really need them. Also, if we pay for trees every time we travel then we are paying to soak up the carbon we produce in that jet plane, boat, car or train. It's a fine thing to take responsibility for our own mess. The more trees we plant too, the more likely the weather extremes will lessen, the more likely human beings could survive with a reasonable quality of life.
Trees mean human survival.
I've so far bought trees for Australia to cover the cost of my trip to America and back, and also, a collection of plantings for a place up North in NZ, for a long car trip I did recently. Those are both documented on this blog. If you google 'trees for travel' there are many links to investigate. My going vegetarian also saves massive amounts of carbon. The animals that were once bred and killed to feed me are no longer needed, their methane is not being belched and farted into the atmosphere any longer. The transport and refrigeration costs for them and their meat are not needed either.
Many links for Trees for Travel are here -
http://snipurl.com/25z00lt
My fourth cousin in the Waitakeries told me so much about my ancestor, Leleivre who sailed here from France then had to hide where he was from. The prejudice those French people met here was a real trial. If I ever read the poem, shown below, in public then some Anglophile people in the audience frown, glower, fold their arms, look away, annoyed. My great-aunts had the family moniker as their second name, so they carried it and my mother told us often about an ancestor who was a Frenchman and schoolteacher in the South Island, somewhere. We kept our history alive until we could investigate it more thoroughly.
The two photos above show my cousin's place, he co-incidentally lives with an old friend of mine, they fly the French flag on their property.
No matter what flag we fly or what politics we may believe in, we all need air to breathe and places to live which are as safe as possible. Planting trees, going vegetarian, recycling, taking care with resources and with each other, these all help the world to be a better place. Caring for each other means we also care for where we live and the quality of life generally. We deserve this.
All cheer and goodness to you, your families and friends in this festive season. Look after each other, in the end that's what always matters, every single day.
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a
French schoolteacher sailed here
1840
in the navy ship Comte de Paris
a
merchant seaman he rigged and swabbed to travel
then
great-great grandfather built a white weatherboard cottage
travelling
on whispers and promises
my
distant cousin in the Waitakeries told us
Southern
Maori wanted to get the English out
but
the French captain let the story slip
viewpoints
measured and twanged
called
in further North on their three month way
by
sail to cross the globe from Normandy and the Charente
French
families met by the English on the southern coast
stories
as private as wine-stores in temperance country
refused
permission to land unless they gave up their nation
sixty
took English citizenship - permitted to disembark
while
five families could afford to sail back to France
over
180 days pull there and back the strength of identity
Lelièvre,
(the hare) many spellings five generations on
some
great aunts' middle name their secret
much
from over a century ago or so silent and lovely
signs
and clues in how we dress or flirt and smile
Judy's
designer gown salon Lelièvre in Melbourne
a
mother-of-pearl sequin and jet bead legacy
inspire
admiration without speaking a word
famous
indifference to oppression our invisible shield
strangers
arrived with contrasts and bewilderment
changed
their Francais names and blended stories
kept
to their own bay area - a micro-climate and sunny
through
talk ages and pages a timeless knowing
cousin
surrounded with rimu and kauri explained
the
tri-colour flag outside his house in west Auckland hills
our
forebears hid their identity in Akaroa
the
mythical relief of accepting difference exists
when
outsiders appear like thoughts too flip
sticky
as a half-cooked pancake could catch or stain
better
to wait til everything’s well-heated and palatable
perfume
and aromas crowd in remembering
ideas
about how French we are turn easily into a kitchen
warm
plates and an arm around your shoulder
France
quite at home in cupboards and wardrobes
crushed
mystery mended with light
talk
with flying hands on our mother’s side
drew
sensitive friends and roomful conversation
we
listen to Edith Piaf with our whole skin
every
scrap of music in a swagged room
would
Lelièvre have laughed at our common touch
or
drawn a story to line his love for Justine?
a
Malmanche wife welcomed new arrivals
hands
and smiles signal flags from a lit doorway
until
we met a fourth cousin's stories in the forest
we imagined our schoolteacher ancestor with brown hair
we imagined our schoolteacher ancestor with brown hair
still
unmarried in a wooden room - desk piled with books
youth
a most pleasant way to enshrine
now
we know he stopped to gather willow in France
cuttings
from Napoleon Bonaparte’s grave to transplant
those
trees grow along the Avon River in Christchurch
checking
postcards to see how each leaf's grown
while
I work with youngsters unable to attend school
his
ghost could mend my dreams and find a map
through
infinite dark a new unfolding for my little light
mainstream
shouts such an icy blast
linked
and raw the story a new house frame
demolition
timber and plans recovered from a beach
where
waves tear towards land like ever and more
to
stay true to honour and not simply law
our
garden sprouted with artichokes and Swiss chard
thyme
and other herbs Francois could recognise
we’d
drink red wine, discuss political curiosities
this
cabinet of behaviour - some twisted
Justine-Rose
explaining better business is kind
the
warmest way to greet a guest with salty cheeks
what
to wear when homesick enough to swim home
well-dressed
is armour against slings and arrows
their
imagined memory as strange as a cartoon now
they
sit instead behind me and they watch out
the
way they did onboard ship with only stars to see them true
reading
our astrology in fortunes of shadow
http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/Writers/Profiles/Alexander,%20Raewyn
 | ||
| telephone pole and trees at my cousin's place - Waitakerie Ranges Tamaki Makaurau Auckland NZ |
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