Community: Picture plus 300 words

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, this week’s Community page has a 1,300-word value. Technically, 1,320 – but this isn’t a maths exercise.

On the visual arts side, Liz Davidson shares another photograph of Marlborough’s early morning splendour, following her view of winter dawn in the previous issue.
On the writerly side, Tony Orman reviews a book which should pique the interest of Kiwis who follow politics and journalism.

Blending both, literary and imagery, Paula Allen offers a “descriptive exercise to create an immersive experience that transports you into this enchanted forest at dusk.”

She further explains: “Across the road from my home, a Department of Conservation walk begins. This describes that walk. I have experienced it all.”
We hope you appreciate experiencing it all!

Book review
“Ringside: A Political Memoir" by Mike Munro (Upstart Press, $39.99)

Mike Munro has been around politics for decades – first as parliamentary press gallery journalist, then as press secretary to PM Helen Clark, and then Chief of Staff to PM Jacinda Ardern.

He was “ringside” to the fall of Robert Muldoon, as well as the ascendancy then the collapse of the 4th Labour government characterised by the whirlwind of Rogernomics.

The book “Ringside: A Political Memoir” is an intriguing insight at events and political personalities of those 22 years.

Naturally, your personal views may not tally with his assessments of prime ministers, particularly the polarising figure of Jacinda. There’s just one cluster of colour photos, and for a book of this type, it sadly lacks an index.

Nevertheless, it’s an absorbing read

- by Tony Orman.

Writing exercise
Every step distances life’s noise while ascending the woodland hill. Deep breaths immerse me in the sweet smell of rotting undergrowth while exhaling the day’s stresses.

Where the evening sun’s glow penetrates the shade, I sit, my gaze drawn up an old beech by a low-pitched hum. Puzzling, until I notice swarming wasps on the trunk. The last of the mellow sun highlights hair-like tubes protruding from the sooty-mould bark. Each holds a glistening honeydew droplet. I extend my finger to collect this favourite nectar of birds and suck the sugary drop.

A bracket fungus lower down, catches my eye as the soft glow deepens. The woodland supports an abundance of life - why not fairies?

I feel an inner magic released, a close connection; calming, fulfilling. I stare, scarcely breathing, into the deepening shadows to glimpse the illusive fairy folk.

California Quails’ shrill calls alert me to the gathering darkness.

I feel something swoosh past as I stand, revived and grounded. I click on my headlight, red – better to observe nightlife. On a branch before me perches the little owl, unblinking, swaying its head from side to side like an Indian dancer.

I feel aglow with wonder. Blessed.

- by Paula Allen.