Chair and divan, exhibited at the Great International Exhibition of 1851
Reference Number: PUBL-0164-05/06
Showing posts with label cilla mcqueen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cilla mcqueen. Show all posts
28 April 2010
Inflation 4
Leaning forward, suddenly alert, to scrutinise a fine thread rising from the hand-made lace on Madame Montgolfier’s lingerie.
Chair and divan, exhibited at the Great International Exhibition of 1851
Reference Number: PUBL-0164-05/06
Chair and divan, exhibited at the Great International Exhibition of 1851
Reference Number: PUBL-0164-05/06
Inflation 3
Wavering upright in the draught a white thread loose from a buttonhole caused Digby to imagine Jacques Montgolfier musing by the fireside at Annonay, smoking his pipe, tendrils of smoke drawn up the chimney.
Chateau Tongariro, and Mount Ruapehu erupting behind, 1945
Reference Number: 35mm-00702-a-F
Inflation 1
Acanthus leaves carved like lawnmower tracks through the plush velvet of his armchair. Most of his clothes were drying on the clothes-horse.
Drawing Room, Government House, Wellington, between 1897 and 1903
Reference Number: PA1-f-194-05
Drawing Room, Government House, Wellington, between 1897 and 1903
Reference Number: PA1-f-194-05
27 April 2010
Birdie
'Birdie' is the third part of Cilla McQueen's Serial, which is being published on this blog in small sections every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
The first chapter was titled 'Higgs' (see full text) and the second Hotdog (see full text).
Next week, we begin chapter 4 - 'Inflation'.
Doris looked up and cleared a swathe on the window. Mrs Good coming up in the rain, a baguette protruding from her bag.
No news but Olympics. Talking rubbish bins in Finland that speak with celebrity voices.
City Council. The plot: from next year onwards those without reservations must go to town, not up the hill behind the pines. Gravestones on the sky.
A swooping plastic bag tangled in the fence, brushing off pink rose petals. If the wheelie-bin had a celebrity voice, in what language would it thank you?
Chicken soup on a day like this, nipping off a few dead buds.
A splendid concoction. Stressing the second syllable like Nigella Lawson.
Mrs Good at the gate, the baguette drooping. Hello sweetie, are you all right?
Fine thanks. You’ve got your bread wet.
Did you know Digby who won Lotto and went out of control? They didn’t find him for a week. Mrs Good straightened the bread. His daughter was out jogging.
No chance with this hip, Doris thought. Two years jogging every Sunday with Roger until Edwin put his foot down.
On TV a winner kissed his gold medal. An exhausted woman finishing the marathon wobbled and collapsed. She won’t die wondering! shouted the presenter.
Die wondering, repeated Doris, leafing through the exotic birds. Overdue. Her eyes stung. All gone, feathers for hats, vanity, stoats, rats.
She turned to the smallest flightless bird in the world, seen only once and shortly afterwards dispatched by the lighthouse-keeper’s cat.
An artist’s impression showed the robust legs and soft loose plumage of the Lyall’s wren glowing like a coin on a branch above a fairy prion on the forest floor. Two green geckoes and a lichen moth among the upper twigs.
The scientific world heard almost simultaneously of the wren’s discovery and its disappearance. No sooner said than done. She blew her nose.
Sky dark in the west. At the council office she filled out the form for a funeral plot. Ahead of her was the massive back of Mr Billing. He stepped backwards and crushed her toe, then nearly knocked her over.
>
She bought a cheese roll and sat on the seat by the rocks. Waves thumped against the sea wall. Sparrows and seagulls sought her crumbs. As she put the wrapping in the bin a seagull screeched and dropped a white deposit on her arm. Thanks, she said.
It’s lucky. A man was sitting on the seat, his parcels beside him. Lucky. Birdshit. Local? Shopping for one? None of your business, she thought, picking up her bag.
Sorry, he smiled. That was rude, nobody to talk to. I live up the street, said Doris. Nice to meet you. He was Digby’s cousin, winding things up.
Drop in for a cup of tea any time, he invited her.
She remembered Digby with a glass in his hand on the porch of his weatherbeaten cottage. I don’t think so. Is your bottle leaking? The brown paper was stained at the bottom.
Sound as a bell, he grinned, banging it down. There was dark liquid on the seat between them. Hell, soggy parcel, it’s the chicken.
She took a tissue from her handbag and wiped a splash off her hand. Chicken juice, she said primly. Campylobacter.
Walking home past the native bush she peered under branches, listening to a bellbird’s song. A sparrow hopped away through the leaves.
The Lyall’s wren ran as fast as a mouse. Couldn’t there be one pair left in the world, in some lonely place?
The letterbox coming off its hinges. I don’t think so, she said in a loud, firm voice. Organised for survival, sound finances, even paid for the plot.
A man is so sudden, she thought.
In her quiet kitchen she remembered Roger’s lavender bouquets and evening runs on the beach.
Edwin’s blue eyes above his antiques book as she stood in the doorway ready to go out, toned and slim in her shorts, her brown hair soft and glowing like the plumage of the Lyall’s wren.
Women's Royal New Zealand Naval Service recruit learning semaphore on Somes Island, during World War II.
Reference Number: 1/4-000164-F
Modelling Jantzen bathing costumes, 1940.
Reference Number: 1/2-036931-G
Molly Mawk colony, Courrejolles Peninsula, Campbell Island, 1910-1916
Reference Number: 1/2-100366-G
Miss Judy Young and Mrs W M Preston at Trentham race course, 21 January 1957
Reference Number: EP/1957/0298-F
Nelson Lighthouse, Boulder Bank, Nelson, ca 21 March 1936
Reference Number: 1/2-032647-F
Kimberley Supply Committee: Permit to purchase bread
Reference Number: Eph-C-WAR-SA-1900-03-2
Members of the Women's Royal New Zealand Naval Service, at signalling training, during World War II
Reference Number: PAColl-8844
Physical training at Sling Camp, Bulford, 1918
Reference Number: 1/2-014067-G
Running race for married ladies over 45, location unidentified, 1931
Reference Number: 1/2-C-016197-F
Hunting party, probably Christchurch district, ca 1915
Reference Number: 1/1-023909-G
Photograph of a city gate, Manilla, Phillipines, ca 1900
Reference Number: PA1-f-146-03-3
William Gilbert Rees, Mary Rose, 1859.
Reference Number: E-199-q-041
Photograph of Richard Savage's watch
Reference Number: MS-Papers-1361-5-02
William Swainson, Cupressus sempervirens. Strait cypress. Callitris Gunni. Egg cypress, 1852-1854
Reference Number: A-023-010
Approved lunch for Zoo feeding, Wellington Zoo, New Zealand, 8 January 1968
Reference Number: EP/1968/0090/9-F
Display of household consumer items, mainly food, with prices attached, showing rising costs between 1972 and 1975
Reference Number: EP/1975/3245/13a-F
Douglas MacDiarmid, John Drawbridge, 1949
Reference Number: A-135-027
Wooden water trough used for catching birds
Reference Number: PAColl-3039-1-001
Man, outside a hut in the gum fields, holding loaves of bread, ca 1910
Reference Number: 1/1-006360-G
Man and bird, 1950-1950
Reference Number: 114/138/10-G
Woman at Trentham races, 1950
Reference Number: 114/207/16-G
William Godwin, S S Storm-Bird, 1860s
Reference Number: C-059-009
William Fox, Bird's eye view of Waitoi, 1848
Reference Number: C-013-001
Wooden sculptures, carved by George Wakelin, in the garden of "Rose Cottage", Moroa, Wairarapa
Reference Number: 1/2-135973-F
End of the Old Miners Race at the 50th Jubilee celebrations, Gabriels Gully, May 1911
Reference Number: 1/2-111409-F
North Family scrap album: Page 21, of flower scraps, ca 1890
Reference Number: Eph-A-SCRAPBOOK-01-21
Percival Vega Gull plane, ca 6 April 1951
Reference Number: 114/278/04-G
The first chapter was titled 'Higgs' (see full text) and the second Hotdog (see full text).
Next week, we begin chapter 4 - 'Inflation'.
Doris looked up and cleared a swathe on the window. Mrs Good coming up in the rain, a baguette protruding from her bag.
No news but Olympics. Talking rubbish bins in Finland that speak with celebrity voices.
City Council. The plot: from next year onwards those without reservations must go to town, not up the hill behind the pines. Gravestones on the sky.
A swooping plastic bag tangled in the fence, brushing off pink rose petals. If the wheelie-bin had a celebrity voice, in what language would it thank you?
Chicken soup on a day like this, nipping off a few dead buds.
A splendid concoction. Stressing the second syllable like Nigella Lawson.
Mrs Good at the gate, the baguette drooping. Hello sweetie, are you all right?
Fine thanks. You’ve got your bread wet.
Did you know Digby who won Lotto and went out of control? They didn’t find him for a week. Mrs Good straightened the bread. His daughter was out jogging.
No chance with this hip, Doris thought. Two years jogging every Sunday with Roger until Edwin put his foot down.
On TV a winner kissed his gold medal. An exhausted woman finishing the marathon wobbled and collapsed. She won’t die wondering! shouted the presenter.
Die wondering, repeated Doris, leafing through the exotic birds. Overdue. Her eyes stung. All gone, feathers for hats, vanity, stoats, rats.
She turned to the smallest flightless bird in the world, seen only once and shortly afterwards dispatched by the lighthouse-keeper’s cat.
An artist’s impression showed the robust legs and soft loose plumage of the Lyall’s wren glowing like a coin on a branch above a fairy prion on the forest floor. Two green geckoes and a lichen moth among the upper twigs.
The scientific world heard almost simultaneously of the wren’s discovery and its disappearance. No sooner said than done. She blew her nose.
Sky dark in the west. At the council office she filled out the form for a funeral plot. Ahead of her was the massive back of Mr Billing. He stepped backwards and crushed her toe, then nearly knocked her over.
>
She bought a cheese roll and sat on the seat by the rocks. Waves thumped against the sea wall. Sparrows and seagulls sought her crumbs. As she put the wrapping in the bin a seagull screeched and dropped a white deposit on her arm. Thanks, she said.
It’s lucky. A man was sitting on the seat, his parcels beside him. Lucky. Birdshit. Local? Shopping for one? None of your business, she thought, picking up her bag.
Sorry, he smiled. That was rude, nobody to talk to. I live up the street, said Doris. Nice to meet you. He was Digby’s cousin, winding things up.
Drop in for a cup of tea any time, he invited her.
She remembered Digby with a glass in his hand on the porch of his weatherbeaten cottage. I don’t think so. Is your bottle leaking? The brown paper was stained at the bottom.
Sound as a bell, he grinned, banging it down. There was dark liquid on the seat between them. Hell, soggy parcel, it’s the chicken.
She took a tissue from her handbag and wiped a splash off her hand. Chicken juice, she said primly. Campylobacter.
Walking home past the native bush she peered under branches, listening to a bellbird’s song. A sparrow hopped away through the leaves.
The Lyall’s wren ran as fast as a mouse. Couldn’t there be one pair left in the world, in some lonely place?
The letterbox coming off its hinges. I don’t think so, she said in a loud, firm voice. Organised for survival, sound finances, even paid for the plot.
A man is so sudden, she thought.
In her quiet kitchen she remembered Roger’s lavender bouquets and evening runs on the beach.
Edwin’s blue eyes above his antiques book as she stood in the doorway ready to go out, toned and slim in her shorts, her brown hair soft and glowing like the plumage of the Lyall’s wren.
Women's Royal New Zealand Naval Service recruit learning semaphore on Somes Island, during World War II.
Reference Number: 1/4-000164-F
Modelling Jantzen bathing costumes, 1940.
Reference Number: 1/2-036931-G
Molly Mawk colony, Courrejolles Peninsula, Campbell Island, 1910-1916
Reference Number: 1/2-100366-G
Miss Judy Young and Mrs W M Preston at Trentham race course, 21 January 1957
Reference Number: EP/1957/0298-F
Nelson Lighthouse, Boulder Bank, Nelson, ca 21 March 1936
Reference Number: 1/2-032647-F
Kimberley Supply Committee: Permit to purchase bread
Reference Number: Eph-C-WAR-SA-1900-03-2
Members of the Women's Royal New Zealand Naval Service, at signalling training, during World War II
Reference Number: PAColl-8844
Physical training at Sling Camp, Bulford, 1918
Reference Number: 1/2-014067-G
Running race for married ladies over 45, location unidentified, 1931
Reference Number: 1/2-C-016197-F
Hunting party, probably Christchurch district, ca 1915
Reference Number: 1/1-023909-G
Photograph of a city gate, Manilla, Phillipines, ca 1900
Reference Number: PA1-f-146-03-3
William Gilbert Rees, Mary Rose, 1859.
Reference Number: E-199-q-041
Photograph of Richard Savage's watch
Reference Number: MS-Papers-1361-5-02
William Swainson, Cupressus sempervirens. Strait cypress. Callitris Gunni. Egg cypress, 1852-1854
Reference Number: A-023-010
Approved lunch for Zoo feeding, Wellington Zoo, New Zealand, 8 January 1968
Reference Number: EP/1968/0090/9-F
Display of household consumer items, mainly food, with prices attached, showing rising costs between 1972 and 1975
Reference Number: EP/1975/3245/13a-F
Douglas MacDiarmid, John Drawbridge, 1949
Reference Number: A-135-027
Wooden water trough used for catching birds
Reference Number: PAColl-3039-1-001
Man, outside a hut in the gum fields, holding loaves of bread, ca 1910
Reference Number: 1/1-006360-G
Man and bird, 1950-1950
Reference Number: 114/138/10-G
Woman at Trentham races, 1950
Reference Number: 114/207/16-G
William Godwin, S S Storm-Bird, 1860s
Reference Number: C-059-009
William Fox, Bird's eye view of Waitoi, 1848
Reference Number: C-013-001
Wooden sculptures, carved by George Wakelin, in the garden of "Rose Cottage", Moroa, Wairarapa
Reference Number: 1/2-135973-F
End of the Old Miners Race at the 50th Jubilee celebrations, Gabriels Gully, May 1911
Reference Number: 1/2-111409-F
North Family scrap album: Page 21, of flower scraps, ca 1890
Reference Number: Eph-A-SCRAPBOOK-01-21
Percival Vega Gull plane, ca 6 April 1951
Reference Number: 114/278/04-G
26 April 2010
Hotdog
'Hotdog' is the second part of Cilla McQueen's 'Serial', which is being published on this blog in small sections every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The first chapter was titled 'Higgs' - the full text of 'Higgs' is available here.
Here is the full text of 'Hotdog'. Next, we begin 'Birdie'.
Marie Curie stirred sludge in a cauldron with an iron bar as tall as herself, reducing pitchblende to a grain of light.
Pierre Curie’s skull was eggshell on the cobblestones of Paris, thought Doris, flipping pikelets.
Waterblaster! shouted Roly. Three hundred, stainless steel tank, brand new.
He put the box in the wash-house, pulled his hoodie up and ran.
It was too expensive. She didn’t really need it.
At the dairy she was searching for eggs when Roly and his girlfriend came in and stood at the counter. The girl was laughing. Off the balcony!
I didn’t undo the twists, Roly said. Hotdog?
Green moss on the concrete, pine needles magnetised to the corners. Daisies. She put the radio on a stone and began gardening. It seemed the world was igniting in small puffs, bullet holes appearing in the Middle East.
A line of fire. She adjusted her glasses. Slowly tilting her head she gazed at the lobelia until at a certain angle through the lens the ultraviolet petals were thinly edged with red.
There was a spider dangling from her hat. She raised her hand to brush it off the brim but stopped, watching cross-eyed the minute creature climbing up. All elbows.
Waving the hat at the hydrangeas she went in to inspect the waterblaster.
It was only the size of a vacuum cleaner, smaller than the ones she had seen in Mitre 10. It had clean wheels but water dripped out of the hose. Looking for the guarantee she realised that there was no packaging and the box was battered.
The serial number on the machine didn’t match the number on the box.
No instructions, she thought, I don’t know how to work it.
There was a deep scratch on the black plastic knob at the front. The power cord was tied with plastic twists.
Marie Curie remained radioactive long after her death, thought Doris, but she found the element she was looking for.
Trying to reduce the focus she scattered shells and stones from the rockery. Something was stuck, the handle was leaking; one errant stream shot out of the side of the main jet.
She couldn’t work out how to turn it off.
The nozzle unleashed tremendous force in a gleaming nail of water that drilled into the Oamaru stone wall. Flowerpots skidded off a ledge and broke, scattering earth and polyanthus.
She slipped on the moss and the wildly swinging jet smashed the toilet window. She crawled to the outside tap and turned it.
Quiet. The wall drilled with holes as if machine-gunned. The drenched radio playing Tchaikovsky.
Images, from the top
c-axis rotation photographs of hyacinth from Snowy River
C. Osborne Hutton, 'Contributions to the Mineralogy of New Zealand—Part V'. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 88, 1960-61.
Three people weighing and packing eggs
Reference Number: 1/1-008480-G
Painting for the cover of an unpublished book featuring paintings of the Napier earthquake.
Reference Number: B-155-023
Detail of a kitchen interior, ca 1932
Reference Number: 1/1-015728-F
The Petone Fire Station, with hoses hanging up to dry, after the fire at Bailey, Austin & Arcus timber yards, 1910
Reference Number: APG-0411-1/2-G
Couple with Frigidaire electric appliances in Wellington Botanic Garden, 1972
Reference Number: PA12-3461-1
Unexploded Turkish shells at Gallipoli, 1915
Reference Number: PA1-o-308-21-4
A village priest on his way to attend badly wounded civilians, France, 19 April 1918
Reference Number: 1/2-013148-G
Rear view of a man in doublet and hose
Reference Number: E-312-q-091-4
Photograph of Anisotome latifolia, Campbell Island, ca 1959
Reference Number: PA12-1425-060
Hutt Railway Workshops at Woburn. Interior view with new heating apparatus, 1929
Reference Number: APG-0891-1/2-G
Insect life
Reference Number: B-131-06-001
Windmill owned by the milling business of Jas Hassell, Oamaru
Reference Number: 1/2-002002-F
Woman working in a munitions factory in Hamilton during World War 2, 1944
Reference Number: 1/4-000857-F
Lawnmower with attachment for trimming lawn edges
Reference Number: 1/1-009068-G
'The spider web' ride at fairground, Wellington
Reference Number: 114/121/06-G
Woman using a vacuum cleaner
Reference Number: 1/1-015757-F
Aix massage douche, Sanatorium, Rotorua, New Zealand
Reference Number: PA1-f-051-26-3
National Panasonic 8 transistor radio
Reference Number: EP/1971/4303/35-F
Here is the full text of 'Hotdog'. Next, we begin 'Birdie'.
Marie Curie stirred sludge in a cauldron with an iron bar as tall as herself, reducing pitchblende to a grain of light.
Pierre Curie’s skull was eggshell on the cobblestones of Paris, thought Doris, flipping pikelets.
Waterblaster! shouted Roly. Three hundred, stainless steel tank, brand new.
He put the box in the wash-house, pulled his hoodie up and ran.
It was too expensive. She didn’t really need it.
At the dairy she was searching for eggs when Roly and his girlfriend came in and stood at the counter. The girl was laughing. Off the balcony!
I didn’t undo the twists, Roly said. Hotdog?
Green moss on the concrete, pine needles magnetised to the corners. Daisies. She put the radio on a stone and began gardening. It seemed the world was igniting in small puffs, bullet holes appearing in the Middle East.
A line of fire. She adjusted her glasses. Slowly tilting her head she gazed at the lobelia until at a certain angle through the lens the ultraviolet petals were thinly edged with red.
There was a spider dangling from her hat. She raised her hand to brush it off the brim but stopped, watching cross-eyed the minute creature climbing up. All elbows.
Waving the hat at the hydrangeas she went in to inspect the waterblaster.
It was only the size of a vacuum cleaner, smaller than the ones she had seen in Mitre 10. It had clean wheels but water dripped out of the hose. Looking for the guarantee she realised that there was no packaging and the box was battered.
The serial number on the machine didn’t match the number on the box.
No instructions, she thought, I don’t know how to work it.
There was a deep scratch on the black plastic knob at the front. The power cord was tied with plastic twists.
Marie Curie remained radioactive long after her death, thought Doris, but she found the element she was looking for.
Trying to reduce the focus she scattered shells and stones from the rockery. Something was stuck, the handle was leaking; one errant stream shot out of the side of the main jet.
She couldn’t work out how to turn it off.
The nozzle unleashed tremendous force in a gleaming nail of water that drilled into the Oamaru stone wall. Flowerpots skidded off a ledge and broke, scattering earth and polyanthus.
She slipped on the moss and the wildly swinging jet smashed the toilet window. She crawled to the outside tap and turned it.
Quiet. The wall drilled with holes as if machine-gunned. The drenched radio playing Tchaikovsky.
Images, from the top
c-axis rotation photographs of hyacinth from Snowy River
C. Osborne Hutton, 'Contributions to the Mineralogy of New Zealand—Part V'. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 88, 1960-61.
Three people weighing and packing eggs
Reference Number: 1/1-008480-G
Painting for the cover of an unpublished book featuring paintings of the Napier earthquake.
Reference Number: B-155-023
Detail of a kitchen interior, ca 1932
Reference Number: 1/1-015728-F
The Petone Fire Station, with hoses hanging up to dry, after the fire at Bailey, Austin & Arcus timber yards, 1910
Reference Number: APG-0411-1/2-G
Couple with Frigidaire electric appliances in Wellington Botanic Garden, 1972
Reference Number: PA12-3461-1
Unexploded Turkish shells at Gallipoli, 1915
Reference Number: PA1-o-308-21-4
A village priest on his way to attend badly wounded civilians, France, 19 April 1918
Reference Number: 1/2-013148-G
Rear view of a man in doublet and hose
Reference Number: E-312-q-091-4
Photograph of Anisotome latifolia, Campbell Island, ca 1959
Reference Number: PA12-1425-060
Hutt Railway Workshops at Woburn. Interior view with new heating apparatus, 1929
Reference Number: APG-0891-1/2-G
Insect life
Reference Number: B-131-06-001
Windmill owned by the milling business of Jas Hassell, Oamaru
Reference Number: 1/2-002002-F
Woman working in a munitions factory in Hamilton during World War 2, 1944
Reference Number: 1/4-000857-F
Lawnmower with attachment for trimming lawn edges
Reference Number: 1/1-009068-G
'The spider web' ride at fairground, Wellington
Reference Number: 114/121/06-G
Woman using a vacuum cleaner
Reference Number: 1/1-015757-F
Aix massage douche, Sanatorium, Rotorua, New Zealand
Reference Number: PA1-f-051-26-3
National Panasonic 8 transistor radio
Reference Number: EP/1971/4303/35-F
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