No More Refinery Art Space

The original Refinery ArtSpace gallery was a cavernous venue on Halifax Street, a real former refinery. It was my favourite space in Nelson, and I participated in a few exhibition as a weaver and drawing student. Due to earthquake safety risks, it moved temporarily to Hardy Street for perhaps a decade; recently this Hardy Street gallery closed, too. 

The gallery and Nelson Bays Arts Council moved to a shinier building. I haven't looked up what's going to happen to the old venue. 

Purple Wallflower

The day after I saw these on sale at the Mitre 10 garden centre, I saw these blooming at a cute house Rutherford Street, tall and fragrant and rather lovely. Do I have any room for this?  
 

Radiology Waiting Room

Nelson Hospital's radiology department waiting room is usually chock full, but on this day, for maybe 15 minutes, I was the only one. 

I like these decorations in different areas of the hospital, and I find this one very cheerful.   

Except... these aren't painted; they're stickers. 

Upstanding Osteospermum

 

Osteospermum usually doesn't stand upright but drapes over the side; ours covers a concrete retaining wall on the side of the driveway. I saw two or three of these uprights at the hospital the other week. This one was around 1m tall, planted inside a tallish (40cm? 50cm?) concrete pot. I wanted to have a closer look, but access was from a ward behind closed doors, and areas reserved for folks in need of a quiet place to sit and contemplate or converse, so I didn't try. 

A week later, I saw this at a high-end lighting shop Storey Collection on Collingwood Street. This pots was maybe 30cm high and the plant further 30cm. Staff said it had just been pruned by the manager/gardener who wasn't working that day. I may go back and enquire.  

Roman Viaduct??

A view from Nelson Hospital's outside walkway on Level 2. I always liked the structure that reminds me of a Roman Viaduct and imagined all sorts of weird reasons why Nelson might have one. Last month curiosity got the better of me and enlarged the photo; it turned out to be a... well, sometimes it's better not to find out.  

Leafy Greens

I am supposed to be on anti-inflammatory diet for arthritis. Leafy greens are in, nightshade vegetables are out. Well, not all out but maybe mindfully-consumed. 

Project #5

Winter project #5 of 6; the area looks HUGE but it's not that big, just much steeper. A few years ago in June we planted a whole bunch of rose Elena sticks, (tall with pale yellow flowers,) along the boundary fence, but only four survived. This year, with the towering bay reduced drastically, we're going to put in a ridiculous number of Elena sticks in obscenely short intervals in the hopes some will survive, preferably in regular intervals. I know, life doesn't work like that. 

Cooking as Science Experiment

Neighbour's Mum is a superb cook and among other things has supplied us annually with marmalade made from our grapefruits. Among them are ginger- and cardamon-added version, maybe too spicy for some but perfect for us. I am almost more excited about the overcooked version; she must share my mantra: all (my) cooking is science experiment. Sage thought, but not my own; it comes from my dad's dearest friend from our Minnesota days, a organic-chemist-turned-minerals-specialist, ex-Liverpudlian-turned-longtime-Melbournian Ron. 

EDIT: The Dark Marmalade turned out to be an exquisite Smoked Grapefruit Marmalade, and we may just use it on our toast!

Verdict

The tree came with the house and over the decades we enjoyed many glasses of intensely sweet and tangy juice, while friends made fabulous marmalade. Some called it Tangelo, some called it, "Oh, I can't remember called but (insert-person) has the same," while yet others called it grapefruit.

Now that we're both on meds prohibiting grapefruits, we took a wee branch with a couple of fruits to the garden center to ask what it is. The verdict is, it's actually a pink grapefruit! If we, or it, lived north of Hamilton, (about halfway up the North Island,) the flesh will turn pink, but since we're too far south it's just a very pretty orange.

So, no more heavenly juice for us. Well, 1.4C every week or so. But more for friends, which is not a bad thing. 

Team Colour

Some customers drive or even kayak to the store in the proper color. Respect!

What's for Dinner?

A wee boy in ethnic costume. South Asian?? Dad might be a chef; he picked a cut, requested the butcher take off the fat, and separate the meat from the bone, stressing he's keeping the bone as well for the marrow. Dying to know what they're having for dinner tonight.

The Truth?

I've been growing hellebore singles in purples, slate, "claret" and a couple of whites since 1998. I was just recently thinking I've never seen a yellow, when, lo, what do I see at the garden centre! I was skeptical, though, about the very saturated color on the label so I asked a Facebook group, and most folks said it's a pale yellow-green. I'm good with that. I can't wait to see a flower in a year or two.  

 

We Got a Black Current Tree

We thought a mandarine or a tangerine tree would be nice where we cut back a giant bay tree. But there were so many different kinds and we couldn't make up our minds, so we came home with a black current bush - something else we thought we'd like. We're still interested in an easily edible citrus, though, so we'll go back.  
 

My Kinda Label

I was relieved to see this in the garden centre. We also have a tree some folks say is a grapefruit, others, tangelo, and a few others I can't remember. It came with the house and we didn't bother investigating, other than the fact it makes superb juice, marmalade, and the dried peel is nice all year round. Staff Vince said we should bring it in to have different staff opine and confuse us further; bless him, what fun!