Let’s treasure the small and precious
Surely there has never been a more effective advertising line than De Beers: Diamonds are Forever. It was coined in 1947 by a copywriter called Frances Gerety who’d been slinking off to bed, tired from working late on a series of ads, when she realised she had clean forgotten to come up with a signature line for the foot of one passage of text. ‘‘Dear God, send me a line’’, she prayed, then scribbled something on a slip of paper, too tired to dwell on it, and awoke the next morning to read A Diamond is Forever. When she pitched it at her next meeting ‘‘nobody jumped’’. But Frances Gerety went on to write De Beers ads for 25 years.
The phrase has entered our lexicons, as our hearts, with its suggestion of eternal love and surely there can be nothing better.
The thing is, the part can be the whole as the whole the part.
Just as a tiny sliver of diamond is as true as the carat, a little love can be a whole life and beyond.
Mostly we do think the 123RF bigger the better and we are driven to produce bigger children, gardens, city space, whatever.
Yet the glint in a chink of diamond reminds us of something else, less tangible, more memorable.
Last Saturday Christine Whittaker invited me to see some needlework done by fellow members of the Embroiderers’ Guild in Invercargill, the first set up from the UK 60 years by flame-haired expat Central Southland teacher Jess Oswald, the Miss Jean Brodie of the needlecraft class, her work inspiring a third generation of southern embroiderers.
Since then the London-based Guild has expanded to all parts of New Zealand and last weekend that first branch in the city hosted people from Dunedin, South Otago, Central Otago, Gore and Te Anau to a day-long get-together, a show and share.
And we saw medieval stitching done like jewellery, as pure and beautiful as a precious gem but of soft fabric rather than hard gemstone.
Our niece Mary Macdonald made me a pale silk lavender sachet embroidered with tiny seed pearls, the whole piece smaller than my thumb encapsulating the scent of summer gone, to hold near your heart.
Sometimes our embroideries are big squares of patched work, often machine stitched to make a wall hanging or a bed quilt with great splashes of colour and life.
But this weekend I saw the delicacy of age-old hand-stitching. It reminded me of my school friend Alice, today Sister Elizabeth in a Christchurch Carmelite Monastery, member of an enclosed order of nuns known for their ecclesiastical embroidery who shared their work at an embroidery forum in Canterbury last year.
It reminded me, too, of our mothers and grandmothers and great-aunts who smocked those cream christening gowns, edged supper cloths with hand-made lace and did white-on-white embroidery on dining room table cloths.
Let’s treasure what they left.
Further raising awareness of the area via a national park status will ultimately mean more visitors and job creation
You may have read over the summer break that as part of my role as National’s Conservation spokesperson I’m investigating the possibility of establishing a national park encompassing our many reserves and conservation areas in the Catlins.
We live in the best part of New Zealand (I would say that), and I want New Zealanders and international tourists be able to enjoy our country.
New Zealand has an incredible natural environment and I am committed to protecting it for future generations.
National’s smart, modern blue-green approach to conservation is about getting the entire country involved, combining the energy and enthusiasm of thousands of committed volunteers and the backing of business with the expertise and resources of the Department of Conservation.
As MP for Invercargill and the wider south, I know that New Zealanders identify with their surrounds and enjoy an innate connection to unimpeded access to conservation lands.
That’s why I believe it’s worth considering establishing a national park to encompass all of the pockets of reserves in the Catlins and if possible, link these with corridors to create a stronger connection between land and sea.
A Catlins Coastal Rainforest Park already exists, but I believe a national park would allow the area to be more easily protected by the National Parks Act and allow its framework along with that of the Conservation Act to better manage visitors to the estate and leverage funds for supporting infrastructure.
A Catlins National Park, would also be huge drawcard to bring people to Invercargill and wider Southland.
The Catlins is growing in popularity with both domestic and international visitors and further raising awareness of the area via a national park status will ultimately mean more visitors and job creation.
It would also dovetail into the Southland and Clutha district council’s strategies, which would give better cohesion throughout the Catlins.
Defining what is special about a ‘‘place’’, enhancing it and managing the area as one means we can better capitalise on opportunities moving forward.
The park would incorporate not only wildlife but the natural and social history of the area, including human settlement and shipwrecks.
1. Titania and Oberon, moons of the planet Uranus, were named after characters in what play by Shakespeare?
2. The pineapple originated where: Asia, South America or the Pacific Islands?
3. In what country would you find Transylvania, setting for the gothic horror novel Dracula?
4. What Abba hit song had a title inspired by a Morse code signal?
5. The novels The Power of One, The,
I have the support of our mayors for the initial concept that has been proposed.
However, we all know from the establishment of the Rakiura National Park just how important it is to involve the community when developing a national park.
Concerns about having a national park on the immediate doorsteps of residents and farmers, while still protecting the region’s conservation values, do need to be worked through.
It is essential that farmers, residents and other stakeholders are included into any process of developing a park and, that the existing dynamism of the area is recognised.
Social activities that have occurred for years need not be prohibited by the formation of a national park – conservation can be inclusive and should inspire appreciation of the natural environment.
Farming and conservation used to go head to head, but now so many more farmers are bluegreen in their views.
You only need to look at the number of QEII covenants on land that have been set up.
Recently we’ve seen the yellow-eyed penguin population at Curio Bay in the south Catlins be reduced to a single nesting pair.
That’s down from three last season.
As well as finding that heart-breaking, it highlights that there is a need for greater protection and resourcing for the Catlins’ endangered species in critical areas.
My next steps will be pulling together economic analysis and working with the community to develop this proposal.
I’m really looking forward to the year ahead, working hard for you as National’s conservation spokesperson and the member for Invercargill.
On a personal note, I’d like to thank you for all the lovely messages of support and the many kindnesses shown to me. Covenant and Cry, the Beloved Country were set in what country?
6. According to a popular saying, what is the thief of time?
7. What do the initials of the New Zealand Army’s SAS unit stand for?
8. Comintern, a global political organisation in the 20th century, was an amalgamation of what two words?
9. Was Mungo Park an artist, an explorer or a general?
10. The 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes described the typical man’s life as ‘‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish’’ and what else?,