Chrysanthemums for Mother’s Day

Did you buy your mother flowers for Mother’s Day? Crysanths for mum, or ‘mums for mom, as the Americans would say?

Mother’s Day in New Zealand and Australia (and many other parts of the world, but not all) is celebrated on the second Sunday in May, so today’s the day. And just as the red rose is the iconic bloom for Valentine’s Day so the chrysanthemum is the quintessential floral tribute for Mother’s Day. Perhaps it’s because the plant blooms in May (at least, in the southern hemisphere) or maybe it's because its name co-incidentally ends in the letters M U M.

This lovely plant, from the family Asteraceae, originated in Asia and north-eastern Europe but is now cultivated by gardeners around the world. Though most loved for the variety of the size, texture and colour of its flowers, the chrysanthemum also has medicinal, insecticidal and culinary uses.

Not only that but this wonder plant is even good for the environment. The Clean Air Study undertaken by NASA examined which common indoor plants could provide a natural way of reducing toxic agents in the air and showed that the Chrysanthemum morifolium can eliminate benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, xylene, toluene and ammonia from the atmosphere. So, when you buy your mother a chrysanthemum this Mother’s Day, you’ll also be benefitting her health.

Such a gorgeous flower has, naturally, been the inspiration for writers and poets throughout history so I thought I would include here some quotations to accompany my images. My photographs were taken at The Wintergarden at Auckland Domain which currently has a very splendid display of chrysanthemums in celebration of Mother’s Day. If you are in Auckland, I would definitely recommend a visit – the blooms are simply glorious. And here’s wishing a very happy Mother’s Day to mums all around the world!

'When, lo! I mark a little way apart / The sovereign glory of this waning year / That now, alone, unheralded hath come, / In gorgeous robes - alas, my fickle heart / Forgets the dead, and laughs that she is here, / The royal queen of fall, Chrysanthemum.' ~ Albert Bigelow Paine, ‘Chrysanthemum’, from Rhymes by Two Friends, Albert Bigelow Paine & William Allen White, M. L. Izor and Son, Fort Scott, 1893, p.26.

'As we watch the summer days depart / And the painted leaves in silence fall, / And the vines are dead upon the wall; / A dreamy sadness fills each heart, / Our garden seems a dreary place, / No brilliant flowers its borders grace, / Save in a sheltered nook apart, / Where gay beneath the autumn sun / Blooms our own Chrysanthemum. ' ~ Hattie L. Knapp, ‘Chrysanthemum’, from Poets and Poetry of Kansas, edited by Thomas W. Herringshaw, American Publishers' Association, Chicago, 1894, p.116.

'Too late its beauty, lonely thing, / The season's shine is spent, / Nothing remains for it but shivering / In tempests turbulent. /  Had it a reason for delay, / Dreaming in witlessness / That for a bloom so delicately gay / Winter would stay its stress?' ~ Thomas Hardy, ‘The Last Chrysanthemum’, Poems of the Past and Present.

‘It was a day as different from others days as dogs are from cats and both of them from chrysanthemums or tidal waves or scarlet fever.’ ~ John Steinbeck, ‘The Crysanthemums’, a short story from his collection The Long Valley.

Fair gift of Friendship! and her ever bright / And faultless image! welcome now them art, / In thy pure loveliness—thy robes of white, / Speaking a moral to the feeling heart; / Unscattered by heats—by wintry blasts unmoved— / Thy strength thus tested—and thy charms improved. ~ Anna Peyre Dinnies, ‘To a White Chrysanthemum’, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, 1922, p.117.

Chrysanthemums from gilded argosy / Unload their gaudy scentless merchandise. ~ Oscar Wilde, ‘Humanitad’, Stanza 11, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, 1922, p.117.

‘Why don’t you get a haircut? You look like a chrysanthemum.’ ~ P. G. Woodhouse.

Auckland walks: the Herne Bay Beaches

It’s almost a year since I first explored all nine – yes, nine! – Herne Bay beaches in one long delightful, if slightly wearying afternoon meander. And I was amazed – amazed by the fact that I’ve lived in Auckland most of my adult life and hadn’t explored such lovely places as these when they are less than 10 kilometres from where I live!

At that point I was busy preparing for an extended overseas holiday and didn’t get time to write about my beach exploration so this week I repeated the route, in the reverse direction. This is a wonderful walk, for the exercise, for the pretty beaches, perchance for some bird watching, and to check out all the lovely old houses and some more modern architectural gems in the historic and rather posh suburb of Herne Bay.

As these beaches all border Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour, they are tidal and that makes a big difference to how much of each beach you can access and to the views, sparkling water or not-so-sparkling mud. Tide times are easily checked on the Metservice website.

Here, then, are photos from both my walks and a little information about each beach. Starting at Point Erin (where there is parking) and going round to Bella Vista Reserve, the numbers below correspond to the numbers on my map. Many of these beaches can only be reached by a walk down and up several flights of steep stairs, so the walk is more of a workout than it looks on paper. However, you can walk back to Point Erin via Jervois Road and enjoy a well-earned culinary treat at one of the many eateries along the way!

1. Masefield Beach Reserve

Masefield Beach is named after one Thomas Taylor Masefield (1842-1908), an Englishman from Shropshire, who immigrated to New Zealand in 1862. That same year he partnered with a Mr Vickery to establish an engineering and ironfoundry business in central Auckland. From 1870, he became sole proprietor, changing the business’s name to Masefield T. T. and Co., Ironworkers, Ironfounders and Engineers which, according to the Auckland Museum website, manufactured ‘marine and stationary engines; machinery for sawmills, brick mills and flax mills; and pipe fittings for waterworks’. Masefield lived in Herne Bay, in a large house he named ‘Ellerton’ after the house where he was born, and served three terms as an Auckland City Councillor. His obituary, in the New Zealand Herald, 2 May 1908, reports that he ‘always took a keen interest in manly sports’ and, for a time, served as president of the Auckland Regatta Committee. I wonder how he would feel about the little beach that pays him tribute – probably not quite manly enough, I expect.

2. Hamilton Road Beach Reserve

A short walk along tree-lined Sarsfield Street, followed by a right turn into Hamilton Road and a walk to the end will bring you to this next beach, one of many along this route to be lined with the huge old pohutukawa trees that are such a glorious sight in the summer months, when their scarlet red flowers earn them the title of New Zealand’s Christmas tree.

The beach was probably named after Captain John Fane Hamilton, a British Royal Navy commander who was killed in 1864 at the Battle of Gate Pa, one of the battles fought between Maori and Europeans during the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s. Hamilton Road Beach also has several boat houses built along its high tide line, an indication of the popularity of sailing as a pastime with the locals.

3. Sentinel Beach Reserve

The next beach along is accessed from Sentinel Road, hence its name. Both the street and the beach are named after the small island that can be seen not far off shore which was originally named The Sentinel but is now known as The Watchman. 

This beach is larger than the previous two, has more sand and is better suited for swimming in the summertime. It also boasts several boat houses at one end, though the nearest slipway is now unused and crumbling and a bit of an eyesore. With comfortable loungers to recline on and a rope swing for the kids to try, this is a good place for a refreshment stop.

4. Home Bay Beach Reserve

In the mid 1800s Herne Bay was known as Home Bay, hence the name of this next beach. Its wharf, which was originally built in 1898, was upgraded by the Auckland City Council one hundred years later, though it is a true replica of the original in all but length.

As you can see above, Home Bay is fringed by elegant and expensive houses, whose owners must enjoy some fabulous harbour views. Fortunately, the beach itself is still open for the less privileged to enjoy, though you can see in these photos how much of a difference the tides make to accessibility.

5. Wairangi Wharf Reserve

Wairangi Road has had several changes of name, not surprisingly given the long wharf that runs out into the harbour, it was known originally as Wharf Street, had changed to Waitangi Road by 1883, and again to Wairangi Road by 1939. In 2002, one local newspaper, the Sunday Star Times, reckoned this was the most expensive real estate street in New Zealand, with the average house valued at $4 million and with the Sultan of Brunei as one of its residents.  

Thirteen years later, I’m sure the locals still pay high prices for ‘its proximity to the city, its harbour views, its access to small, near-private beaches, and its being a prized example of Herne Bay's tree-lined and quiet, non-arterial residential streets.’ Luckily, the wharf provides a good fishing spot for those who can’t afford to live in such expensive surroundings.

6. Cremorne Reserve

According to an article in the New Zealand Herald, nine years after Wairangi Road was named the most expensive street in the country, Cremorne Road took over the top spot, quite appropriate for a street named after one of the same name in London’s wealthy suburb of Chelsea.  

The beach was originally called Tibbs’s Beach, after James William Tibbs, who lived in this street in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tibbs was headmaster at Auckland Grammar school and died at his home in Cremorne St in 1924.

7. Herne Bay Beach

With sprawling old pohutukawa trees providing much-needed shade, this is the perfect beach for a picnic and a swim on a hot summer’s day. As the colourful row of canoes testifies, it is also a popular spot for a paddle.

Herne Bay takes its name from a seaside resort in the English county of Kent. Back in the 1850s there was no road access to the central city so those of the well-heeled professional class who lived in Herne Bay’s ‘marine villas’ would commute to the city using the small boats they stored in the boathouses at the bottom of their gardens or moored at their private jetties. Some of those early Victorian villas can still be seen in the streets around Herne Bay Beach.

8. Marine Parade Reserve

The penultimate beach on this walk is one of the most interesting. Sloane’s Beach, as it is properly called, is home to the 100-year-old club house of the Richmond Yacht Club, now managed by the Herne Bay Cruising Club, ‘a charitable trust formed by locals to preserve this historic building and ensure it continues to support the boating activities that have been part of this area for nearly a century.’ The Trust has placed interesting illustrated notices around the back of the old building so I’ll leave you to explore more of its history when you visit.

9. Bella Vista Reserve

The last beach on our walk is accessed by 127 steps down from Bella Vista Road. It is best suited to those who enjoy poking around amongst rocks and in the mud, as there’s not a grain of sand to be seen. It does, however, afford good views towards Cox’s Bay, across to Meola Reef and further up the Waitemata Harbour, hence its name, Bella Vista. And by the time you’ve walked back up those steps, you’ll be very pleased to head to Jervois Road for some well-deserved refreshments.

A celebration of trees: April: the greening

Having recently returned to Auckland, New Zealand, for a short stay, I find myself surrounded by the signs of autumn and yearning, just a little, for the magic of the spring I left behind in the English county of Cheshire.

There, after living through my first British winter in more than thirty years, I was enraptured by the coming of spring. Though the charm and cheerfulness of the yellow wildflowers blossoming everywhere was heart-warming,  it was the greening of the countryside that I found most uplifting. Now, I feel I understand more clearly why ancient civilisations and more primitive cultures feared the long, dark days of winter, and celebrated so exuberantly the coming of Spring.

Each day as I walked in the various woodlands near my home, I became more and more aware of the land reawakening from its winter slumber. With buds bursting and green leaflets glinting in the sunlight, the signs of the revival and rebirth of the trees were all around. For me, the fresh, clean perfection of young leaves quivering in the slightest breeze is the very essence of spring.

I am pleased to share with you some photographs of the reawakening of the trees that I took during my daily meanderings. 

From the snow of January to the greening of April