And that was the Easter that was for 2015.
A visit over the long weekend down to see my mother in Invercargill. I tried to do some tidying up at home. A bit Grimm’s Fairy Tale. Once I had filled the rubbish bin there was not much more I could do.
Stayed with Southern Dave again and did a bit of family catch up. At the last moment I rummaged through the shelves for something to take with me and pulled Hellboy: Oddest Jobs edited by Mike Mignola from the shelves. It proved to be an excellent anthology of short stories to travel with. The constant figure in these stories is Hellboy, a monster, a demon, a constant indefeatable champion for humanity. They were a delight to read, and I would like to track down the earlier anthologies Odd Jobs and Odder Jobs. I’m sure that they will have the same taste for comic book horror and superheroes.
I returned from Invercargill with loot, Southern Dave found me books:
- Light in Dark Isles, by Alexander Don, NZ Presbyterian book on mission to the New Hebrides in 1918, lots of period writing
- By Love Serve: The Story of the Order of Deaconesses of the Presbyterian Church of NZ, by J. D. Salmond, another one for my Presbyterian bookshelves
- Spirit in a Strange Land: a selection of New Zealand spiritual verse, edited by Paul Morris, Harry Ricketts & Mike Grimshaw. Excellent to have my own copy of this, my original thoughts on looking at this collection, some years ago, was that NZ poets view religion with a powerful hermeneutic of suspicion. I will be interested to see if that sense is still dominant in the collection.
- Enduring Legacy: Charles Brasch, patron, poet and collector, edited by Donald Kerr, another book about Brasch for my collection at Manono House.
From mum, an easter egg and and a jar of relish from the Centre Street Dairy; and from my sister in law, a selection of Mama Jo’s Homemade Jams and Pickles: apricot, black berry, gooseberry and mixed berries jams, and capsicum and mango relish. I have some serious sampling to do!