Marian Year Celebration?

In my last post I mentioned clearing out some stuff from one of our two attics.   The box of photos has been sitting on the floor waiting an opportunity to be sorted further, and I've just had a go at it.  Heaps of family photos - my children, in particular, but also photos of me with a number of other relatives.   And various other memorabilia.  I've had a bit of a throw-out, because there comes a time when some stuff just doesn't mean anything anymore.

There are a number of photos taken on a camera that was so small you could hide it in your hand.  It produced equally small photographs (9cm by 6.5cm - or 3.5 inches by 2.5).  Amongst these were about a dozen taken at some event in Logan Park (?) in Dunedin that was held - I'm guessing - in the 1950s.  I think I have a dim memory of being at this, but that may be only that I've seen these photos of a number of occasions before.   I've now thrown out a lot of these little photos because they weren't of a quality to make them interesting enough to keep: people's heads (or hats, rather) in the way of what was trying to be photographed, or the distance between the photographer (my mother, no doubt) and the subject being too vast to make what was photographed comprehensible.

But a couple of the photos had been blown up and I'm reproducing them here.   As you can see, there's a huge statue of Mary - so it was definitely a Catholic occasion.   I thought it had something to do with a visit from the Pope, but according to this site, only Pope John Paul II is the only Pope to have visited New Zealand, so it wasn't a papal visit.   It might have been a Papal Nuncio (Envoy) vis. it, however, but I can't be sure about this.

My other thought that it was a 'Marian Year' - that would make it 1954, I presume   Perhaps someone else can enlighten me?

Ross Creek Art Gallery

My wife and I went for a walk this afternoon on the Ross Creek bush tracks, and I was reminded that more than a decade ago, in my lunch hours, I used to wander around the local art galleries (Dunedin is blessed with an abundance, all within spitting distance), and build my imaginary art collection.

I allowed myself a large sum of money per month (it was at least ten thousand dollars, and may have been more) and with this figure I would 'buy' whatever took my fancy. These days, of course, it's possible I could actually (quietly) photograph the works and keep track of them on my computer, but at that time there was no such thing as a cellphone with a camera, so I used to take notes about the paintings (sometimes sculptures) and draw little sketches of them... An alternative method these days would be to forgo visiting the galleries live and collect/view the pictures on the Web!

What has Ross Creek got to do with this? Is this another one of those posts full of ellipticals? (And I don't mean cross-trainers - elliptical doesn't only apply to that recent acquisition of the word.)

Well, Ross Creek is the site of Dunedin's oldest, and still functioning, reservoir. It's a beautiful spot, with a walkway out to a delightful little 19th century valve tower which presumably had something to do with water control in the past - indeed, it may still do.

Opposite the tower is a second, smaller piece of water. My plan was to 'build' my art gallery there. In fact, as we walked around today I got excited about the whole idea again, and the way in which this building could be designed. Somehow it should meld into the landscape and yet be distinct. I envisage a huge glass wall on the reservoir side so that visitors, when they've had enough of looking at my fine collection, would be able to sit and contemplate the wind making light waves across the surface of the water, and a few ducks puttering around feeding their faces or followed by their young.

The building would sit over the second lake, straddling it in such a way that the lake was still visible, and of course, inside there would be temperature-controlled rooms to protect the art works. It wouldn't be a large place; the paintings and sculptures would be shown on a kind of rostered basis.

And here's something else - if possible, I would rescue the men's toilet room from the old Art Gallery at Logan Park and install it in my building. It was a work of art in itself, particularly the urinals!

(David Hood's picture is from flickr.com)