New Lynn brick works

My brother-in-law Bob is a bit of an amateur historian. One of his areas of interest is a group of early 20th century charcoal kilns, located not far from his northern-Michigan home. The charcoal kiln operation was tied into a narrow-gauge railroad that ran all over the area. According to Bob, local folklore has it that a small 'donkey' steam-engine, that was used on this line, jumped the tracks at some point and disappeared into the depths of the cedar-swamp that surrounded the tracks. Bob has been interviewing some of the old-timers in the area in the hopes of getting to the 'bottom' of the story, but the old-timers are few and far between these days, so information is scanty. Still, like any good historian, Bob perseveres. 

So, when I came across information recently about the Ambrico Kiln, located in New Lynn, my first thoughts were of "Bob's Kilns" and I knew that I had to, like him, do a bit of research. Bob's research site has been abandoned for the better part of a century, and the kilns are slowly falling to pieces, while the trees surrounding them are growing, demonstrating in a very real way how research becomes ever more difficult with the passage of time. 

I have it much easier. The history of the local brick kiln is very well established and has been brought back to life in many commemorative pieces of brick art and brick buildings, themselves major pieces of art. 

Today's post then, and the next one, are the result of three picture taking expeditions in New Lynn. This was one of dozens of brick works all over the Auckland area. You will see in the series of pictures that follow, that the brick is celebrated all over town. 

I've had some positive comments recently in support of the music I've added to my post at times. And, since I can think of at least four songs that have to do with bricks. I have therefore added this link so that you may start the music and then come back to read about the bricks of New Lynn, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnLo01m8y04 if you should care to.

Here we are at the Ambrico Kiln. 

Coal was shovelled into the top port where it fell on to grates and burned. The openings below were to clean out the clinkers. There are seven more on the other side. 

The wooden roof over the kiln is obviously a more modern addition designed to preserve the site. 

The temperature inside this kiln rose to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat entered from the top and was pulled down over the bricks stacked inside. The floor is perforated with holes, the openings leading to an underground passage that ran to the base of a 100 foot chimney. This chimney is what provided the draft or 'pull' for the high velocity fire storm produced by 14 coal fires which provided the temperatures needed. They produced 30,000 bricks about every two weeks. 

Today, bricks are still all over town. All I had to do was to stroll around the city center and I came across all sorts of 'homages to the brick.'  Take a look...

I like the humor in this one. 

You might remember this photo from the post I did entitled New Lynn on the 6th Day of Christmas. I didn't know the significance of the brick art at the time. 

No, relax, I'm not doing another 'benches' post. It just so happens that this is to one side of the Brick and Pipe Workers Memorial. 

Bricks from all the different brick works around Auckland went into building this memorial.

It's somewhat difficult to see behind the Plexiglas but those are other clay products (like pipes) that were produced. 

And there were lots of buildings too, made from brick. The police station below was built in 1930 and look how well it has been maintained all these years.  

The architectural style is known as 'Stripped Art Deco.'

And here is another building not far away.

It's in good shape too. The sign above the door say, 'The Potter's Post.' The small round sign in the background on the right is the pizza place I featured several posts ago. 

And here is another very important building.

I was glad to happen upon this particular building after wandering around town for two hours.

This is a shot of the War Memorial area opposite the New Lynn Mall. 

The brick theme also extends to local restaurants...

To close today, I'll give you another of the songs about bricks. I first heard this one ages ago... I hope none of the brick workers in New Lynn had this guy's problems. 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxaCfJfw6AY

(the other two songs I thought of are by Pink Floyd, Another Brick in the Wall and Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. )    

I have additional photos now that expand on this post. I'll show them to you next time....

Bethell and O'Neill Beaches in motion

My post today is composed of mainly videos. I start on Bethell Beach with the first four and then cross the dune to O'Neill Bay. Finally, on our way back to the carpark at the end of the day, I take a quick 'spelunk' into a cave on Bethell.  (In the cave video, you'll notice that my camera lens is speckled, no doubt with salt from the surf earlier.) 

Dianne, Jeanne and I arrived at Bethell about 1 1/2 hours after high tide. The waves were still pretty intense at that point and it shows on my first video. Later, the surf quieted down and I was able to get some good shots along the edges of a rock outcropping. (starfish and kelp)

Bethell/O'Neill has absolutely everything anyone could ask for from a beach. The scale of the place is immense. The sun, sand and surf are beautiful. There are all manner of caves, cracks, cliffs, rocks, pools, shells, seaweed, creatures, and plants. People swim, sunbathe, beach comb, explore and fish here. 

I wish all of you could experience it in person. This is my attempt to share it with you. Enjoy. Do you have a heat-lamp or can you sit by a sunny window? Put a fan near you to simulate the wind. The only music on these videos today are the wind and waves. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aRrrRAM6tE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-3a8Fph09c&t=5s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQj28_orqt8&t=10s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNDhBRFftvU

These next three show O'Neill Bay and beach. The first one is taken from the dune separating Bethell and O'Neill. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRIpK6mRqWU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQPRHsQJWio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuXZnNLh0aw

The cave I go into in this last video is just right of center in this picture.  (This photo was not taken on our last trip. It dates from sunset on December 31, 2013)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evo8dH5OwxY

I also plan to show you lots of pictures that I took on this trip in a later post or posts.  Jeanne and I had real fun when we climbed down into a crack that extends clear through a headland at Bethell.  Take a look back at this earlier post about Bethell.

http://fostersoe.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/high-tide-at-bethells-beach-for-header.html

The first two pictures in it show a rectangular hole (narrow cave) about 50 or 60 feet long that allows waves from the other side of the headland to crash through to Bethell most of the time. At very low tide however, it is possible to climb down and walk almost to the waves on the other side, as we did. I got some interesting pictures. Be watching...             -djf

The seeds of faith

In this  post, I'm going to show you some of the churches we have attended in our area. They have been a haven to us. 

We all know that evil is loose in our world and we know all too well it's power. We have been blessed with faith though, and a world-wide community that sustains us as we come to worship. And we know that evil will not triumph in the end. 

This is our church in Glen Eden. You see Father Matthew Clerkin, a Franciscan Friar who is Irish, about to enter the church.  One interesting fact about the difference in time zones around the world is that as St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Bark River, Michigan is beginning Mass at 5 pm on Saturday, Our Lady of Lourdes in Glen Eden, New Zealand, is beginning the 9 am Mass on Sunday that we most often attend.* I've often wondered as we start singing our opening hymn, if the same might be sung in Bark River. It is possible. 
*This is during our NZ winter/American summer, due to daylight savings changes. 

This is a good place to put down some roots

This is Saint Benedict's, located in Auckland that we attended for a time before we found the churches closer to home. Very interesting architecture inside. 

 I don't know anything at all about architecture, or load types, or stresses, or statics and strengths of materials, or who knows what else, but it seems to me that those bits of wood up there, where all the beams meet, holding the whole section of roof and walls stable, have got to have some very interesting math describing them. Especially the front one. 

Great choir loft. 

This is Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Puhoi. We visited it on our anniversary in 2013. The roof was originally shingled in kauri pine. When the new roof was put on, all that wood was saved and used to make crosses. We bought a few of these historic crosses when we were there. I checked again just before publishing this post and found that the crosses have all been sold. I wish I had purchased more of them when I had the chance.

As you can see, this is St. Michael's. It's in Rotorua. We've come here over a couple of years when Allie has run in various races there. 

It's interesting the St. Michael is the patron saint of this Parish. (you can see his statue in an alcove to the right of the altar, stabbing the devil.)
You can smell fire and brimstone (sulfur) all over town. 
http://fostersoe.blogspot.co.nz/2014/12/rotorua-nicknamed-sulfur-city-pohutu.html

This is Holy Cross in Henderson. We attended here for quite a while. As it happens, Father Paul, who we first knew here at Holy Cross, has now been transferred to Glen Eden.     

And, speakiing of seeds of faith and putting down roots...

Recently, Jeanne was having a talk with the owner of Sokol's, one of our favorite produce stores. The owner is quite a nice guy who gave us a bunch of old white plastic grape trays which Jeanne, with her boundless creativity, made into a large, very lightweight outdoor enclosure for the guinea girls. 

She was telling the owner about various vegetables that she is now growing here, common stuff like pickling cukes, and thin, French fillet beans, that she grew in Michigan for many years. This guy said he had never heard of either of them and told Jeanne that she was much more knowledgable than he is. I don't doubt that. 

That conversation got me thinking about Jeanne's garden back in Wilson, which lead to thoughts about planting and then finally to seeds. Especially, heirloom seeds. Jeanne has grown quite a few of the very old, standard (non-hybridized) seeds in her Michigan garden over the years. Everything from corn to tomatoes, cukes, and pumpkins.   During the years that she was growing these original varieties, I learned about a repository for ancient and original seeds located in the Arctic. They are kept there to safeguard them for future generations to know, and to grow and to again pass on into the future.  

You might wonder why I have now branched my post today from talk about churches (Catholic) to talk about seeds?  They're not really related, are they?  Well, I think they are in a way.

I think that our Catholic Church is the repository of the ancient and pure truth (the seed) of faith in Christ and in eternal life. The Church is protecting and propogating what was taught by the Founder. His truth is like an heirloom seed. 

A couple of friends of mine have told me that their church is 'fundamentalist.' They say it with pride. I admire their zeal, but personally, I think that our Catholic Church is the original fundamentalist church. Christ started it after all and it has worked ever since to maintain His teachings, as He taught them. 

"The Word Became Flesh." A seed becomes a plant. Despite my extremely limited understanding of the infinite Divine Mysteries, I still think that I can make a comparison there, so combining a post about our church and heirloom seeds makes sense to me.    -djf

Cruising the Kaipara, part two

Jeanne and I had fish and chips. Allie had a toastie of some sort, Arram had a meat pie and Amiri ordered nachos. Both boys had enormous hot chocolates, the ladies had coffees, and I stuck with just water. 

After we ate, we noticed that the boat was gone. Jeanne thought that they may have gone fishing. 

After the ladies joined us at the playground, I excused myself and walked down the beach.. I wanted to know what made Shelley Beach special.  

 The tide was out. I've learned in the past that I don't enjoy walking a mud-flat. Whatever your shoe size is, walking on a mud-flat at low tide will give you size 15 feet before too long. 

 However, along the edge of it, you can find all sorts of treasures. I love sea-fans like this one. Even after 4+ years here in NZ, I still marvel at being able to bend over and pick up such a wonder of nature. 

Here are a few more of my take today. The most common shell on Shelley Beach is the cockle. There are piles of them.  Ten of millions I'm sure on this stretch of beach. Found a couple of nice scallop shells too.

A couple of hundred yards down the beach brought me to sand stone cliffs.  

 Around the corner from the first headland were more cliffs.

 A close-up of one of the fallen rocks. 

I went around a couple of headlands but had to get back.

A telephoto view across the flats to a rock outcropping, open water, and the other side of the harbour. It's fairly narrow at this point. When we leave the Jetty, we will go north into the wider harbour. 

"Avast there mateys, the ship, she be leavin' with the tide. Get thee aboard and be quick about it, or the Cap'n'll have the hide offen yea."

 "Aye, and it's a scurvy-lookin' crew at best. Still, methinks the sea will make men of them afore the voyage is done..."

"Shivver me timbers, keep a close watch from the crow's nest will yea? "

The lad looks to have a keen eye and a willing heart... 

Unfortunately, a short time after this picture was taken, the wind stole his cap. 

Hours on watch and any sailor starts to dream of home port and the comforts to be found there. 

 The First Mate joins the some of the crew up top.

 Moby Dick is not expected on this voyage. However, we Are on the look-out for the rare and endangered Maui Dolphin. Also called the popoto, it's the smallest sub-species of dolphin and it's believed that less than 100 of them remain. They are less than 6 feet long and have a distinctive rounded dorsal fin. 

None were spotted. 

Ashore, a giant sculpture stands on a multi-millionaires estate. 

This bunch of sailors must have shore leave coming. They are flying.... 

These Kiwis are more my speed. 

 We old salts know when to put our feet up. 

Too bad I don't have a pipe I can puff on and knock against the rail. 

Leaving the Harbour where we learned so much. 

Our Captain has done it. Brought us back to the very river from which we left. 

Good-bye birds, eels and mangroves. 

No longer land-lubbers, the ship's crew flexes their sea-legs and heads home.