Hi readers,
It’s Sunday morning. The sun is shining and I’m off skiing at my favourite skifield very soon: Ohau, where the sun shines, the snow invites, the views are spectacular, there are no lift queues, and my friends are dotted around the field or eating noodles and drinking coffee in the little cafe. It’s a great place. Ohau means place of wind and yes, it can be windy there, but not today!
Here’s a link to Ohau Ski Area, a photo of Lake Ohau taken by my son Josh (15), and a couple of poem that have come into my head when I have been skiing at Ohau.
POEM ONE ABOUT OHAU:
On the Chairlift at Ohau
The tiniest of snowflakes
Dance through the late afternoon air.
One lands on my black trouser leg.
A white star.
Delicate.
Intricate
Perfect.
POEM TWO ABOUT OHAU
Thoughts from the Boulevard
My thighs are screaming.
I stop.
I look.
What is this word in my head?
An obsolete airline.
A small freshwater duck.
A greenish-blue colour.
Lake Ohau.
Teal.
(That poem was published in Crest to Crest by Wily Publications. It is a poem adults might understand more than kids because one of the meanings of Teal is that it is the name of an airline that used to be in N.Z. a long time ago – a time that my 7 year-old twins would call the olden days!)
And also for you today blog readers: Something from history …
Images from Guadalcanal in August 1942, the time in history that I wrote about in my book. It looks kind-of beautiful, but actually it must have been terrifying and heart-breaking.
More soon …
From your August Star Author
Sandy Nelson
Author of THE GHOSTS OF IRON BOTTOM SOUND
