The first month of 2025 has been a strange mix of happy holiday memories of our Christmas in Melbourne (more on that in my next post), of summer colds that we caught just as soon as we arrived home in Christchurch (such a cliché), and of plans for art exhibitions and gigs that make us feel like we are finally (finally!) getting started with this new year.

The first of these events is this weekend at Arvida Park Lane in Christchurch and will feature the work of over fifty artists. Not only will you find paintings and drawings on show in a variety of styles from traditional landscapes, abstract art and contemporary portraiture, but there will also be jewellery, pottery and a variety of sculptural artworks available. The show is a cash and carry event which means that you can take the art you buy home with you straight away.

Arts Canterbury at Arvida Park Lane
1st and 2nd February, 10am-4pm
35 Whiteleigh Avenue, Addington, Christchurch

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Then I’ll be singing with my husband as covers duo Pavlova Paradise at Little River Farmers Market on Sunday, February 16th and in Lincoln the following Sunday at the Selwyn District Council’s ‘Month of Sundays’ event.

As much as I really enjoyed our holiday (and I really did), it is very good to be home.

“Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.”

Hermann Hesse