Art and Abart

The pub opposite Angel Place Hall Angel Place Looking upwards Photos of New York often seem to me rather mag...

Nelson Freire plays You have to be pretty good to be touring internationally at 72 years old and pianist Nelson Freire is definitely pre...

Andrew Goodwin Andrew Goodwin has a voice I would like to tune into every evening. On Saturday, accompanied by the Australia Piano Quart...

Julia Lezhneva is a Bel Canto singer sublime. In an ABC  radio interview a couple of years ago I heard her say she had not liked Bel Canto s...

New potatoes I have hardly touched  my computer this last three weeks. Instead I took part in a local group art exhibition, spent time c...

A weekend listening to Australian Chamber Orchestra musicians is a weekend to appreciate. On Saturday last Aiko Goto gave a violin reci...

Battered sheet music waiting to be played. The Polina Leschenko (piano) and Richard Tognetti (violin) concert at the Angel Place hall la...

Azaleas What a difference 5 days make in Sydney. Last week it was still cold enough to need a heater and warm jumpers then over the we...

Elisabeth Leonskaja (photo by Julia Wesely) I saw Elisabeth Leonskaja play Mozart with the ACO last week and have been searching for wor...

It's a wet wet day on the NSW Central Coast and 15C. Fifteen degrees Celsius feels quite mild after being in chilly NZ. 

The sketches and paintings I did in New Zealand over the past fortnight are now online New Zealand North Island

I am back in the hills of Wellington.  Wellington is such a beautiful place, but cold ...and feels colder than the 13C high that was forec...

On a fine day Mount Egmont dominates Taranaki roads. Today was a beautiful day so as I drove south from New Plymouth I had the constant comp...

New Plymouth is an interesting place. It has a wonderful coastline, perched at the eastern tip of New Zealand's North Island but the t...

The tourist information service in Turangi told me not to travel too early when I took the route from Turangi to Tauramanui as the road had ...

Lake Taupo is where I spent my childhood holidays so Io can never drive past without remembering the swimming, fishing, cousins (we shared a...

View over the southern Lake Taupo, Turangi just to the right Fishing the Tongariro River at Turangi Turangi is much warmer than furt...

The snow over the past week has closed a lot of roads including the desert roasd, but by Friday it was open. I had a last coffee at Soul C...

Tea at Soul It is hard to choose a favourite cafe in Taihape because there are three excellent cafes in town but the cafe I particularly...

Giant gumboot in Taihape Taihape has made it's name as gumboot capital of the world with a giant corrugated iron gumboot sculpture a...