Canvas umn

His doctor told him that he had to find a hobby and take things easy. That’s when Caledonia’s Douglas Wolfe, 84, decided it was a good time to fall back on his love of drawing and painting. “I’m a half-assed artist. I take and paint some pictures,” he said, describing himself. “It’s a very entertaining thing.” In the past he focused on painting on canvas. However, lately he’s set his sights almost entirely on buoys. He has several on the hook and is looking for a way to sell them. “I had a couple of buoys here, and my wife wanted them painted. So I painted a picture of the Lunenburg harbour on them, and a woman from Ontario stopped in and grabbed them. And I had just finished them about two hours before,” said Wolfe. He set out to paint some more for his wife, Janette, and has been painting them ever since. According to Wolfe, his passion for painting goes back years. “I used to be very interested in painting when I was a child living in Eagle Head. I used to get the old … [Read more...] about Buoyed by his art

OPINION: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise” wrote the American forester and ecologist Aldo Leopold in 1949. Leopold saw the land and people as part of the same community, a concept familiar to tangata whenua too. He could also have been writing about the Pelorus/Te Hoiere River and Marlborough Sounds, when he asked, what do we love: ‘Certainly not the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter downriver”. It is 46 years since the first complaint about soil erosion and excessive sedimentation from forest harvesting on the Marlborough Sounds environment, and yet harvesting remains poorly regulated. In a paper recently published in the NZ Journal of Forestry , I reviewed the history of forestry regulation in the Sounds and identified opportunities for doing things better. More on that later. When I worked for the Marlborough District Council, the industry was … [Read more...] about ‘World-leading’ salmon farming standards needed for forestry in Marlborough Sounds

Dear Lloyd, I have this experience of reaching heights and becoming successful in what I do. Recently, it was a totally different story. When success is no longer there — and failure suddenly meets me face to face — what do I do? Mar Mar, A few years ago, I did a motivational talk before two real estate giants in Manila during their sales kickoff rally. Most companies do this every year. Back in the prepandemic days, there were face-to-face meetings. They gathered their sales people and hired a motivational speaker to speak and try to encourage their people to sell more this time as the speaker tried to equip them with knowled ge, wisdom and stories. Hopefully after the one-hour program or so, participants would leave the venue with inspiration and drive to face the new year and yes, painful or not as it was, make the best effort to hit their quota for that period. It’s amazing to see their mix of emotions — from being happy to being excited to being afraid to being … [Read more...] about Success causes us to fail

Cute cartoon animals have been at the heart of Hong Kong clothing brand Chickeeduck since 1990, but owner Herbert Chow is struggling to get his designs made. HONG KONG: Cute cartoon animals have been at the heart of Hong Kong clothing brand Chickeeduck since 1990, displayed on everything from t-shirts and tote bags to baby rompers and pillows. But owner Herbert Chow is now struggling to get his designs made in China, where his avian characters have been seized by authorities for "advocating violence". Chow, 57, was preparing for the Lunar New Year shopping season earlier this year when he was informed that a shipment of some 10,000 Chickeeduck items had been seized in mainland China. "My manufacturer said the customs department found the products were advocating violence in social movements," Chow told AFP after recently deciding to go public. At first glance, the contraband cartoons might seem innocuous. They included cushions with yellow birds holding umbrellas alongside … [Read more...] about Violent ducks? Hong Kong clothing brand cartoons rile China

Jerwin Ancajas jolts Jonathan Rodriguez with a left to the head. —PHOTO COURTESY OF SHOWTIME BOXING Jerwin Ancajas was pounding his chest with his gloved fist right after scoring an arduous unanimous decision win over Jonathan Rodriguez on Saturday night (Sunday morning in Manila), not needing to say much after an entertaining and successful ninth defense of his the International Boxing Federation (IBF) super bantamweight crown. Ancajas executed a superb game plan and showcased primetime-worthy grit, flooring Rodriguez with a barrage of punches in the eighth round en route to the win. “This title defense is the most difficult of all,” said the 29-year-old Ancajas in Filipino, as he displayed a most explosive show of force which should command a match against the big three of the weight division. “I’m satisfied with my performance,” Ancajas added. “I can still show you more. I showed that I can mix it up.” Ancajas improved to 33-1-2 with 22 knockouts, while Rodriguez, who was … [Read more...] about Ancajas wins 9th IBF title defense, wants big-time fights next