Calling all children in Aotearoa who love writing poems - Poetry Box launches with a Giselle Clarkson review and bird poem challenge - I will write back. I will give away books nzpoetrybox.wordpress.com/2026/04/23/p...

Buy a ticket to our talk ‘𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗖𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝘀’ at Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival & go in the draw to 𝐖𝐈𝐍 a signed book + a tote bag! www.eventfinda.co.nz/2026/groundw...

My UK passport application has finally been approved. Only taken 3 months & NZD$520. I’ll believe it when it’s in actually in my hand…

Just finished watching Mackenzie Crook’s tv show ‘Small Prophets’. So gorgeous. Think I like it even more than ‘The Detectorists’, if that is possible. Killer soundtrack too

The details and artwork in Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui are incredible. Such a warm, light-filled & welcoming space. So happy the library is open again! #wellington #library

Needed a brain break, so today we went to find Raupeka / Earina autumnalis / Easter orchids in the hills above Wainuiomata. We could smell the orchids before we could see them - there was an incredible cloud of perfume all around us, similar to vanilla.

Bit windy innit

Thanks for your kind words @clairemabey.bsky.social! Such beautiful books in the Longlist, so chuffed to be in such excellent company 📚

@theobrominated.bsky.social Congrats on the long list - nice to see we’re in good company! 🌱🌸🌿

Whakaoriori Masterton gives good sunset after a day of extraordinary rain.

Metrosideros excelsa ‘Aurea’. Trees are still flowering in Normandale, Lower Hutt 💛

For those (rightly) upset at FluTacking not continuing, consider joining WellKiwis: www.wellkiwis.co.nz Since 2017 it has helped me understand what viruses are around - esp helpful when my partner was going through chemo

Wellington Natural Heritage Trust needs your help to secure one of Wellington City's last remaining tracts of old-growth native forest. The 71 hectare property is in South Mākara. Kiwi have moved in already. It will flourish with effective pest control! givealittle.co.nz/org/wellingt...

This morning I went on a rātā-viewing walk run by the Wellington Botanical Society & the tree outside St Paul’s Church on Waiwhetu Road is *incredible*! Well worth a visit if you’re obsessed with Metrosideros robusta

Are you searching for a great Christmas present for the #Aotearoa art lover or natural history enthusiast in your life? Our pukapuka explores #colonialhistory, #women’shistory, #botanicalart, #comets, #NZpoetry & #eclipses

Tonight we’re giving an author talk at Unity Books Wellington at 6pm! Our presentation features our favourite research moments, artwork by Emily Cumming Harris & we're bringing our collection of rare hand-coloured books from the 1890s to display. www.facebook.com/share/1FN2pX...

My sister has long covid & had to give up her job a few years ago. She’s started making & selling sweet little peg angels & prints: felt.co.nz/shop/mrs-mac ❤️ #christmasnz #secretsanta #handmade #aotearoachristmas

The yellow pōhutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa ‘Aurea’) behind Chaffers New World in Wellington is in full bloom. Covered in bees this morning 💛

Grew a rainbow of aquilegia 🌈

New Plymouth people - Michele & I are giving a talk about some of our book research highlights. 6pm, Wed 5 Nov, Taranaki Research Centre. Come say hi! #taranaki #botanicalart #newplymouth

Was excited to come across these elegant pressed fern specimens in a file I looked through today, c.late 1800s/early 1900s. But I miss the time when I could order a file from NZ Archives & view it 45 mins later. Takes 3 days now.

Such a stunning pukapuka! Am at the launch at Unity Books for ‘He Puāwai’ by @theobrominated.bsky.social 🌸🌼🪻Perfect Christmas present

The Zinefest at the School of Architecture on Vivian Street in Pōneke is super cool. We had a blast buying zines, stickers & having little portraits drawn. Love the creativity ❤️ #wellingtonzinefest

Hey Hutt folks, you may miss it when voting, but please don’t vote for Suzanne Levy! She sounds fine, but OOPS she runs the TERF organisation Speak Up For Women.

I’m always doing something weird when @fromthemorgue.bsky.social is out walking his adorable dogs. Today I was removing ivy that’s smothering trees down by the awa. Little point doing predator removal if we’re not also restoring habitat #predatorfreenz

If flowers are your thing - @zarakesterton.bsky.social, Tori Champion and I run a growing network on Women and Flowers. This month Michele Leggott and @deleifd.bsky.social are speaking about their beautiful book Groundwork. Details below or email [email protected] to join us!🌷

Wish I could post videos here. Saw this cute baby seal swimming on the waterfront. It saw me, and then hopped on to a rock and clambered up towards me. I moved very quickly.

Public thank you to @chaneyz85.bsky.social for being awesome at her job and helping us make a big research discovery! #findingmissingbooks #emilycummingharris

Sent an email today using ‘mōrena’ & ‘ngā mihi’. Received this reply: “Please note I am not Maori, so your greeting is not appreciated. What’s wrong with Hello or Hi etc, and regards etc. I think this PC token use of Maori is unwarranted.” 🫠 (He knows I whakapapa Māori too)

In need of tōhu & good news stories, so was pleased to see 7 kōtuku ngutupapa / royal spoonbills along the awa this morning. Usually only see 2 or 3 #teawakairangi #predatorfreenz

First time finding Devil’s Fingers fungus / Clathrus archeri / octopus stinkhorn, thanks to a hot tip from a friend ahead of all the heavy rain. Tiny, alien-looking & very smelly

Found some very cool specimens of Tūtae kēhua / basket fungus / Ileodictyon cibarium while checking our Predator Free trapline along the awa this morning #predatorfree #teawakairangi

Happy Worldwide Day of Botanical Art! Today I’m celebrating Aotearoa / New Zealand artist Emily Cumming Harris (1837-1925) and her beautiful paintings #botanicalart #botany #newzealand #woman #artist

Not often the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul is totally packed. Tonight’s Supertonic performance of Mozart’s Requiem was sublime - beautiful orchestration & choral singing 💜 #supertonic

So important, please sign & support clean air in our schools: our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/cl...

How did we write a book about art when one of us is blind? Michele & I discuss ‘blind seeing & beyond’ in our Spinoff article: thespinoff.co.nz/books/03-05-... Thanks @clairemabey.bsky.social 🌱

Today I returned this incredible little Georgian-period scrapbook to the Harris family, who kindly loaned it to us. It contains original watercolour sketches, poems, engravings & seaweed specimens, some dating to the 1820s. We used several of its pages in chapter 3 of Groundwork 🌱

Very exciting to see copies of our book ‘Groundwork: The art and writing of Emily Cumming Harris’ out in the wild! Please send me photos if you spot it 🌱

Took a break from the emails today and went in search of my favourite fungi in Wainuiomata: Werewere-kōkako / Entoloma hochstetteri. So beautiful 💙

@davidslack.bsky.social Thanks for the chat & excellent blogpost about Emily Cumming Harris! Emily’s panel is now fully accessioned - thought you might like to see it. Te Papa kindly put it on display at our book launch:

If you like botanical art, comets, women’s history and uncovering mysteries, then you might like our book published by Te Papa Press: ‘Groundwork: The Art and Writing of Emily Cumming Harris’. Available in April 🌱

Today my whanaunga found an exhausted & very lost Fairy prion/Tītī wainui on our street in Lower Hutt & brought it to me. It spent a few hours in my wardrobe recovering in a box & is now at the zoo. It was so tired it couldn’t lift its head, but after a few hours of rest it became very feisty 💙

Have spent the past 2 weeks visiting every Metrosideros excelsa ‘Aurata’ / yellow pōhutukawa tree that I can find in Wellington. Glorious 💛

Toitū te Tiriti: honour the Treaty. Poipoia te kākano kia puawai: nurture the seed and it will blossom 🖤🤍❤️ #toitutetiriti

Lyall Bay aurora

@rjme.bsky.social Mōrena, wee request re Whakatū conference. If you see a poster featuring the celestial artworks of Edwin & Emily Harris could you please photograph it for me? Am co-author with Wayne Orchiston et al & would love to see it in-situ. Ngā mihi!

Not here much. Despite all our precautions, 3/4 of our household have covid. 17-yr-old for the first time & he’s been vomiting. Other 2 are v sick. This is not mild, or easy 😔

@vomalley.bsky.social Thanks heaps for your help this am. Found some relevant registers, but Taranaki was missing or dates started at 1863. Amazing room though!

Stupidly said “Just got to get through this week” so of course youngest broke her leg at school picnic today 🙃

The Michael Fowler Centre is not the place to be if you desire good ventilation