It's wildflower season on New Island!

Red miandra, yellow poppies and serge cover this hillside near Brandonhead,

on New Island's southwestern coast

 

The wildflowers are blooming on New Island! This natural event is celebrated as the annual Wildflower Holidays, when people take time off just to hike in the hills and enjoy the colors for a day or two! The official dates this year are from October 6-20, so tell your boss you want some time off!

 

New Island's mild Mediterranean climate and isolation from the rest of the world's life-forms has allowed the evolution of many unique species of plants and wildlife. Red miandra grows in thick clumps on New Island's coastal and lowland hills, usually mixed with patches of yellow poppies and turquoise serge. A close cousin, night-blooming miandra, thrives in the cooler, drier highlands. The poppy is a ground-hugging drought-resistant variety similar to its California cousins. Blue or turquoise serge is also ground-hugging with tiny blue-green "buds" that cover the plant in spring.

 

The first New Island springtime must have been quite a spectacle for the early shipwrecked settlers.  While struggling to grow edible crops on this new place, the settlers foraged these and other indigenous plants for food, and learned early on the psychedelic powers of the little berries of the red- and night-blooming miandra. When red miandra berries (which are actually purple - the flower is a magenta-red) are brewed as tea or chewed, they can produce a near-delirious calm, but with an endorphin high. This lasts for about an hour before tapering off with no side affects afterward. No one thinks much about it, it's just a local custom.

 

 

 



House in Putney Completed

Travelin' Gal's stone-and stucco house has been completed! The view below shows the roof tiles being applied, and some of the windows are ready to install. Like all new Island houses, this one was custom-built with all indigenous materials. The tiles are of local clay, and the windows were made by the Samover Window Tribe in Portmore.

 

The view beyond is of Putney Bay to the west.

 

 

 

The completed house, below, as seen from the street corner. The lady with the baby buggy is very interested in what goes on in this house - the neighbors have been talking and something might appear in the The Putney Tattler, a local scandal/gossip sheet.

 

Putney has been restoring its elegant Russian streetlamps, imported in 1914 from St. Petersburg.

 

 

 

 

A Visit to Hopp's Store

Hopp's Store today.

Bernard Hopp opened his "Travelors' Conveniences" store soon after buying it at auction during the time of New Island's independence in 1992. It was originally a Soviet military outpost guarding the tracking station further up the road, on the northern coast.

At first he lived here very quietly, seeing perhaps one traveler every three days or so. After settling into the spacious quarters upstairs (There were still Soviet navy rations in the pantry!), he began to stock the old guardroom with groceries, camping and walking gear, candles, some tools, socks, underwear and tire repair kits.

Meanwhile he collected and read comic books. He loves them, especially Little Lulu, Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, etc. from the 1940s through about 1960. He also collected old Mad magazines from the '50s and '60s, then later the best underground comics such as the entire Zap series and anything by Robert Crumb - the best from the late '60s through the '70s. He has them all! After a while, Bernard put up a sign on his counter advertising comic books, with a few on display. Since then he has slowly become known as the go-to guy for comic books on New Island.

He sells a lot more groceries and sundries these days, since traffic has climbed to about six to eight vehicles a day, and they always stop.

Since our first visit, he has planted some ghost-gum trees, and he is proud of the new outhouse. The road people paved a few hundred feet in concrete to keep the dust down. We parked our solar-booster recumbent bike in the lot with a new Felix-hauler (by the building) and someones horse. We arrived today just after a rare desert thunderstorm, so everything was wet, and we expect wildflowers in a few weeks!

Hopp's Store is in the Sheffield Desert.

To get there, take the dirt road off of Route 3 at Davoo,

then proceed north about 21 miles and you'll see it.





Bernard Hopp's Privy

Bernard Hopp, owner and sole resident of Hopp's Store, needed a privy for his traveling customers, so he called on Faramond the Architect to design one. Water is scarce so a flush toilet would not work. Faramond came up with the His and Hers Privy shown above. It is built with pressed sand-and-cement blocks made from local dune sand. The doors, windows and clay roof tiles are all recycled. Local craftsmen did the job in about a week, not counting the pit. It is rumored that some ancient artifacts were found by the guy who dug the privy pit, but he has since disappeared.

Hopp's Store is the only settlement (pop. 1) in this part of the Sheffield Desert. Travelers on their way to the North Bight beaches and to Roger's Dreamland often stop in for refreshments. Bernard does what he can, but is often short on these. However, he has the finest comic book collection in this part of the world - just ask him for anything from vintage Disney, all the DC Superheroes, R. Crumb to obscure series such as "Animal Crackers". Bernard also owns the only known copy of  "Kaiser Spinks Comics". If he is not in the store should you visit, ring the hand-bell on the counter.

Hopp's Store with the distant ocean beyond, as pictured a few years ago.

The new privy is in the back by the burn barrel.

Below is Hopp's location in New Island's Sheffield Desert.





Soltaire's Ocean View

This is the view from Soltaire's Thistledown Plot shortly before construction.

New Island's eastern coast can be seen as far as East Cape, about 55 miles to the north.

That's Otter Bay in the foreground and the Wicklow Mountains to the right. 

Architect Alan Faramond designed Soltaire's house to be built in the hill itself, so this view is still intact, except now you are on the roof of the house. (see previous post) 

Soltaire Moves into his New House and Studio

Soltaire the Assembler's house in the Wicklow Mountains near Blum's Inn was completed in late June 2012. The goats are keeping the turf trimmed on the roof, when they can be convinced to stay up there. Soltaire has a fine view of the Indian Ocean to the east, and a pleasant climate at 1,200 feet elevation. 

Alan Faramond, New Island's self-appointed architect, designed

Soltaire's home, at right, and the studio-gallery, at left.

The village of Blum's Inn is seen in the lower right corner.

The twice-daily M25 Islebus is passing by the driveway, at left.

Here is Faramond's floor plan of Soltaire's house: 

Soltaire's Discovery

A new resident of New Island tells his story...

The Story of My Arrival on New Island

by Soltaire the Assembler

"While it is highly unlikely that any citizen of New Island, let along passers-thru, would have any interest in knowing the facts surrounding my introduction and romance with New Island, perhaps my offspring would like to know how it is that they have inherited my five acres on Gresl Ridge in Mulhenry County, above the Sacred Otter Wandering Preserve.

"Before the year 2000 I had no knowledge of New Island, none in the slightest. I was not much of a wanderer, nor did I have any desire to remove myself from my comfortable small home in Wisconsin. It was an odd quirk of fate that brought New Islandto my attention...and it was due to my particular form of art-making...and some considerable improbable good luck.

"I had taken on the appellation of 'Soltaire, the Assembler' as a result of my fascination...perhaps fixation, compulsion, and/or passion with all manner of artifact...natural, ancient, popular, recent, valuable or valueless, depending on who was the viewer. I found a need to gather together these many elements from many milieus, and join them in assemblage sculptures. Some of these sculptures were small, perhaps two feet or smaller, but most were large, reaching to twelve feet in one or more directions.

"In one of these assemblages I incorporated the bill of a sawfish which I found in some forgotten curiosity shop. This particular sculpture was a tribute to one of my grandfathers who passed well before I was born, but who was held in high esteem by my entire family...who was spoken of as a bit of a mystery man and an adventurer. In fact I titled it 'Grandfather's Souvenirs', and created it to appear as an old cabinet of curiosities, ostensibly consisting of objects he might have acquired on his travels around the world. (For anyone who wishes to see this finished sculpture, go to Gresl.com and search the site.)

"It was only in casually studying this sawfish bill, with the toothy and sharp protuberances along its sides, that I noticed some printing in faded ink. Someone had written this phrase: 'Bill from a Saw Tooth Shark, taken off the southeast coast of New Island'. And, more surprisingly...unbelievably in fact...I found the faded and bleached name...of my grandfather. Yes! On this oddity, this remnant of a beast from the other side of the world which I had found in a rural shop in Wisconsin, was the name of my fathers' father.

After recovering from the shock, and reading the words many times, I was convinced that this marine artifact had once been owned by my grandfather. This astounding turn of events led me to seek out where this place, New Island, was on the globe. I was further surprised that I had chosen a somewhat difficult chore, to locate this place, as not all maps included it. That alone intrigued me, and with some effort I eventually I learned more about the unique history of the Commonwealth. I was drawn to visit it. After all, my adventuring grandfather had been there, and this island in the Indian Ocean was one of the few links I had to him.

"So it is that I was introduced to this remote place of oceans and dreams, this island of things seen out of the corner of one's eye...not all clear and solid. It was a place that reminded me of tales told to young children, drawn out of fairy tales, stories built out of imagination, sunshine and clouds.

"How could I not move here?"

From Soltaire, The Assembler, New Island resident on Gresl Ridge, Thistledown Plot Studio and Gallery.

   This area is at the lower right on the road map:

Soltair's five-acre building site is about a six hour solar-bike ride (mostly uphill)

or a two-hour bus ride from Victoria harbor.

By bus, take the Ignatz-Hockney Islebus and get off at Gresl Ridge,
just before the Blum's Inn stop.
Then walk the quarter-mile path to Thistledown Plot Atelier.
Soltaire the Assembler will greet you when he completes his studio-gallery.

Soltaire's House Progress

      Soltaire the Assembler's mountain home and studio is well under way...

      Architect Faramond says, "Things are going well enough. My original plan of steel beams fell apart when I learned of the cost. Then I remembered ferro-cement, which uses a mesh of thin steel rods and mesh, then cement-stucco, then a polyvinyl sealer-coat. Beautiful technique, and, it's cheap!

      "We've completed the stone walls and arches for the openings, and now my expert cementman is installing the roof. The sod will go on soon after; and when the grass is strong, bring in the goats!"

Faramond's Sketch of  Thistledown Atelier as of June 16.

Here is th location of Thistledown and Gresl Ridge

Soltair's five-acre building site is about a six hour solar-bike ride (mostly uphill)
or a two-hour bus ride from Victoria Harbor.
By bus, take the Ignatz-Hockney Islebus and get off at Gresl Ridge,
just before the Blum's Inn stop.
Then walk the quarter-mile path to Thistledown Plot Atelier.
Soltaire the Assembler will greet you when he completes his studio-gallery.

Putney House Under Construction

The unique house commissioned by the woman known as Travelin' Gal and designed by Faramond the Architect is well under way. The stone walls are complete, workmen are putting tiles on the roof, and the windows are going in. The view is of the back of the house, which faces Putney Bay, seen in the distance down Rigby Street.

The house progress hasn't gone un-noticed. The neighbors have been commenting on its unusual roof line, and one woman was heard to say, "I'd like to know why this house doesn't conform to the sidewalk like all the rest do in Peagarden - It is crooked!" The house is at the corner of Rigby and Joplin Streets (Lot 6), in the Peagarden Park neighborhood, the oldest in Putney: 

If you are lost, Peagarden Park is in this part of Putney:

If you are still lost, this is where Putney is located on New Island:

And this is where New Island is located on the planet:

New House in Putney

An adventurous soul know as Travelin' Gal has decided she just loves the old Peagarden Park neighborhood in Putney. She found a vacant lot there a few months ago and has recently appointed the mysterious New Island architect Alan Faramond to design her house. The lot, it turns out, is the very one with the story posted in April of this year. Faramond is hard to find, but New Islanders who know where to look hire him for his "build with nature" skills.

Faramond complied with these sketches.  Travelin' Gal is pleased and construction will start in a couple of weeks.

The house will be built of  hewn Wicklow limestone, that is brought in by barge from quarries near Silent Bay. The porch pillars will be branches and the base from a deceased fig tree that once grew in the rear of the lot. The carvings in the tree's trunk tell their own story!

Though the house faces Rigby Street on these plans, it will be tuned to face more westerly toward Joplin Street and the view of Aussie Slough and the harbor.

Travelin' Gal, originally from California, arrived on New Island in 2011.