Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A flash of colour...

For this week's Thematic Photographic I found some of the shots from my October holiday week in the small North Island city of New Plymouth, one of my favourite places. 
Most of the week it rained - heavily. One day I saw an old church building beside the petrol station, with a "Craft Shop" sign. Inside it was so bright and colourful that it warmed and cheered me straight away:


Downtown in the city, there is this rather bizarre clock tower. Weird, but I like it:


The area is renowned for its many beautiful gardens, some of which are open to the public. 
At Tupare Garden were these gorgeous echiums:


And at Hollard Gardens I loved this bright rhododendron against the green lawns and shrubs:

12 comments:

  1. Great pictures. I want to go shopping at the craft store, looks like there's a lot of cool stuff there.
    I really like that clock tower, very colorful. Looks like it was made out of Lego blocks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I LOVE your photos!. You know I love architecture... Great piece of art there!. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lovely selection of flash of color, and the old church itself is appealing to me, besides the enormous amount of crafts! What a show that must have been. The echiums are just what my garden could use, pitty I know they wouldn't survive my town! That clock tower is amazing, and as is the building. Is it a parking garage, or part garage and something else? The colorful design really does make it stand out. Nice TP....Alexia. I hope your spring, or rather are you already in summer (?) is as marvelous as ours was this year! Our winter doesn't begin for a few weeks! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. These are wonderful! Really! I can't decide which one I like best.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love the clock tower and the echiums which are new to me. I wonder if they would grow here?

    ReplyDelete
  6. The clock tower is really enhanced by the colours; Echiums are new to me but reminded me of delphiniums and why doesn't our rhododenrons have flowers like that?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Max - I spent ages looking at everything, and could have easily spent lots of money there!

    KBF - it's almost kitsch, but also cool :)

    Karen - we have had a very windy spring, very cool temperatures at times. Hopefully now December is here, it will warm up quickly. The clock tower is separate from the office block behind it. I wish I'd got a better angle, but it was raining too hard to come out from under the store verandahs ... :)

    Lisa - thanks! Glad you liked them.

    EC - the colour is stunning, isn't it? they need cold winters I think. they don't grow where I live - too warm.

    Bob - thanks. I'll be posting some more rhodos soon - they can be so beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's mostly grey and cold around here, not like you have it in upside-downland!

    Carmi should have had a cold sky theme, he harrumphed.
    ~

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh those are really great shots! I love the colour of the echiums - such a beautiful clear blue.

    And that old church is great too!

    I really enjoyed those pics!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love the bright blue of the flowers, but I’d be drawn to the Craft Shop too; it looks full of colourful crafty things to do.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am glad I swung by, that clock tower is too pretty to miss, even in the rain.

    ReplyDelete
  12. OH i lOve all that color!! the clock tower is amazing!

    ReplyDelete

It's great when you leave a note!