Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Happy New Year





I wish all of my blog friends a peaceful, healthy and productive 2014.
May everything turn out just the way you hope.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I made this card on a picture by New Zealand photographer Grant Sheehan, who has just
published a book about this country's lighthouses. 
I greatly covet this book, and I intend to use my Christmas book voucher (Mr A gives me one
every year, bless him)  to buy it just as soon as I can get to a bookshop.

The picture shows the Cape Campbell lighthouse illuminated by a full moon.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Treetops


This topic took me straight back to Australia in October a couple of years ago. 
A friend and I visited the Otway Fly, 2½ hours' drive from Melbourne.
The walkway is built among the treetops, and is 30m (98½ ft) above the forest floor - if you 
climb the 'spiral tower', you will be 47m (154 ft) up. 
I don't normally feel too comfortable with heights, but this was a great experience.

Please click to enlarge.




Saturday, December 14, 2013

Last Night's Sunset


I didn't think that I would get to take any new photos to post for this theme, but last night we had a beautiful sunset at the end of a very hot day.



 

  




Tuesday, December 10, 2013

The Last Day of School


Tomorrow is the last day of this school year at my College.



What on earth shall I do with myself?



Monday, November 25, 2013

In the Foreground

Thematic Photographic 270

In the Foreground is Carmi's theme this week. You may get the impression that I'm into posts...

Jetty posts


Bird on a post


Fence posts


Joined-up fence posts


broken (gate)posts


and bridge... railings







Saturday, November 16, 2013

Sunday Snapshots

Last Sunday a friend and I went on a Garden Tour. It was hot, and by the time we had walked around the last amazing garden, I was footsore and weary. 
But it was a great day, and we saw lots of beautiful gardens and noted many interesting ideas. 

I didn't take heaps of photos - my friend, who is a forthright Lancashire woman, disapproves of people who spend all of their time peering through a viewfinder instead of enjoying the view.

My favourite garden was stunning, sweeping down a hillside from this 1970's wooden house:


The property was filled with rhododendrons, roses, maples, azaleas - but there were many unusual 
and rare plants which made it a work of art.





I was very envious of the views from one house, although I didn't like the garden (or the house):



Tuesday, October 29, 2013

That Golden Glow

Carmi, of Written.Inc, has set "That Golden Glow" for this week's Thematic Photographic theme. 
Like him, I also love late afternoon and early morning light, which bring a golden glow to the land. 

It was very late afternoon when we reached the Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road between 
Melbourne and South Australia. 
The rocks positively radiated warm golden light:



This is the famous cat which lives in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul - famous because 
President Obama stroked him when they met. 
He stands in the warm evening sun which is coming in low through the stained glass:


And sunlight shining through flax leaves outside my classroom turns them golden...


Have a golden Thursday!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Naturally dirty ... TP 266

At certain times of the year we get sea lettuce growing in our local estuary - it can get 
really bad, making things unpleasant for windsurfers and yachties.


It washes up onto the foreshore, leaving a thick carpet of green when it is at its worst. When there are piles of it on the sand, decomposing in the sun, it smells horrible because of its high sulphur content.
There wasn't a great deal around when I took these photos.



Of course, Manu has to check it out.



See more at Written Inc

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Thematic Streetscapes

For Thematic Photographic 265, Carmi has set the theme of Streetscapes. To see his and other pictures on this intriguing theme, go here.

Last week in New Plymouth, I came across a lovely bed of poppies in the middle of a 
3-street intersection:





Two days earlier, in Wanganui on a quiet morning, this was the view:



Tuesday, October 8, 2013

What I saw on my holidays...


I saw...
trees dressed in their spring green:



a fascinating wind farm:


 


a desirable beachside residence:



gorgeous Botanical gardens:



pretty small towns:



intrepid surfers:


 an extremely cool footbridge:




and lots of baby ducks.


No doubt I shall expand further on these topics in future posts!


My best vacation is somewhere I could hide, 
somewhere warm and not a lot of people around. 
~Derek Jeter

Monday, September 23, 2013

Tuesday Poem

Image - Andris Apse

 Deep in the Hills

Once I thought the land I had loved and known
Lay curled in my inmost self; musing alone
In the quiet room I unfolded the folded sea,
Unlocked the forest and the lonely tree,
Hill and mountain valley beach and stone,
All these, I said, are here and exist in me.

But know I know it is I who exist in the land;
My inmost self is blown like a grain of sand
Along the windy beach, and is only free
To wander amoung the mountains, enter the tree,
To turn again a sea-worn stone in the hand,
Because these things exist outside of me.

O far from the quiet room my spirit fills
The familiar valleys, is folded deep in the hills.

~ Ruth Dallas


 

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

A Stranger...

Some stranger photos for Carmi's Thematic Photographic 261 
(hastily, in the middle of marking exams...)

It's me (It is I) who is the stranger in their midst, now I come to think of it :)

 
Carpet salesman, Bursa, Turkey


A family fishing while waiting for the Inter-Island ferry, Wellington
 

More fishing - Tauranga harbour



Children on the lakeshore, Wanaka


Lake Wanaka, with ducks and pier