Early morning walk

 

 More early morning walk photos. Trying to avoid the heat of summer days!

 

Summer Walks

 Yesterday was a very hot day, so  the same track as my previous post was a good choice. Manu loves that walk, because he can be off the lead, and there are lots of trees, making it possible to stay out of the sun most of the time.

 

 

 

 

Non-summer

We are having the worst summer I can remember for a long time. Quite often December isn't great, but usually by now it's lovely and hot, to the extent that everyone complains about the heat and the dry conditions, lots of swimming happens, and I have to walk Manu at 6 am or else it's too hot for us both.

This year the main problem has been cold winds - weeks and weeks of strong blustery winds, sometimes gale force, from the south-west. Very little rain, though.

So to cheer myself up, here's some photos from my last big trip, of a lovely hot place I went to on my last big trip to Europe, 18 months ago.

This is a beach called Nazaré, in Portugal. 

We drove up to the top of a huge bluff to see this amazing view. 

Later, down in the town, we walked along the beachfront 

until we found a good place to have lunch and a cold drink. 

 

This was the view looking the other way, 

out to the Atlantic ocean.

Even up this high, there are pigeons...

I wouldn't mind being back there now, even though the average daily temperature in January is only about 13°C (55°F).

Hope the weather's good where you are!

A very strange game...

Cricket. 

If you weren't born in a country which was once, or is still, part of the British Commonwealth, 

you won't get it. Trust me.

The World Cup is about to be played in Australia and New Zealand - we're sharing the running of the tournament...

We're not going to share winning it, though! It's all ours.

There are about 12 days to go before the teams from 14 countries begin the competition, 

which will take a month to complete.

I love cricket, especially the one-day form of it, which is what these games will be. Mr A was a pretty mean spin bowler in his day - he played Minor County cricket in England, quite a few years ago now, and then played 1st class cricket in Sydney and New Zealand - so he'll be pretty much glued to the television.

For the last few weeks, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have both been visiting for practice games:

We've been doing pretty well.

Did I mention that I love summer?

Summer

We had a very cold and windy non-spring, but now we are being rewarded for our forbearance with a fantastic summer. Since just before Christmas the weather has been beautiful - sunny and warm, with a high most days of about 27˚ C (about 80˚ F), usually with a pleasant breeze. 

There's been no rain, and I guess if this continues much longer people, especially farmers, will start complaining. But I love warm weather, and I'm happy!

Last weekend my daughter and her family went camping at a beach not far from here. 

It's not a surf beach, so it's perfect for little folk.

Low tide, sunset:

Sunrise:

Don't you love summer?

Dreaming of summer: TP 298

Carmi (he's back!) has chosen 'Summer' for our photographic theme this week.

On this side of the world it's raining wintry rain, the shortest day has just gone, and I'm dreaming of sunny days, beaches, and holidays.

 

 

 

A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, 

the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. 

~James Dent

Last Night's Sunset

Posted for Thematic Photographic #272 - Dawn and Dusk

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.

 

  

Otherwise fine; TP 252

Two of my favourite cloud photos, for this week's Thematic Photographic. 

You can see more on this theme here.

Summer sky, at our local beach. 

These clouds make me think of long hot summer days:

Stormy skies, Masterton.

These clouds just make me remember.

Straight lines

Today, February 6th, is our national day and a public holiday, so I went looking for 

some shots for Carmi's Thematic Photographic topic this week, Straight Lines.

On the main road in to our small mining town, there are straight lines 

of palms along both sides:

 

And downtown, the street lights lead straight up to the ornamental 

poppet head near the old mine workings:

At the beach, there's hardly any surf. 

The waves are quietly rolling in in nice straight-ish lines

And at the river mouth, around the coast, there are almost-straight 

lines in the sand

Visit Written.Inc for more lines...

I wish every school week had a holiday on Wednesday!

Flying into Summer

December 1st - officially our first day of summer. 

The dog and I went to a beach to look for birds to post on Carmi's Fly theme, 

but the tide was full and there were no waders around...

 There were some high fliers overhead

Of course, we still managed to enjoy our walk greatly. 

It was a beautiful, still morning

Driving away I spotted this blue heron, but when he took off 

he was lost into the trees before I could manage a decent shot...

"birds that rose and fell in the sky, like supplementary 

breathings of the tide"

~Janet Frame: 'The Edge of the Alphabet'

The summer that never was

In this part of the world, March 1st  marks the end of summer. 

It's the first day of autumn, of fall. 

This morning's sunrise

Normally by now we've pretty much had enough of the heat, the dryness, the long 

summer sunburnt days, and we're pleased to welcome the onset of cooler nights 

and crisp, beautiful mornings.

Not this year. 

This has been THE WORST SUMMER EVER. 

In fact, it never really was summer at all. 

You could count the number of really hot days on one hand. The rest of the time 

it has been wet, windy and almost, at times, cold. I love heat, and hate 

cold weather, so I am definitely feeling short-changed.

Grumpy, even.

I should hasten to add that it has only been like this over two-thirds of the country; 

the southern half of the South Island had a beautiful hot summer. 

I'm movin'!

The news from the northern hemisphere is that there have been 

milder-than-normal winters in many areas. Go figure.

I hope you all have a lovely spring.

sigh

Thematic Photographic 174: Seeing Red

Summer's here !

This rose was out on the 1st of December, marking the first day of summer in New Zealand.

See other reds here

Thematic Photographic 129: Wet

Today has been pretty much the perfect sumer's day. It's lovely and warm, but not too hot - about 27 C, I would guess. There's not an ill-intentioned cloud in the sky, and just a light zephyr of a breeze.

Manuel LeGrand and I have just come back from a wonderful walk around the estuary (no dogs allowed on the surf beach during the day in the summertime - at this time of the year our little resort town is crowded with holiday makers, and the beach is heavily populated). 

The tide was about halfway out, and the shores and the water of the estuary were pretty much deserted, apart from a few kayakers, a number of blue herons, and lots of tiny mud crabs which kept popping in and out of their holes.

Manu had a great time - he ran, he splashed, he chased herons and gulls, he conversed briefly with a couple of other dogs, he rolled in something disgusting.

I didn't have my camera with me today, and these shots were taken on our last walk out there, but believe me it would have been déjà vu if I had!

Don't you love summer? 

Join in Carmi's Thematic Photographic fun here.