April Selection

I am aware that quite a few of my readers have opposite seasons to the ones we have here in the Southern Hemisphere. As you have been greeting the emergence of spring from your sometimes very cold snowy winters, we have been watching autumn take hold. Here is just a random selection from this past April, our autumn.

This first picture shows the Pacific Monarch, a sculpture by local artist Paul Dibble, outside Te Manawa, the local art gallery. Yes, there is also a big bug on the wall of the gallery, but not a real one. The bicycle in the bike stand is mine: I have become quite confident back on the bike again.

Next photo is at a friend's house. I was helping to get a photo slideshow ready for a 21st birthday and got distracted by the laundry hanging outside... but you can see the autumn tree in behind... (You think taking laundry shots is weird? I think friends and family are getting used to me taking shots in their kitchens!)

At the Esplanade autumn is making its mark, and this couple are enjoying a walk through this arcade of trees where the leaves are changing colour and starting to fall.

 There were still plenty of colourful flowers in the Esplanade though, and sometimes where the light fell in gaps in the trees, the flowers greeted the sunlight in profusion.

This next river shot was taken on Sunday 24th, when everything was calm and sunny, and there was lots of gravel at the river's edge for families to wander on and for dogs to play on.

Just four days later the river presented a very different mood. After a couple of days rain, the river was flowing very full and swiftly. There was no gravel spot left to play on for the time being...

Just a few days later though and blue skies have returned. Here is the clocktower in the Square showing off the blue skies quite nicely!

 

And just because I like to be a bit on the quirky side sometimes... I'll finish with reflections as seen this morning in some glass windows beside the Square....

120: I was there!

Just wanted to share this historic image from the balcony.... I was there! (ok ok ok yes, on the couch in front of the tele like most of the rest of you...)

119: Autumn Parade

The road down into the Esplanade is lined with these autumn trees at present. In springtime these same trees are covered in a profusion of cherry blossoms.

118: Otaki Railway Station

This glimpse of the nearby Tararua Ranges was seen from the Otaki Railway Station platform.

After several days of bad weather I was desperate to get 'out' and decided to take a holiday shopping trip to the Otaki outlet stores. It was freezing when I left home, and I was well dressed in layers and my wind jacket. But Otaki sometimes seems to have a microclimate all its own, and by the time I was ready to leave again, I had peeled off several layers and was enjoying the sunshine...

117: little treasures

Little treasures collected on various walks.
And yes, it's still raining and cold outside... hence a 'still-life'. You'll know what's in my whole house by the time winter is over :-)

116: Forlorn

 

I saw this trailer hoisted into the sky by this crane on Saturday when I passed. At the time the skies were very blue, and I thought it would have made a humorous 365 photo, but I never had my camera with me. It was still hanging there today, as many workers have been given the day off since we 'missed' a public holiday on Anzac Day this year. But oh how very forlorn the trailer looks in today's rain, hanging so lonely by itself. 

I had to take the photo through the windscreen as it was far too wet to get out of the car. And even then, I had to keep turning the key on between shots to make the wipers work, so the trailer could actually be seen through the raindrops on the windscreen. (I needn't have bothered: as it turned out, my first shot was the best one!)

115: Anzac Rain

It's Anzac Day here today, when we remember our fallen soldiers. And the rain is pouring down from the skies above. Underneath the seat on the deck are a whole group of spiderwebs that look quite beautiful. I couldn't work out how to take a photograph of them, especially as I could only bring out the camera so briefly... but here is just a 'taste' of the beauty the rain has brought.

114: Easter Sunday

It seems like we have been promised rain now for several days, but it hasn't yet arrived. Instead, for Easter Sunday we have a glorious autumn day here today in Balmy Palmy. I have just returned home from cycling in sunshine in t-shirt and sandles, with barely a breeze.... Priceless!

And in the end I couldn't resist making this a two-fer-one post- autumn leaves in the sky, and autumn leaves on the ground, both photos taken in the Esplanade in the day's beautiful sunshine. 

113: Samoan Patterns

On Thursday I posted a photo taken in the Square with a piece of sculpture in the foreground, one of 10 sculptures done in andesite for a millennium project.  Today I took a closer look at the sculpture, and found out it was made by a Samoan artist, Johnny Penisula. These patterns are the ones on its base.

112: Mt Stewart Rd

Tonight I visited a friend who lives up along Mt Stewart Rd. This is the late afternoon view from her place. From this spot you can get a vista across to both the Ruahine and Tararua Ranges. And yes, there are far too many wind turbines up there already....

111: city layers

I was in the Square today and took a few shots from around this position. I guess what struck me the most was the 'layers' here- natural and human-made -right back to the glimpse of the ranges in the background. And overarching it all was a sky with clouds that perhaps herald a change in weather for Easter.

109: autumn tree in Square

After awful weather yesterday, the southerly cleared to leave a beautiful sunny morning. And I cycled down to the Square to discover that my favourite autumnal tree was at its glorious best in today's sunlight.

The T-Mobile Royal Wedding

108: kitchen interior

I must admit to some trepidation about doing Project 365 through the winter, when I leave home in the dark and return home in the dark.... but as a friend said yesterday, I could see it as a great opportunity to practise taking 'still life' photos. So as the day is wet, cold and miserable here today, like a winter's day, the photo is a 'still life' of fruit on a friend's kitchen bench.

I guess this is as good a time as any to warn friends and family of the possible inclusion on this blog of still life shots from their houses over the winter..... We will soon get bored if it is all interior shots from my place :-)

107: night lights

Night lights at Melody's New World, recently modernised and extended...

106: Drum Kit

Preparations have been underway today for my godson's 21st, and I have been doing the paparazzi thing, camera in hand. This random shot is of my godson's brother's drum kit... nothing to do with the party, but I liked the shapes and the lighting...

98: daisy

Daisy in the back garden

inspired by this post by Paul
using the Mary Oliver poem 'Daisies'

97: exquisite beauty

 I know I have posted a photo of a 'partial' dandelion before, but I thought that the tiny raindrops on this one today were just beautiful. Exquisite, like the tiniest of jewels.
(If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can get a better view of them.)

96: Road sealing

The autumn sun has re-emerged. I had a glorious bike-ride beside the river and took lots of photos. But it is the neighbourhood action, with the men working on the road outside my place, laying down the new surface, that you get to see today.

95: feijoas

 

I woke this morning to a grey drizzly day, hardly one to get enthused over.

But then as I sat at the table to eat breakfast, I noticed the beginnings of fruit on the feijoa tree, just outside the window. Such a simple thing instantly brought a lift in my 'joy' levels!

94: Serious roadworks

I did take a photo earlier this morning of a rose flower with a few raindrops on it- very pretty. But it hasn't made the page, because this afternoon there is major action at my intersection as the surface is renewed. I gather that what they are doing is 'milling'. This large vehicle with the conveyor on the front is grinding up the old surface and then conveying it onto the back of a truck. Other vehicles await to put new seal on, but there are some short showers and bits of drizzle, so I am not sure if they can complete it today or not. Exciting though. I am sure if I had little ones they would rather be watching this than be at school!

93: autumn leaves

Almost overnight, it seems that more deciduous trees are showing autumn colours. 

I love these colours: I hope I don't bore my 'viewers' with too many autumn shades before winter arrives!

Fraction Liquefaction Parody

91: Autumn Leaf

Autumn leaf on the footpath by the Square

fallen from a maple tree that has a dramatic appearance every autumn