Random Kitchen Stuff

Oh My Goodness. Now that I am out of FB, I have time for other mischief. This might have been my next random fb photo album..... "random kitchen pics"..... But is it art?
First two pics are from my sister M's kitchen. Hubby is a great cook, who likes to cook for others, so all kinds of unexpected bits and pieces can be found there, and work is often 'in progress' when I visit.
Next two photos are from Christmas lunch and Boxing Day breakfast in Havelock North. My b-i-l 'inherited' his love for cooking from his mother.
My friend M in Chch has all sorts of interesting wee treasures in her house.
I was 'helping' get ready for a party, but got distracted by these glasses...
And just to finish..... my other friend T in Chch had brunch for her 50th last week... and here were some of the 'doings' ready and waiting for guests to arrive...
My resolution.... 'next time' I walk a Chemin/Camino..... I am going to take more food pics!!!

And beware... coming soon to you another day...more random kitchen pics.... You'll all be wishing I would rejoin facebook sometime soon....

River walk-autumn afternoon

My reward to myself today once I had finished my Massey assignment, was a walk beside the Manawatu River. The forecast was for rain.... but it seems that once again the rain mostly visited the eastern side of the ranges.

It was mid-afternoon when I walked, with the sun pushing its way through some sombre clouds.
Here are some of the groynes in the river that are designed to help push flood flows more towards the other bank. We humans have tried to 'cheat' nature here by moving the whole course of the river over away from the town. But when the water is in full flood, it all wants to find its way back to its previous course.

The water is so very low at present, it makes it hard to believe that this river can ever be badly behaved...
Today it was just a gentle river under a steely sky
Autumn giving the promise of winter.
A glorious place to stand and gently be.

From the Camino

When walking the Camino I met a French couple who had walked from their home on the Swiss side of Le-Puy-en-Velay, and who walked all the way to Santiago then home again. (And I thought I was a heroine!) They have just put some photos up on Picasa and I have pinched this one of me, taken on a very wet day at the end of the May, just days away from the Pyrenees.....

Someone has already told me how happy I look in this photo, and that's the way it was.

Just under two years before I walked the Camino, I was in the youth hostel in Cahors doing the tourist thing exploring the area for a few days. In my room one evening I met a French woman who had been walking for three weeks from Le Puy. She just looked radiantly happy and she said she was- she was loving her walk. I guess that was when I first wondered if I might ever do such a thing myself....

Well, in April 2008, it was my turn. As I emerged into the countryside after the steepish climb out of the basin where Le-Puy-en-Velay was nestled, I knew a deep, peaceful happiness that I was walking and, all going well, I would be walking for weeks. These feet were made for walking.....

A Storm Threatens

Around lunchtime when I went out walking, it was sunny with light cloud. There were weather warnings last night for the Tararua Ranges, and trampers were warned about the conditions and rising rivers etc. Certainly there was cloud over the ranges that I could see as I walked in town, but any rain had to be falling on the eastern side.
By 3pm though, conditions had changed. Though it was still sunny, calm and pleasant in Palmerston North, a storm could be seen threatening over the Tararuas. This first photo shows the front spilling over the ranges near the river.
And this second photo, looking towards the ranges, shows how dark the clouds had become. Soon I spied some lightning in the dark clouds over the ranges.
But no rain arrived, though a gentle rainbow just gave a hint of its presence. There was that slightly weird before-the-storm feeling, but it seems that any storm has remained mainly in the east.
As I write this in the evening, some rain has begun gently falling..... but this storm was just pretending to come here.....

ANZAC Day, 2010

Today, ANZAC Day in New Zealand and Australia, we remember our soldiers who died in War. The fathers of many of my generation fought in WW2: my father was part of a Railway Operating Company in the Middle East. His generation never spoke of the horrors that the war brought. And in WW1, a huge swathe of young men from the colonies lost their lives overseas, never to return to those who loved them back home. In 1998 I visited northern France and found the graves of two great-uncles who were buried there in WW1. It was my sad privilege to pay my respects to them at their graves in France.This morning I woke early and went to the Dawn Service in the Square here in Palmerston North. This city is home to many in the New Zealand Armed Forces today, with Ohakea Airforce Base and Linton Army Camp both nearby. Our army and air force are involved in peace-keeping duties in many places, and it isn't uncommon for children at local schools to have a parent away for months, in places like East Timor. Happily, they nearly always return home safely.

Families visiting the Palmerston North War Memorial
to see the wreaths laid in the two ANZAC Day services

The dawn parade was quiet and dignified. There was a little drizzle at times, but mostly it stayed dry. A helicopter from Ohakea passed over the stilled crowd at 6am. As the service proceeded, the birds were beginning their daily chorus in nearby trees, and the sky showed a tinge of pink as it lightened for the new day.

Unfortunately, this was to be a specially sad remembrance day here in New Zealand. Three young airmen in a helicopter from Ohakea, bound for the ANZAC service in Wellington, were killed when their helicopter crashed into a ravine.

Lest we forget.

Sunset at home, Anzac Day 2010

Camino Quiet

A slideshow of photos from my Camino, Le-Puy-en-Velay to Santiago in 2008.

Square Sunshine

It was far too glorious today to stay indoors, so I walked down to the Square and took some more photos.

And yesterday I discovered how I could export a slideshow with sliding panels.... so..... I have uploaded a version to YouTube. (This is lower quality as upload speeds in NZ are sloooooooow. If any of my teaching buddies know a local teacher doing anything on the Square or Palmie.... they are welcome to contact me for a higher quality copy!)

Anyhow.... here it is: summer and autumn sunshine in the Square..... Enjoy!!

Flying South

This weekend was a special event down in Christchurch. I had booked window seats on my flights, and was fortunate to get magnificent views in both directions. Leaving home, there was a splendid view of the Manawatu River snaking its way across the floodplains.

Once we had reached the South Island, we traveled over the sea for much of our journey. Here Kaikoura pokes out into the ocean.

I saw several large braided rivers twisting through hill country until they reached the sea.

There were special times with my friends in Christchurch- and two of us walked along the beach near New Brighton on a calm, sunny Saturday morning.

There was also time to just walk slowly and take some photographs of autumn trees. This group of coloured leaves was lit behind by the sun for just a short time in the afternoon- and most of this tree remained green.

Monday morning I was homeward bound again, this time over land in the south. Surprisingly, there was a dusting of snow over the Kaikoura Ranges.

At Lake Grassmere, where seawater is evaporated to leave salt, the colours of the pools were intriguing from the air.

It seemed like we were passing over the Marlborough Sounds in no time.... and soon we were touching down back in Palmerston North, on North Island soil.

Colour in the city.

I finished work early today, a glorious autumn day, so I decided to head out on a wee bike ride with my camera.
First I stopped in the Square, where they often have banners hanging from the heavy-duty industrial light fixtures. Sometimes these banners advertise an event, and sometimes they just seem to add colour, as these ones did.Not far away a new kinetic wind sculpture has been installed near the Convention Centre. The sun shone and it moved gently in the breeze today. I spoke with a man passing by, who works in the city council offices overlooking this sculpture: he said that last week in the strong winds it really opened up. I will have to go back one day when the wind is really blustery and watch it again.

Next I visited Rangitikei St. There are some interesting old buildings still dotted around the city, that have escaped being destroyed and replaced by bland modern buildings. Recently while on a bus I noticed the higher levels of the facades on these two buildings, that I have always missed seeing from the lower vantage point of bicycle or car wheels. So here we have a white tui, and a fascinating bit of history with a Jersey cow.
And for fun, just a bit of modern colour:
Lastly I called into St Pat's on the way home, and saw purple covered statues and crosses for Holy Week. But it was the purple and green of grapes in this stained glass window that took my eye.

'The Prayer' for Haiti 2010- Classical

Beautiful version of the song 'The Prayer', sung by a selection of popular classical singers.
H/t to Paul Snatchko
Sorry I don't know how to make the embedded version fit properly for this. You can go directly to YouTube here.

Bolton St Cemetery

During the last hols, I met up with E from Vancouver for a day in Wellington. We took the Cable Car uphill, then walked back down to the city via the Botanical Gardens, the Bolton St Cemetery, and Parliament Buildings. We never had time to do much exploring in the old cemetery, but I grabbed a brochure intending to get back there. Today I finally did....

The Bolton St Cemetery has graves of many original European pioneers in the city, but some years ago, many were disinterred to make way for the Motorway. There is now a well maintained memorial trail down through what is left of the cemetery, and it seems that many have worked to honour the memory of those interred there. (It was unfortunate though to discover remnants of a Friday night drinking session, near the burial vault where many remains were re-interred.)

The cemetery has graves of many 'famous' early inhabitants, and also sheds light on aspects of life in Wellington in the 1800s.As you approach the memorial park from the Gardens, this large tomb of Richard John Seddon is the first one you see. (I was surprised to learn the the observatory was re-sited to make way for this monument!) Seddon originally lived in Kumara, where my Scettrini, Payn and Lalor ancestors lived, so he is a Prime Minister we feel a link with.

The gates to the park threw this attractive shadow. After the weather of recent days, it was a bonus to have some sunshine for the walk....

There was this poignant reminder of one who died in WW1.

I was surprised to learn that Wellington had a small Jewish community. Some Jews had emigrated from England, as they could freely set up businesses here in NZ.

I presumed this was an early rendition of a NZ fern, now often used as our symbol.

There were several graves that told sad stories where families sometimes lost several children in a short period, of such diseases as diptheria or scarlet fever.

The upper part of the memorial park is separated from the lower section by this great swathe of modern Motorway.

This headstone took my eye, partly for its elaborate carving, but also because it was in honour of someone born in Jersey (as was my Payn great-grandfather.)

And, with that little wander through history over for the day, I joined my young niece and the extended family for a birthday celebration....

End of the golden weather

We have just had a cold snap that brought to an end our lovely Indian Summer- a reminder that winter is around the corner. It was quite pleasant again today though, and here is Arohanui just catching a last bit of the evening sunshine. It won't be long before the long evenings of daylight saving have to come to an end for another year...... so she thought she had better make the most of it!

Camino Reflections

I was inspired by Johnnie Walker for this. He did some reflections on the Camino, using his own spoken commentary with photos. I have done much the same thing here about my walk in 2008 from Le-Puy-en-Velay in France, to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, northern Spain. (These reflections are already on my Camino blog in a longer written form, and I have just edited them down a bit.)
You can see it on YouTube here.

Powelliphanta

One of the bonuses of working 'part-time' is that I can do groovy things like volunteer to help with local conservation projects. Today a small group of us went up Kahuterawa Rd where some powelliphanta snails needed to be found and relocated before some track work proceeds.

I had always wondered how people 'found' these things that usually seem so well hidden. But going on a trip with some experts you learn these things. There is a particular plant that powelliphanta seems to like especially well, and underneath it, you find the little creatures, well camouflaged in their favoured wet and muddy environment.

Here are some of the living snails that we retrieved. We found 32 live ones all up, and 40 empty shells.

It was a great group of people that I shared the morning with as well. A young grad who was there found this wonderful dragonfly. Roll on the next volunteer opportunity!