Happy New Year, Almost!!

Tonight might be your big party night, or quiet stay-at-home night. Either way, have a good one. See you on the other side, tomorrow.

Great Suspense

Bridge Street Bridge construction continues. Ben grabbed my wee camera on a Friday night after I started laughing at the dangling thingie. It must be the weight-counterweight thing... I hope the workers didn't go home in the middle of the job.

NDP is having a wee break, so we'll see you back in mid-January. Do have a great start to the New Year.

Fiji Rugby Player?

This guy was wearing a Fiji Rugby Team jersey and his mate (not in the photo) claimed he is a genuine national player. It was on the Friday evening most people finished work before Christmas. I think his mate thought I am a tourist and not familiar with the Fijian team... The emblem on this jersey is a correct one, by the way.

Lost Among Artists

Quick snap with Meg's Panasonic. At the opening of the Re:fine exhibition at The Suter, I found one of the badges has handwritten "Lost". I thought it is funny.

Benched

Boxing Day sales start today. Good grief, I thought we were finished with shopping?!

Mini Bananas

No, flax flower. Here's Ben's.

Happy festive season to everybody celebrating.

Fashion Island

It will be very nice place when it completed.

Fashion Island - Opend

It just opened; I noticed on 20 Dec when I was walking in town. It's just before Christmas and people are busy shopping, so it's just about time.

The mall is really a "half open"; shops in the ground/first floor are there, but there is still some constructions going on. Meg's so out of touch she was laughing at how slow the builders were.

Friday Evenimng, Arts Market

Summer

Blue sky, teal sea, sand, and pohutukawa starting to bloom. School finished yesterday for kiddies; work finish for most grownups today.

It's seriously summer here. This was the view from the living room yesterday afternoon, while I was working inside on my last tasks for the market tonight.

And re. the earthquake last night, I thought Ben was fidgeting until he grunted, "Yikes."

Another Rain Shot

Another shot from Tuesday's rain. In this, I shot the mirror in Sue's gallery, in which was the view of outside through the front window. (Is that wordy or what!) Anyway, the gallery was dark even though all the lights were on, and outside was light even though it was raining cats and dogs. I tried to focus on the wee sign, and tried all kinds of settings on my camera, but the Simple Mode (which I never use, and chose by accident) worked the best.

A Bit of Moisture

Drought started early this year; by mid-November, parts of Nelson/Tasman regions were facing water restrictions. So it's nice to have a bit of moisture.

I was looking out Sue's gallery window yesterday afternoon because I was a wee bit worried about getting flooded. See the ripples on the lower right? The bridge is over Maitai River on Collingwood Street; right behind the parking spaces is the Maitai. But we were ok; by afternoon there were kayakers having a great time right in front of the gallery. That's downtown Nelson for you.

This one is for Emilia and her family in Finland. It's dry today, by the way.

Twilight Market

"The first market was held last Friday. Twilight Market is a Nelson Arts Marketing initiative, held every Friday night from 6 to 9PM until 15 February, at the top end of Trafalgar Street, or the bottom of Cathedral steps."

Can you tell Meg wanted to put a bit of advertising above? I've another shot here.

Irresistible

NMIT Graduation Parade

Last Friday, NMIT (Nelson Campus) had a big party for those graduated from. Congratulations!

Re:fine at the Suter Opens

Re:fine, a Nelson art exhibit held in Wellington in September, was condensed and opened at The Suter in Nelson last night.

This is Anna, the young but hard-working and talented curator of this show. She is feeling the heat because she is wearing one of my possum-merino-silk shawls; it is summer in Nelson, you know. But it was lovely to see a young, tall woman wear one of my pieces, with folds and drapes the way I like them.

In her speech, Anna made a special mention of Manuela, a German intern who was in charge of keeping us artists in tow. Manuela had to leave New Zealand a week before Re:fine opened, because she had to return to Germany for exams at her university. Truly disappointing, as all of us were hoping to buy her a nice glass of something, in Wellington, each!

Everybody was put on notice to go look for your punk sky diving instructor, Manuela!!

Warning!

The sign says:
"The possession of alcohol in this public place is prohibited at any time. Maximum penalty $1000.00". - Which is a lot for us.

Plums at The Riverside

Akbabas Turkish Kababs

Eat here or take away? It is great and an affordable meal. Very popular in almost all day.

Evening

It's a very quiet time, I was just watching the sun to go down.

12 More Days of Work

I have work-related stuff in every single room of the house、leaving Ben nowhere to relax. So he got an early Christmas present on the weekend - a foldaway hammock. Of course it's intended for outside, but since our couches are less than wonderful, we took turns watching the telly on the hammock. The orange chair is mine; my office chair was so out of shape it gave me tingles on the left half of my body. It was a store model so we got a discount, and though it's a wee faded, it's not as bad as it appears in the photo. The exercise machine in the background was Ben's pressie last year and he uses it occasionally; I'm too short to use it comfortably.

I have 12 more days until the last even of the year; Ben has 11.5 more days or work.

Green - Waterlily

At the Queens Garden. It's a vary bright afternoon. It's nice to visit park besides the pond to look at those for cooling down.

Little Ones

look carefully...

Shop in Nelson and win...

I haven't find out how...

You've Come to Expect this of Us

Or we just like these. Yesterday's sunset was big, sudden, and not as saturated as some other nights. We were eating dinner, but I had to get up and shoot a few. When I got back to the table and ate one asparagus, it suddenly turned into shades of blue-gray; two asparaguses later, it was all gone.

Bolted on.

This signal post in bolted on to the street corner.

Avoid the Heat!

This is a great idea to avoid the very hot seat.

Christmas Tree

We've start seeing a Christmas decoration in town. It's getting hot as our summer is close to the peek.

St.Michaels at Brightwater - Revisit

Here is the previous shot.

December Theme Day: Bridge

Where is it? There is used to be a bridge that a car can cross to other side. The upgrading process is still on going. What we can see here is the cables that used to be hidden under the bridge.

PS.
This picture shows this bridge in distance before taken down for update.

Today is Theme Day. Other DP Blogs have also posted "Bridge" shots. Please click on the link below to view them.

Boston (MA), USA - San Diego (CA), USA - Stayton (OR), USA - New York City (NY), USA - Portland (OR), USA - Montego Bay, Jamaica - Inverness (IL), USA - Singapore, Singapore - Stockholm, Sweden - Setúbal, Portugal - Brussels, Belgium - Phoenix (AZ), USA - Seattle (WA), USA - Hyde, UK - Manila, Philippines - Fort Lauderdale (FL), USA - London, England - Austin (TX), USA - Toulouse, France - Weston (FL), USA - Sesimbra, Portugal - Selma (AL), USA - Silver Spring (MD), USA - Saarbrücken, Germany - Cleveland (OH), USA - Crystal Lake (IL), USA - American Fork (UT), USA - Seoul, South Korea - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Norwich (Norfolk), UK - North Bay (ON), Canada - Arradon, France - Paderborn, Germany - Durban, South Africa - Philadelphia (PA), USA - Cypress (TX), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Prague, Czech Republic - Portland (OR), USA - Greenville (SC), USA - Boston (MA), USA - Port Angeles (WA), USA - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Wichita (Ks), USA - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Petaling Jaya (Selangor), Malaysia - Grenoble, France - New York City (NY), USA - Nottingham, UK - Hobart (Tasmania), Australia - Arlington (VA), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Miami (FL), USA - Cheltenham, UK - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Saratoga Spgs. (NY), USA - Las Vegas (NV), USA - Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Nashville (TN), USA - Toruń, Poland - New Orleans (LA), USA - Port Elizabeth, South Africa - Melbourne, Australia - Moscow, Russia - Trujillo, Peru - Château-Gontier, France - Quincy (MA), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Port Vila, Vanuatu - Joplin (MO), USA - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Brookville (OH), USA - Chateaubriant, France - Chandler (AZ), USA - Stavanger, Norway - Baziège, France - Auckland, New Zealand - Wellington, New Zealand - Ocean Township (NJ), USA - Subang Jaya (Selangor), Malaysia - Detroit (MI), USA - Riga, Latvia - Nelson, New Zealand - Budapest, Hungary - Cape Town, South Africa - Sydney, Australia - Dunedin (FL), USA - Sofia, Bulgaria - Radonvilliers, France - Turin, Italy - Montpellier, France - Kansas City (MO), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Haninge, Sweden - Wailea (HI), USA - Lubbock (TX), USA - Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - Terrell (TX), USA - Mexico City, Mexico - Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation - Budapest, Hungary - Montréal (QC), Canada - Sharon (CT), USA - Le Guilvinec, France - Jefferson City (MO), USA - Saigon, Vietnam - London, UK - Crepy-en-Valois, France - Orlando (FL), USA - Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - Paris, France - Mainz, Germany - Newcastle (NSW), Australia - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Darmstadt, Germany - Naples (FL), USA - Torino, Italy - Saint Louis (MO), USA - Bogor, Indonesia - The Hague, Netherlands - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Anderson (SC), USA - Melbourne (VIC), Australia - West Sacramento (CA), USA - Christchurch, New Zealand

Bridge - Mitai River

This one on the Mitai River is for the pedestrian only.

Calling a Spade a Spade

Abel Tasman

He is standing lonely in the dark.

Bag Lady

For Twilight Market, in which I'm participating this summer, artists are responsible for all aspects of the stall and sale, including packaging. So I've been looking for inexpensive options.

I've been sticking things on all sides of the sample bags I bought or found at home. Two of these have Organdy bows threaded through holes and tied in bows on the other side, two which Ben reacted with "too girly!!" look, but I still think it's kind of cute. The gold bag is nice and costs the same as the brown, but its paint surface requires extra glue for the stickers.

There's a souvenir/gift shop in town where the owner writes the name of the shop with a fat, black magic marker on brown bags and I've always loved her bags, but I don't have nice handwriting so that's out of the picture at the moment. And I've run out of bags to try out my rubber stamps. At any rate, the most I'll need is a few of the smallest and a few of the mid-sized one, so I should get back to weaving...

Flax flower

This is a small variety of a flax flower. Another one.

New Car, Anyone?

That's NZ$; comes with sheep skin seat covers.

Industrial Area

The big orange warehouse like building is a hardware store.

Better Late than Never

Sometimes good news travel slowly; this is the latest news item on the bulletin board at my gym.

Fresh Mexican Food

There is a new restaurant in the town.

NMIT

NMIT, Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, formerly known as Nelson Polytechnic, is where Ben works, and where I worked last century. It's the end of the academic year, so students must be rushing around studying, finishing projects, and looking for summer jobs as well. Ben being an admin staff, he is required to work until the 21st and take annual leave on the 24th, (IT people like to work when there aren't many others around), but that's ok, he's taking some time off in Jan and we'll have a real break this year.

This was taken during the October break. Straight ahead is the Student Center; the spire belongs to Trinity Church across Nile Street, (quite a way away, in fact.) To your right is the newly refurbished Te Tari Maori/Maori studies building; behind the tree is what I called the Nursing block, but I think it might be called Health Studies now.

The Huangshi Chinese Garden

It's officially opened last week (14/Nov/2007). We featured a construction scene before.
Here is a wider view with slightly different B&W treatment.

Apple

One of two apple trees at the back yard.

Bottle Brush & Bee

A bumble bee at a bottle brush flower at the outside house.

Da Vinci in Nelson

Here in little old Nelson, an exhibition of machines created recently based on Da Vinci's drawings opens today. Last night at 5PM, when I went to shoot this, a whole bunch of nicely dressed local dignataries were arriving for an by-invite-only opening. Nobody I know, unfortunately, and I doubt I could have snook in in my gym clothes.

So Nelson is experiencing a Renaissance, people!

The same museum has been posted here and here, oh, and this rant. I'm surprised at the semi-big-city look in this shot, but it's a two-story provincial museum.

Mind Your Step

Chances are, if you come home with us, you'll be coming through the garage, through this door, up a few steps, then up proper steps to the left of the picture. (You can just see the corner of the doorway.)

Mind your step, because I have new cotton yarns sitting there. These are in colors so different to what I've been using, and I've been admiring them while working in my studio, which is the carpetted area to the right. Oh, and I haven't the room in the upstairs stash room, so I'm not quite sure where else to put them. I suppose I can get rid of the box, eh.

Door

Yesterday was my third Wednesday at Sue's Gallery, and I sold one of my favorite jacket of hers, (far left in Friday's pick; only one sleeve is shown.) Like many, I worked in retail when I was younger, but I swear, I never, ever experienced a buzz like yesterday. It might have been because it was a handwoven garment; it might have been because the two women were so enthusiastic about Sue's work, (I lost count as to how many they tried on); it was most probably because the woman who bought it in the end looked so good in the jacket she bought.

Last Evening at Tahunanui Beach

Tui 2

Bye for now. It's the end of a concert. This video comes and goes at Google's pleasure, but Meg caught him singing a week ago.

This is just a second later.

Tui 1

Our old friend once told us this is also known as a bell bird, because of those white feathers at their thought. We know this is not "The New Zealand Bell Bird", but it's just the another name many people identified (IMHO) this beautiful bird called Tui. He's singing for us.

Shhhhhhhhhh,,,,

I have a hard time clearing my head and being calm sometimes; I always have lists of things I must be doing, or should have finished by now. I even bought a book called "The Quiet" this weekend, so hopefully that'll help.

Here's wishing all of you a nice, quiet, satisfying weekend.