Autumn

The rose garden gate at the Queens Gardens. (another shot in August,2007)

Tree

Red

I didn't catch the name of this plant but it had stunning deep red. (at the Queens Gardens)

Boulder Bank

This is taken the way back from from the work in few days ago. I saw the sky showing interesting colour so I took different way back home and stop by at the lookout. (Another shot taken in 2006)

That was Then; This is Now

Remember the Sentinel in Queen's Gardens a little over a year ago? Well, what did I see on Sunday the 13th, just two weeks ago?

I couldn't even remember where it was, so I looked back just to make sure I wasn't missing anything, and, no, it's not there any more.

So this is a first in NDP; it's a non-post; it's what you don't see that's the main attraction.

My Green Friend

Tuesday we had gale force winds and this little fellow was sticking to our kitchen door the best he could.

Sorry about the dirty glass.

Autum Colours

Beautiful blue sky and golden leaves. It was really present day, warm sun light shins at us and surrounded by clear air.

Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church

This is the inside. It is a small church but it has a beautiful wooden structure.

Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church

This is where we went on Sunday. I will post inside shot tomorrow. (another shot)

Christening

Yesterday, I became a Fairy Godmother. Not the proper half of proper God Parents, but just-the-fun-bits Godmother.

As you know Ben and I haven't got kids, and we are absentee aunt/uncle to three boys and two girls back home. So though we are getting chronologically old, in many ways we never had to become mature, proper adults, e.g. parents. When Mummy asked me two weeks ago if I would be her Godmother, I had to think a while. Would I have to correct my loud-mouth, opinionated, irresponsible ways? Would I have to finally grow up?

Well, the parents and even the priest went out of their way to make this wayward Catholic feel welcomed and comfortable at the Christening, and this wee girl, I know, is going to enrich our lives in so many ways.

I even went to the chancel for the first time in my life; I thought a lightening bolt may strike me right there, but it didn't.

Please excuse my mess

I'm having such a hard time understanding an easy weave structure that I've resorted to some very basic methods and I still don't get it. Never mind, we're getting the southerlies (that's the cold wind for us) so the fire is going all weekend and I'm just enjoying being engaged in such a slow craft.

Dishes

Tim and Claudia came over last night and we had a wonderful almost-vegetarian dinner, followed by a dangerously heated discussion on Nelson Arts Marketing's direction, moderated by Claudia's cool head, then cake and ice cream, then we watched the Australia film "The Dish". I do wish I could keep a cool head so that I can convey my more observed and considered opinion, rather than get all hot and mad. Must try harder.

Ben came home 10-ish after not being able to solve a glitch in an outsourced system, and he's gone back to work before 8 today, saying, "someone's gotta do it."

I am an IT widow this weekend. This is only part of the dishes I have to wash.

Feijoas

Ben's colleague gave us a bag full of feijoas, which are of South American origin, but can be found all over New Zealand. These lime-colored gems are about the size of an egg, and we cut them in half and scoop out the flesh like a soft-boiled egg. They taste something like cucumber+pear+lime. Their season is very short, and in the shops they are quite expensive, but many people have trees in their yards and sometimes we get super lucky. They also make good chutneys, but at our place, I make sure none goes to waste.

Fact is, we had four magnificent feijoa trees which produced more fruits than we and the neighbors could eat. But the trees were getting too tall and Ben wanted a rose garden around there, and the guy who used to help us with the big jobs in our garden said we could cut them back really hard and they would come back and fruit again. So we did. In 2000. And we've had three fruits since.

Anyway, I'm happy for the next few days. I need to ration so I don't eat them all at once, but they smell so pungent, and just photographing these made my mouth water. Joy!!!

Red

Up Close...

At the Queens Gardens, while taking some close up shot, this one jumped into the frame.

Look up

It's the same tree, I looked up from where I took the yesterday's photo.

Interesting Texture

This is an old redwood. It's the first large tree seen in the Queens Gardens, when you enter from Hardy Street. I think the texture of this tree bark is very interesting and has a powerful living feel. As in the LOTR, the old tree has a soul.

New Zealand Citizens

Ben's workplace parking lot, around 5.10PM last Friday. And yes, those white bits you see at the very top of the hill are New Zealand baa baas.

And he won't tell you, but it's Ben's birthday today; considerably younger than 50, mind.

Blue

Another fine day! The car park sign at the Collingwood street entrance of the Buxton Car Park.

Fasion Island Complex

From the Hardy Street side of complex. There are still some construction going but most of shops are open the business. The building façade was preserved from old "New Man Building", but the inside is completely new. (relate post here and here) and other side taken on December last year.

Shade

This is bit of funny season, some day its hot and some day it really cool. The day I took this is cool wind and hot ray from sun. It's good to have a bench under the tree like this. The bench is looking at the river and there were ducks and if you are lucky you can see swan as well.

PS. According to the count on blogger this is post no.600.

Mr K's Onions

We had a chance to take a quick tour of Trish's father's veggie garden on Sunday.

I've been wanting to revamp 1/3 of our garden to enlarge the veggie patch, but after the tour, Ben came up with a better idea. We'll be moving all his roses to the easier, flatter part of our hilly section, and create a whole new veggie area in middle part where it's sunnier.

We're criminally negligent when it comes to normal weeding and gardening, but are, if I may say so myself, pretty efficient when it comes to huge changes. It's going to be a great winter of honest work.

Back to the Future

Some people in New Zealand think coal is the answer to our potential power shortage. We have lots of them, especially on the South Island's West Coast, except they are not "clean" so we have to either import Australian coal, or have then cleaned. I've not read up on this so I don't know how that works.

In a recent pole reported by Radio New Zealand Kiwis prefer wind and solar power, but there is a sizable support for nuclear power generation now. In New Zealand. Good grief.

This was shot by the Information Center Monday morning; the man in orange just parked his car and had nothing to do with the protest, but there was a small number of young people milling around the signs.

Kite Surfing Area

Ben loves to watch and photograph kite surfers, but I prefer dogs and kids and sand and beach junk.

I found this sign at one of the back parking area we don't use when I was investigating the erosion on the the southwestern part of the beach. (The pink area.) The yellow area is designated as the "bathing area"; now, I' not sure if this means one can or can't surf there, but there is a lot of them who do. And I have seen a few in the pink zone, too. I'm just reporting.

Nelson Born and Bred

Trish came back from Wellington for the weekend for my birthday, and this morning we had coffee at the Saltwater Cafe before we took her to the airport. We hadn't noticed until she pointed out that where there was a simple wall in front of the cafe are these beautiful plaques listing names of boats, arrival dates, and passenger lists of immigrants who arrived at Nelson. I wanted to photograph the line pertinent to her family, but ummm... a bird had pooed on that line. Look!

It makes Trish a fifth- or sixth- generation Nelsonian on one side of the family. Glorious.

Officially Autumn

Daylight Savings ends at 2AM Sunday morning (tonight) in New Zealand. It's officially autumn.

Dinosaur?

Some of you might be thinking, "I could have told you so", I'm sure. But I'm happy to report that 50 years 1 day hasn't made me feel like a dinosaur buried in volcanic ash; in fact, my cold is much better, so I am feeling more energetic than yesterday, thanks.

Half a Century

We're not big on our own birthdays, but Ben got me a Gavin Hitchings brooch. Well, we got it a few days before Christmas, but then Beloved made me a wooden case out of an old loom part, so it's been sitting in the case ever since.

See how Gavin included a small shuttle in the design? I love that. And this one is a touch smaller than his usual because I'm so short. Gavin's work appeared on Day 2 of NDP here.

I'm sick today, so I'm spending the day taking it easy, but a few friends and we are going out for pizza Saturday night, and I will wear my brooch for the first time then. Life is good. Thank you, everyone.

Water: Runner Up

This one is found at Queens Gardens in central City. I took this in mid March but couldn't decided to be a colour or B&W until now.

April 2008 Theme Day: Water

This fountain is found in the green belt between the Auckland Point School and the Rutherford Park. The plaque indicate it was presented in August, 1940.

PS. I was really thinking about reposting this but it's too soon for doing so.

Theme Day Contributors:

theme day id=13

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