On the edge

Edge

Balanced on the edge

Loaf

Two grandkids loafing on the couch

Bridge

Chinese opera on a bridge

Mine

Replica mine entrance at a theme park

Black

Yellow lights on a black night

My choice

Beautiful silverback eating popcorn at

Orana Wildlife Park, Christchurch

ANZAC DAY 2019

A digger with his rations.

A nurse reading mail from home.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

we will remember them.

Capital snapshots

 Some snaps taken by my GKB
on a wet and misty Wellington day.

A day of sightseeing finished off with delicious hot chocolate.

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Wishing everyone a joyful Easter weekend.

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joining Debbie over at Breathing in Grace

for friday foto friends

Terracotta Warriors

In March my GKB and I went up to Wellington for a long weekend

 - conference for me, R&R for him. Wellington is the capital city of our fair land and home to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. It is known locally, as in throughout the country, as Te Papa. Te Papa Tongarewa translates from the Maori to 'Container of Treasures'. We decided we had to visit as there were two exhibitions we particularly wanted to see, so while I conferenced my GKB went sight seeing. Later we visited Te Papa together. Twice.

Outside Te Papa on a wet, windy ,cold Wellington day

The second time we were there to see The Terracotta Warriors from China. This was really fascinating once we got in. Entry was once an hour and you bought your tickets earlier. We hadn't realized how the system worked, bought our tickets and then had to wait over half an hour till we could go in. Never mind, we had a coffee and went back and discovered the queue was very long waiting to go in. Well worth it though.

One of the lions on guard outside the exhibition.

She has a cub under her foot and represents nurture.

There was a male lion on the opposite of the entrance,

 also on guard.

There were a lot of artifacts on display including this ceremonial dagger. The handle was gold inlaid with turquoise. There was one display which we missed altogether as the people were several deep and moving extremely slowly...and we had a plane to catch! I'm still curious as to what they all found so fascinating though.

This is a half size replica of the carriage, horses

and driver who would transport the emperor around

 his celestial realms in the afterlife. The attention to

 detail was amazing, everything was very lifelike.

And finally we reached the warriors, ten in all approx. 2 metres tall, with two full size horses. All made of terracotta. They ranged from the lowly foot soldier at the front through the different ranks and then two generals. One in battle dress, one in formal dress. You could see where they had been holding weapons but because of their age these had rotted away being made of wood. Can I say again, I found it amazing. If ever you get the chance to see any part of this treasure, please do.

If you click on the blue print near the top of the post

it will take you to links with more info if you're interested.

I'm so glad we made the effort to go, we knew we wouldn't have another chance as they all head back to China in a few days.

Then we got our bags out of the check-in, crossed the road and caught a taxi and headed to the airport. And that's another story :)

I said at the top this was our second visit to the museum

 and I'll tell you about the first one a bit later.


Have a great week
Diana

Joining Deb over at Breathing in Grace
to share in Friday foto friends

New beginnings

New beginnings in more ways than one.

A lot has changed in my life in the last few months,

I have given up some activities and taken up others.

Some things are going to be a challenge and a

learning curve for me but I'm looking forward to it.

One thing I discovered though was that I needed 

more variety just to bring some balance to my life 

- I needed to do something creative.

So I decided to come back to blogging, this is totally different to anything else I am doing and writing and taking photographs is the type of thing I enjoy doing, I find it very relaxing.

I am also cross stitching on a baby blanket.

Middle sis, in Australia, crocheted it 21 years ago for my daughter when she was pregnant. I never got the stitching done on the blanket before the baby was born so she just used it as it was.

Sis had also earlier crocheted the same blanket for my eldest daughter and I'd managed to do the cross stitch on that but for some reason not on the second one. Above is one of the panels I'm copying.

And now we have a new little life just about to begin.

Eldest granddaughter, Monica, remember

the wedding we went to last year, is going to gift us with

 a little boy and the blanket came out for me to finish.

Now this is not the sort of creativity I am happy with

but seeing as it is for my first great grandchild it will be done :)

And if I do a little each evening it should be finished in time.

We had a baby shower for her a couple of weekends ago so

 I've put up a couple of photo's of the blooming mother to be.

She was so delighted with all her gifts and just slightly overwhelmed by peoples generosity as well, I think.

So...I'm back and find I have enjoyed writing this.

I've been on once or twice reading posts

but only decided last night I needed to come back.

Have a lovely week,

Diana