A photo scavenger hunt

I am joining in a photo scavenger hunt this week with Hawthorn and friends over at I live, I love, I craft, I am me. Some of the photo's are from the archives, some I have used recently and some of you will have seen them before but I hope you still enjoy them.

1:  The setting sun

We had been up the coast to visit the blowholes and the pancake rocks. At the end of the day we headed back to daughters holiday accommodation for a pizza tea. This is the view we had of the sunset over the Tasman Sea from the upstairs sitting room :)

2:  My local wild place

This is a garden in the town where my GKB grew up, so although it is local it is not local local. It is on a hill on the other side of the city. It was established by the artist Ralph Hotere and overlooks the Otago Harbour. All of the plantings are native trees and bushes and those legs you see belong to a sculpture by Shona Rapira Davies titled They do cut down the poles that hold up the sky. A lovely peaceful place to sit and relax and enjoy the native bush without leaving the city.

3:  Mug of favourite drink in the garden

Christmas Day 2016. The family had gathered at youngest daughter's home to celebrate. Dinner was over, the dishes were all cleaned up and put away and it was time to take a cup, or glass, of our favourite drink and relax somewhere and chat. The photo below is me, my daughter and grandaughter sharing a quiet moment together in the backyard. The other two possibly had a glass of wine but my drink of choice was instant coffee, made the way I like it :) Goodness knows where everyone else was, there were at least 20 of us there for the day.

4:  My kind of beautiful

Isn't she beautiful? Well I'm guessing this is a she, cos she looks pregnant to me. Anyway I love these big draught horses and you don't see them around much these days. Don't ask me the breed, I couldn't tell you, I took the photo from the car while we were doing some sightseeing last time we were up Middlemarch way .

5:  Look to the skies

On the same trip up to Middlemarch this was early evening sky at the camping ground we stayed at. My GKB took this photo and some people have said the cloud formation looks like a giant hand in the sky. Anyway I think it is quite dramatic.

6:  Mini beasts

Well you can't see the mini beasts as they are inside the nest. 

This is the nursery web of a nursery web spider and the babies stay inside for couple of weeks. I guess if you don't mind spiders you won't think of them as beasts but if you see them magnified they are very definitely little monsters.

7:  Rain

One evening late last winter we had a shower of rain. Or maybe it was early in spring as I see new buds on these branches. Overnight we had a good old frost. In the morning my GKB took a sequence of photos. The raindrops had frozen on the bare branches of this bush and it looked rather pretty with the early morning sun shining on them. A little like the spindly little bush had been draped with a string of diamonds :)

8:  Something summery

Flowers always say summer but this is 
a photo I love, taken one hot day last summer.

Wouldn't you have thought it would be easier to just get under the table instead of clambering up on top of it to find the little bit of shade afforded by the sun umbrella? This puppy is a real character :)

9:  Urban wilderness

What can I say? An urban area in the wilderness. 

Queenstown, New Zealand.

10: My own choice

Parked up for the winter, caravans on a
 bleak winter's evening in Central Otago.

I hope I haven't been too wordy

See you next week.

Diana

A different catch.

The fish weren't biting so my GKB took photo's instead.

Here's a sample.

Did you spot the fishing rod?

joining friday foto friends

Some sky shots

Archive photos taken over the last year or so.

 An angel?

Definitely a horizon.

Tree silhouette.

Same tree, different perspective.

New Zealand swamp harrier.

A super moon.

joining up with everyone at
Five on Friday.
and 
friday foto friends

Taking five

Five totally unconnected paragraphs but I hope you'll enjoy them.
Joining Amy at Five on Friday

1). Daylight saving finished at the weekend and with it the good weather. Almost overnight. I can't believe it. Even so the temps are still in double figures but 24 C. one day and then talk of snow the next - not my idea of fun. But I am not going to complain as we have been having unseasonably warm weather for this time of the year. It couldn't go on for ever :) It has been a very dry summer and not good for the gardens, even the weeds didn't grow much - but my little mother's sunflowers alongside her garage did. I love this photo of her looking at them looking back at her. It almost looks like they're having a conversation.

2). We've been taking ourselves out for coffee about once a week, my GKB and me. We are not very adventurous when it comes to what we eat and it is usually a case of cheese rolls or scones. I decided to try hot pancakes and maple syrup a few weeks ago, I have wanted to for a while, but I was very disappointed. I won't be ordering them again. These date scones below were very nice though, heated and butter spread on them. I always drink tea or hot chocolate (in winter) and my GKB has discovered that he quite enjoys a flat white, even though they are never hot enough. It was still warm enough to sit outside when this was taken.

 

3). Just over a year ago we were at a family funeral and someone mentioned that it was a shame that we only got together these days at funerals. There are five sets of cousins and some of us haven't seen each other for over forty years. And so because I was retired and on the spot I was elected(?) to organise a reunion of some sort.  So this year I am starting to get into it. We have decided to have a dinner in the town where our grandparents and parents lived and where most of us grew up as well. Greymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand. It will all take place at Easter 2017  and we are having it in a hotel just around the corner from where I grew up and not far from where some of our cousins lived as well. So far quite a few have shown interest (from Japan, Indonesia and Australia) which is good, as it's a bit daunting in a way to be given the task of bringing it together.

Greymouth CBD

4). My GKB enjoys taking photos and quite often the ones I put up here are his. I love the one below that he took one day while sis and I were walking and he was wandering and waiting. It is very moody I think and the clouds look like the beginning of the Taieri Pet, a cloud formation that appears over the Middlemarch area when certain conditions occur. We never saw the 'Pet' though as it didn't form fully. Anyway I like the starkness of the tree against the cloud and sky.

5). I've been feeling a bit tired lately, I think it's the start of year activity beginning to catch up with me. We have been really busy since Christmas with visits from two of my sisters and two of my nieces and their little ones. We have walked quite a bit on the rail trail and there have been one or two other functions happening as well. And I have thoroughly enjoyed it all. But...I think I need a bit of a rest because my brain doesn't seem to be functioning as it should. Blow it. So if I don't post quite so often in the next little while you'll know why. 



Maybe I'll just be away a few days or a week or two but I will check in occasionally to see what everyone is up to. 
Life is very busy at the moment :)

joining Martha at:

Martha's Favorites

and Amy at:

Five on Friday

with love, 

Diana