Encouragement works wonders

Dear readers, thank you so much for the warmth of your many comments on the return of Wysiwygpurple. It was exactly the absence of such kind interactions that provoked my re-start.

Amaryllis … a neighbour’s flower in the dark box

As I revealed last week, I am less mobile than I used to be, so I am more likely to pay attention to flowers than wildlife, especially given the abundance of them in the village. Given my preference for focus stacking, the recent strong winds have made outdoor shoots less practical, so with the permission of the person in whose garden it stands, I take a careful cutting and bring it home to shoot it in the lightbox, or occasionally the darkbox. They sit still for their portraits in this way.

Flower/Crab spider 4mm long

Apologies to any arachnophobes, but I loved this tiny Flower/Crab spider (Diaea sp.) For the life of me, I can’t recall the plant it was sitting on, but this little eight-eyed jewel of an ambush predator captivated me. Thanks to Mary for finding the plant on which it was hiding.

Wellington waterfront at Whairepo lagoon

To get to the Wellington waterfront independently, I can catch the 110 bus from outside the village gate, and change at Queensgate to the 83 which goes through Petone and beside the harbour, past the railyards to the Wellington railway station, and if I wish, through the city to Courtenay Place. The catch is that I need to research the conditions before I commit to the trip. Nevertheless, sometimes the gamble pays off. It may come as a shock to many to know that the Wellington City Council is considering demolition of the City to Sea Bridge that crosses Jervois Quay to the Civic Square. It was built in 1993 to a design by Grey and Thompson, and decorated with sculptures by Para Matchitt and Matt Pine. Its seismic strength is in question. The aesthetic value of the sculpture is challenged. somhate it, but most seem to like it.

Welcome Swallow at Queen Elizabeth Park

As much as I love Wellington, it has an irritating shortcoming in the number of available exit routes. In fact there are just two major ways out of the city. SH1 goes up the Ngauranga Gorge and then follows the Western coast line until it reaches Sanson. SH2 passes through Upper Hutt and across the Remutaka hill and then descends into the Wairarapa region. And thus it comes about that many of my photographic ventures end up in repeated visits to places such as Queen Elizabeth Park at McKay’s Crossing, or Boggy Pond on the edge of Lake Wairarapa. This shot was made from the hide on the pond,

Waxeyes at the front door

When the weather doesn’t play nicely and support a more distant journey, I look for inspiration close to home. As always, Mary entices birds to come and play. A cored apple on a string tied to a stick provides a feeding perch for the waxeyes. Others try, but the little green birds dominate.

Not as placid as he looks

I always enjoy a trip to Staglands. The trails through the park lead you through in a familiar pattern. I like spending a little time with the clydesdale despite the multiple warnings that he is temperamental and prone to biting. He is a handsome fellow nevertheless.

Kea at Staglands

The kea is the undoubted star of the aviary at Staglands, and though I have never observed any aggressive behaviour from it, I reckon that beak would serve as a bolt-cutter. Like the Clydesdale, his sharp end is best avoided.

Shona McFarlane

I misspoke in my last post. There are 40 Ryman villages in NZ and 9 in Victoria. Each is named after a prominent person from the area in which the village is located. Our village is named after Shona McFarlane an artist, author, journalist and broadcaster. In her latter years, she was married to the Minister of Arts, Allan Highet and they lived just up the hill in Maungaraki. Rymans have been commissioning portraits of each of their celebrities and ours was unveiled in August this year. I quite like it.

Fine dining

A feature of life in the village which I rarely participate in is the monthly fine-dining. Those of us in the town-houses are deemed to be independent and usually do our own catering (Thank you Mary.) But once a month, the chefs who prepare meals for the serviced apartments, get to practice their craft and serve up a very high quality three course meal to those who opt in (and pay). On the rare nights that I participate, I take my camera. However, I care for the residents’ privacy so these pictures won’t appear here.

Thanks again for the kind and encouraging words. See you at least once more before Christmas

What, again?

I am not sure how many times I have gone through this start and quit cycle in my blogging. The last time I quit was in March 2023, citing a weariness with the obligation to adhere to a publication schedule. So why am I sticking my head above the parapet again?

Truth to tell, I have missed the pleasure I took in sharing my stories, images and opinions, even with a small audience. I have agonised over how to pick up the threads, but in the end concluded that 20 months is too big a gap to fill. Instead, I shall just resume more or less as if I never left.

The one exception is to note that we have moved off the hill after 43 years and now live in the Shona McFarlane Retirement village in Avalon, Lower Hutt.

Our Town House

We love every aspect of it. This is a Ryman village, one of the 45 in New Zealand. There are also 15 in Australia. Someone else mows the lawns, tends the gardens, trims the hedges, prunes the shrubs, washes the windows, and does various other tasks. There is a happy hour every week with free drinks and nibbles and best of all, a lively collection of about two hundred other very friendly seniors who have made us welcome. There is also a licensed bar which also offers light meals and drinks at good prices on three other nights a week. A bowling green, a heated indoor pool, and free age-appropriate exercise classes twice a week to add to the many advantages we find in living here.

And the other thing I should mention is that, just before we moved in, I suffered a stroke, and though I got off relatively lightly, my sense of balance and stability have diminished. As a consequence I have voluntarily stopped driving. I don’t want a dizzy spell while at the wheel. This has had an impact on my photography. Mary generously offers to drive me anywhere within reason, and the bus that passes the front gate every twenty minutes takes me to North to Upper Hutt or South to Lower Hutt and Petone. The railway station at Naenae is just 1.6 km away and gives frequent access to Wellington or Upper Hutt. Nevertheless, I no longer have the freedom to wander at will to random points of the compass and despite Mary’s amazing generosity, it is difficult to steer someone else to the places and for the times that my own photographic whims might have chosen.

Activity on the Hutt River at Birchville, Upper Hutt

Anyway, here I am again.You might find a bias towards flora in my images now. I can run faster than most flowers, and Ryman’s wonderful gardeners do a great job of ensuring numerous attractive flowers within my now significantly diminished walking range.

Leucadendrons in the rain

As I said, I spend a lot of time on flora these days. On one rainy day I saw this leucadendrons looking as if they were internally lit. Nothing but natural light here, and the gloss added by the rain.

Waxeyes sharing an apple at our front door.

Mary continues to encourage bird life, and we see sparrows, finches, starlings, blackbirds, the occasional tui, but fewer varieties than we encountered on the hill.

Orchids

The reception area of the village is always adorned with fresh flowers. My eye was caught by this arrangement of orchids in clear acrylic tubes.

Table tennis in the family

There are many activities with which residents can engage. None are compulsory. Mary has developed a liking for table tennis, and the group plays on four or five days a week. This image was caught when our middle son was visiting and challenged his mother to a game.

NZR Standard class railcar at Silverstream Railway

Every so often, the Silverstream Railway puts on a “live” day and for a modest fee offers rides on their various artefacts. Among my favourites is the NZR standard class railcar. Back in my courting days, I used to catch the service from Wellington to New Plymouth on just such a railcar. Memories of stained wooden lining and the big brass gong that warned of impending movement. If you are at all interested in the standard class, see here.

Autumn glory, Silverstream

I have selected a few random images to re-launch this blog, and this one is at the Silverstream bridge near the South end of Fergusson Drive. Anyway, that will suffice for now. If you continue to look back I may see you again in a week or two.

Brian

March 14, 2023 … so long, farewell, auf weidersehen goodbye.*

I know I have done this before, and somehow on those previous occasions, I clawed my way back. It seems unlikely this time. Much as I love sharing my images with you all, the process of preparing the regular (!!!) editions of WYSIWYG no longer brings me pleasure. Sadly, it has become like having a perennially overdue assignment. Time to stop.

A wholehearted thank you to all who have been with me over the various phases of WYSIWYG over the last thirty or so years. I enjoyed your company.

As for me, I shall continue to share my images, though in an unstructured way through various channels. Most recently, I post images on Facebook. I will not bother to defend that choice.

Bristol F2B cruising over Hood Aerodrome, Masterton

Thanks again for your company and your kindness.

Brian
* Rogers and Hammerstein … Sound of Music

27 January, 2023 … another year

Belatedly, a happy new year to all my readers. May it be the best yet. We had a great Christmas with four of our five kids and their families. The fifth couple had visited a month earlier so it was effectively a full house. We got lucky with the weather too.

California quail (F)

Trips to the Zealandia wildlife reserve are less frequent than they used to be, and my stamina has diminished too. As a result, I don’t get to the far corners of the reserve as I used to. Nevertheless, it was a delight to see this quail wandering about.

Duckling

It’s probably a common Mallard duckling. It was a pleasure nevertheless to see it preen its plumage.

Two Takahe at Zealandia

The takahe have very solid bills. They look as if they could be used to open a 44-gallon drum. It is amazing that they can be used for such delicate mutual preening.

North Island robin wrestling with a worm

The North Island Robin (Toutouwai) is a joy to be with. It tends to stay in the shadows and thus I find it difficult to photograph well. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem to fear humans and seeks out the insects that we disturb as we walk, and will even hop on the toes of our boots. This one was beating up a worm against the rail at the edge of the path.

Quails on the nest

This quail pair had recently produced a substantial brood of chicks and were sitting on them within a few metres of the main road through the reserve. We were told that there were about fifteen chicks. I wanted top clear the vegetation but obviously could not.

Self Heal flowers in the rain

There were a few damp days in the recent weeks and this brought bright colours to the various weeds in the garden.

Amaryllis hippeastrum

Mary looks after a neighbour’s cat when they go away occasionally. She was rewarded with a beautiful Amaryllis plant which produced magnificent flowers for almost two weeks.

Viking Orion

Cruise ships are visiting the port in numbers that seem to be at least equal to pre-pandemic times. Here the Viking Orion shows off her smart white paint in the morning sun.

To Picton

In a rare evening venture, I went around the Miramar peninsula one night, and liked the contrast between the Kaitaki’s gleaming hull and the shadows on the city’s Western hills.

Kaitaki

As she emerged from the shadows Kaitaki came into the full light of the late evening sun, and looked to be expecting a smooth crossing to Picton

26/27 Packard six roadster

This beautifully preserved car was beside us as we neared Waikanae. I wasn’t driving so grabbed my camera. I got the one shot before it took the Waikanae exit. We went the other way.

Avalon

This image was made from our front lawn, looking North towards Avalon. The array of grey roofs visible below the Avalon tower are part of the “Shona McFarlane” retirement village to which Mary and I are preparing to move in mid to late April.

Shona McFarlane Retirement village

The town house we are moving to in the village is about to undergo a top-to-toe refurbishment. This image is made looking back to the South and our present home is somewhere behind that grey roof on the right. We look forward to being on the flat and with all maintenance taken care of.

Meanwhile, Mary and I are once again embarking on the process of culling unwanted and superfluous household items. Some of it is still in the boxes we put it in five years ago when we had an earlier plan to move. That’s all for now.

31 December, 2022 – another year done

You may suspect I got lost. Since I last wrote, I have had Covid twice, and two teeth extracted. It has not been a particularly enjoyable time. I am hoping for an improvement in the weeks and certainly the year ahead.

Peony

The peony is among my favourite flowers. This was a particularly large and colourful one with a beautiful scent.

Sparrow egg

Mary was shopping and found this egg on a local footpath. It had been predated by someone or something, and though the access hole was small the shell was empty. After a lot of discussion among the local bird community, we decided it was a common sparrow egg.

Sea Lion’s last days

On many occasions, I have made images of the Sea Lion. This vessel began life as a naval tender in Adelaide. and eventually it ended up in Wellington. For as long as I can remember, she has been in private ownership in the region, serving for a while as a diving tender. Latterly it was a location for small conferences and accommodation. It acquired a kinky paint scheme such that its hull and upper works were covered in cartoon penguins. I wonder whether the money might have been better directed elsewhere, because the poor old thing was first moved to a more obscure berth and then she sank at her new mooring. After a week or two of exploring options, she was given up as a lost cause and was towed across the harbour to Seaview where she was beached on the sandy bottom near the shore. Just her wheelhouse and mast were showing for about ten days. I caught this shot on a still drizzly day while experiencing comparative wellness before my Covid relapse. After that, the remains of Sea Lion were dragged ashore in pieces and she was seen nevermore.

Common poppy

I think this is a common poppy, “borrowed” (with permission) from our neighbour’s garden.

Flour mill and bakery in Seaview

A sculpture in corrugated iron at the flour mill and bakery in Seaview.

The Golden Pohutukawa

As I have pointed out in previous years, there are yellow varieties of the pohutukawa. Every year, the media is taken by surprise.

Rose

Mary is a great procurement officer, and acquired these roses with the permission of our neighbour. The concentration on botanical subjects was something to take me out of the self pity while enduring the second round of Covid.

Hetairos

Once I was clear of bout two, I began to go out and about again, looking for images. This yacht moored at Oriental Bay is Hetairos, a 66.6m super yacht owned by Otto Happel. She is estimated to be worth NZD$55 million and is fitted for ten crew and ten passengers. She is not available for charter work.

Tui in the Aloes

While I was in Oriental Bay, looking for viewpoints on Hetairos, I parked near the garden at Pt Jerningham. There I was entertained by a pollen-stained tui seeking nectar from the aloes in flower there.

Female tree weta

I know this character does not bring joy to every viewer, but she is a a Wellington tree weta female. I tried for a focus stack, but she waved her antennae around so I was unable to get enough similar images.

Cactus: Orange snowball

Our elder daughter gave us a pretty little cactus earlier this year to mark our wedding anniversary. I may have even posted a picture of it back in April. It has sat there unmoving for seven moths or more. Then, with no warning, it sprouted a few buds, and they in turn became flowers. This happened in the space of three days at most.

Grace and Isaac arrive in Wellington

Speaking of blossoms, our eldest granddaughter and her young brother flew in from Brisbane with her boyfriend and her parents to spend Christmas with family. It was such a joy to have them here. We had not seen them since our last trip to Brisbane in July 2017. We had tickets booked for a trip in April 2020, but alas the pandemic intervened and we spent the next two years getting a refund from Air New Zealand. We did get it eventually.

Huhu bug

This creature is not everyone’s idea of a good time. It is Prionoplus reticularis, or Huhu beetle. It is the heaviest of New Zealand’s beetles and is typically between 40 and 50 mm long. The adult lives for a mere two weeks and it does not eat. Nevertheless, it can inflict a painful bite with its powerful mandibles. Most of us encounter one when a sound akin to a large helicopter comes through an open window on a summer evening.

And so ends 2022. Thank you all for your company this year, and I hope to see you again next year as we move on to brighter and better things. Happy New Year.

November 11, 2022 … slowing down

Indifference is destructive. Occasionally, I need to kick myself in the butt to re-activate my creative enthusiasm. All too often recently, unkind weather has quashed the urge to venture out in search of photographs. No remorse was felt. I do not need this to become a burden rather than a pleasure.

Evans Bay sailing lessons

People who freely give their time to coach youngsters in their chosen sport or hobby deserve the utmost admiration. Here on Evans Bay, the local yacht club is working with a group of juniors helping them to learn the basics of controlling their yachts.

Garden snail

For some reason, I see snails less frequently than I used to. Perhaps it’s that I no longer have any vegetable crops for them to attack.

Tiny spider

Not sure who this little guy is, but I loved the translucence of its legs.

Ants

We came to Normandale from Auckland in 1980. We were astonished that there were no ants. This year, we have started to see small signs of ants in the garden. Not the common black ant, but rather these glossy brown guys. Still trying to identify their species.

Wisteria

Wisteria in Riddiford gardens behind the Hutt City offices

Rangiora

Rangiora is a tree as well as a South Island town. It flowers in profusion.

Wellington Hospital

Wellington Hospital as seen from the ridge to the West. The new children’s hospital is the green building at the left. “Benefactors Mark Dunajtschik and Dorothy Spotswood contributed $53 million to the new facility. The Government contributed another $53 million and a further $10 million was raised by the Wellington Hospitals Foundation” (One News)

The old Dominion Museum

Way back in time, this was the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum. It was replaced in these roles when Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa) opened in 1998. It is currently leased to Massey University as part of its Wellington Campus.

The Man with the Donkey by Paul Walshe

In front of the old Dominion Museum building is the National War Memorial (currently closed until its seismic weaknesses are resolved). In from of that is this rather nice sculpture by Paul Walshe of Private Richard Henderson of the New Zealand Medical Corps who, along with the Englishman John Simpson Kilpatrick serving in the Australian Army Medical Corps, won fame for their courageous rescues of many wounded soldiers at Gallipoli.

The Tomb of an Unknown New Zealand Warrior

The tomb of New Zealand’s unknown warrior. It is a place of honour and respect, though it is not accorded the same quasi-religious reverence accorded to the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington

Fountain

Part of the Pukeahu NationalWar Memorial Park is some classical statuary. This pool and the lion fountain caught my eye.

Whakaruruhau

Among the newer statuary at Pukeahu is this gift from the British people to honour the joint sacrifices of the two nations over many years. It is about 5 metres tall and represents a merger of the British Oak and New Zealand’s pohutukawa. It was designed and installed by Weta Workshop for the British High Commission in 2017. It was unveiled by Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Boris Johnson. Its name is Whakaruruhau … as I understand it, this translates to protection, shield and shelter.

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You probably already know that I rarely resist the temptation of a still morning at the Oriental Bay Marina. I am having to be more cautious these days. The concrete pad in front of the boat sheds is usually covered in slippery green algae and is a known hazard. My ability to lose my balance and do a full height face-plant is increasing with age, and I have managed it twice in the last month. The humiliation, physical injury and damage to cameras and glasses means I take less pleasure in such places than before. As they say, ageing is not for sissies.

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In one of the gardens at the foot of Pt Jerningham, this spectacular two-metre tall flower spike caught my eye. With the aid of the excellent Pl@ntNet app, I was able to identify it as the Chilean Puya.

That’s all this time. If you would like these blogs posted to your email address, fill in the box below.

October 15, 2022 … Lightly seasoned

It’s strange that we are already past the vernal equinox, and yet we have had very little of the warm weather that the meteorologists have been promising. Mary and I have taken several opportunities in recent weeks to drive into the Horowhenua or the Manawatu whenever the weather has been even halfway decent.

This first image is of flowering cherry blossoms in the Featherston area. When this image was made, the nearby memorial garden was reluctant to burst into bloom, so I asked a friend who is resident in Greytown to report on progress over the next week or two.

Cherry blossoms – Featherston

On this day, we we drove up through the Wairarapa, seeing more and more signs of spring. A little block a bit North of Masterton was just a delight. As well as the profusion of daffodils and kowhai, there was a rabbit lurking in this picture. You might need to click to see it in the big picture.

Horowhenua Springtime

Since the closure of the Manawatu Gorge, the Pahiatua Track is one of only two roads that cross from the Wairarapa to the Manawatu. It’s an interesting road that traverses the Tararuas in among the huge wind turbines. On this first trip, I somehow missed the entrance to North Range Rd which allows the public a view of some of the many turbines along the Northern end of the range. Never mind. We ended up in Palmerston North where we enjoyed our picnic lunch beside Hokowhitu lagoon. From there we headed South on SH57 towards Levin. However, we got stopped by the glimpse of flowers in the grounds of Massey University. The flowering cherries were in glorious display.

The magnificent cherry blossoms on the Massey Campus

We weren’t the only ones enjoying the spectacle. There were lots of tui gathering the nectar and singing their hearts out. Such a shame that the Sakura season is so very short.

Tui enjoying the nectar

Spring is diverse nevertheless, and the next week, after prolonged rain, I wandered the Eastern side of Lower Hutt where I encountered mother duck guiding her brood across the road. It was quite funny watching the ducklings each taking their turn to breast up to the kerb and take several attempts to do a standing jump up onto the berm.

Motherly guidance

When the bad weather persists I turn to the late Sir Charles Norwood. He was founder of Dominion Motors, founder of the Wellington Free Ambulance, and the donor of the Lady Norwood Rose Gardens among other things. The Lady Norwood gardens include the rose gardens and the hothouses at the botanic gardens. Among the many varieties of begonias and orchids on display, there are some lovely water lilies.

Water lily

The orchids in the hothouses are each lovely in their own right, though they are often difficult to frame as an image with any artistic merit. I am reluctant to do any significant manipulation with Photoshop or similar, so am quite happy with this shot.

Orchids

A damp drizzly day in Breaker Bay and I was rewarded with this lovely blue shrub, Pride of Madeira (Echium candicans). The jewellery added by the soft rain lifts the picture substantially.

Pride of Madeira

Ika Rere (flying fish) is claimed as the first all electric ferry in the Southern hemisphere. I hate that statistic. It usually means they checked Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, Sydney Melbourne and perhaps Perth. We take it for granted that there is nothing worth checking in Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Montevideo or Sāo Paulo. Anyway, it is a pioneering vessel, and has entered the Days Bay ferry service. Unfortunately, it suffered an embarrassment when it ran out of power in the middle of the harbour, and had to be rescued by the police launch.

Ika Rere in service from Days Bay to Wellington

Tulips are a favourite for me, so I was delighted to encounter a wonderful crop of them at Mangaroa Farms in Whiteman’s valley. My first encounter was on a misty day with clouds of rain drifting across in the background.

Tulips in the rain

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Tulips in sunshine

A week later the weather dried out, so with permission from the farm owner, Mary and I revisited the farm and got a bit closer. I really liked being close to the flowers without the crowds of people you encounter in Wellington’s Botanic Garden.

Dark tulips

I love the dark varieties when it comes to Tulips. Sadly they were few in number.

My collection of annual photographic books

I have been getting up to date with my photo annuals. Each book is about 100 pages. and each page is fully covered with images. When you take into account the various image formats, that means about 120 images per book. I have books from 2011 to 2021. The company that produces them does a good job, though not cheap. One copy is typically NZ$60. Subsequent copies are inexplicably twice the price, So each of my books is the only copy.

Hutt Valley sunshine

Heading North on SH2 out of the Hutt Valley, I am always impressed by the view of the South wall of the Tararuas. Unfortunately, like many of the best views in the region, there is no place where you can legally park. Fortunately, Mary was driving.

Memorial garden to the Japanese prisoners of war in Featherston

Back in the memorial garden in Featherston, this time, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. Various people were making images there, including a long time friend from the days of the now defunct Hutt Camera Club.

Cherry blossoms

Honey bees provided the sound track , though I caught none of them in this image. Nevertheless. I thought the blossoms made a nice image.

Wind farm on the Tararuas above Pahiatua

We went up over the Pahiatua Track again, and this time, I remembered to follow North Range Rd along the ridge. There are a number of different wind farms clustered along the Range. Some are quite old, perhaps charcterized by two-bladed turbines, while others are bigger, brighter, newer and have three bladed turbines. I think they are amazing devices.

That’s it till next time.

September 27, 2022 … changing times

Queen Elizabeth II was a remarkable women who became queen in my 9th year. Despite my distaste for the notion of monarchy in general, Queen Elizabeth has served all her peoples with grace, dignity and unswerving commitment over seventy years. I do not intend to enter into debate with anyone on these matters, but it seems appropriate to acknowledge such a span of service.

Meanwhile, life continues at the coal face. Sometimes I find the routines of life a little uninspiring, and even depressing. Still, I love the process of making images. On the other hand, if I am not seeing or finding the images that bring me joy, the mood barometer swings downward again.

Hutt Valley rainbow

Mary and I had driven up to Palmerston North in the hope of finding birds or signs of spring. While I enjoyed travelling with Mary, the day was photographically, a bust. Then, as she was serving our evening meal back at home, Mary said “look out of the front window!” I begged a slight delay in the meal and grabbed my camera and a wide angle lens and went out onto the front lawn. Ever the sign of hope, the rainbow made up for much that we had missed earlier.

Cloudscape over Pt Halswell

It’s slightly weird when I am lamenting a down mood, that I can take pleasure in heavy clouds and grim outlooks. From Balaena Bay across Evans Bay to Point Halswell and the Miramar peninsula, I was attracted to the imposing cloudscape.

Rosemary in the rain

At the back door, Mary grows various flowers and herbs. They are just so ever-present that I often fail to see them. Now and then, they catch my eye. In this case, the rosemary’s blue flowers took some time on an otherwise damp and dismal day.

Evans Bay ripples

Evans Bay is a frequently visited site that occasionally yields a nice image. The still patch of water near the shore was disrupted by a row of incoming waves. Why do these waves differ from the chop on the water further out?

Interesting art in the back alleys

As I often do, I arrived too early for an excellent yum char lunch with friends and former colleagues in Courtenay Place. I filled the time by exploring nearby laneways. This image was made in Forresters Lane and is the front of a cocktail bar called “Love Bite”. Foreign territory to me.

Old familiar territory

Although I have done it many times before, I can’t resist still water in Oriental Bay marina.

Australasian shoveller

Despite the number of trips I make to Queen Elizabeth Park wetlands, I have not been rewarded with the hoped for birdlife in recent months. The only capture on this trip was this Australasian shoveller.

Tumbling water

Wellington’s Botanic Gardens are full of little surprises. This little waterfall is perhaps only a metre high, but adds to the music of the garden.

Tulip display

It’s tulip time again. Sadly it’s all too brief , but the gardeners always manage to arrange a good display of tulips for a few weeks. I got there the week prior to the annual tulip festival, so was limited as to the available colours.

Single bloom

I find it hard not to love tulips, singly or en masse.

Kaiarahi returns to service

Here is Kaiarahi (formerly Stena Alegra) just back in Wellington after many months sitting in Picton with a broken gearbox. The required parts were finally installed and here she is ready to resume service.

Urban forest

A splash of colour at the head Evans Bay. Urban forest’ (2008) by Leon van den Eijkel and Allan Brown is a stack of cubes designed to spin in the wind, of which there is plenty at the site. Sadly it fails often and just sits. Nevertheless, it is interesting and nine metres high.

See you next time, I hope.

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24 August, 2022 … mostly birds and botanicals

I can’t recall a more miserable winter than this one. Not in the sense of a Northern hemisphere snowy winter. Rather, it has been a season of persistent rain and sustained strong wind. Not a season to encourage much in the way of landscape photography in my opinion. And so it has been that I have made fewer images, and that the images were constrained by the subjects available, and by the often unkindly light of bleak wet winter’s days.

Apart from that, I somehow let time slip by, so I have accumulated a few more images than usual.

Little black shags getting ready for a hunting foray

The little black shag intrigues me. As far as I know, it is is the only shag that hunts in packs. All of the others are solitary hunters.

The flock in pursuit of a shoal of fish

It fascinates me to watch the flock herding a shoal of fish into the shallows where they can feast on the fish which have no escape route.

Winter weather in Island Bay

I mentioned the winter weather. One aspect of it that I rather like is the Southerly swells. Big slow moving waves with long intervals between each crest are so impressive. This is at the Western end of Island Bay.

Weight of water

Huge swells (by local standards) seem to glide almost silently towards the coast. Of course, the wind is shrieking but that seems separate from the water.

Welcome swallow

We’ve met this guy or one of his relatives before. For whatever reason, the wetlands at Queen Elizabeth Park have not had the usual variety of bird life. No coots or dabchicks have been seen in my recent visits. It’s a really tough day when there are no Welcome swallows. The flax branch just outside the bird hide is a favourite resting spot for them, and if I am lucky, it is open to the occasional shaft of light.

Tui in the rain

The tui was named Parson bird by early colonists because the white throat tufts have the look of a clerical collar. It is a member of the honeyeater family. Many people tend to think that its plumage is dark, almost black. If you catch it in the light, however, you find that its coat is an iridescent blend of blues and greens, brown and white. It seems to be increasing in numbers over recent years and that brings me joy, despite its bullying behaviour towards the smaller passerines.

Hard to keep the lens dry in such squalls

Somedays it sucks and then it blows. Though it’s warmer than the Southerlies, the Northerly wind can produce miserable conditions. Here we are in Evans Bay as the strong Northerly squalls rip the top off waves on Wellington Harbour.

Tui tries exotic foodMana

Another tui shot, with the clerical collar in full view. As I said above, it is a honey eater, and likes any source of nectar. I was surprised to see this one slurping on a banana that Mary had placed there for the waxes.

Mana marina

One of my struggles is to find different ways of looking at the broad scenes in front of me. In this case, I was at the Mana Marina. Normally I would choose a wider angle that reveals more of the boats, but on this occasion I liked the pattern or texture of all the boat bows nosed into the marina gangway.

Flowering cherry appeals to the tui

I promise this is the last tui in this edition. Spring is with us next week, but some of the flowers are ahead of the officially approved timetable. As I said, this is a nectar feeder so the sudden outbreak of new flowers is a delight to it.

The answer is always on the web

I think I have done this before. The bird hide at Queen Elizabeth park is not always productive, and I fill in time by making images of the spider webs around the view ports. I suppose the existence of the webs suggests that not much photography has happed here in recent days.

Pride of Madeira

There are some cliffs near the Seaview Marina, and as I was driving past, I spotted a beautiful splash of deep blue. Later investigation identified it as a member of the borage family called Pride of Madeira (Echium fastuosum) . Anyway, I snaffled a single bloom and photographed it in my dark box and quite liked it.

Sea shells from the sea shore

Wet windy weather persisted. Mary had braved the weather to walk Petone beach and she found some shells. OK, still life is good practice. I have no idea which particular mollusc this is but I liked the translucence.

Nuts

More still life – guess what the weather was doing. These walnuts have sat in the bowl for several months now.

Graffiti colours

I despise most forms of graffiti, especially the ones that are the equivalent of a dog marking its territory. Now and then, the colour choices catch my eye, as in this case in Lyall Bay.

Beautifully flat landing

I was eating my lunch in my car on the corner of Lyall Bay near the airport when this Pilatus PC12 approached the South end of the runway. It’s not a great shot of this fine little 9 seat aircraft, but I paid attention because it was making the perfect three-point landing without the usual nose-high flare more commonly seen. OK, so I’m a nerd.

More graffiti … I wonder how much this paint cost

More graffiti. This example is on one of the water reservoirs at the top of the Haywards Hill. If I had my way, the manufacturers and distributors of spray cans would be taxed annually based on the estimated square footage of external private property that is covered in their product. That includes every rail wagon and every wall defaced.

Elizabeth St, Mt Victoria

I don’t often look at Wellington from the East. This is from Elizabeth Street on the lower slopes of Mt Victoria. Those who know the city will recognise the Hunter building at Victoria University across the valley.

Pou Whenua

Further up Mt Victoria, near the summit lookout, is this fine pou whenua. I suppose a pou whenua is roughly equivalent to a totem pole. It is a statement of heritage by the tangata whenua (the people of the land).

Central city

Somehow, I find panoramic images are rarely satisfying, yet I keep attempting to make them. This one is a stitch of eight or nine images. I knew something was different in this one and struggled to identify it. It was only as I was checking that the stitching between images had worked that I realised there was no scaffolding on the Post Office headquarters building (extreme right). Scaffolding has surrounded this building since before I retired in 2011. Apparently apart from many other issues, this has involved asbestos remediation.

And so ends another edition. Sorry for the long gap this time. The weeks slip by ever faster. If you want your copy emailed, please subscribe below

July 17, 2022 …

One of my favourite mentors, Alastair Benn this week asked his subscribers what makes a good photograph/photographer. Any of you who have been reading my blog for a while will know that this is a sure way to trigger all my anxieties and self doubt. He also asked whether we thought it was feasible to judge your own work.

Solely in relation to my own work, I regard a good photograph as one that I like, that I am pleased to have made and one to which my first reaction is not how much better it could have been “if only I had done something else.” In my view, although I love to get affirming opinions from others, the vital component is that I like it myself. I take it for granted that the image is made competently. After that it is a matter of what I saw and how I extracted that seeing from all that was in front of me.

So here follows the usual collection of images made since the last edition of this blog. I like some of them. Others not so much.

Cape Halswell Light in the mist

Winter mist on the harbour and all is blank beyond Pt Halswell. The Hutt Valley is probably still out there, though there is no evidence of it.

Little Black Shag hanging the laundry out to dry

I like the little black shags. Their plumage is beautifully patterned but not coloured. This one was hanging the wings out to dry in whatever thin substitute for sunshine was available.

Misty on the Wainuiomata Coast Road

Misty conditions appeal to me, though the resulting images rarely match the vision I had when I made them. This was on the road South to the Wainuiomata coast. Silhouettes against the mist always appeal to me.

A constrained view from Wright’s Hill

Now and then I get the urge to go up Wright’s Hill at the Western end of Karori. The problem with geographic lookouts such as Wrights Hill, is that they are constraining. Every time I go up there, I end up in the same place looking at the same view. Only the light, time of day and the weather change. I need to get more inventive.

Evans Bay looking inland

Unlike Wright’s Hill, Evans Bay offers myriad different vantage points. Some face East, some West. Some look into bays, others look out. I liked this view because it is an angle not often seen.

White cabbage butterfly

As far as I can tell, this caterpillar is going from left to right. I will further venture that this is probably a white cabbage butterfly seen here hanging under a parsley plant. Two aspects caught my eye. A droplet of water on the caterpillar’s back was interesting because I have no idea where it came from. The other thing that drew my attention was its pointy little feet.

Sunset over the Hutt Valley

A seemingly perfect day seemed to promise a spectacular sunset. Sadly, it didn’t happen. Instead, a wall cloud developed to the West and we had a fairly ordinary sunset. The only consolation were the glittering reflections in the Hutt River and the Waiwhetu Stream.

On Ivey Bay (again)

Ivey Bay is a frequent haunt of mine. Among other things, I like it because of the character of the boats moored there. As I have observed before, these are not plastic “gin palaces”, but rather, honest working boats, probably built by the original owner.

Tapuae-o-Uenuku

Looking from the top of the Wainuiomata Hill across the Cook Strait, there is usually a splendid view of the Kaikoura mountains. Tapuae-o-Uenuku is always magnificent, especially considering that summit is 130 km away.

Tākina – the Convention centre

Here is the new kid on the block. This is Tākina. It is the almost finished Wellington Convention Centre. I quite like it, though birders are not pleased with so much glass that could injure the birds.

Aquilla coming home

Aquilla is one of the local fishing trawlers seen here returning from the Cook Strait with a swarm of sea birds hovering hopefully in her wake.

Porirua Harbour

Porirua Harbour has its moments. I especially like it when there is no wind, and that is much more often than you might think. This is a multi-image panoramic stitch made between two trees near the Whitireia Polytchnic.

Tulips

Mary had a birthday recently and the family turned up and provided morning tea at a local cafe. Jack (15) arrived with a bunch of tulips for the occasion. Flowers for the win!

And that’s another edition in the can, though I had a repeat of that sudden loss of editing. I might have to see if there is something more reliable than WordPress.