Twisted

Twisted tree outside Peter's surgery. Guess it was not quite sure which way to go.

Pressies

I am a lucky girl again. I got a whole lot of books for christmas. And a lounger to lounge about on while I read them.

I have been a very lucky girl again

Christmas

Each year we all go through all the fuss and rush and stress, to end up with a pile of ripped up wrapping paper, dirty dishes and half eaten trifle. And I would not change it for the world.

Stick Insects

While looking for bamboo shoots too crush (will explain this on another day), I turned over a leaf on the Acanthus to find a giant stick insect that made me jump back and squeal. I called over all the kids and Peter to see the giant insect. We then searched under all the leaves looking for it, only to find two of them sitting on the flower above us. It is brilliant to see them living where they should be, not in a tank.

Paradise

Bird of Paridise on Marine Parade, Napier.

Mount Ruapeho

Another picture of Ruapehu, just peeking out from the clouds.

Merry Kiwi Christmas

A snap of a Pohutukawa tree. The kiwi christmas tree, because it has the most beautiful red flowers at christmas time. Merry christmas, I hope you all have a peaceful day.

Today's Daisies #14

I found today's daisies on the veranda of a Napier villa.

Christmasey at Last

It has taken a long time for me to get into the christmas mood, if not the christmas spirit. But better late than never and today I finally finished putting up the christmas decorations. I still can't quite get the hang of christmas in the heat and I still did not get my christmas quilt finished. Maybe next year.

Today's Daisies #13

Today's daisies are from Clive Square again. They are just starting to come into bloom.

Aliums

Aliums are one of my favourite flowers. I love the shape of the flower head as it pops out past the leaves. I love the way the flowers appear to float over the lower foliage. I love the colour of them. In fact I love just about everything about them. So please forgive me for posting so many pics of them.

The Mission

As usual we bought tickets for the Mission concert before they announced who the artist was going to be. When it turned out to be John Cougar we thought ok, then they added Elvis Costello, which sounded a bit better. Yesterday they announced that John Cougar and Elvis Costello have pulled out. Instead Tom Jones is going to be the headline act. I have been struggleing not to burst out in Tom Jones greatest hits at any moment. Viki at work is threatening to sing christmas songs tomorrow. Guess I might have to join in with "Its not unusual".

Bit of a shake up

Just had a bit of a shake up. We were lounging around on the sofa and it started to shake, then the front door rattled, the lampshade and the christmas tree shook and we all looked at each other. My first earthquake that I have been awake for, the rest have been while I was asleep in bed. It was a magnitude 6.8 sited 50km of Gisborne.

Oh and the frying pan wriggled out of the cupboard.

Today's Daisy #12

Today's daisy is a itsy, bitsy sunflower growing at the front of my youngest's garden. His garden used to be the sandpit (or should I say mudpit). A couple of months ago he asked if he could convert it into his own garden. Now it is planted up with sunflowers, swan plants, mustard, mint, fennel and nasturiums. Plus some cuttings from the hedge, most of which have died off but a few must have struck as they have not shrivelled up yet.

Encouraging Catapillers

In my youngest son's garden we are growing Swan plants, just so they could be eaten by the caterpillers of the Monarch butterfly. A very strange concept for a gardener.

Unfortunatly since taking this photo something has eaten all the caterpillers. The plants are covered in eggs so there should soon be somemore stripey caterpillers.

Hydrangea

The first of the hydrangeas has come into flower this year.

Summer Flowers

Here are a few snaps of the flowers currently flowering in my garden.

The Bougainvillea that Peter gave me for my Christmas last year.
The first of the Fejoa flowers. Day lily.

And last but not least a slightly overblown rose.

Today's Daisy #11

Today's daisy just in front of my hide away hammock. We searched everywhere in the garden to find a place to put up the hammock. Eventually I found a place in the shade between two Portugese Laurels. Perfect, I can watch what is going on in the garden, but still enjoy a few minutes peace while being hidden away. Our youngest has still not managed to find me.

This is my view of the garden.

Yesterday

Yesterday I should have been here at Trelinnoe Park garden. Unfortunatly it was raining, the first time in weeks. Instead we went to the pictures to see the film Once. Just a nice little film about two people who loved music and what happened to them in one week, set in Dublin. Perfect for a wet morning's cinema viewing. If you click on the pic below it will take you to the offical web site for the film and if you have patience to wait a little, you will eventually get to listen to the soundtrack for the film.

Today's Daisy #10

Gerberas in my favourite vase.

The First Day of Summer

I still can't get the hang of fact that we are heading for Christmas once again. I am not organised with shopping or with cards. Sorry everyone it is all going to be very late again this year. Here are some snaps of my garden on the first day of summer.

Roses and Cabbage Trees.

Some Daisies, can't miss them out.Another of those roses I was going to pull out last year.

Catmint and Yarrow against the side of the house.

And lastly what happened to the weather when Peter fired up the BBQ. Mind you the food still tasted good, Lamb Kebabs, Couscous, Cucumber and Mint Salsa, Yogurt Carrot and Date and some mouldy pitta bread, oops.

The Last Day of Spring

Yesterday was the last day of spring. Peter had a day off and we had promised to take Callum to the village pools. This is what they looked like before the kids arrived. You don't need a picture to know what they looked like 5 minutes later.

Today's Daisy #9

Today's daisy is the pendant I wore last night when we went our for a meal with my work colleagues. Peter and I had a great time, but were not too impressed with the meal. We went to Glen Etive a restaurant which mixes Scottish and Kiwi food styles! At the start of the evening we were served breads, for which I think they paid $5 per head. Sounds reasonable, but there were 17 of us and we were supplied with 16 slices of bread. Peter and I had to share a slice. How can they justify $5 per head for one tiny slice of bread. I would expect about to get at least two slices per person. The next course was soup, Kumera (sweet potato) and Coconut, very very yummy. Then steak on a bed of mash, again very nice, but just not enough veggies, and the ones we did get were soggy. The pudding was meant to be Scottish Christmas pudding, we suspected this would be battered and deep fried christmas pudding. Instead it turned out to be Spotted Dick (and yes the whole table went through the whole range of jokes you would expect to hear). I was really looking forward to this, but yet again the accompanying sauce was a very meagre portion and the Spotted Dick itself was so dry and unappatising. Now the setting was really lovely with a view out of Havelock to Te Mata Peak. So we may well try it again sometime, perhaps for lunch on a nice warm day, just to see if maybe the restaurant is better when it is not catering for large parties.

Down at the creek today #2

Down at the creek today I found, one duck all on its own.

Two dragonflies sunning themselves.

And a whole lot of peace and quite.

It is so nice to be able to escape down to the lower garden. You can really feel as if you are miles away from everything down there. Makes me relise that we are fine in the house we are in. We do not need to move to escape to the country. It is there all the time in our own backyard. Peter wants to build a small boardwalk and a deck with a little jetty out over the creek, so we can sit down there and enjoy the cool, peaceful quite. All we need to do now is figure out a way to get rid of the mozzies so we do not get eaten alive every time we go down there.

Today's Daisy #8

I found today's daisy at the bottom of my water jug. If you look at the image really closely you can see my hands and the camera reflected in a couple of the lower edges.

One for Sorrow

I am sure you know the old rhyme about Magpies; One for Sorrow, Two for Joy, Three for a Girl. Recently I have been seeing a lot of single Magpies. So when I saw two of them today thought I better take a snap. Well actually a third one then came down and joined them. But they all flew off before I got a chance to take another pic.

The New Additions

The new additions to the family have arrived and are scurrieing around there new penthutch. The pet shop claim that they are from the same litter, are 5 weeks old and both females. I am not convinced there is a big difference in size between them.

The brown one is Caramello, which is the name of my youngest's favourite chocolate bar.

The stripey one is Scatter, because she does. No it was not the camera that caused the red eye here, Scatter does really have pink eyes.