Yesterday I cut an agapanthus flower for the coffee table. As I was bringing it in I saw that it had a young Praying Mantis on it. The youngsters will soon be adults and climbing everywhere. I rather like them.
When we were at Ahuriri Beach recently the children made a rock stack. They are a popular form of art in this Country.
This is a view from the kitchen window, or possibly the Study, of my house on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. However I'd rather have shown you this which was the fifth picture in the fourth folder:
As for tagging I have a real dilemma. I have only just started visiting blogs other than those belonging to the family, so to pass this on could be a presumption that I should not be making. Perhaps I could lose a cyber friend or acquaintance before we have really become acquainted. Oh dear I suppose that I can be a party pooper or upset someone. Ah well, here goes: Simply Heather (because she has such a beautiful smile), and View From The Island (because it's an informative Blog I visit daily) and Ian's Place (simply 'cos I like his blog). Now I'm struggling because other bloggers whom I suspect may visit this site and pick up the tag are either few and far between or (like L'Archiduchesse) just too occupied with other things. Any volunteers?
Home and put the washing on the line under a sky with only the wispiest of clouds visible through 360 degrees. It could be very hot today because there is only the smallest of breezes.
And it's only 1030. The rest of the day is family time. It's the last day of the summer holidays. The plan is to take the children for lunch with a friend who also has family to look after, visit the crazy golf, perhaps Laser Force (June and I can 'escape' for coffee) and then to the beach outside June's house. I've got the family for dinner.
When I went into the Club House (or is it Clubhouse?) in Wanganui on Sunday there was a bowl on the table filled with funny green things that I took to be fruits. When I picked one up it was almost as light as air and appeared to be empty. I had never seen one before. They are, apparently, Gomphocarpus fruticosus or Swan Plant. They are a member of the Milkweed genus. They are a host to the Monarch Butterfly caterpillars.
Original mallet on left
Both mallets weigh 3 lbs but the weight distribution is very different. The head of the new mallet (on right) has most of the weight in the stainless steel ends. and the handle is carbon fibre with a sleeve all the way down to make holding easier further down the handle.
Looking South to the Tararua Wind Energy Farm (The Handbag in the foreground). The windmills are visible through 360 degrees from the point at which I was standing.
Majestic beauty
On the North side of the Manawatu Gorge is a town called Woodville. The public library may not be the most splendid of public buildings but I do like their wall decorations.
to play in a croquet tournament. Wanganui is to the West of the second sun down (or up for that matter) on the East of North Island on the bottom TV image. I'm hoping that the weather will be as good as predicted. I expect to be able to continue blogging but just in case I can't you'll at least know where I am. I'm back Sunday night or Monday morning.
The spraying of The Cottage by The Bug Man has been wonderfully effective in preventing the spiders, cockroaches and many other bugs from living in with me. The downside is that many innocent moths and unidentified insects also die. So far nothing apart from the seriously unwelcome have been left on the deck in the morning by the scavenging birds. Yesterday the above was on the deck and presumably not thought to be a tasty morsel by anyone. I may have seen one before but am not sure. CJ may remember because I would certainly have asked/told him depending on the state of my knowledge. I cannot find it in my Insects of New Zealand but have a sneaking feeling that I decided last time that it might have been an Ichneumonid Wasp and CJ agreed. Am I correct or am I dreaming?
This Snake Necked Terrapin lives in the National Aquarium of New Zealand here in Napier. Unfortunately the light and thick glass made pin sharp photography difficult but this fellow was just so scary starey that I just couldn't resist it.
New Zealand is a land of trees, shrubs, plants and flowers with beautiful and sometimes spectacular displays. This becomes evident quite often when driving and coming across displays like this one on a main road between Napier and Hastings.
One of the more endearingly quaint birds which I have round The Cottage are the California Quails. They scurry around the ground at a great speed and are not easy to photograph unless you have a long focus lens and a sunny day. Get too near and they fly off at a considerable speed. Oddly (I say oddly but it may not be so I'm not really sure why I said it) this is the first time that I've seen one in a tree.
The conservatory was re-built and is supposed to be much stronger than the original one.
It is at moments like this that, no matter how small the world has become, I am still a long way from my Lewis home. Fortunately I am not a worrier but I cannot help being happy to read this evening (the UK's Sunday morning) that the winds did not seem to have reached the severity expected. I await emails and news on the blog View From The Island which had posted on the forthcoming storm.
It's finished. OK so Wendy and Martin weren't quite ready when friends arrived for a BBQ but they had only just put the last pieces into the jigsaw. My contribution of about 6 hours over three days was the green and yellow bits round the Ugly Sister's dancing legs. It's now back in its box. I suspect it may be a very long time before another jigsaw sees the table up at The House. I should just add that the picture on the jigsaw had to be guessed at. It was a 'what happens next' from the picture on the box. As you can see it's not quite the usual fairy-tale outcome.
If you are going to spill rice pray that there is an open drawer just below. It is quite astonishing how a small quantity of rice turns into a huge quantity when it hits the kitchen floor.
Fortunately only a tiny amount actually reached the floor. Of course I was in the middle of cooking a meal. That's just the time one is using rice after all. Anyway it didn't take that long to clear it off the floor. The rice in the drawer waited until after dinner. However I discovered something. The chances of getting every grain of rice up first time is small. In New Zealand most of my friends do not wear shoes in the house. Have you ever trodden on a grain of rice in bare feet? You wouldn't feel it would you? Wrong. I now understand the significance of the story of the Princess and the Pea.
My initial reaction when I saw this was that it was a Willow Tree. I'm sure that it's not a native New Zealand variety. Unfortunately I couldn't get across the ditch in front of the fence so I couldn't get a better photo and the entrance to the field was not on the main road. However I thought it was a beautiful tree and worth sharing with you.
This building forms part of the complex near Hastings of the RNZSPCA (Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). When I blogged recently about wall paintings SS asked in his comment if there was a tradition of such art in New Zealand. I didn't (and still don't) have a definitive answer to the question but I will keep on searching. There are plenty of them around and this will certainly not be the last this year. I can't recall how many I blogged about during my 2007/2008 stay here.
I always feel good when I wake up first thing in the morning. I always think that it's a lot better than the alternative. Not that I'm particularly afraid of the alternative it's just that I can't be sure that there are croquet lawns there and I'd find it a real bummer if I were to be separated from all my friends and family just now. As I opened my eyes this morning this was the scene that greeted me. In fact this is the scene that usually greets me. From this you can tell a number of things. Firstly that I sleep with the curtains open (they've not been drawn since the first week I ever lived in HeeBeeGeeBeE's (The Cottage's proper name - Hawkes Bay GBE's, see?); that I have a lovely peaceful view over orchards, that it's a beautiful sunny morning; that a camera was at hand; and that I woke on my right side. You really wanted to know that didn't you.
The main street of Otane - wider than the State Highway off which it runs
McCauley's Store & Cafe with The Handbag outside
One of the many things (in addition to public loos) that New Zealand does very well is cafés. Yesterday I went to Otane to a maker of croquet mallets (of which more in a later posting). In the main street (Higginson Street - to me a seemingly unlikely name for a one street town in rural New Zealand) is McCauley's Store & Café. I had the best Americano coffee that I can recall having. I also finished the crossword whilst I was having it but I'm sure that didn't influence my view. There were actually quite a few other customers although I managed to avoid them when taking photos. I do, however, wish that my Brother had been there to do the crossword with me and enjoy the ambience.
When I commented on the 11 December 2007 about the solar water heater which The Cottage has I mentioned that the water vented when it got too hot. Subsequently we discovered that the near-boiling water venting onto the roof so forcibly found it's way into places it shouln't have gone. Because it was so hot it also melted the plastic downpipes. They were subsequently replaced by steel ones. This summer the weather has been very hot and the sun fierce and I've been using as much hot water as I possibly can. It doesn't vent now until about 93 deg c which is pretty near boiling point. The problem? It overflows onto the grass: a huge cascade of near-boiling water straigtt onto the grass - presumably because it vents too quickly for the drainage system. It's a good job no-one was underneath at the time.
This was my concession to decorating for Christmas. Not that, to be honest, they were very effective because this is midsummer and the evenings are light and I live in one of the sunniest spots in New Zealand. Unlike my dear Brother I have never been a lover of Christmas decorations. A very dear friend once suggested that when she brought the children round at Christmas it would be a good idea if I had a tree. I always take a mere suggestion from this particular friend to be something that I really should do. So I scrambled around in the loft and found the tree and the decorations and the lights and set the whole thing up. I even used two sets of lights. Half an hour before they were due the first set failed and just before the arrival the second one went too. I did have a photo as proof but it wasn't quite the same. The tree has since been consigned to the great cemetery for dead Christmas Trees and I really can't see me ever getting another one.
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