Here, There and Everywhere

I now have so much material for blog posts that I could bore you for months.  As it is most of it is likely to remain unused in my iPhoto bank for eternity (ok, for a few years anyway).  I shall try and distill some of the more compelling and/or less boring photos from the last month and get them onto the blog before I eventually leave for the other end of the globe (in 63 sleeps).  I think that I said that once before either on this blog or on Eagleton Notes and then never managed it.  I'll try harder this time.

They are a sort of hotch potch.  Rather like this suit walking down Emerson Street last week:

Or looking out on a wonderful world through a window:

Or just being together:

Or perhaps being alone:

Or this curious pink shop (which had just been flooded up to the mark on the black-board by the door) at Kaiaua near Miranda on the Firth of Thames:

Lady With Dog, Emerson Street

Timed to coincide with Art Deco week this statue  or sculpture now adorns Enmerson Street in the centre of Napier.  Judging by the number of people who have stopped to admire it and take photos when I have been there it has been very well received.  I think it is both beautiful and elegant.

 

 

Morning Coffee With Catriona

Wendy, Catriona and I had morning coffee on Emerson Street.  Catriona had a 'fluffy'

Thoughts on a Lazy Day

I woke this morning to a dull, heavy, almost humid, windless day.  I decided it was the perfect day for staying at home and perhaps doing a bit of weeding and so on in between the blogging  and sorting out iTunes and ...well, you know the sort of thing.  A spot of housework wouldn't go amiss either.   And some weeding and garden care.  For once I could have gone and played pétanque and, honestly, I did sort of intend to.  But now that it's midday - tempus fugits so it does - I rather think I'm going to stick to the lazy day idea and not venture forth from the property.  I think I may go for a walk this afternoon, though because it's now warm and sunny 27 deg with a cooling breeze. After all the 'garden' is 5 acres and I haven't been round it to the bottom paddocks in the four months I've been here this stay.  How disgraceful is that.  I think I might pop down to the orchard too and see what the trees have to offer.

After yesterday's little brushes with things of nature I seem to be plagued (well, perhaps not actually plagued but there are more than usual) with house flies today.  The huge buzz bombs we get (I think they are Blow Flies) are, oddly, less of a nuisance because they simply fly in - albeit noisily - and hit windows until they find an opening and then fly out again.  They seem to have no interest in humans.  Oddly the house flies seem the most resistant creatures to the anti-insect coating on the Cottage's surfaces.  Blow Flies, on the other hand, die within a very short time if they happen to land.  Thought you'd like to know that.  Well, not really, but I thought I'd tell you anyway. I also once heard or read that a fly will die of exhaustion if you prevent it for quite a short time  from resting.  I prefer the armoury of insect sprays available.  Although they probably do me more harm than the flies will.

Broadband is working as I type but it wasn't earlier today so sorting that has become a priority!

As it's Valentine Day I thought I would show you what has replaced the Christmas Tree in Napier's Emerson Street.

 

 

The Circus Comes to Napier

Three of the children enrolled for three mornings of circus school. Today they did what I certainly would never have had the courage to do at their ages (or at any age come to that). They gave a public performance at lunchtime in Emerson Street in the centre of Napier. It was wonderful to see how much they tried and how much they enjoyed it.

Wendy and I parked ourselves in ringside seats with coffee

Catriona and four spinning plates

A double act

Fraser upside down as usual

David doing things with sticks: my Dad always stuck his tongue out when he threw a dart

Beautiful but scary

Street Furniture: Second Instalment

Whatever the peculiarities of Emerson Street and its 'pedestrianisation' peculiarities the situation certainly has given rise to a lovely street with lovely street furniture. A comment on the last posting on this subject was to the effect that the bollards obviously didn't work. In actual fact they do the job they are put there to do because, despite the fact that this is a 'pedestrianised' street with cars it also has free 10 minute parking bays down most of its length!! It just means that not only do people constantly walk in front of cars because they either don't realise or forget that there is a road down the middle even though it has the same paviored surface but the children can run out from in between parked cars in what they perceive to be a pedestrian area. OK so that's really daft but I suppose like local authorities everywhere Napier City Council had its reasons when it did what it did. Anyway here's some details of the splendid street furniture that adorns the street.

Street Furniture

A while ago CJ did a blog posting on street furniture and bollards in particular. Whilst I was having my town centre wander on Sunday morning I re-awakened my awareness of the large amount of street furniture in Emerson Street and the superb quality of that furniture. The problem with Emerson Street is that it is a 'pedestrianised' street with a through road for cars. Bizarre? Yes it is. The whole street has been paved with the small decorative and practical interlocking bricks. The problem is that they don't differentiate between the part reserved for pedestrians and the part on which cars can drive. There are, therefore, a lots of bollards to stop the cars actually encroaching on the pedestrian area. Unfortunately the bollards don't actually stop people walking in front of cars. But that's a different issue which is not for this Blog.

A Pillar Box That Wasn't There

I'm sure that it wasn't there last time I walked down Emerson Street. However it was there on Sunday morning and it does seem unlikely that it has only just arrived there.