Snowing Seeds

A few days ago I received a text from Martin when he arrived at the Practice:  'The drive is covered in 'snow' - go photo'.  So I went out to see but unfortunately both cars had gone down the drive scattering the 'snow' to the sides.  However it was still falling.  I believe that there is a word for it when trees produce a super-abundance of seeds in a year.  Scriptor may know the answer.  I know that the Pohutukawa trees here have years when they cover the hillsides in red more densely than in other years.  Anyway that's what some of the trees in the paddock were doing and it was an amazing sight.  It lasted for a few hours.







The seeds were blowing right into the house through the ranch sliders and got everywhere.  Photographing them falling wasn't so easy but the above shot across at the trees will give you an idea of how dense the fall was.

Welcome to Whangarei

I had a wonderful weekend up in Northland.  Never having been North of Auckland before I wasn't sure what to expect.  I've see a great deal of the country from Auckland south to its southern tip on Stewart Island and the one thing that anyone will tell you is that this is a country of considerable variety and beauty:  glaciers and fjords, sub-tropical rain forests and scrubland, volcanos live and dead, long sandy beaches and sea cliffs.  The variety never ends.  So I really had no idea what to expect in Northland except, of course, the inevitable beauty.  The hop on a Beech 20 seat twin turbo-prop from Auckland to Whangarei takes 35 minutes officially but, in reality, it took considerably less.

Coming into Whangarei from the South I had my first glimpse of what I came to know as the Uppity Downity Mountains.  The hill under the arrow became particularly significant.

 

Welcome to Whangarei and my weekend's adventure

Dancing Silhouettes

These are very reminiscent of the figures in Glasgow that Anna showed me and about which I blogged in Eagleton Notes as Art on the Wall.  I thought that the motion portrayed by the silhouettes was very clever and expressive.  I loved them.

 

 

Back From The Wilds

It's 1pm and I'm back in Napier again and, despite myself, I'm ensconsed in The Cottage safe and sound.  I've had a great weekend and there is lots to blog about.  However after having no internet access at all since I left here on Friday and no Telecom cellphone coverage where I was staying I have arrived back to a broadband outage in much of this area South of Taupo (2 hours drive North).  Apparently it went down around 3am and Telecom are treating it as a major priority but have no idea when it may be repaired.  In the meantime thousands must be without broadband.  One would like to think that it'll be a short time before we are re-connected but Telecom's record on outages is not particularly good.  On occasion huge numbers of people and businesse are without telephone connections for weeks.  In the meantime I've managed to hook up via a dial-up link.  I've tried my emails but haven't had much success so far.  Oh well.  I'll be back as soon as I can. 

In the meantime having managed to get all the washing done I just went out to put it on the line and large spots of rain fell out of what had been a beautiful blue sky an hour ago.  Oh.  I forgot the hood's not on the car.  Oops.

I said 'despite myself' because I forgot to take my car keys with me.  So Wendy and Martin put the car down to the Airport last night for me this morning because Wendy had to be at the School this morning to ferry children on a trip.  Anyway Wendy managed to get keys to the airport.  Another oops.

I wonder what else will happen today.  If I'm able I'll let you know.  In the meantime......

Off To Northland

I leave on the 11.40 plane for Auckland and then from Auckland to Whangarei.  The pronunciation of that name varies depending upon the speaker.  Most of the newscasters seem to call it Fan(g)eray.  The g is sort of silent.  Unfortunately I can't really use phonetic code.  Some people call it Whan(g)eray.  Some call it Fan(g)erie (as in pie).  Anyway that's where I'm headed.

Wrinkly Tin

When I was a child we had an Anderson Shelter about which Scriptor blogged.  It was made of what we called in the UK corrugated iron.  In New Zealand it is called wrinkly tin.  When I came to NZ I fell in love with wrinkly tin..  It is one of my objectives to photograph lots of it.  When we were in Whakatane there was a cat and a dog in wrinkly tin advertising a vetinary practice.  I fell in love...

Scary or What!

I've had my beard for nearly 40 years.  Today I went for a haircut.  Now I accept that my hair, or rather lack of it, does not allow a hairdresser much poetic licence.  After a quick trim and tidy up - we called it a short back and sides in the old days - the hairdresser was obviously bored and suggested that she trim my beard.   Shake of my head.  "It could do with tidying up." she opined.   Now no one has ever trimmed my beard except me  (so far as I can recall) and I really didn't see any need to break the tradition.  I did make a major break with many many years practice a year or so ago when I reduced the length on the trimmer from 7mm to 6mm.  pretty radical, I thought at the time.  Anyway before I could say 'Jack Robinson' (I wonder who Jack Robinson was) she was out of the blocks and away.  To my utter horror my beard is no longer fit to be called a beard.  It's little more than a fuzz.  Then she started on my eyebrows.  At least I still have them! 

The Whakatane Tournament

I mentioned that I was in Whakatane last weekend for a tournament.  I also mentioned that it rained on the Saturday.  Well the Sunday was glorious.  The tournament was one of the best run I've been to and considering the appalling conditions on Saturday the Manager did exceptionally well to get all the games played.  The hospitality and catering by the Club's members was also very good.  We were welcomed and on the evening before the tournament made very welcome for a practice to see what the lawns were like.  We have decided that we will be back - and not just to defend the titles we won!

  Playing under the palms in the sun

 

 Club Captain (Ann McKenzie) and Tournament Manager (Dale Majury)

  The results

  

Jayne and I won the Doubles.  Jayne as our Club's Captain thanking the organisers on behalf of our Club

 

And, for the record, Gaynor (she who gave Jayne the bib!)  from our Club won the Handicap Singles on Saturday

Windows 7

I came to New Zealand the day after Windows 7 was released.  I bought a copy in the UK in Glasgow the day I left.  I installed it (I did a clean install) on Palin (my laptop) to replace Vista soon after I arrived.  I knew two beta testers who had both been very pleased.  I can now say that I am absolutely delighted.  I have never used a Mac but of the operating systems from Windows 95 through 98, 2000, Millenium Edition, and XP to Vista this is by far and away the best.  The speed is excellent - it opens and closes the laptop in under 30 seconds, it is clean and simple and has all the things I need (I am using Home Premium).  I would recommend it without hesitatation.

Now that Microsoft have now dropped Outlook Express which I have always used for all my POP email accounts I am wondering what to do.  I did try Mozilla Thunderbird but thought it was a bit too 'cluttered'.  That was quite a while ago. I might give it another go.  Does anyone use anything else?

The Rain It Rained

The Saturday at the Whakatane Tournament was the Handicap Singles.   We started off the morning in the rain and it steadily got worse.  The forecast had been for occasional showers so this was a bit of a surprise and dissappointment. 

Soon the lawns were unplayable

 and still the rain fell

 

 when it eased a bit out vame the squeegies and the hard labour

 

 meanwhile the Christmas parade assembled in the park next door

 

and we retired to the clubhouse with the - entirely appropriate - Club mascot (made by one of the members).