autumn

March 2019

Posted by robeanne

On the first day of the month, we made a last minute dash to see Eddie Izzard’s show, Wunderbar. Despite a horrendous jourtney up ther, we had a great night.

Still summer – breakfast on a sunny Saturday morning in the garden.

A chance for a long overdue catch up with a friend. Our conversation on that morning was a topic that warned of tragic events that happened later in the month.

Summer evenings in Kirikiriroa. Making the most of late summer. The changing face of the view from the trig – earthworks for the new road layout at Cobham Drive.

Only in Aotearoa….

Ararimu – working with a new school so I like to have some photos of the landscape to get an idea of the place where their feet are. Ararimu means ‘pathway through the Rimu trees’ – it seems that there was no Māori settlement here but it was on the road between Tamaki Makaurau and the Waikato. The documented history here seems to start with European settlers.

The Mighty Waikato river – evening trailruns. Enjoy them while they last!

Tap takeover at @Crafthamilton. A smorgasbord of Garage Project beers with accompanying food tasters. Ended up being a bigger night out than we had planned! The dangers of wearing an ‘iconic’ Garage Project Tee-shirt when the brewers were in the bar!

Early morning on the Waikato river – the Kirikiriroa marathon is run by some friends of ours and so I spent the day volunteering as a marshall.

The nights are starting to draw in and card games and whiskey seem to be in order! This evening Victor Hugo seemed to get turned over more often than usual. Quite serendipitous for my hand this time!

Autumn skies

View from a teenager’s bedroom door…….

It’s not often my 19 year old will come out for a walk with me – especially at midnight! But I needed some fresh air after a long day at the computer and Nigekl was in Oz. So, we took a football and played footie on the way – maybe it;s not often that a 56 year old Mum will play footie with her 19 year oild son?!

Values….

“The darkest day…”

We were travelling down to Taranaki to the WOMAD festival when we heard about the events in Christchurch on the news. We were in shock as we listened to the radio. All around us was the beauty of the New Zealand landscape. How could such a thing be happening in Aotearoa?

Campervan life – got to have a tea cosy!

Aging hippies!

Aonghas received a parcel in the post….. a trophy! Something to do with his online gaming – signs of a misspent youth!

I had the pleasure of attending a meeting about the Tainui Education Plan (Kawenata) at which Ann Milne spoke. Inspiring and challenging.

Technology projects at schools in NZ…. design thinking, authentic contexts, problem-solving. Some way to go methinks!

Full moon at Ohope beach. This time on Saturday we’ll bve walking along here on our penultimate leg of the Oxfam 100km!

One week on … #headscarfforharmony. There has been a lot of kōrero about the rights and wrongs and appropriateness of this gesture and Jacinda Arderns’s choicve to wear one in the last two weeks, but at the time, it seemed like the right thing to do to support our Muslim community. I still think it was the right thing to do.

Those stop banks! Much easier in the daylight and they had been mown! But there was some long grass and uneven ground for us to wade our way through – this was about 30km into our 100km walk for Oxfam.

We made it! It was a long last leg; we were hurting but we kept going and made it home in well under 20 hours. For a while, we thought we might make it under 19 hours but it wasn’t to be!

Back to work with a bang!

Sunrise.

This week we have been running Local Curriculum Workshops for Principals. Fascinating conversations. Love my job!

Three Beer Thursday at @CraftHamilton

Caught the cat just sitting there …. Autumn nights.

It was one of those gardening days at the end of the summer – tidying up the overgrowth and came across this – rose thorns on steroids!

Last minute prep for workshops tomorrow! Looking forward to the kōrero with a group of Principals.

Week 19 Vision: Edge Cut Sun

Posted by robeanne

Another difficult one especially using a phone. The sunlight at this time of year in New Zealand is also quite harsh unless you can catch it in the small window as it disappears in the evening. There has also not been a great deal of sun this week!

It came out this morning between the wind and rain showers so I had a play. Nothing really spectacular, and mostly over exposed splashes.  I could see the wind blowing the trees and the sun flashing between the leaves as the wind blew them so I grabbed my phone and headed out.

looking up at a blue sky and sun shining through bright green maple leaves

My boys bought me a beautiful garden ornament for Mothers’ Day and I thought that it might be interesting to see if I could catch the edge of the sun against it or through the holes. It proved trickier than I thought – partly because I couldn’t stand it in the right place to catch the sun and partly because the wind just blew it around too much, and partly because it is bright metal and the sun glinting off it just burnt everything else out! I enjoyed playing with some editing though…

sun shining through a garden ornament that looks a bit like a spear head. Set against blue sky and clouds. Edited so that it is deep blue, white and red.

 

In the afternoon I was out in the Redwoods in Rotorua briefly for a run before watching youngest son play hockey. The sun glinting through the tall trees gave me another opportunity to try to capture the edge of the sun. Still not very successful. The sunburst isn’t fantastic but I love the colours and the shadows in these two shots.

Tall Redwood trees with long shadows across leaf and bark strewn paths with sun shining through.

Redwood trees in forest, autumn sun shining through

 

 

 

Week 12: Macro

Posted by robeanne

Oh, so many to choose from after a weekend away! I forgot to take my SLR in the rush and ‘busyness’ of packing up, so resorted to the ‘pro’ setting on my Samsung camera app which allows me to manual focus and change ISO etc. It is a bit tricky focusing as you basically need to move physically closer or further away from the subject. And steadying a light camera is not easy either. Nevertheless, I am quite pleased with the results.

We spent Easter weekend exploring some of the Whirinaki landscape. A new area for us made easier now that we have a campervan to pull over in and sleep anywhere! The podocarp forest (ngahere) is a stunning place and especially rich with berries and mushrooms now that Autumn is on its way. We were lucky too, with the weather. It is still warm and the sun provided excellent light through the trees.

Here are a few of my shots. Which do you like best?

woolly inkcap mushroom looking into the centre from an angle
Woolly Inkcap; Lake Okaro

Shaggy Inkcap Mushroom taken from above
Woolly Inkcap

earthstars
Earth Stars; Whirinake Waterfall Track

clover
Clover; Lake Okaro

puffball mushroom, white with detail of skin
Puffball Mushroom

bright green fern growing on the side of a tree. Spores are around the outside.
Kidney Fern; Whirinaki Waterfall Track

bright green kidney fern, seen side on growing on the side of a tree. Light shining through it.
Kidney Fern: Whirinaki Waterfall Track

dandelion clock
Dandelion Clock; Lake Okaro

deep red berry with a drip of water hanging underneath
Berry with drop of water: Lake Okaro

Rā 125 Rāhoroi 6 o Haratua

Posted by robeanne

Certainly ready for the weekend but an early start to get out on the hills in preparation for next week’s half marathon!! 

16km up at the windfarm. Not really my ‘happy place’! Too much runnable up so no opportunities to walk! Good preparation for Abel Tasman though and a beautiful autumn day. 

I am always fascinated by the wind turbines – so majestic and synergy with the landscape.