nature

Week 14: Tryptych

Posted by robeanne

Week 14 asks us to connect two or three photos together to provoke a thought or to tell a story.

My biggest challenge was finding an app in which I could frame two or three photos. I fell back to ipiccy as this is a photo editing tool I have used before.

I am well behind on my weekly challenges but have had the project titles in my head as I have been out and about.  We have recently spent a lot of time in the NZ bush and as it is Autumn, there are heaps of mushrooms about.  The other day we found these Slender Parasols up by the trig point in Hamilton Gardens in various stages of development.

three parasol mushrooms in various stages of development.

A new garden has recently opened at Hamilton Gardens. I was not too impressed with the Tudor Garden but I really like the Concept Garden.  The squares of water, and different types of plants reflect the squares on land maps.  The Māori whakatauki on the wall and the rusted iron water tank tell contradictory stories of the permanence or fragility of the land and the people.

Whatungarongaro te tangata toituu te whenua
As man disappears from sight, the land remains

 He peke tangata, apa he peke titoki’ 
The human family lives on while the branch of the titoki falls and decays.

hamgardens.jpg

My third option is a city scape – I used an app called Tiny Planets which is a bit of fun to create the images in this collage. All the images are from the same photo but one is the original and the other two are edited in Tiny Planet.

three images in a row, the middle is a cityscape at sunset, the outer two are derivatives, edited through an app that makes them into planets

Back to nature for the last one. Once again on our wander into Hamilton Gardens on Anzac Day.  Autumn is good for seeds as well as mushrooms, and we saw these plants in various stages from fresh green pods to fully blown seeds.

seedburst 2

Too many choices again!

Rā 49, Rāhoroi 18 o Huitānguru 2017

Posted by robeanne

Early morning oxfam trailwalk training in the arboretum. We went round and round for a couple of hours! Chooks rule the roost at Taitua and we came across plenty of hens with chicks. Enjoyed the display put on by two swans too as they danced their dance of love! A traditional photo in the climbing tree and, of course, a handstand. This time in the stone circle. 

Think this is my pick of the day…

Rā 36, Rātapu 5 o Huitānguru 2017

Posted by robeanne

Day 2 of a long weekend. Boy wants to stay home and hangout with friends so we head off to Opoutere. Across the flatlands of the Waikato in the cloud which starts to break as we hit the hill climb from Kopu to Opoutere. Little car decides enough is enough and hiccoughs it’s way to a halt on a really inconvenient part of the snaking road.  I don the hi-vis vest and walk back down a couple of bends, take my life in the hands of mad NZ drivers racing up the hill to wave frantically at them to slow down for a hazard.

Little car eventually decides it has rested sufficiently to carry on.  A Good Samaritan follows us to Tairua to check we’re ok. Thank you, man from Kopu Bed and Breakfast place.

The stunning views from the top of Paku – an extinct volcano are worth the steep, hot 380m climb.

I get my first ocean fix at Ocean Beach, Tairua. Golden sand, blue sky, deeply shelved beach so waves roll and crash magnificently. Floating beyond the breaking waves, being lifted on the rise and fall, eyes closed, weightless. Then swimming into the wave before it spills over me, exhilarating. Rest afterwards, the warm sand under me, sun beating down so just a few minutes. Bliss!

Opoutere in the early evening, in beautiful light is stunning. A walk through the pine forest. I love the smell of pine trees, the soft carpet of fallen pine needles and the crunch as they break underfoot. And the patterns against the blue sky as I look up at them towering above me.

Another ocean fix; the water seems warmer, the sun less harsh, the breeze less fresh, the waves gentler. Then we walk along in the shallows watching the play of light on the water, the shifting sand as the waves roll in and ebb out.

Wee Dotterels sitting on their nest pop up and draw us away, marching primly, pausing, looking, and on again. Nesting right in the middle of a sandy beach….hopefully their chicks survive.

We are warned off by male Oyster Catchers fiercely defending their young as they forage on the waterline, breaking tuatua and pipi with their bright orange beaks.

Then, a stretch along the muddy estuary as the sun is going down. The edge of the mangroves, leaves  bursting from their seed cases, shellfish providing sustenance for birds, a living, breathing landscape.

Finally, a bright blue flash – the wings of a tiny kingfisher as he darts through the sky to land on the top of a tall ponga tree stump. Perfect day.

Rā 218  Rāmere, 5 o Here-turi-kōkā

Posted by robeanne

An early start to the day so that I could take an hour or so at lunchtime and make the most of being on the road.  So instead of a morning run round the lake in the Tron I had a lunchtime run around the ‘windows’ at Karangahake Gorge.  The way that nature has reclaimed it’s place from the industry and technology of the 19th century just fascinates me.  It is a stunning landscape and a reminder of the temporary nature of man’s impact on the environment.