Strawberries

There is nothing nicer in summer than strawberries...

(I grew these ones)

...except maybe strawberries at a picnic.

End of year thanks to: nature

Ocean, sky, beach, mountains, trees, flowers and birds . I have really appreciated the beauty of nature greatly this year.

Onetangi beach, Waiheke

Mt Ruapehu

Maungawhau

Sunset over Auckland

Phoenix Palm in the rain

Pukeko in the Domain

Urewera National Park School Camp

School camp with my brother and 49 other 11-13 year olds was an experience I will never forget.

Especially the seven hour day tramp! It was 700 metres uphill (twice the height of the Sky Tower) and covered about 12kms in distance.

Honeymoon

Here are some photos from our trip around the East Coast - now officially known as 'Eastland'.

Photo day no. 2

Here are some more photos:

A strawberry in my garden.

The furiness of the leaves is something I hadn't noticed before.

Nana's amazing orchids 1 (first use of the tripod) and 2

I know this photo is a bit out of focus but I like the graininess of it and all the empty space.

As you can see I am still learning about photography and since I only have a run of the mill digital camera there are limitations. This week I am experimenting with the tripod and programming my own settings.

P.S. Told you my Nana's orchids were amazing. She says the secret is neglect, they don't like attention - who would have thought!

Garden of Eden

Here's a story about something interesting that I have been keeping an eye on over the past few years. It starts with an inner city site, known as 17 Kelly Street, Mt Eden. A site that could best be described as prime estate. Being considered prime real estate has meant this site has been fought over by various parties for many years and like all good battles it has not been without its controversies and victims.

I don't really need to tell you all this because if you go here it tells you all you need to know. But in case you don't here's the long and short of it:

In a previous life this site was home to a dental training school. Before the site was a dental training school it was earmarked as a public reserve (pre 1940s I think) but it never happened.

During it's time as a dental training school in the 1960s and 1970s they used to "throw spare amalgam out the window." As a result the soil, plants, and trees on the site become contaminated.

Fast forward to 2000 when ESRI (a crown institute who became the lucky owners) decide they no longer want the site and begin the process of selling it. A process which becomes the subject of much controversy. Before they can safely sell it they spend about $1 million on decontamination.

ESRI then sell it to a developer (who just happens to be the former CFO of ESRI) with an elaborate plan to develop the site into 22 high-density 'luxury' townhouses. The City Council was thrilled of course, because this area of Mt Eden is zoned for population growth and the development ticks all their boxes. The local residents were not so thrilled because they don't want a high-density development next door, they want a park. The local iwi are also not impressed because they have a Waitangi Tribunal claim related to this area.

Nearly ten years after the debacle first began, several resource consents and angry resident meetings later, in 2008 the developer pulls the plug on the development and the site goes on the market, later becoming subject to a mortgagee sale.

In the meantime, the unused site has been surrounded by a 100m wall. Far too tempting for taggers, the wall is soon covered in graffiti, which the owner paints over with grey paint every few days. The residents become annoyed by the tagging, but even more annoyed by the ugly grey paint. So they arrange 2 mural painting parties, inviting artists to come and help cheer the place up. The owner paints over them in the grey paint. The residents paint more murals, the owner paints over them again. The Council gets involved. It starts to get nasty.

Photo from NZ Herald article about Kelly Street Walls

By now you can probably appreciate the history of this site is long, complicated and involves a lot of angry people. Now one year on from the development plans being scrapped, the future of the site is still unclear. The local residents continue to fight for the site to become a park, a decision which the Council is yet to accept. And then just when you thought enough has happened here, one last development has occurred in the past few months that gives you the sense that this story is far from over...

The Garden of Eden Project

The Site

Blue Tree

Yellow Tree

Birdhouse

Earth Drum

Wall of Life

Gardens make me happy

My garden is small, like really really small (I think about 2m by 4m) and it's a container garden. So when things grow I am amazed because it's actually quite difficult to garden on such a small scale.

Here are some photos of things that are making me happy in my garden at the moment:

Calendulas

Broad Bean flowers on my first ever broad beans!

A gorgeous Camellia in the driveway

Pita pocket pizza with rocket from my garden

My next garden project involves saving. I am coveting an outdoor table and chair set so I can sit in the afternoon sun and enjoy my little courtyard garden. So when/if the budget allows I would like to have something like this:

from Bunnings

or this from Recollections.

Things I love from Apartment Therapy

I love, love, love looking at other people's houses. One of my dream jobs would be architecture photographer. There is a very good film featuring the work of Julius Shulman on at the festival at the moment, called Visual Acoustics. And it just so happened that he passed away on July 15th. I am hoping to go see it, if it stops selling out!

Image by Julius Shulman from Apartment Therapy

Not really into urban holidays? Then the small town escape could be for you.

I love the idea and also this postcard:

Postcard of Paris, Illinois from: Apartment Therapy

Mr Jones wants to build a house with no windows, with a glass roof. Personally, as much as I like clouds, stars, planes and birds, I also like being able to see trees and people. Plus I don't want a crink in my neck. So maybe something like this could be a compromise:

Source: Apartment Therapy

Thanks Apartment Therapy for entertaining me today :)

Orchids

Last night I went to the opening of Wonderland: The Mystery of the Orchid at Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Rodney Hide gave an opening address. Something about having a super museum in a super city. Yeah, yeah. He's a lot more blokey looking and sounding than I remembered. Like if he wasn't so short I would imagine him as a rugby player. I also spotted, Ruud Kleinpaste, Michal Mckay, and Ray McVinnie.

When I heard the idea for the exhibition I was wondering how they could create a whole exhibition just about orchids, and in some ways I left still wondering. The exhibition design is amazing, the use of gardening equipment as props is very clever and the lighting is pretty cool too. But the actual orchids and orchid objects, well they were interesting, but you would have to really love orchids to fully enjoy this one. My Nana grows some of the best orchids I've ever seen and I think she'd really love it. I'm hoping we can get her up here to see it. Here's one she grew back in 2007, though the photo I took doesn't really do it justice.

I never really thought about the orchid in the way I think of say, roses or daisies or other ubiquitous flowers. But suddenly they are everywhere I look and I hadn't realised. I even had some in bathroom:

The florist has suggested I have the Pink Cymbidium Orchid in my bouquet.

I also noticed this image on the calendar...

They really are a beautiful plant and as the name of the exhibition suggests a little mysterious and seductive too.

Poladroid

About a month ago I saw this post on one of my favourite wedding blogs - A Practical Wedding. This blog is great because it has loads of eye candy, some of the prettiest weddings I've seen, and sensible advice. The entry today really struck because it kinda fits in with things going on in my life right now. But that's a side note.

Anyway, my point is (I'm getting there...) we have not budgeted for a wedding photographer for our wedding, mostly because we can't afford and also because we are a bit camera shy. So I found the post on Practical wedding about alternatives to having a wedding photographer incredibly useful. In the article they talked about using Poladroid, down-loadable software that turns ordinary photos into Polaroid look-a-likes! I downloaded it and have had a wee play around and I love it! Photos of people turn out really well, as you can see here, but today I will share my top three nature shots.

My Mum took this photo when we were camping in Paihia. Thanks Mum :)

Mr Jones took this photo of the Puhoi Library

This photo was taken at the old Warkworth Cement Works

You can look at other peoples Poladroids on Flickr, but just a warning, it contains a variety of content.

And finally a Poladroid birthday shot for someone who is having a birthday today.

Happy Birthday!

Photo day

I have been experimenting with the camera recently. These are some of the results I liked:

Carnations in Crown Lynn shape no. 134.

Although mine are nowhere near as cool as this, the effect reminded me of a photo spread in NZ Home and Entertaining magazine (now called NZ Home) a few years back, captured by Derek Henderson, in which the stylist, Katie Lockart created arrangements such as this:

Source: Photo by Derek Henderson from Katie Lockart.com

I believe this is either shape no. 654 or 505.

Very talented people!