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

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!

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.