March 2009 Archives

is clouds: mountainous, soft, touchable puffs of apricot cloudness.

Taken from our verandah the other night...

I was shuffling plastic trikes and chairs and the barbecue around on the verandah on Saturday, when I disturbed a little skink.

He didn't dart for cover as skinks as per normal (they remind me of very quick, disappearing question marks when they do) but froze on the spot.

I had time to dash into the study, grab my camera and take one shot, during which he looked up at me, with his head tilted to one side as if to say "What the hell is this creature?"

I'm always one to take up the opportunity to tinker about in Elements and do a little bit of post-processing, so when I read Stirring over at Shutter Sisters, I knew that the jug full of hygrandeas in the front entrance way would be the ideal candidate.

These hydrangeas are all taken from two bushes - the blue and the white coloured flower heads are the young blooms. They go on to fade into palest green and pink, then finally into antiqued, rusted shades like an old black and white photo that's been hand-tinted.

I cannot believe I forgot to take my camera with me on our trip to Paihia this weekend! There it was sitting on the kitchen table alongside my bag, ready and waiting to be placed in the boot of my stationwagon, and there it stayed...

Despite the fact I have plenty of photos of our trips to Paihia (as the Other Harf reminded me) there is always another photo to be taken from a different angle or another shot that suddenly jumps into frame, so I was extremely disappointed and rather annoyed with myself.

All was not lost however; when we drove up to our touristy spot of choice, Te Waimate Mission House (site of New Zealand's first farm and the second oldest building in New Zealand) I remembered that I had my trusty Sony Ericcson K770i mobile phone, which just happens to shoot reasonably good photos on its 3.2 megapixel Cybershot camera.

I shot almost all of the pictures in black and white which really suited the atmosphere of this 179 year old house and with a bit of tinkering in Picasa, I almost forgave myself for not bringing my "proper" camera.

There is just no disturbing Miss 8.6 when she is watching Hannah Montana.

March's word of the month for Shutter Sister's One Word Project is beautiful. Bella.

This gorgeous pink lily bravely lines our driveway at the end of every summer despite the ravages of the John Deere ride-on mower, the flinging gravel of passing residents' cars and marauding, fence-leaning cows.

I love these flowers - they grew under the clothesline at my childhood home on Waiheke Island and their vanilla perfume never fails to flood me with nostaligic, sepia-toned 1970's reminisces.