Here we are as promised, some photos of one of our photowalking trips. We drove to the south side of the Manukau Heads on 2 December and spent a lovely day looking at the old lighthouse with lots of stops on the way. I think I might have already posted photos from the Patumahoe Water Gardens we stopped at but if not will do those next time. If you have ever used Google Earth then go to it and type in 'manukau heads lighthouse', you'll be able to see what the country is like down there, very rugged! They don't seem to have done the very up close shots yet of that part of the country but if you look at 'patumahoe', which is on the way there, you can get quite close up. When you zoom out from the lighthouse, have a look for 'Waitakere' (or zoom in closer for 'New Lynn Railway Station', that's closer) that's where I live and you can see the round about way it took us to get there when it's only a short distance if you go by boat, that's if they had a service which I'm not aware of if they do! Okay, hope you can understand all that, I'm starting to babble so on with the photos.
As we walked up the hill towards the lighthouse this pretty little finch followed chattering all the way, well actually he was ahead of us so I think he was telling us which way to go! I couldn't get any closer than this though but as before if you click on any photo you'll get a closer look.
You can read a little bit more about it here.
This is a large plaque showing the different spots on the north side of the heads looking over to where we live, the arrow is pointing to more or less where our house is!
This is looking back to the settlement of Huia, you can just see the houses nestled in the bay top right. That's where we went on one of our trips last September. DH recognised it as being the place where they filmed a UK drama we had watched on TV a few weeks before called 'The Man Who Lost His Head' starring Martin Clunes.
You know, I think some of my blog is missing, I remember quite well posting photos of the trip that day but they just aren't there anymore, there seems to be about a week's worth of blogging just disappeared, I can't understand it - has anyone else ever had that problem?
From the lighthouse it's just a short walk to the Signal Station Platform.
View from the platform around the lighthouse.
And another one.
And again looking back to Huia.
Mmmm I wonder which way the wind blows in this neck of the woods!
I had to laugh at these two, they just stood there like sentinels guarding something but I couldn't see what it was!
DH caught me unawares having afternoon tea! BTW the word art is my idea of a joke just in case you thought it was a graffiti attack! That's all for today, more later.
Trying something different this week, sorry I didn't get one done last week, just ran out of time. I couldn't make up my mind which one to use for the 'BIG' category so you get them both but I think the 'View' wins out hands down as being the biggest! I had to take a side on view because the full back view wouldn't fit into the view finder!!!
I saw this beautiful orchid in the flower shop yesterday and just couldn't resist getting it. To get a decent photo of it I had to hold it up as it is so top heavy and I don't have a large enough vase for it to stand up in properly.
Credits: Romantic Season QP2 by Verena Karolyi, http://tinyurl.com/2gbcjr
Digital Dates, Clean Cut by Meryl Bartho, http://tinyurl.com/ytfnr9
Font: MA Sexy
I know you're probably sick of seeing photos of me so here's a few odd ones I've taken over the last week or so that might be of interest.
This is the flower and fruit of the Banana Passionfruit plant, found it growing in the bush by our creek! It had lots of fruit so I'm waiting for them to ripen to their usual yellow colour before I go down there with the rake. Why a rake you might say - well this plant is a pest in NZ and takes over the bush canopy if left to it's own devices, it's up very high & hard to reach. See that little curly tendril, it latches on to anything it can get hold of and gradually makes its way around the earth! The fruit is to die for but unfortunately it's not grown commercially so this is the only way you can get it.
This is the last rose I used the other day in my self portrait photos after it opened, it has the most gorgeous scent.
This is just the common Thrush and I think they are so pretty but darn hard to get a photo of as they don't stay still for very long and only take one or two stabs for the worms before looking up and around and hopping off again! I took this one through the net curtain at my kitchen window and managed to fix it somewhat in PSE6. In the next one I managed to move the curtain when he wasn't looking but by then he had his back to me.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
- Thomas Hardy
If nothing else does this will convince you that I've finally lost the plot! It was a very pleasant day weatherwise & I thought I'd finish reading my library book, which was due back today, in one of our little local gardens. I took along the camera for today's shot and took a few but later on while I was shopping for a top to go with an autumn skirt I bought last week a brainwave hit me! I set up the camera in the small very small fitting room and took shots of each top as I tried them on! Not the most flattering angle but at least the lighting was good and I didn't need to use a flash - and then wouldn't you guess, the batteries starting running out so they were all taken rather hurriedly! Have a guess at which one I finally decided on.
How's this for the most gorgeous layout of DGD Becky. Plopper designed by Beth Nixon and most generously made available free on her blog a few weeks ago (sorry it's no longer available).
Mmmm thought it was about time to update to the day I'm up to in Blog365 even though I've missed some days!
For today's self portrait I took the tripod down to our creek in the bush and played around down there, unfortunately I couldn't seem to get the light right, it was either too dark or too bright!
The word art obviously is the wrong season for down here but that's what happens when you buy American stuff!
Credits: Be Mine QP by Kara Swanson & Melissa Bennett, http://tinyurl.com/ytvs7n
Nature Word Art CD from DSP Designers, http://tinyurl.com/245lrm
Sorry if anyone was checking for my Scatterday photos on the 1st, I just didn't get time to do any last week, not sure about this week either but we'll see.
I had a little play with the photos and came up with my first try at cloning myself! Not the kindest view of all and it was quite accidental (the one on the right), I forgot to set the timer and it took three shots of me running to sit down! 
Here we have a few other shots I took at the Marina yesterday, click on it to get a better view.
Credits: Happiness Is Plopper by Suzanne Walker of DSP.
Pennie said "Go get a remote, I love mine and use it even when I'm not in front of the camera because it gives me a lovely clear photo. I have to say your idea of hot isn't what your Weather Forecast says on the right, I've never seen it near much more than mid 20's... maybe we have different ideas of Hot! :-) I love this photo BTW, very clever."
So I say - I'm not sure there is a remote available for my camera Pennie but there just might be a generic one that would work, who knows, I'll check it out. And what the weather forecast doesn't show is the humidity which is usually around the 90-100%, currently it's 68% at 12.30 at night! But of course it still isn't anything like the Oz weather, it's just what you get used to I guess.
It was such a beautiful day today so I took Harry Potter to the park for lunch! I was never really interested in reading Harry Potter when it was first published, thought it was just for the kids, until I bought one of them for my granddaughter last year and before I knew it I was hooked! So off to the library I went to get #1, now I'm up to #6 & it's due back on Thursday so I need to read fast! These are some of the shots I took for my self portrait today.
Credits: Grannies Garden Plopper by DSP Designers/Lisa Carter, http://tinyurl.com/34b9n4
And here are all the self portraits I took last month, didn't quite catch up to everyone else.
Credits: Citrus Caramel by Irene Alexeeva, http://tinyurl.com/2cjagg
A Month of Magic QC by Elisabeth Weaver, http://tinyurl.com/ysn6qj
We called into the Westhaven Marina today for a short walk but mainly for me to take photos. It was overcast but not raining and still very humidly hot so the breeze down there was a delight. In the end I didn't get enough of the yachts over the top of the greenery, didn't have the tripod so an electricity box had to do, very high tech! I did use another high tech instrument too - DH's finger to push the button a few more times after the timer had gone off, I was sick of running backwards and forwards which was making the natives a bit restless!
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