The mists of autumn...

On Easter Monday I left at 5am for Oamarama to meet my cousin Deirdre and Murray who had been at the 100 yr Otematata Station centennial. The idea of the early start was to catch the sunrise somewhere nice. It turned out to be at Ben Avon Station up the Ahuriri River valley.

the first rays of the sun on the land...


fences always make a nice subject - I'm so grateful farmers build them so straight and true [thanks Jim]...


an hour later I suppose and it's "all over rover", but now the colours of the damp areas contrasting with the dry captivate me...


Deirdre and Murray posted a "in memory of .." on their blog today - their daughter Sandra... there is nothing I can say except publish the link in her honour... http://www.culverden.co.nz/news/

Today saw the beginning of Dougal's soccer season - last year every soccer Sunday in Wanaka, Queenstown, Cromwell and Alexandra was perfect weather like this. He's hoping the 2008 season follows the trend:

Dougal looking for action...


caught up in action...


we've sure got one of the prettiest soccer venues around...

Easter Weekend

Not much to report amongst the constant drone of Warbirds Over Wanaka practicing and touting to get people to the air-show over 3 days of this holiday weekend. It does however bring me a few visitors which is nice. So I've either worked a bit, or entertained, and it's all been very perfect.

But this weekend also celebrates the equinox, and as Roger said when he was here on the weekend, the light for photos will, from now on, become perfect for landscapes. On this note I dug up an image from last year that I like.

from Mt Roy looking down on Glendhu Bay, Lake Wanaka in the last light of the day...


For Monday I may drive over the Lindis and meet cousin Deirdre and Murray who are down this way to attend the 100 yrs. centennial of Otematata Station. She grew up there, and with today's great weather I hope they're having the promised trip to Stone Man - a special place loved by her dad, a very remote spot. I hope she gets some photos for her blog!

The wonderful weather continues

Another weekend at home - I could be losing my touch. Mind you it was pretty windy on Sat. Today [Sun] was perfect, but I enjoyed it indoors. I had a few web sites to upgrade, so felt good about getting them done. Particularly the one about Elwing [lots of photos of Dougal on it - and during the week I signed us up for another adventure voyage this coming winter with Arthur and Barbara our friends in Dunedin]. You can see it here.

And it's Easter next week, and I may head north a bit - anything to escape the Warbird's noise and people!

I took a little walk with the camera on Fri. evening.

Shags on a rock with the peninsula between Stevenson Arm of Lake Wanaka on the right and main lake on the left Check out that clear sky - the norm. of late...


Bird cloth on a local vineyard - a subject I've wanted to photograph for sometime. With such an amazing summer we may be heading for a very special vintage, but that may now all depend on what frosts we get. Last year they were quite severe...

Some sewing, a new blog site and a weekend at home

Another weekend at home, and as part of the plan for preparing for winter I aired skills learnt in my old trade, hauled my ancient Singer industrial sewing machine out on the deck, and proceeded to make a large canvas tarpaulin...


Last week I posted some older photos of Mt Hooker. In the light of comments re. the popularity of this "old school" edition of our remoter mountains in New Zealand, I've made up a new blog for the publishing of stories and follies from my old days, under the southernlight domain...

http://www.southernlight.co.nz/oldtimes/

btw I've shifted last weeks post to this new blog, so you can find the "full story" there, all in one place.

Friday, [but Sat. here], twitter drinks after work

In the spirit of the moment and introductions here is a self portrait, and even then beer and tripods don't mix well, but it's done... only on a Sat. in NZ could this extravagance be condoned btw!

Cheers all [note bottle less than full so I'm heading back to the beer fridge as this was "all too much"]

*note: to those of my regular readers a bit mystified the above was something I posted while taking part in an on-line twitter[.com] stream last night. An after Fri. at work party. It was very interesting and quite a fast way to make new contacts amongst a million users world wide.