Easter Blooms

After a long cold winter I have been keenly watching out for signs my garden is beginning to awaken for spring. It has responded in the last few days to bring me some blossoms for Easter to share with you.

The first daffodils to bloom in my garden each year are these ones which finally burst into full bloom on Thursday, April 2.  The temperature that day was a startling 75F which doubtless gave many buds a surprise. The next day temperatures were a more seasonal low 60'sF.

 These scillas were planted to border a perennial bed but this years perennials have yet to make an appearance and the fallen blooms from last year are still waiting to be cleaned up.

 On Good Friday as I roamed around with my camera this, the only Hellebore to make it through the winter, was still in bud. The common name is Lenten Rose so it was going to have to hurry to live up to it's name.

 The Easter Bunny brings blooms instead of chocolate eggs for me.

 To bring some spring color inside a bunch of alstroemeria adds a touch of pastel pink.

 Still looking like winter in the black walnut tree. But what you can't see is the long melodious song the male cardinal was singing while I did my best to photograph him from the upstairs window.

 The maple tree is budding...

 The plum tree, again reliably the first tree to bloom for the season in my garden popped out with it's pink display on Good Friday.

 The white dogwood buds are there but it will be a few more weeks before they bloom. In behind them are more maple buds.

The bird house is in dire need of a renovation and redecoration but it may be too late.

 Today, Easter Day, there are at last some open blooms on the hellebore. They need a shady spot but this shady spot is, by default, also the one where the snow sits the longest and that has delayed blooms opening I guess.

And one last look at the plum tree. Next to come will be the cherry trees also here at the front of the house. Once they are in bloom they steal the limelight so I wanted to give the plum tree it's moment of glory.

Symptoms of Cabin Fever

The past few weeks of this winter have severely tested my creativity in finding some new way to photograph yet. more. snow! Yes, it might be March 5 but today there was another chapter in the continuing saga of snow events in 2015.

Humor me, the cabin fever is reaching epidemic proportions.

 For today I was trying to see if I could take photos that showed the snow falling rather than it looking like a white mist.

 The plows came often once the storm got underway around 8.30am.

 Yesterday I took a moment to re-install my home made snow measuring equipment. This was the late morning measure.

 On Saturday three new suet cakes were purchased with the thought they would take us through the balance of winter or at least a couple of months. Today, Thursday, the birds are well into the third and last cake. I suspect by the end of the day it was totally gone. This was a very popular stop-off location in our backyard today.

 The dog has decided this is as far as he needs to go. A quick circuit and then back inside. No pristine snow images for the photographer.

 Out on the main road traffic continued despite the pleas from the road clearing crews and the police to please stay off the roads as driving was becoming very hazardous. Yes, the trees look magical but admire them from the safety of home and not the car window.

 Plenty of vacancies at the outdoor cafe today.

 By around 5pm or so the main snow storm seemed to be at an end. Looks like we had about 6.5" (or about 16.6cm if you are used to measuring your snow that way!).

With record low temperatures predicted for overnight (potentially going to 3F or about minus 19C) it will be an icy and dangerous mess tomorrow morning.  My snow removal crew adopted the plan of frequent clearing - the driveway was shoveled at least three times. But with a heavy wet snow that was a wise decision.

I'm looking forward to cherry blossom season; we've had more than enough snow and cold temperatures this winter.

Some more S words

Last time I was regaling you with images of sunny seaside scenes. This week has been an entirely different story: sub zero temperature, snow, sleet, slip, slide, snowplows, shovel, shadows and sunset.

 Sun - the sun was beginning to shine and caught the front of the shrub on the right and the roof of the bird house.

 Shadows - cast long in the trees.

 How much snow? I had crafted my own measuring system last year but only just remembered in time to get it out this week. The first snow was on Monday night into Tuesday and we had about 5".

 Heading South - That's it Sam, the kids and I are all packed and ready to head south to a warmer zone.

I'm staying snug thanks, how about you?

 But in the summer, this will look entirely different.

 Staying tethered?  I was intrigued by this reflection across the snow which seemed to tether the utility box to my neighbors house.

 Saturday's snowstorm was a daytime one and gave us almost 8" of the white stuff.

 Spring blossoms are due on the dogwood in a few more weeks.

 Snow on the north-east elevation.

 Snowy conversations.

Snow removal.

 Snow dog.

Sunset to finish - but here I cheated because this one is from a couple of weeks back.

Okay, the S fun is done. I'm ready for it to resume normal conditions.

Oh, I do Love to be Beside the Seaside

Oh, I do love to be beside the sea!  And right now, the weather outside is frightful - very strong winds and a dropping temperature, currently hovering around 18F/ minus8C - and so I decided to wander back to just a few weeks ago when I was in the Northland region of New Zealand.

 These photos, taken on a days road trip beginning and ending in Onerahi  and going up the coast as far as Matapouri, serve to warm me up.

I was keen to try and photograph the sunrise and sunset each day. This was my first morning and I was ten minutes or so too late for sunrise. But I liked how the low misty cloud hung below the Whangarei Heads.

 Directly out in front of the wonderful holiday apartment we were staying in (Harbour Vista, Onerahi) was this portion of the harbour with a dock (used, at least while we were there, for fishing) with Limestone Island as the backdrop. Every morning, early, there were folk fishing from this dock. I never saw them catch anything but I have to suppose they did as on the incoming tide there was always fishing going on.

 Action on the floating dock.

I wanted to photograph some iconic New Zealand vegetation and, as a native Northlander, cabbage trees and flax bushes fit the criteria perfectly.

 Whenever I return to the country of my birth I always, but always, have to have a fish and chips meal. This trip I splurged and had it more than one time. This lunch, with my sister Cathy and brother-in-law John ranked as the number 1 fish and chip experience for this trip. Eaten at the Parua Bay Hotel on a sunny January day with a cold beverage it was pretty much perfection for me!

 Driving on we stopped at many small, and large, inlets and bays but no longer having access to a good map I regret I cannot identify each and every one correctly.  This was a small inlet I believe at the top end of  Pacific Bay . Maybe if you zoom in you can see the people having fun on a homemade swing hung from the tree just behind the dingy.

 Matapouri Bay was a favorite destination for a day at the beach when we were children. And, as you can see, families still flock here. Yes, on local standards, this beach is crowded!

 Still at Matapouri but looking out towards the Poor Knight Islands (this needs confirmation - where are those maps that I thought I had carefully saved?).

And at the end of the day we returned to our spot in Onerahi overlooking the Whangarei Harbour and Heads.

It is never recommended to take photographs in the full sun of the day - but that is when I was out and about and able to use the camera so that is when most of my photos are taken Being the height of summer the colors are so bright and vivid they really just pop out most all the time.

Thank you to John for the many hours he spent behind the wheel so Cathy and I could indulge in a spot of nostalgia. It was wonderful.

In the Garden in January

First the disclaimer - clearly you will notice that my title for this post does not say "In My Garden in January".  I have just returned from two weeks in New Zealand and my return flight was a bit of a nail biter wondering if my East Coast US airport was going to be open as weather forecasts were preparing all for a huge winter storm. Thankfully, the storm was not  as bad as predicted and my flight landed about ten minutes early as it turned out.

When I go to New Zealand around Christmas time I always look forward to seeing the pohutukawa trees which are in their full bloom of red flowers at that time - often referred to as New Zealand's Christmas tree - but by mid to late January I was too late for that magnificent show by nature. Instead, the way I will recall this trip was by the agapanthus which were all over the place and showing off to the max! Many homes have them growing along the front of their property and you'll be driving along in the open countryside and just come across clumps of them growing beside the road. The photo above was of one of the many I took when I spent an overnight at my sister's home outside of the town of Te Awamutu.

My first stop however was in Palmerston North. I had heard that one way to help with jetlag (I had an 18 hour difference to deal with) was to get outside and walk around in the sunshine as soon as possible in your new location so your body knows there is a new time to deal with. This is a sight in the central Square in Palmerston North as I was taking my jetlag "prescription".

The end of 2014 marked the 100 year anniversary of the outbreak of WWI and the poppy has become a symbol of that war. You have no doubt seen the awesome photographs of the art installation of a sea of poppies in the moat surrounding the Tower of London. In Australia and New Zealand they have been inspired by that sight and are planning some type of installation of their own (I don't know many details) but people everywhere are hard at work crafting poppies. I was in Palmerston North for the 2015 New Zealand Quilt Symposium and they were using the poppy quite a lot in their displays.

I like the rustic look of the fence and my sister's mailbox with the agapanthus. Most of the blooms are blue but here and there, some come out white.

These things practically grow like weeds!  Look how this one has taken root on this tree, in my sister's front garden, where an old branch had broken off years earlier.

Perhaps the goat could add the agapnahtus to it's diet!

Again, I just liked the contrast of the airy big blooms with the rustic fence and abandoned dog kennel and the long dry grass in the background.

Moving on now. The next night I stayed over at my brother-in-law's home in readiness for we three setting off the next morning on a roadtrip north. Before leaving home John had been asked to collect the eggs from the neighbor's chickens (or chooks as they are routinely called in kiwiland). Yes, right in the heart of a neighborhood of smallish (think 1/4 acre) lots is this one with a very elegantly fenced enclosure on the front side lawn where three of these hens wander happily and provide eggs for the owners. I asked John if his two cats were a problem for the hens and he said for the first few days the cats would watch through the fence but then they lost interest.

By the next night we had reached our destination - "Harbour Vista" on the shoreline in Onerahi just outside Whangarei in Northland. We were to stay in a small and delightfully appointed two bedroom ground floor apartment there for three nights. I noticed this wonderful blooming succulent growing in a pot right outside the windows and was amazed at the flowers on it until my sister pointed out they are two different plants growing in the same pot. Nevertheless, I still think it looks really great!

And to prove I was in a different climatic zone these huge lilies were growing right outside in the small patch of garden as well. You can't tell from this photo but the plants are almost 5' tall.

We had decided to do a coastal road trip in the North taking in some of the beaches we remember going to as children but which also included many we had not seen before.  This one was on the last day and was, h'mm, let's see if I remember correctly, was it just beyond Langs Beach or just beyond Mangawai Heads? Of course it is not really a garden either but merely roadside weeds that took my  eye as I scrambled out of the car for "just one more photo of this beautiful coastline".

As I was putting away my camera my eye was suddenly taken by this pukeko hurrying through the grass just by the fence I had been using as my foreground for the previous photo.

And let me finish off with a photo of my own garden in January. Yes, this is the sight I was greeted with when I woke up the next morning (I got in after dark on Tuesday) so you can see why I chose different gardens to show you in my post today.