Epic Sunrises

The sunrises (and sunsets) in Auckland are beautiful.  I think it must have something to do with being able to see more of the horizon, compared to Wellington where you don’t see the start of a sunrise or the end of a sunset.  Sunrises are a bit like unicorns to me – either I am awake super early against my will, or I have just had an amazing night out and should have been in bed many hours ago.  I love sitting on the deck and watching the sun rise; they are rare and beautiful.  They start as a deep blue and eventually get red and orange and bright and totally intense man!  So beautiful!

The Special Bird Trees

I have noticed that different birds prefer different trees.  In winter, the doves huddle in one particular tree at the end of the neighbour’s yard, or on the roof of their cottage.  They usually only do this in the early hours of the morning cooing away, until around 8 or 9am.  I wonder where they go after that?

However the cute little waxeyes like two other trees, that I never see any other birds in.  They flit from branch to brand with their cute little chirping, and I really do have a thing for cute little birds and am rather obsessed. They are so cute I’m going to have to start collecting little bird figurines (oops! already started).

Then there are the thrushes and blackbirds, who mostly prefer to hop around on the lawn which I always find amusing because they are birds, yet they walk.

The Amazing Lemon Tree

Back in Wellington, my mum has to cover the lemon tree in winter for frosts and every now and then shit goes bad and it dies. Up here, I don’t have to do anything and there is always a constant crop of huge juicy lemons. Perfect for cocktails! And as it also turns out, lemon honey, which I totally made for the first time last weekend from my nana’s special recipe. Mmm, delicious.

Our Vege Garden

Last year we had chilies, silverbeet, basil, mint, lettuce, courgettes, rosemary, and spring onions. This year so far I have planted tomatoes and capsicum, and we also have from last year the chilies, mint, and silverbeet, which has been so successful it has taken over the garden. One of the plants we have left grow into a small tree. I understand they also grow in to very large trees if you don’t sort them out.

Pretty Flowers That Also Smell Great

Currently the wisteria is flowering which smells amazing. In my dream future garden I will also have daphne, jasmine, lavender, roses, and clematis because they all smell totally awesome. Better not get swine flu and lose my sense of smell first!

Double Rainbow

WHAT DOES IT MEAN???????!!!!!!

Oh, I’m pretty sure it means that my back yard is awesome.

After some researching, I have only little information about Vivian. I cannot find any relatives or heirs after a diligent search.

Central Camera (110 yr old camera shop in Chicago) has encountered Vivian from time to time when she would purchase film while out on the Chicago streets. From what they knew of her, they say she was a very “keep your distance from me” type of person but was also outspoken. She loved foreign films and didn’t care much for American films.

Such an interesting story, and some great photos.

Check out the website here.

I took the first photo three years ago but touched it up just this weekend with a non-broken Photoshop.  I was driving from Wellington to Auckland and I saw the swans so stopped to take a photo.  How could I not – I had never seen black swans before!  They flew over to inspect me and swam about in front of me for a few minutes and let me take some photos.

Seeing how I love swans, here is another photo I took of a swan ducking for food on the Leicester River, when I visited Leicester for the day back in 2005.  Not seen: all the disgusting rubbish I photoshopped out because it was yuck!

This amazing photoset on Flickr from the Library of Congress showcases photos from the 1930s and 1940s in colour, which you don’t see very often.  The photo above is a female aircraft worker at the Vega Aircraft Corporation in California checking electrical assemblies.  Beautiful!

1930s-40s in Color – a set on Flickr.

I love how this photo turned out.

Birds flying in the rain on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

So, tonight I thought, “Hey! I’ll see if I can do that easily with a plug-in eh?” I found Flickr Gallery, which is so easy!

1. Download
2. Install to wp-content (I always forget and have to hunt for that)
3. Activate plug-in in dashboard
4. Enter settings, once you get a Flickr API key
5. Create new page, with just nothing but the text “flickr-gallery” in square brackets
6. Save!
7. Look!

Man the internet is just so easy these days!

I was talking about storms with my workmate and I told him about this crazy cloud I took a photo of when I was living in Antwerp.

Storm over Antwerp on Flickr – Photo Sharing.