New Zealand
Iconic in New Zealand, a remarkable animal indispensable to sheep farmers for moving and control of sheep, and familiar to the rest of us from seeing dog trials at A&P Shows and on TV. The breed was originally from the Scottish Border, the border collie, but has been bred over time to better suit the... Continue Reading →
This afternoon we took off for a drive to explore some back roads and eventually ended up at Waikaia for pizza at the pub. We went all over the place before getting there though. From home we went to Moa Flat, Wilden Settlement Road, Deepdell Road, Switzers Road, Winding Creek Road to Waikaia. And then... Continue Reading →
There's various species of bananas and I found a lovely one on 25 June in the Winter Garden Glasshouse at Dunedin Botanic Garden, New Zealand. It was in the Tropical House which is also where I saw the Spanish Moss and the Aristolochia gigantea. I visited again the next day with Nigel. The attraction with... Continue Reading →
Iconic Hawkdun Range in the far distance as we approach Alexandra, Central Otago, New Zealand. Winter in NZ. Spectacular! Taken by Nigel Sat 11 July 2020.
Behind the Spanish Moss in the bottom photo of yesterday's post was a climbing plant growing as a tangle of sturdy stems around a white pillar. I was pretty interested in them and took a couple of photos, then found a label nearby and realised it's the stems of a plant that has amazing flowers... Continue Reading →
Spanish Moss is great! The first time I encountered it in any meaningful way was following the Jennings blogs (Ted and Ellen) who together explore and photograph nature in the South Carolina Lowcountry, USA. I've learned much from them about the Lowcountry swamp or marsh environment (not to mention the city of Charleston and sometimes... Continue Reading →
Yellow's bright and cheerful. I welcome it, especially now we're in the grey days of winter in New Zealand. I decided it's time to put together another YELLOW post and this one is super-loaded ...enjoy! You can't miss yellow, even if there's only a little bit 🙂 This time I've sourced majorly from Twitter so... Continue Reading →
“Rejoice” for World Watercolor Month 2020 – 01 July. Watercolour by Liz. Only the 2nd watercolour I’ve done! Inspired to participate by Mike Powell who tweeted a joyful bird.
This beautiful endemic shelduck has a large body like a goose and we see them often whether in city parks or farm fields. Wild ones aren't tolerant of disturbance and readily take off with both birds in full cry - they are very noisy with distinct male/female voices and both are very vocal. The duck... Continue Reading →
