Raised vege beds and caged cherry trees at Riverstone Kitchen, north of Oamaru. Taken by Nigel 09 Dec 2017. North Otago, New Zealand

Christmas Snow

Christmas in New Zealand is in summer so I've been really enjoying photos posted by those of you overseas who have had early, or even rare, snowfalls. So I've put together a Christmas Snow post to celebrate and share your lovely snow photos that I've enjoyed so much. All photos used with permission. My leading...

Five Eyes: Mark Berkery (non-spiders!)

My last Five Eyes post featured five fascinating spider images taken by Mark Berkery from Queensland, Australia. While searching his blog I'd picked up a number of non-spider images too, and I have Mark's permission to also share these. In addition, the very last (6th) image in this post is a "bonus" image. I found...

The Hallowe’en Tree by Candice Pierce

I'd like to share this photo and poem with you simply because I enjoyed them so much! I know my timing is well out but hey, I only found it yesterday 🙂  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Candice started with a tree image and then did some magic in Photoshop...

Willow, Wicker and Weaving

Riverstone Kitchen has extensive beautiful and functional gardens surrounding the restaurant, retail buildings and carpark. Nigel gave me free rein on the photos he took so despite losing mine in yesterday's laptop disaster I can still share some of the experience. This post continues my previous post Dot's Dream Castle so you can find more...

Five Eyes: Mark Berkery (Spiders)

Fortunately I'd already asked Mark Berkery if I could choose five of his photos for another Five Eyes post because this morning my laptop bombed and my photos that I had ready for daily posts are irretrievable. No more posts about Dot's castle and her gardens (for now anyway). I started searching Mark's blog -...

Dot’s Dream Castle

This story begins with COLOUR. Yesterday, driving home from Kurow, we'd driven through Waitaki Bridge and were on our way to Oamaru. Suddenly in front of us was a big sign for Riverstone Kitchen. My excitement knew no bounds... I'd long wanted to visit this place! Both of these photos were taken from their car...

Silage bales in yellow silage wrap. Viewed as we were driving between Waihola and Dunedin, New Zealand. Taken 06 Dec 2017.

Pink Spires of Echium wildpretii

In my Celebrating Colour post of 23 Nov, I showed the above photo of Echium wildpretii and wrote that I would do a post on this plant in the near future. Today's the day! This is a biennial plant that comes from the Canary Islands.   Click on ANY photo in this post to view...

Pretty pink and white dogwood flowers at Dunedin Botanic Garden. Cornus species. Taken by Nigel 05 Dec 2017.

Naturally Designed by Nigel

It was a real pleasure for me on Wed 6 Dec to accompany Nigel on a trip to Balclutha to visit the new subdivision named Plantation Heights with which he's involved through his company Growplan. Nigel is a Landscape Architect, based in Dunedin and actively working through Otago and Southland, and further afield by arrangement....

Five Eyes: Mike Powell

Everywhere, eyes are watching! Wildlife and animal photography often provide a wonderful view into animals' eyes and gives us a small insight into their world and their behaviour. Eye detail, colour, shape and pattern are interesting in themselves. Focused eyes of predator, wary eyes of prey, even just a curious glance - all can make...