Like magic Geoff!

Narrow neck last night just looking picture-squeue.

bus filter

Then there is Rainy Windscreen Nite setting.

Three Lamps rainy nite.

that 'Auckland weather' filter works a treat #rivulets

And Temporary window dressing

Amazing. We were counting one or two stars tonite in Auckland.

At first glance I thought this was a bird picture. The people have the same intentness as oystercatchers do. :-)

Yep, this summer, the warm starry starry ngihts. Can't wait :). Street lights are nowhere to be seen. Even the moon doesn't spot the sun coming up for the day!

O nice, you've really got it all covered there : )

The cows over the back fence. Followed by the rainbow.

Looks beautiful Sofie.

No walking about got done at Point Chev – 10m to the beach then back to the car as the rain came in…

Kingfisher meets sparrow on wire : )

The rays man, the rays. What a wonderful place; now on my must-go list.

Bird and bovine is good.

Yup, still there.

Just say to yourself 'marble, it's marble, it's marble' : )

Footprints. AK West Coast.

The outside dunny, so cute we practically bought the house on the strength of it.

Madam, I am more of a tea tray.
But seriously, I know cold. When I were a lad we had ice on the pavement that were three inches thick until June
. Yer daren't run fer running into your own frozen breath, could put your eyes…

Hebe, This is my local dairy about 4 k from our shed. We debate whether our shed is a workshop/studio or a shed. Hey, he built it , his shed, but man, pretty comfy.
We so love the local coop dairy (some are friends of ours but…

credit where credit is due, the bush fairy. { :)

Men leave the ice on. It helps sometimes.

was a chilly one, eh?! I have to remind myself how I love the weather here in non-Winter times!

PS your bathroom is well-ventilated!

Aww, lovely. ;-)

[wearing other things as well, I can't help noticing!]

Could spend all day looking at skies like those : )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pruYLmuEbjg

Ooooer. Thank goodness there are top hats to take yr eye off the speedos! Wonder about the significance of the extra High Hats in the back row?

The clouds were pretty spectacular yesterday. With a dodgy internet connection (hence double posts on pics too large previously) I thought outside the square for the chance to portray how the clouds enveloped the landscape after I had already taken photos when it was at its best.…

On that note, these gents prove that speedos are stylish!

Ha! No permission needed for something as chilling as that! : )

I'm sure you wear it ano-rakishly.

Ano what?

We are the Mods! Fishtail fur-lined snorkel, thank you very much.

I just said that as if it was cool, didn’t I? Oh dear. Bring on the anti ageing hipster brigade.

All parkas invisible to camera eyes : )

Was it a parka or an anorak? :o)

Yeah, just the other night I was wearing my Parka over my hoodie. Just hoping nobody took any photos.

;+)

Is this permission to boast that I had to scrape ice off my bike seat in order to ride home last night at 10pm? :-)

[I won’t mention that I was only 5 blocks from home. :-)]

Don't worry, we are all soft-as up here : )

Yeah, it's the pale ice blue hue – the shady side of the bridge. The boaties working on their boats down there must be hardy types.

My Southern chauvinism threatens to rise up, but I'm choking it back. ;-)

Rare, and definitely to be treasured around these parts.

My first thought on seeing your cormorants was "antarctic!" Unfortunately, such a chilly picture isn't doing much about the heat up here.

There were four of them hanging out by the boat yards at Northcote Point.

This pic should be called 'Hold onto the rail'.

Clean clouds Chris : )

This was Albert Park on Friday – the day of the monster gull. Brisk, nippy, chill.

I like 'em Sofie – what a good way to use the three pics per post. Sky-no-ramas? : )

In the full picture there is a touch more bizarre – the girl on the left is walking along with her hand on her forehead. (I'm just not sure what the go is on picturing peoples here on capture...)

Gullzilla

Or drawing on John Cooper Clarke's joke…

Oh, nicely framed! A real giant. ;-)

Gull taking off.

Yeah, that one looks like an unconvincing movie prop – a cheap monster model! ;-)

As good as the field kitchen with recycling depot :)

Double rainbow! (OMG!) :-)

Sweep down to the tunnel

If you're so moved — and don't feel obliged to — you can throw a…

Well if I was the builder it would be a huge plan but so far it is proving an easy plan for my builder, and now that the brewery is underway a relatively soon plan. As discussed the other night ,the far north only needs a few things…

Realised after my 15 minute editing time that I should have asked ooom or wooo...

Grand plan!

A Rimu tree that a house will be built around. A view from a kitchen will be had.:)

Rick Griffin

Amazing resting place.

This picture was taken on the same day as the black and white, I just love the colour of that water.

My grand-mother was said to have ridden her horse through the surf at Bondi when she was a young woman. Side-saddle of course, this was…

Here's the sky out west from Mt Eden yesterday eve.

Snap! This one was flying low (with a mate). They tend to be just having fun, flying up over the west ridge only to dip back down and perform circles.

(I've taken photos from this exact angle so many times.... I need to get out more)

Yeah, even the blues are glowing. Nice shots, Sofie.

You can feel the warmth in there. Lovely.

And that blue sky was so nice to see... Beijing dawned grey, murky, filthy and stinkingly humid, but when we crossed over the mountains we could see…

They're lovely, what skill (and patience.)

Yep they do that.....

Don't worry Jackson, you'll be raring to go when you get the chance!

our local beach this evening
Looking lovely, that beach, here's Bondi in real B&W from some years ago....

Over a very busy week, these threads have been wonderful to watch.

I feel I should contribute more, but you all seem to be doing a wonderful job.

Cheers.

gorgeous birds Sophie and Nora... heard something unusual singing today, for the first time, but couldn't see what it was.

our local beach this evening.

I was impressed. :)

Variable oyster-catchers are very cool. If you see them feeding on a beach they seem to tap-dance in and out of the water in time with the waves. And if you see two together they usually synchronise their steps.

Aye. :)

Yep. They almost tease.

Butcherbirds would turn up occasionally and stay…

Thanks Joe, that made my morning cup of tea all the more memorable, like fatty was in my garden! I found this amazing recording which is middle of the night and one beautiful solo songstress... truly beautiful but I can definitely say I have not heard one…

hard to beat any of the butcherbirds for gorgeous morning birdsong
Cool & Confident Butcherbird, liked the human-song that went with it : )

spurwing plovers self-introduced into southern ANZ in the 1940s as did other OZ birds earlier- kotuku in the 18th century; tauhou/waxeyes in the late 1890s; sulphur-crested cockatoos in the 1950s...

storms mainly bring them over- like the moths…

Venus transit observers. I don't know how they hoped to see anything through the thick haze that enveloped Beijing today, but they seemed very happy and excited.

what a beauty!

we have commoners too. Aussie birds are pretty but they tend to have very harsh and sometimes disturbing calls (like whips and whistles and shrieks) – not much of that gorgeous birdsong that fills the bush back home – something I still…

They look like Cheeky Fellas : ) Looks like you have a lot of interesting bird life to stalk over there.
Stumbled on this bird in Kew Gardens, not too bothered by us people. Have used the hand-held-scanner for this one (i.e. point-and-shoot aimed at photo album.

my stalking technique is improving (not my framing though). These little old dudes were cruising along until I got too close and they veered away. I think they are Little Corellas – can't see their beaks too well and there are a few types of corellas.

I'm pretty sure I've seen video of spurwings fighting with their spurs. Very strange!

"The Masked Lapwing (Vanellus miles), previously known as the Masked Plover and often called the Spur-winged Plover or just Plover"

thanks Lilith, had to check with Google after you mentioned that... I'm quite confused by birds "previously known as" – and yes very shy on the…

If they're anything like our spurwing plovers, they're shy, so you did well to snap them!

I used to often hear them fly over at night, making that distinctive cry, when I lived in Opawa. But I almost never saw them.

They're great at spotting new habitat if…

Just caught the last of the action here... two chicks had already run underneath the puffed up ample bosom of this lapwing plover. Uber cute.

Is that one you prepared earlier? : )

Nice shot by the way. When you say 'long', you mean more than 30secs?

Yep. iPhone tweaking notwithstanding. ;-)