Meanwhile, couldn't get a decent shot of the birds, but at least I know where they live.

Choose response…..

Laugh
or
Laugh like a drain…..

This is how strictly. Well, there's water there in the summer, but I doubt there's ever any fish to catch.

The Cigarette Card…

Tobacco smokers are well catered for on the convenience front. But unprocessed medicinal herbs don't burn so well, and the smokers find themselves having to light practically every puff, inhaling the byproducts of butane or alcohol combustion in the process. The lighters get hot…

Cigarettes are surprisingly useful for that. They don't fear wind and they stay lit for quite a long time. Only trouble is getting the cigarette's lit, but that's 2 minutes of yuk needed to get the new year's fireworks going.

Dear Ben – as pipe smoker for nearly 50 years*, may I say pipes are very easy to light?
It’s how your tobacco is tamped!

Your tobacco may be dense, with lots of additives – or not.Maybe…

And that grounded flying saucer cum Olympic badminton gym again. Maybe one day in the…

I also give up ..... Inventive Ben

Heating water for coffee?

In other news, I give up… ;-)

It does cut through hair like a hot knife through butter. Skin is a little slower, it might take a second to burn a nostril ring hole.

or possibly for sucking dust out of panasonic lumix lenses?

That's very specific. A pet hate?

or a Cone…

Cone of Silence retrieved from the undergrowth

Cat happy in his Castle.

taming recalcitrant nostril hairs?

or possibly for sucking dust out of panasonic lumix lenses?

or a Cone of Silence detetector.....

Pic 1, You can see where the patch begins, two parallel lines. The rest of it, barring one pair (last pic) is a continuous sweep, the absence of parallel lines suggesting most of the loss of traction being the…

Although happy to continue this one too. ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH1jn1qB6Qg&feature=youtu.be

Happy Christmas Mata Hari! : )

Merry Christmas!

I'm reliably informed it's also a symbol used by BDSM peeps. I never knew.

Not the self portraits :-)

Having him there is the making of the photos. Nice.

This should be a thing.

Marcus decided he wanted to see the Museum. He was impressed by this room.

Particularly the Wilson Wall.

I, on the other hand, found the sentiment in the last shot the most hopeful, perhaps…

Fun eh? :)

Oh, what William Colenso could have done with a laminator …

And that’s a lovely car, Joe.

Didn’t think it was ,it was just weird , and particularly so with photos . I do wonder how it happened. I know my lil’ lappy is clever but don’t think it was mine either . Only Jackson may have the answer ;)
Here's my other brom…

I trained it for the last 5 years up a pole onto the deck . My aim is for it to now droop to create an umbrella hopefully.I have a couple of broms in bloom at the mo. I’m in the process of…

Wasn’t me, honest!

Am pleased to add that this week my bougainvillea is in bloom properly for the first time in its life

Nice, your camera seems to do the colour justice…. here’s a bougainvillea I saw this arvo…

Ew Joe way to put one off ;)

Jackson, great story, reminiscences welcomed rather than forgiven.

I saw that come up on the Māori Battalion Facebook page, along with the Christmas messages. Quite astonishing, and incredibly moving. Which lead me back to the 28th Maori Battalion website, and this story about Christmas 1943;

As…

Well the botanical name is Athyrium nipponicum and Japanese painted fern is an alternative name.

Universally lovely.

Wonderful pix.

"This recording of the carol ‘Silent Night’, is sung in English and Māori by a group of Māori Battalion patients from No. 2 New Zealand General Hospital…

That's special! Is that the tops or bottoms of the leaves?

Look forward to more.

Ah, brilliant! Who knew that calendula were being cultivated on the sun!

from One Minute Astronomer

Bugger, I was going to let you use my Paslode for a few hours :-)

Wonderful things, pickled walnuts.

It's a good time for picking nuts to make nocino, too... ;-)

Yes yes – you must visit me here and we can sit under the walnut tree eating banana and walnut loaf (or similar) :-)
Always happy to have yummy nutty recipes to try.

Yes, they tend to fall without warning, the trees that is, very uncomfortable.

That was my assumption, although apparently willows can produce it too. But I'm a little confused. Our poplars here in Beijing shed over a period of a couple of weeks in April each year – shouldn't that equate to October or…

Like the lonely pohutukawa there : )

Is this Christmassy enough?

Only 100 k or so from our place.
PM me Joe, maybe pop round for a beer or few..

This weather sure can warp yer timber but mine ain't that bad...
Here's my castle

Damn, this weather is warping my timber but not that bad.
This is mine :-)

TAUmaraNUI on the MAIN trunk LINE. :-)
Lovely shot.

Spiralling into control?
Indeed, supposed to be a roof shout tonight , that is spiralling enough for my xmas present. With or without walls up. We are going for the indoor outdoor…

Verily. Bet that person delivered some great excuses in school days.

Is a super place. I particularly recommend the Sweetheart Bakery stall. And extra-particularly the chocolate cupcakes! Their range of vegetarian pies also great.

Good lord, I think there was something in that Milo I just had....

Contest? (it is back there somewhere amongst the brain cells)
But anyway, building takes shape….

Extremely cool. Most jealous. And Sofie, that looks like a great Car show. Hmm, how can I make it up there for 2 Jan?

Keep 'em coming folks, only 4 more days in our contest, in case anyone forgot. ;-)

Have immense fun!

I know of which you speak. I have been known to grab the handle of the large stainless pan to get it out of the oven. My worst culinary dipsy was chopping up a pumpkin with the large cleaver and tugging when it stuck in…

Your Gerry's doing his level best to choke it with cars, don't worry.

He has a CDB. ;)
I has a CDB, I got it a week ago and it still hurt. I discovered it is but a mere 2nd deg CDB but on the thumb it makes life a lil’ difficult.
CDB = Culinary Dipsy Burn

You have a CBD? How very noughties ;-)

Nice contrast. You're even pointing the camera in the same direction as my second shot. Kauri Point looks really far away :-)

Spoke too soon – good shots.

Depicted from bottom to top:

Mud flats, Pt Chev. Shags or herons. Man, woman, dog, at Raymond Reserve. Waitemata harbour. Wildlife reserve, Traherne Island. North western motorway, Patiki Rd on-ramp. Rosebank industrial point, wrecker, paint supplies. Massive…

Well, she was a bit perplexed at first, being still too little to really remember last winter, and she didn't really like the cold feel of snow on her hands (she does have mittens somewhere... ) but she quickly discovered the fun of stomping around in and crunching that…

Try again…

And with a 美羊羊/Měiyángyáng (a character from her favourite cartoon) balloon. She always gets a balloon when she has a check up or a vaccination.

And when the wee one wakes up I'm going to have to drive out of that and take her to…

Things got out of hand at the very final wrap party.

Somewhere in that museum I think is a Data General computer, that was one of the first in the country, from a factory in Opotiki. It had a huge chub like storage drawer…

Not quite pocket sized...

You're phrasing makes me feel all middle aged or something. But tell me, what happened to Little Ted? That's a most distressing photo!

(Squawk out loud!) That’s tedd-ible! How could they display him like that?!

Mr Leggs says “bring me the head of Little Ted!”

This picture is part of Pixietown, set…

Fuji Finepix S4200. Still cheapish, but approximately 10 times the quality of anything I've owned before.

Getting closer – suggest hanging nice piece of gurnard from the lens, or at least somewhere handy....

I'm bordering on bribing it, but so…

Today it is truly SUMMER!

It's never too late!!!! : )

Air movement helps. Nice puddy pic.

My father-in-law finally succumbed to the charms of a cat when he was about 78. Until then he couldn't even bear to stroke one.

Ho ho Jackson, looking forward to your Cat-Conversion, sure it cant be too far away : )

Not a picture, that's a Portrait : )

Getting closer – suggest hanging nice piece of gurnard from the lens, or at least somewhere handy....

Ben, you say the nicest things. So glad to have another camera in the mix. Even if you do insist on taking bloody cat photos!

Jokes.
Loves them cats. ;-)

What camera did you get, as a matter of interest?

Cheers, I'm trying to woo it. Still mastering the camera, lots more experimenting to do.

Also depicted,…