Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: Incoming: Summer

Chris Waugh

Sun, 14 Feb 2016 18:23:06 +1300

Oh, it is working… ok, here’s the rest.

(and we found a stingray in the lagoon. It wasn't actually in the parade though.)

Chris Waugh

Sun, 14 Feb 2016 18:03:28 +1300

From today's Chinese New Year parade in Wellington.

Sacha

Mon, 25 Jan 2016 09:36:58 +1300

cheap talent :)

JacksonP

Mon, 25 Jan 2016 08:33:08 +1300

did that person really just happen to be playing in the sea?

Um,no. They happened to be walking into waves with a violin while being photographed by a friend, and this random guy who couldn't resist the opportunity. :-)

Sacha

Sun, 24 Jan 2016 18:45:22 +1300

A sunset series

did that person really just happen to be playing in the sea?

Chris Waugh

Sun, 24 Jan 2016 10:09:33 +1300

We also had (in addition to the Tintinesque rocket), some Seussian-looking flowers…

...and the Royal New Zealand Air Force Band

Chris Waugh

Sun, 24 Jan 2016 10:05:19 +1300

Variations on a Botanic Gardens theme…

JacksonP

Sat, 23 Jan 2016 21:25:40 +1300

Back out west. A sunset series.

David Hood

Sat, 23 Jan 2016 14:36:43 +1300

Not a Takahe

David Hood

Sat, 23 Jan 2016 14:33:46 +1300

Takahe staying on the track

David Hood

Sat, 23 Jan 2016 14:29:51 +1300

More takahe

David Hood

Thu, 21 Jan 2016 12:18:13 +1300

A few photos from my summer: Takahe chick, flowers

Fen Tex

Wed, 20 Jan 2016 17:41:59 +1300

Trying to get my damnable golf handicap down. It has to be 15 to be Prime Minister, right?

Chris Waugh

Tue, 12 Jan 2016 20:32:50 +1300

Chilling by a beachside playground in Waikanae

And an apparition above Paraparaumu (funny the things you learn after 15 years away... Our Lady has been there since 1958 and I had no idea until today)

Geoff Lealand

Tue, 12 Jan 2016 16:50:01 +1300

Thanks, Ian. I would use as my GG guidebook Paul Hogarth's 'Graham Greene Country' (Pavilion/Michael Joseph, 1986), bought at the bookstall outside the BFI on the Southbank a year ago.

Chris Waugh

Tue, 12 Jan 2016 06:37:13 +1300

foreboding morning

Nora Leggs

Mon, 11 Jan 2016 21:26:33 +1300

man was an innovator

that's right, chilling to the chills

Russell Brown

Mon, 11 Jan 2016 18:14:07 +1300

And one more. As you can see, shade was at a premium and this man was an innovator.

Russell Brown

Mon, 11 Jan 2016 18:12:52 +1300

Summer in the Square featured The Chills today. And it was bloody lovely. All ages, lovely vibe.

JacksonP

Mon, 11 Jan 2016 17:25:55 +1300

Piha sunset, prepared earlier. Summer is 45 minutes from down town Auckland.
The first is a feature.
Yukon pin a post now? Good to know. :-)

Russell Brown

Mon, 11 Jan 2016 16:07:59 +1300

The first is a feature.

The second it a bug.

I'll have a look.

Ian Dalziel

Mon, 11 Jan 2016 15:32:00 +1300

Ian Dalziel

Thu, 07 Jan 2016 12:11:02 +1300

Just Havana larf...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3nvJ2hmaUI

http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/sep/18/grahamgreene.davidcameron

Joe Wylie

Thu, 07 Jan 2016 11:42:18 +1300

https://youtu.be/n_g_n_SxVgc

Ian Dalziel

Thu, 07 Jan 2016 10:55:49 +1300

My choice would be to do the same with Graham Greene novels
Many of you might enjoy this site: http://www.existentialennui.com/
and this one too:
http://hilobrow.com/
the lists are quite a good random factor:
http://hilobrow.com/2013/10/29/conspiracy-theory/

Ian Dalziel

Thu, 07 Jan 2016 08:00:01 +1300

This will also be the Summer of the return of The X-Files – I only just found out Rhys Darby has a role, nice work that man...

...meanwhile the servile become surly at being surveilled
and the brave new world gets brazen: http://www.techspot.com/news/63292-tech-companies-face-criminal-charges-if-they-notify.html?

Tom Semmens

Tue, 05 Jan 2016 07:17:55 +1300

Raining in Seville now as well. Starting to feel a little picked on.

Sacha

Mon, 04 Jan 2016 18:59:48 +1300

send him to Greymouth :)

Sacha

Mon, 04 Jan 2016 18:58:21 +1300

Fat Freddy's at the Mangawhai Tavern

cool. how was it?

Joe Wylie

Mon, 04 Jan 2016 17:33:43 +1300

Cocky's Joy.

Ian Dalziel

Mon, 04 Jan 2016 09:53:09 +1300

dairy airs...
cow cocky’s Xmas
No need for that kind of language – according to Australia's Northern Territory Member of Parliament...
I especially liked:
And, "What a joke! Next a ringer will be called a 'horse mounted Ag worker' and a swaggy will be a 'mobile self-bedding sufficient general purpose…

Farmer Green

Mon, 04 Jan 2016 08:18:40 +1300

Back in the days before "dairy support" , PKE and centre -pivot irrigation, there was a phenomenon known as a "cow cocky's Xmas" .
We've just had one such.

Tom Semmens

Sun, 03 Jan 2016 20:38:44 +1300

It is pouring in Dubai today as well. One poor guy ran across the road in the heavy rain with such a look of abject terror on his face that i hoped for his sake he never gets to spend new year in NZ.

Chris Waugh

Sun, 03 Jan 2016 15:02:55 +1300

I’m glad we were only camping in the backyard, and that we packed up and moved back inside before the weather arrived.

...then these two came rolling in...

Timmy Hayward

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 21:08:57 +1300

Got four beautiful days at Mangawhai, including Fat Freddy's at the Mangawhai Tavern! Then three very stormy days near Matauri Bay – luckily we were able to squash inside a house rather than staying out in the tent. Finally a 6 1/2 hour drive back in dreadful traffic.

In 2012/2013…

Glenn Pearce

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 20:20:16 +1300

It’s been raining all year!

Hebe

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 13:56:29 +1300

We found out where all of Auckland goes on a rainy New Years day. All packed into the war memorial museum. And the rest in the Wintergarden.

Otherworldly through the elastic doors. Neat! Now I want to play with googly-eyed lenses.

Ian Dalziel

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 07:48:20 +1300

...glowing skies between 9pm and 3am.
On the money, sir!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11568404

Soon Lee

Fri, 01 Jan 2016 21:30:47 +1300

Happy New Year! May the New Year be an excellent one!

(Dawn at Waihi Beach though cloudy, had enough breaks for the sky to lighten, albeit briefly. By 9am, it was raining, cold & blustery.)

Nora Leggs

Fri, 01 Jan 2016 18:34:54 +1300

We found out where all of Auckland goes on a rainy New Years day. All packed into the war memorial museum. And the rest in the Wintergarden.

Nora Leggs

Fri, 01 Jan 2016 18:32:58 +1300

The Ourobos of El Nino
prepares to bite its tail…

And the water lily pops up through it's own leaf

Ian Dalziel

Fri, 01 Jan 2016 09:02:47 +1300

Fire in the sky…
…and the sea!

The Ourobos of El Nino
prepares to bite its tail…
the great cycle continues.

Happy New Year everyone
make of it what you will…

David Hood

Thu, 31 Dec 2015 20:03:09 +1300

People in Dunedin and south might want to keep an eye out for Aurora this evening (or repeatedly search Twitter for Dunedin aurora) as there is a chance of glowing skies between 9pm and 3am.

Hebe

Wed, 30 Dec 2015 22:38:18 +1300

evening walks up Maungawhau for sunsets and moonrises

Love it.

Allan Moyle

Wed, 30 Dec 2015 18:46:53 +1300

evening walks up Maungawhau for sunsets and moonrises

Ian Dalziel

Wed, 30 Dec 2015 14:51:14 +1300

Pier pressure...
Visiting Napier recently I was mightily impressed with their brand new coastal viewing platform (and stormwater outlet cover), the scale is right, the proportions are right and the execution is stylishly simple and uncluttered, the wave form steel pergola is a soothing illusion of light and air.
Thankfully…

Hebe

Wed, 30 Dec 2015 14:28:36 +1300

Midsummer hailed orange blossom. (Never mind the technical deftness: there is none! I'm on day three of Lightroom so getting picture to page is an achievement.)

william blake

Wed, 30 Dec 2015 10:44:12 +1300

Pukekura Park for the summer solstice.

Chris Waugh

Wed, 30 Dec 2015 08:34:05 +1300

The Empire Strikes Back, says the ODT.

JacksonP

Tue, 29 Dec 2015 11:59:16 +1300

Does anyone swim?

Not while we were there. Hard to imagine, in all honesty. There is also the small matter of electrical pylons looming overhead. I for one found the concept of getting in the water a little... fraught.

Emma Hart

Tue, 29 Dec 2015 10:02:20 +1300

Feeling sorry for the caterers and food carts at the cricket – looks like it’ll all be over by the lunch break 108/0 after 8 overs!!!
(and I suspect even Emma didn’t want it over that fast either…)

There wasn't even a full 'lunchbreak'. People were walking around hawking 2…

Alfie

Tue, 29 Dec 2015 09:56:37 +1300

So Buchan is Doric? Or a variant?

I get the impression that it's a regional variation of Doric, though only a Scots speaker would know for sure. It was certainly incomprehensible to outsiders.

Grandad emigrated to NZ after WWI and ran a pub in Denniston, on the West Coast. So…

Ben Austin

Mon, 28 Dec 2015 22:56:46 +1300

So Buchan is Doric? Or a variant?

My grandmother and her mother could speak some form of Scots Gaelic, although I suspect the former not so much. Although she was able to teach us numbers and some nursery rhymes. Her mother was apparently fluent and she would have been 2nd…

Ian Dalziel

Mon, 28 Dec 2015 20:36:15 +1300

How about the next one?
No such luck for the Nelson game...

Russell Brown

Mon, 28 Dec 2015 20:22:33 +1300

We just ventured down there too. Good to see some wildlife settling in. Although I think it is best suited to joggers and cyclists passing through.

Does anyone swim?

Russell Brown

Mon, 28 Dec 2015 20:20:27 +1300

What a wonderful treat though.
Just off suburban Orcaland can be a beautiful place…

And the orcas come in so close! I've watched them from a Waiheke ferry, right into the port. Never got pics like Fletcher's, though.

Rosemary McDonald

Mon, 28 Dec 2015 19:53:51 +1300

Great that the ODI game is available live on Prime today.

What?

How about the next one? (so we can steal a telly)

Ian Dalziel

Mon, 28 Dec 2015 14:03:47 +1300

High noon
Feeling sorry for the caterers and food carts at the cricket – looks like it'll all be over by the lunch break 108/0 after 8 overs!!!
(and I suspect even Emma didn't want it over that fast either...)

Ian Dalziel

Mon, 28 Dec 2015 13:21:04 +1300

I'm wondering if they'll even get to a 100...
okay, it was 117!

Ian Dalziel

Mon, 28 Dec 2015 12:49:01 +1300

Great that the ODI game is available live on Prime today.

It's looking like the cricketing gods are mindful of Emma's desire to not stay in the heat too long ... Sri Lanka are crumbling – I'm wondering if they'll even get to a 100...

But why do they have…

JacksonP

Mon, 28 Dec 2015 10:38:41 +1300

The new Onehunga beach/foreshore on Christmas Day, late afternoon.

We just ventured down there too. Good to see some wildlife settling in. Although I think it is best suited to joggers and cyclists passing through.

Good walking connections from different sides of motorway.

Rosemary McDonald

Mon, 28 Dec 2015 09:36:28 +1300

We spent all yesterday at the cricket. Boxing Day

Peter likewise; although there in spirit rather than in his post chemo body.

A former sun nut who seldom burned, the chemo done 'orrible things to his skin. The last actual match he went to was Sri Lanka (bring on those…

Ian Dalziel

Mon, 28 Dec 2015 08:16:44 +1300

Going coastal!
then we felt guilty for disturbing such beautiful creatures and left them to their business...
What a wonderful treat though.
Just off suburban Orcaland can be a beautiful place...
;- )

Russell Brown

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 22:44:23 +1300

I’m sorry the technical quality, and composition, are not as excellent as some of our frequent photographic contributors… but this was pretty special to see just off a suburban Auckland beach on Boxing Day…

Indeed! Thanks for posting.

FletcherB

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 22:17:00 +1300

Sorry- edit window closed....

What is in my pics does not fully represent the spectacle we were treated to... There was a mother with calf, and three or four others in the pod- possibly even a few more? They were not in tight formation, and it was difficult to keep…

FletcherB

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 21:38:11 +1300

This was just at the northern end of Eastern Beach, near Musick Point.. Howick Golf Course on the top of those cliffs in the background…

FletcherB

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 21:26:27 +1300

Steve Barnes

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 18:35:26 +1300

DON'T PANIC...
I am sure it is just a holiday thing...

Chris Waugh

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 18:17:33 +1300

I think I found the husk of some ancient crocopig...

Thomas Lumley

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 17:58:50 +1300

The new Onehunga beach/foreshore on Christmas Day, late afternoon.

Chris Waugh

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 16:33:14 +1300

I’m quite enjoying being back in the right hemisphere. Three shots from this morning’s trip to Staglands.

Alfie

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 14:49:42 +1300

My ancestral home is the village of Pennan, in Aberdeenshire. My grandfather was born there and his dad built clinker fishing boats in a shed on the bankhead. It's famous as the main location for Bill Forsyth's film Local Hero.

The first time we stayed there we overheard two farmers…

Farmer Green

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 12:19:20 +1300

I wasn’t aware anyone spoke Norn.
That is right ; Faroese is the closest living remnant.

JacksonP

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 12:06:56 +1300

Our flax flowers bring all the birds to the yard…. oh dear god. #sorrynotsorry

sun tolerance of an Irish redhead

Can I suggest you throw some shade… over yourself?

What a perfect day though, yesterday. Tempted to fly down for tomorrow. Like, seriously tempted.

Ben Austin

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 11:35:22 +1300

I wasn't aware anyone spoke Norn. That being said, when I was up in Orkney and the Shetlands last Summer, looking at the ancestral graves (around Tingwall), I did find that when the older locals spoke to each other it was basically impossible to understand. Although apparently younger locals /long…

Farmer Green

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 11:29:55 +1300

That Norn is it?
Near as.

Farmer Green

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 11:28:04 +1300

As close as you’ll find today, I think.
We Shetlanders are a bit diehard about this sort of thing :-)

Russell Brown

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 11:05:26 +1300

I know I bang on about how nice Point Chevalier is in summer (Aucklanders used to take their holidays here!) – but it really is.

Here’s the beach just now, the pohutukawa at the end of the deck, buzzing with life yesterday, and Western Springs park on Christmas Day.

Emma Hart

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 10:25:32 +1300

My summer. We spent all yesterday at the cricket. Boxing Day on a grassy bank behind a white picket fence at a cricket ground: perfection. Tomorrow, we're going to go back and do it again. This in spite of the fact that radiotherapy has given me the sun tolerance of…

Alfie

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 09:56:43 +1300

Our xmas was a little unusual because we drove our little girl to Christchurch and put her on a 5am plane to Germany. Much happiness / sadness / emotion all round.

We stayed with friends in Swannanoa (north of ChCh) and ended up at a ride-on mower race on xmas…

Ben Austin

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 08:14:31 +1300

That Norn is it?

Farmer Green

Sat, 26 Dec 2015 07:03:29 +1300

If you can read this then count your blessings. You have had a lucky escape:-

http://mrishmael.blogspot.co.nz/2015/12/christmas-eve-can-kill-you_24.html

Farmer Green

Fri, 25 Dec 2015 13:59:49 +1300

I'm still laughing at that bloody tui joke :-)

Sofie Bribiesca

Fri, 25 Dec 2015 11:47:10 +1300

It always works out quite a good day for it. People always doing stuff so no need to plan anything if you don't want to . We have 3 things to do NYE if we feel like it. Hope you have a great day too. :)

Ian Dalziel

Fri, 25 Dec 2015 11:27:22 +1300

Calving to look forward to in early January . . . . new life!
The Life Aquatic?
Are those Antarctic ice shelves calving early?

Even in '78 they were predicting this...

:- )

Otherwise Merry Christmas Farmer Green, et al
– Have a cow!
:- )

Farmer Green

Fri, 25 Dec 2015 10:01:24 +1300

my birthday on NYE

Same here (and my brother). Have a good one.

Sofie Bribiesca

Fri, 25 Dec 2015 09:24:50 +1300

We are catching up with Dad today, he's heading to India for a walk about on Sunday and then onto Mexico late Jan so thought we should come down and say hi/bye. . We are gonna eat some lunch.
House sitting for a friend and so far lots of drinking…

Farmer Green

Fri, 25 Dec 2015 08:23:39 +1300

To all:-

Gledhilig jol og eydnurikt nyggjar (as a Shetlander would once have put it).

Calving to look forward to in early January . . . . new life!

Geoff Lealand

Thu, 24 Dec 2015 19:32:20 +1300

My choice would be to do the same with Graham Greene novels

Tom Semmens

Thu, 24 Dec 2015 11:21:10 +1300

Here is a nice Xmas story:

Archaeologists digging in the Valley of the Kings have uncovered a hidden tomb. inside, they have found an un-robbed chamber with an intact mummy inside. The mummy is richly decorated chocolate, nuts and gold foil. Experts believe it to be tomb of the fabled…

Stephen Judd

Thu, 24 Dec 2015 06:40:25 +1300

Because I blew all my leave a few weeks ago on an overseas trip, I won't be going away, but I do plan to spend my time tending the vege garden, stoking the barbecue, riding bikes, and taking shit to the dump, as conditions permit.

Sacha

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 23:17:42 +1300

I'm in Melbourne

the hardship :)

EliotBlennerhassett

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 22:15:26 +1300

sit out this National government by reading all Hemingway’s works in the towns where they were written. sounds nice but you may not want to go to Key West

Depression-era Key West as the locale for "To Have and Have Not"

I'm not making this up...

Downbeatdan

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 20:43:15 +1300

No, it's the Tui beverage... its all its good for, dry it out, scrape up the resulting gloop and Bob's your uncle.

BenWilson

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 20:41:14 +1300

I'm in Melbourne visiting in-laws, and occasionally old mates when I can escape the remote vortex that is Frankston. I've already done 600 km just commuting to the city.

Love this town, though. Quite a different vibe to Auckland. Plenty of quaxing going on here, but.

Merry Christmas PAS. Be…

Murray Hewitt

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 19:11:13 +1300

the gloriously empty roads

Yeah, Auckland ain't half bad when everybody else buggers off. Merry Holidays Russell

Russell Brown

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 14:29:27 +1300

Must make a hell of a mess on the stove top!
How big are the knives?
:- )

Good to see you’ve saved up your very worst jokes for the end of the year, Ian :-)

Ian Dalziel

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 13:53:57 +1300

Hola!
I am going to live in Spain from whence I plan to sit out this National government by reading all Hemingway’s works in the towns where they were written.
That sounds like fun, Madrid and Pamplona is it?
(Go to Barcelona anyway – it's great!)
Ya may have to…

artig

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 13:25:32 +1300

In the lead up to Christmas it was time to do the 3 longer walks in the Whakarewarewa Forest, starting from the Redwoods information centre. The first 2 on Sunday, the third one yesterday. Here's a photo from the lower Whaka lookout, on the Pohaturoa Track. Hope to do a…

Tom Semmens

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 13:14:29 +1300

Taupo for the biggest family gathering since Mum and Dad died, but then my big adventure begins – I decided I was totally fed up with John Key’s selfish NZ, so I am going to live in Spain from whence I plan to sit out this National government by reading…

Ian Dalziel

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 13:08:53 +1300

spotting tui
Must make a hell of a mess on the stove top!
How big are the knives?
:- )

Russell Brown

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 12:17:21 +1300

Beautiful.

Alice Ronald

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 12:07:28 +1300

I went on my first tramp in at least 10 years last weekend – the sore muscles have finally faded, the sandfly bites are calming down, and I have a whole bunch of new landscape shots for my screensaver :)

Public Address

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 12:07:28 +1300

Discussion from blog post.