Paving?

This is my before shot and believe it or not there’s paving under there.  As you can tell garden maintenance is not my strong point so on Monday the landscape guy is coming and by the end of the week this should look completely different. 

Wild!

We’ve had two days of properly wild weather and winter is definitely on its way. There is major flooding down south and a decent snow dump. Here we’ve had raging southerlies up to 150kms/hr and tidal surges up to 12m. Luckily I’m pretty well protected from a southerly but it was so wild that water was blown up and under the window flashing in the kitchen. I’m counting myself extremely lucky that I only ended up with an art installation on my windowsill, it could easily have been way worse. 

PS: this is why you keep a good selection of random containers and old towels. 

Remembrance

Yesterday was ANZAC Day so I got up early(ish) and went to the local commemoration. 

Helicopters on the way back to base after the flyby at the dawn service in town. 

Beautiful putiputi harakeke (flax flower) wreath made by the local kindergarten. 

Not So Bad

A new cafe has opened next to my regular dairy/convenience store. I’ve been in a couple of times but this morning I noticed they have a naughty corner. 

Not a bad spot for a bit of time out. 

High Tide

It’s a bit hard to see but I got to work Tuesday sporting a high tide mark. 

This was the result of standing at the bus stop in torrential swirling rain with thunder and lightning rolling around. Thanks to a proper coat that keeps me dry down to my knees at least I wasn’t sitting on a damp bum all day. 

Arty cups

Both Te Matatini and Womad had the same paper cups and not your boring old plain ones either.  Fully recyclable, beautifully decorated and multi purpose.

Definitely says something about my festival diet that two of these are ice cream and the other is coffee. 

Art

For the last few months I’ve been watching a pile of sand slowly change shape. It’s part of an exhibition at work and is designed to shift over its time in the gallery. I thought I’d taken a picture of it on opening day, if I did I can’t find it but this is what it looked like yesterday. 

You’ll have to trust me that it started out as a perfect cone and that it’s sparkly, black west coast sand. It’s called Whenua (Land) and is about the shifting permanence of our places.