Tag Archives: ferns

Winter light

Grey clouds, low light, icy rain and freezing winds this week have seen us indoors so much of the time. It is easy to gaze wistfully out a window hoping for a clearance in such weather. No such clearance has been forth-coming but yesterday the sun did break through at times and just after mid- afternoon offered me this image of winter light, soft greens and a warmth that was definitely lacking in the air. Winter sunlight can surprise us at times as it shines into corners mostly shaded and dark.
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Tendrils, filigree and fernery

A quick dash out into the garden in the sunshine on a finer day between the freezing rain and wind days this week. And this is what my eye was attracted to.

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A garden in Hawkes Bay

We stayed with relatives in Hawkes Bay and in a welcome space of time away from the hospital I wandered about their lovely garden with the camera.

The climate in Hawkes Bay is so very different to our one here in Porirua and gardens grow luxuriantly there. Different plants thrive in the dry, scorching heat of summer and the frosty cold winters.

So here are some of the plants I photographed during my time out in nature. The intense heat and light of mid morning was not the best time for photography but I wanted to capture those extremes.

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Ferny Friday

A change of scenery and some fresh air was needed today and we headed to Battle Hill, Pauatahanui.

It is a working farm, run by the Greater Wellington Regional Council but it is also a historic site and includes various areas of regeneration.

These lovely tree ferns (Pongas) were on the edge of a large area of regenerating native bush. I love tree ferns and enjoyed the light and the way the ferns shifted and moved in the breeze.

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Time and technology

I had intended to post on Friday but other things got in the way of that intention so here goes on Monday.

I had commented to another blogger that I was not sure where last week had gone and just what I had to show for it. Upon further reflection I realized that technology had been a rather dominating theme during the week and technology can certainly eat up the hours without much being achieved.

A “lost” MRI report had caused some degree of anxiety on my behalf but someone else spent the hours chasing that and the good news was that the report was found. Relief all round.

I received an odd email on Tuesday night from our telephone/internet provider telling me we had exceeded our gigabyte package at further cost to us. This was a real puzzle as I had received an email the week before telling me that this company was doubling our package for no extra cost.

It was too late to call anyone on the 0800 number but I did go to their website to see what I could learn. Nothing! I spent quite some time searching around in the hope that the answer or an explanation could be found.

I spent time on a sketchy phone line the next morning being told that they had made a mistake and all was well. The new upsized package was ours and the cost the same! Great. I then asked for help to set up entry to my account and usage meter…..three phone calls later I still can’t do this. I’ve decided to abandon that fruitless exercise and simply enjoy more GBs to browse with and continue to refer to paper accounts.

A letter via snail mail that day bought the somewhat unsettling news that we are to be provided with a new smart electricity meter. This will be a digital device that gathers data remotely so that means our longstanding and very friendly meter reader will lose his job. I feel really sad about that.

I decided to ring the company the next day to check out the fine print that appeared in very small font at the bottom of the letter. I have my fingers crossed now that we don’t need an electrician to do extra work, at our cost, when this meter is installed. It seems unlikely according to the woman with whom I spoke.

Friday saw me wrestling with a petrol pump that did not seem to be working particularly well and some pretty indifferent customer service around that.

To help counteract all this techy frustration and time gobbling I returned to the Belmont Domain on Saturday and took some more photos of this beautiful spot.

This is a koru, showing its strength and life force, heading to the sunlight as a new frond on a lovely tree fern in the Domain. The koru is often used as a symbol of potential unfolding.