Thought for the day

Here's another couple of fun photos ,but you have to have a couple of heavy thoughts to balance them out ....I lay in bed this morning listening to "Morning Repeat" ,like I do every morning ,and it passed through my mind that every time the commentator said
Afghanistan I could replace it with Vietnam ,when he said Kazai I just replaced it with Din Diem...when do we get the helicopter extractions from the rooftops ????
That's enough I'll save the other for tomorrow .

Cool pants

Cool pants eh ??

Ice works 2

Not exactly the type of art that one does for posterity !!!!

Full moon tonight

I've just come in from a walk outside ,it's 10.30 pm ,-5 degrees ,an inch of sparkling snow and you could read the paper without a torch !!!! in short it's unbelievable . Over the last couple of nights I've been freezing pottles of water in the shade ,this morning I thought that I'd have a crack at doing something with them ,so here's a series of photos ,it lasted until about 3pm,but was fun to do .Keep warm all of you and I hope that the full moon didn't get you !!

Cold days

Very Cold at the moment ,and wet underfoot ,but above that it's absolutely gorgeous.The air is just so crisp and clean ,most of the snow from the last fall is still lying ,but starting to form larger crystals .It's always interesting to see which parts melt first and there's nothing more calculated to make you appreciate your green lawn than going through a period WITHOUT it !!!! kind of like MOST things in life eh.

SNOW !

Well Sat may have been 15 degrees ,but it's snowing buckets now ,started about 6pm so who knows how much by morning ...I might lie in !!
I did a bit of experimenting with the night shots and the speeds ,interesting results .

Cambrians Matariki.

Two days off the winter solstice and yesterdays 3pm temp. was 15 degrees !!!!! who still doesn't believe in global warming ? A great w/e , I stoked up the hot tub for possibly the last time ,the water was coming through the bottom nearly as fast as I was filling it up and I had to continually bail out the firebox !!but it worked and at 5 o'clock [and 10] we had a great tub .We lit a huge bonfire just before 6 and it's still burning nicely 24 hrs later .Lots of hot wine and nice friends around ,could be my last solstice bonfire as everyone is having celebrations at this time of year now ,time to move the fireworks to this day !!!Manu and Cam went home today [Sunday],I must say that it was special having them both home on this occasion .Cams 21st,,Manus 32nd and my retirement ,not to mention the winter solstice .So Cam's into his adulthood [well sortof !] and I'm into my dotage ,the end of an era.The ice sculpture was not as great as I'd hoped because of the blooming warm weather ,the winter is meant to be COLD like -15 degrees ,maybe it's still to come .

White out 3

WHITE OUT 2.....

A few more

WHITE OUT !!!!!!

Woke up this morning thinking that it was pretty foggy outside ,but no ,it was just covered in beautiful soft powder snow ,about 6cm of it ! The amazing part is that you don't hear a thing ,you just wake up and god has painted all the green bits white !!
It really is quite magical .I'll put some photos on here ,but a few more on facebook for those crazy enough to be on that !!!

Ice Time again !

I trust everyone got through the holiday w/e OK,with only one death on the roads I think that we did very well .I drove to Chch on the Sat in fine weather ,it takes 7hrs from here counting a few little stops .Bruces funeral celebration was on the Sunday and packed out the local community hall .It was naturally a very sad affair ,but uplifting at the same time ,and I came away with a stronger resolve to enjoy life and its madcap ways .The drive home was completely in rain until the Pig Root ,and then it was snow ! I arrived home to no water ,except that that was roaring down the road ! no power ,no fires ,no nothing ,but within 2 hrs everything was going and I sat in the dark infront of the fire prepared for a long night ,and then the power came on !!!!electric blanket time !!
The mornings are VERY cold at the moment -6,but the days are lovely ,here's a couple of shots of the ice ,more tomorrow .