FSO - From the Ground

"There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground" - love that line.  I remember when I first read it and feeling disappointed with the rest of the poem.  I had those words in mind when I went looking for images for this week's topic.  There was rain during the week, most of it heavy but some nice gentle stuff, too but none of my ideas worked.

Here's an image from before the rain, dust rising from the ground, allowing you can trace the vehicle's progress through the pine forest.

 

 Nature's artwork clinging to the ground:

 

New life springing from the ground:

Old life, too.

Homes being built from the ground up:

Emerging from a hole in the ground:

And lift off!

That was a neat topic, I bet there will be as many interpretations of it as there are of us.  They will all be here.  Pop over and have a look.  Or, better yet, why not join us? 

Foggy morn

There could have been more fog this morning.  Don't know, I stayed snuggled up in bed arguing with myself about whether I'd get up and go to work or stay right there.   I now work in an open plan environment with three other women, perfect for spreading germs.  My boss is nearly due to have a baby and the last thing she needs is to be kept awake all night coughing.  So, for everyone else's sake I decided to stay at home.  Just me being noble, nothing to do with tiredness or laziness.  

Yesterday I had to stop several times on my way to work.  I do love foggy mornings. Didn't even make it out on to the road before I made the first stop.  The fog was lifting from the mountain but still drifting around the valley.

This is much closer to town.  I pulled over to the wrong side of the road to get the shot out the car window.   

Death by cow

We had a heavy fog on Saturday morning.    I've been resisting taking a photo of the damage the cows did to a tree in my yard a week or so ago when they escaped their paddock during the night.  Of course, this isn't the only tree they attacked but obviously this one had the best taste, they nibbled at some of the others but they had a feast on this one.    I thought in the fog, it didn't look quite so bad.  Time will tell if it will recover.

This morning the skies were wonderfully clear.  Except for this weird cloud.  It went right across the full arc of the sky.   I had left my camera at home on purpose, I was travelling to Rawene for a funeral and thought it best not to have a major distraction like my camera.  Of course, I did slip the little Canon into my handbag - and I'm glad I did.

 The tide was out at Rawene but that harbour, ah that harbour, it always has something to attract. 

FSO - Five Senses

The taste of something new:

The sight of someone old:

A mother's touch:

The sound of a friend's voice:

 The smell of the sea:

The Friday My Town Shoot Out-ers are a diverse group, I expect some very different interpretations of this topic.  They will all be here.



Under a bridge

I bet if I made it my mission to find some real hidden treasure, I wouldn't come within a bull's roar of it.  But put me on the trail of mostly hidden graffiti and I will stumble across it at my first attempt.  When I told the girls with whom I work where I was off to after work, they warned me about the carpark in the vicinity.  It's always been a bad area for break ins and has been particularly bad lately I was told. 

I'm often not good at taking advise but when I got to the carpark and there wasn't another car in sight, I decided caution was the better part of valour and drove away.  OK, I know it should be discretion but caution fits the bill in this case.

But I wasn't going to give in that easily.  I discovered I could park on the roadside not far from the bridge I was heading for, it's a busy road so wouldn't be an easy target for ratbags with nothing better to do than break into cars.  And, as long as I stayed on the bridge and didn't go down to the stream, the car would be in my sight. 

It would have been so easy to miss.  There is no sign of it from the road, and unless you were looking straight down from the pedestrian path on the bridge you wouldn't see it.  I was looking for it and nearly didn't see it.  

I couldn't get a good view but I can go back in summer and climb down the river bank for a better view.

There is some graffiti on either side of the underside of the bridge.  I'd like to have a closer look at this one.

Mind you, my fascination with graffiti will probably be gone by then.  It's a bit weird that it has held my interest for a full week now.  Let's hope I move on to something a little more stimulating.  But at least this has got me back blogging regularly again. 

More graffiti

At work we have a new group of students taking their classes close to our office.   I met them this morning, then happened upon them later just as I was about to leave for the day.  Now why weren't they there last week?  That seems to be how the cookie crumbles sometimes.  I spend a week agonising about a FSO topic, then the following week something related will be right in front of me. 

How this graffiti art relates to their course, I didn't ask.  But I admired how they went about their creations.   And I think they enjoyed my interest.  

I'll be interested to see how this one turns out.  They told me where they will leave their art boards so I can pop over tomorrow and see the finished results.  

They weren't exactly chatty, I'm a bit old for them to feel comfortable communicating.  I speak in whole sentances and have a bit of trouble understanding two and three word responses.   But I discovered there isn't much of their kind of graffiti art around Whangarei, others tag over it as soon as it goes up.  But I was told where I can find some that isn't generally known about.  I will check it out tomorrow but suspect I may have to wait till summer to get a good look as it could involve getting wet.  Can't tell you where it is, I suspect they don't want everyone to know about it. 

Fluddles

It's been raining.  It was so good to see the puddles, I just had to stop and take a photo through the windscreen.

Georgia must have been happy to see them, too.  She came in after school asking had I noticed all the "fluddles" on the road.  Then, in her patient voice, the one she uses when I'm being a bit dim and don't understand something, said, "Fluddles, Granny.  Flooded puddles."

FSO - Graffiti

Just yesterday, thanks to my manager at work pointing me in the right direction, I discovered some graffiti I actually liked.  

It's bright and bold and doesn't look out of place.  It adorns the skate park.  I recall there was a graffiti painting competition at the park some years ago, maybe that was when the park opened and every inch of the complex is now covered with either graffiti or tagging. I wonder how the graffiti artists feel about the tagging.

But there was very little tagging along this wall.

 

The council has provided public toilets and adorned them so they blend in with the park.

The other graffiti I found a week or so ago when I was in Taranaki seemed to me to be just wrong.  

I haven't been able to find out anything about the history of this old concrete building.  It sat at the bottom of a cliff with an old road down to it and a derelict slipway for launching boats.   I'll be back in Taranaki at the end of the month and will make enquiries. 

I like how the old wall divides the beautiful from the ugly in this shot.  

That was another topic where I thought "Oh crumbs" when I saw it.  I didn't think "Oh crumbs", that's just me being polite.  But you get the idea.  It turned out to be quite fun.   I think there will be some great images this week.  Just pop over here to see them.

FSO - Machinery

I have a problem.  It's a good one to have.  I have too many machinery photos.  I just went nuts on this topic. 

First of all I had so many choices here on the farm.   So I'm limiting myself to two from the farm, one firmly rooted on the ground, the other above ground.

One from the new bridge construction in town:

A couple just because I like them:

And a tribute to all old machines that in their day served us well.  These were sitting beside a railway siding, waiting to be carried off to their final resting place (or purpose). 

 

I'm choosing the Spotlight photos this week.  If you spot something you really like in your visits to the rest of the team, pop back and let me know.    They will all be here.           

FSO - Sweet Tooth

I have a few days off work so decided to drive down to Taranaki to see my favourite little guy (and his mother and father, of course).

I took these first few shots last weekend.  My sweet tooth kicks in at breakfast when I drizzle passionfruit jam over my banana and cereal.  You have to give me credit for the cereal and banana.  

And I also deserve points for not wasting the jam which is just a bit more liquid than it should be and not good jam consistency.  But look at that lovely colour and it is soooo yummy!

 

If I'd had toast for breakfast I would have had honey on it.  Delicious Kaiora honey from Kaitaia.

Just to see it dripping like that makes my mouth water.

Here in my daughter's home in Taranaki, the sweet temptations are many.  Justine has a little cupcake business and it's no surprise her treats are in such high demand.  I was eating with my eyes before she even finished icing these.

This morning  there's mainly crumbs left from last night's lemon merengue pie.

The weather here is lovely.  I look forward to five days in the Naki.  And to checking the rest of the FSO team's contribution here for the topic Sweet Tooth.

FSO - Starburst

Light diffraction, bending light - blows my mind! 

Luckily I went around the farm practising a couple of weeks ago, as earlier this week I was happy to not even see the sun.  Yes, it rained!  And the sun was the last thing I wanted to see.  

I quite liked the starbursts through the trees but whenever I found a tree with a bit of character the sun wasn't behind it. I found it interesting that no two starbursts are the same and, to be honest, think it's a bit of hit and miss and you need a bit of luck to get it right.  Well, I do anyway.

How come this one created circles within itself?

And maybe someone can explain how I got those pretty light in there?

 Crap starburst but I captured a flying saucer!  Don't care how it got there - I like it! 

Yesterday I tried to apply the lesson to structures. You've seen the structures before, should have gone looking for something different but I'm a creature of habit.  I'd tried earlier in the afternoon on other structures but I think the sun was too strong - is that possible?  But by the time we returned from our walk, it had lost some of its sting and I'm happy with this one.

This was intended to be my best shot.  The light between the lights.  As you can see, it didn't quite work but I'll keep trying.

 

 I must be nuts because I came close to getting stressed about ever getting that right and now that it's done I think it was enjoyable.  Thanks, Rebecca, for the tutorial.  You make learning something new fun!  I know some of our group don't need any lessons but I do and I appreciate them.  

I expect to be humbled by what the rest of the team has for us this week.  But that's another part of the learning process that is FSO for me.