Friday 27 June 2014

FSO - Open Theme

This week I'm invited to show you My Town in any way I choose.  At first I thought I'd show you the roads I travel but have narrowed it down to the road on which I live.  The farm sits on the corner of two roads so I'll include a couple of the side road as well.  

Our road is no super highway.  It's a gravel road, commonly referred to as a metal road.  Basically they are dirt roads with gravel spread on top.  Ours have a nice camber, better than you find on most paved roads.  They are constructed like that to aid drainage but it does make them more pleasurable to drive.

This is the only close up I have of the road materials.  Here, after heavy rain, because of poor drainage on the high side of the road, the flood water has formed a gutter right across the road for the water to escape.  It grew worse by the day and a couple of complaints to the council got me nowhere.  Until I sent them this photo.  I had another shot of my foot in the water with the water up over my ankle but can't find it. 


This is what Georgia calls a fluddle - a flooded puddle.  In places they creep right across the road after heavy rain.


So come for a ride down the road towards my home.   We'll meander along, twisting and turning, waving to the neighbour when he goes past.  That will probably be the only vehicle we will see in the 10-15 minute drive. 


No point in hurrying, there could be a surprise in front of us.


Just down this hill, across that little bridge and up the other side and we will be home.




You can carry on past my place if you like.




It's just more of the same.



The side road goes up over the hill country.  It's our long way to town when our road is flooded.  Takes a good deal longer to get there, too.



There will be lots of photos of others' home towns at Friday My Town Shoot Out.



Sunday 22 June 2014

Cloudy weather

It's good to be home and see the clouds against a familiar skyline.


There was heavy fog in the Waikato and low cloud on the landscape when I went to Taranaki by car.


And then more cloud below me when I flew home again.


Cloudy day here today but I'm happy to be home. 

Friday 20 June 2014

FSO - Beaches and Shores

I've been in Taranaki this week so it is some of my favourite beaches and shores of Taranaki that I will show you. The coastline of Taranaki offers great variety.  

 Stretches of wild coast with steep cliffs marching away into the distance

 Beaches strewn with driftwood

Beaches where little mountain streams empty into the sea


 
Places where waves smash on to rocks

and a little distance inland, lots of lovely stoney creeks
running down from Mt Taranaki towards the sea.

I'm looking forward to doing the Spotlights this week.  Can't wait to see the beaches, shores and watery places that the Friday My Town Shoot Out participants will be showing us this week.   They will be here, drop by to have a look.  Or, better still, join us.  Share some photos of your community.

Friday 13 June 2014

Look Up, down, straight ahead

Everything is bedraggled and the worse for wear after heavy rain and flooding during the week.  Yesterday the sun came out, my little house guest and I could finally get out of the house and go for a walk.

I look down at a patch of jonquils growing beside the farm track:
 

Up at the few autumn leaves that survived the storm:
 

And ahead at my house in the distance.



I've had my three year old grandson staying with me for the past week, and didn't have the opportunity to catch up on everyone's Friday My Town Shoot Outs.  I hope to do better next week, will do my best although I will be away.

Friday 6 June 2014

FSO - Colours of early summer

You spell it color, I say it's colour.  You say it's summer, I say it's winter.  It's all a bit upside down, really.  So do I show you summer or winter?  My reality or yours?  I took a couple of shots of mine, this one beside the road close to town.


We live in New Zealand's only sub-tropical zone, with warm humid summers and mild winters.  Our winter daytime temperatures range from 12 to 17 degrees celsius (53 - 62 F) so it never gets really cold (although we do get the occasional frost here, more than in most other places in the north).  And we don't have many deciduous trees and autumn colours.   This one is close to my house and looks so good, I think, because of the contrast to the winter colour of the mountain.



I found a couple of photos I took exactly six months ago which are typical of our colours of early summer. 


Vibrant new growth and bold colours


I'll be visiting the Friday My Town Shoot Out participants over the next few days as and when child visitor time allows.  You can find them here.

Wednesday 4 June 2014

Sufferers

Some people suffer is silence, with some people the silence is louder than with others (makes sense to me!).  But my grand-daughter Krystal is simply incapable of doing any suffering whatsoever without screaming it from the rooftops. If she's off colour, everyone has to know about it.  A proper little drama queen.  I'm not being nasty, I said the same to her and she agreed.

Krystal's mother and two sisters have had the tummy bug and just quietly got on with feeling crook for a couple of days.  Krystal, however, was on death's door.  Not really, but she managed to convince me she was.  So I took her into town to see a doctor.  

The waiting room and cubicles in these medical rooms have more signs than any place I've seen.  You could sit there for hours just reading the signs.  Just as well because the wait is always long.  

I even have a favourite sign.  I tried to explain to Krystal why it was funny but she just gave me a pained look and the more I tried (I always did get grammar and syntax mixed up) the more she appeared to be suffering.  She did, however, give a wry smile when she read the rest of the notice and I quickly put the camera back in my bag. 


 The patient is recovering.

I'm off to Auckland tomorrow and will return on Friday with three year old Aiden in my charge.  (Lord, please don't let him be sick while he's in my care.)  Imagine a whole week as sole charge of an energetic little boy.  How will I cope?  Will we have fun?  I have scheduled a post for Friday but other than that I may not be around in blogland for a while.   

Happy days!



Tuesday 3 June 2014

Early winter

The cowshed is in standby mode.  It won't be long and the cows will start calving again and it will be in full swing every morning and afternoon. 


There's no quiet time of the year for tractors and farm bikes, just some times that aren't as muddy as others.

 
The farmer stocks up on oils and other basic supplies.

 
They look quite prissy lined up beside the well used drums.

Monday 2 June 2014

Farm fencing


Sights of the season:

A working electric fence. And no, I didn't test it.

Unused electric fence reels hanging, waiting to be called into service

A bunch of electric fence standards  in storage

Fencing wire, some used, some unused

Electric fence insulators