Friday 30 August 2013

FSO - Vibrant colours


 

Have I told you about my vibrant daughter?  What?  Vibrant colours?  Oh, OK.  I can still tell you about my younger daughter, Justine.

Justine is a colourful personality and her latest creative activity has been producing cakes.  Cupcakes, mainly


 but she's spreading her creative wings to include large cakes as well. 


I just love the colours! 


I'd like to say she gets her talent from me but that couldn't be further from the truth!

Want to see what vibrant colours a great group of photographers have captured?  Just pop over here and enjoy!

Friday 23 August 2013

FSO - Emergency Vehicles

I'm happy to not see many emergency vehicles in my day to day activities.  Certainly we don't see many where we live and when we do the last thing I think about is my camera. 

111 is the number we ring in case of emergency.  Thankfully, the closest I've come to that number was to take of photo of it when it appeared on my TV. 


From where I work I often hear the rescue helicopter coming in over us as it heads for the landing pad on the hospital roof.  I always send up a silent prayer for whoever is on board.  The helicopters have been supported by local sponsors and community donations for 25 years and have carried over 8,500 patients.  That's a lot of people who have been whisked quickly to hospitals rather than endure an often long and arduous road trip.

 
As I'm never on the ball enough to get a shot of a rescue helicopter in the air, I decided to pay a visit to Northland Emergency Services Trust.  A mechanic servicing one of the choppers made me feel welcome. 

 


Let's hope I never have to get closer than this:


About half an hour after I left, just as I was about to head home I heard the whomp, whomp of the chopper as it passed overhead on its way to another emergency.  

 In the same grounds are the ambulance headquarters.  They were all safely locked away waiting their next call to service.


 From my archives, a helping hand inside an ambulance:


Everywhere I looked in town today there seemed to be one of the emergency services speeding by.   I guess they are always there, I just don't notice.  A fire engine flashing past, sirens blasting was far too quick for me so I drove to the depot.  There I found a big guy and a little guy waiting side by side.


I did go to the police station looking for a police car but they were all locked away out of sight, so I'll have to resort to dark night in a moving car shots.



Hop over here to see the emergency vehicles photographed by the rest of the FSO team.

Friday 16 August 2013

FSO - Front and back yard

The topic is:  Front Gardens or Front Yards - Which does your town have?

I went off half cocked and concentrated on my front yard and garden.  By the time I realised I was on the wrong track, it was too late to take photos in town.  Not literally, there was still time but by then the rain was bucketing down.  

So I'm back to my own front yard.  I think of the semi enclosed part of the front of the house as the yard with a bit of a garden.  Even the "garden" part is open to interpretation.


 I think of the house as being in the front yard of the mountain and when it came to establishing a garden, I wanted a Barely Contained Wilderness that would sit naturally in its environment.  No straight lines or sharp edges, no neat rows.  



I like it all to be as natural as possible, so that there is nothing to distract from those lovely mountains.

 
In summer I like a bit of pretty colour and grow a few flowers in boxes and pots.  I think of them as the added extras.  This summer I had a petunia I really liked.  Who knows what I'll feel like next summer.



I wonder what the rest of the Friday My Town Shoot Out team will have to show us of the yards or gardens in their town.  I'll be checking them out here.

Friday 9 August 2013

FSO - Seasonal fun

I'm reminded how much what constitutes fun for me has changed.  Once upon a time it would certainly have involved a lot of action, these days I'm incapable of much action and I enjoy vastly different activities to those of my youth. 

Once fun was all pleasure, gaity and merrymaking or as the Collins Dictionary says "frivolous or hectic activity".   Now it's more of the other interpretation - a source of enjoyment, amusement or diversion.

I still enjoy watching others in action, particularly children. 

 

But, for myself, I'd rather rug up warmly and slowly explore a deserted beach, stopping to look at what the storms have washed up. 


At home, at this time of year, a source of enjoyment is the calving, observing nature at work.



And guess what!  When visitors come to the farm they like to do the same thing.


I expect there will be a lot of summer seasonal fun this week.  That's a little way off for us at the moment.  We still have a bit of winter to go although you wouldn't think it to look at those girls and their bare legs in the photo above.  They are hardy these farm children!

Pop over here to see what seasonal fun the rest of the Friday Mt Town Shoot Out team has been having.

Saturday 3 August 2013

It's that time of year ...

... the time when all tracks lead to the "calving mob", the cows that have been identified as close to calving, drafted out of the herd and kept in an easily accessible paddock.  Here the wheel tracks tell the story of frequent visits by Heather, and the presence of the vet's vehicle completes the story.


At first glance the jersey doesn't look to be in much trouble.


There's more than a little interest in her back end.


Ahh, yes, even I can see that she's not very comfortable.


Heather doesn't look very impressed right now.  But the vet seems happy and confident.  Nice to watch someone happy in his work.
 

 The jersey was the perfect patient.  She kept trying to give birth, kept pushing.  And finally was delivered, with a lot of assistance from the vet and Heather, of a huge calf.


Don't look at the next shot if you are squeamish.  I've seen a fair few close to death calves in my day and this one was about as close as you can get.  But somehow, slowly it came to life and recovered from the indignity of it's entry into this world and by the time we left the paddock it was up and wobbling around looking for it's first feed. 

Friday 2 August 2013

FSO - Detail

As often happens with me, a topic I think will be difficult really gets me going and I don't know where to stop.  Even after I'd thinned out my selections I still had 15 shots.  They fell into three categories really - structural, Maori art and natural.


I'm being firm with myself and only posting two of each. 


Did anyone notice I'm not very good at counting?

Hope the rest of the team enjoyed that topic as much as I did.  Can't wait to see their interpretations.  They will be here.