Sights of summer

For Kiwis nothing says Christmas like the pohutukawa tree.  Its blazing red flowers have earned it the title of New Zealand's Christmas tree.  It starts to flower in November and usually stops by Christmas and New Year, with its peak in mid to late December.  This is a great time of year to find myself with time to kill.  It's a joy to wander looking for flowering pohutukawa.  I found them blooming right on time along Princes Road, Ruakaka earlier last week.

 

 Providing a beautiful canopy over the road down to the beach

Framing the view out to The Hen and Chickens (that's Taranga, the Hen, pictured.  I think.) 

 Looking across to Whangarei Heads

Legend has it that if the pohutukawa flowers early it will be a long hot summer.  I've noticed the cabbage trees flowering.  That has always been my go to for a predictor of summer.  And, yes, I thought they were early.

The only blight on my time at the beach was this oystercatcher.  I think it was injured, it didn't fly off as I approached as I expected it to and didn't move in the time I watched it.  I think it was keeping a wary eye on me.

FSO Silhouette

This week's topic is silhouettes. Luckily I remembered when I was at my daughter's last week and there was a beautiful sunset.  

In the foreground is a Cabbage Tree/ti kouka which is one of the most distinctive trees in the New Zealand landscape, especially on farms.  They grow all over the country but prefer wet, open areas like swamps.  I've tried to grow them but I think my soil is too well drained.

 Last week I showed a stylised silver fern, New Zealand's national emblem, on the side of an Air NZ plane.  Here is the real thing, a tree fern, or ponga.  They grow in a variety of habitats, although they prefer damp shady places beneath tree canopies.  Again, I've had no luck with them.

I took this next one with the topic fences in mind for next week but am bringing it forward to this week.  I think it fits "an outline that appears dark against a light background" definition of silhouette. 

To see some really good silhouettes, just pop over to Friday My Town Shoot Out.