Half round barns

With our stock grazing outdoors all year round, we don't have any call for large stock or grain barns.   I think this photo tells the story of why so many barns have fallen into disrepair.  The large plastic wrapped bales of hay don't require the same weather protection that the old fashioned much smaller bales did. 

Other than the old and falling down sheds I see, the majority of the barns around here are half round barns.  I don't think I'd ever seen one until I came to NZ years ago but they are a common sight around New Zealand’s rural landscape.   The half round barns are commonly used for implement and hay storage but are now often being utilised for calf rearing.  They are made from welded mild steel frames with treated timber purlins. 

Linking to The Barn Collective with Tom,The Backroads Traveller.

Roadside fences

I'd stopped to take a photo of something else but these guys distracted me as they came to the roadside fence to check out what I was up to.

Another roadside fence dwarfed by the gum trees.  Love those gum trees.

Linking to Teresa's Good Fences.

Seeking the mojo

In an effort to rediscover my elusive blogging mojo, I've decided to accept the invitation of Tom, The Backroads Traveller and join The Barn Collective.  Thanks, Tom.  I like old sheds and barns and looking for ones I haven't yet photographed will at least get me looking around me with some interest again.

I've been suffering from mojo depletion which has left me with a very unusual lack of interest in my camera or blogging.  My mojo cup has been down to the dregs and I'm determined to refill it one way or another.  It would appeal to my sense of the ridiculous if a few old sheds did the trick. 

I'm starting with the two old sheds I see whenever I go down the road.  Although, to be honest, I haven't been looking with much interest lately.  I have a feeling this next one which stands on a hill, quite some distance from the road, may have fallen into greater misrepair since I took this shot.  I will stop and have a good look next time I go out.

                

Detour fences

It just took a little detour on my way home to find this old unused cowshed with it's rusting fences.

And nearby weathered stockyards.

Linking to Teresa's Good Fences.

Lonely Planet's Taranaki

In reasonably resent times the joke was that most travellers who reached Taranaki had taken the wrong turn.  That has been changing and will change in a big way now that Lonely Planet has decreed it the second best region in the world to visit.  

Thanks to my daughter's decision to make Taranaki her home I've enjoyed more than my share of the Taranaki sights.  My hope is that such recognition will not spoil the natural feel of the region and bring commercialism. 

There's much more to Taranaki than the parts of it I love so much in my not so active years. For me, it's all about the mountain, lakes and the beaches. 

a beach and the mountain

I'll be back down there in a couple of weeks and the mission this time is to get a mountain reflected in a lake shot.  And, weather and my hips permitting, a Dawson Falls short walk.  There is also a garden, right beside a beach that I've read about but not yet found.  

Perhaps I will venture to a driftwood strewn beach:

Or an isolated cove amongst the cliffs:

I know for sure I will make several roadside stops to fire off a shot of the beautiful mountain.

 Provided, of course, the mountain comes out to play.  

French fence

While looking for something else I happened across this week's fence photo.  It's taken looking over the hedge fence from the motel where I was staying in Bayeux, in Normandy, France.  After I'd looked around a bit I discovered the stock yards belonged to a veterinary practice.  They could have been in my back yard they looked so familiar.  

Except here when I look in the other direction I don't see a magnificent cathedral, in this case the Notre Dame Cathedral which was consecrated in 1077 in the presence of William the Conquerer.

It has survived fires, pillaging, the Huguenot rebellions, the French Revolution and even lightning. It sits very close to the coast and the beaches where the Allies landed in June, 1944.  Although it suffered fourteen hits by aerial bombs during the war, it did not collapse, but stood tall in an otherwise flattened city. The twin spires are said to have been used as an easily recognizable navigational landmark by Allied aircraft raiding deeper into Germany in the later years of the war, which may be a reason that the cathedral was not destroyed. 

Linking to Teresa's Good Fences.

The wooly goat

The kind owner of some black ewes and their cute lambs gave us permission to go onto her property to take photos.  But once I got there I had eyes only for the shaggy goat.  He was easily tempted over to the fence for a rub and some freshly pulled grass that Chris found for him.

I don't know if putting his head on this angle helped him to see us better.  Maybe he was just striking a pose.

How he managed to see where he was going is a mystery but he was very sure footed.

Linking to Teresa's Good Fences.

A few more Taranaki fences

A few more fences seen while I was in Taranaki recently.  I was there for over three weeks but the mountain presented himself on five or six days only.  On one of those days only his foothills were visible.  Yes, he's definitely a he mountain and has his own legend.

 

 

The new Mangapouri Cemetery near New Plymouth has impressive entrance gates.  There aren't any graves in there yet that I could see.  Does that make it a virgin cemetery? 

  

Linking to Teresa's Good Fences.

It's spring

Fence with a view

I've been blogging so rarely there's nothing much to give up really but I'm going to take a blogging holiday all the same and retreat into my Growlery.  Isn't that a wonderful word?  Thanks to Monica for posting it on FB.  It describes my current disposition perfectly.

I'll try to find a fence a week to keep up with Teresa's Good Fences.

While I was in Taranaki I got the shot I've been chasing for ages.  The mountain can be clearly visible from the other side but by the time I get there it has a habit of clouding over.  This time, however, the mountain gods were with me.  

I'm told being able to get a lighthouse and a mountain backdrop without being on a boat or neck deep in water at a beach is something of a photographic rarity.

 

This is the Cape Egmont Lighthouse which marks the western-most point of the Taranaki coast. 

I find it interesting that it's a second hand lighthouse having done duty on Mana Island, north of Wellington before being dismantled and carried in sections to Cape Egmont.  It was built in London in the mid-1800s, shipped to New Zealand in 1865, then to its final place of duty in 1881.  

I'd still like to go back there and get a shot with cows in the foreground.

Flying high

I flew north towards home on Thursday.  I felt like I'd been away a long time and was so, so looking forward to being home again.  

I'd loved spending so much time with my five year old grandson in Taranaki but was itching to see my new great-grand-daughter who was born while I was away.  

Nearly the whole trip was above the clouds which changed colour as the sun went down.  

I've brought some sort of sore throat bug with me.  My voice comes and goes, croaks and squeeks.  I'm chomping at the bit to see the baby but will have to wait until I am bug free.  

My older daughter is coming to stay tonight (that new baby is quite an attraction!) but am looking forward to catching up on your blogs as soon as I can.

New fence, wonky fence

New farm fence beside the road around the Kawhia Harbour.

I wonder what happened to this section of an otherwise sturdy fence.

Linking to Teresa's Good Fences.

Harbour fence

A farm fence along the upper reaches of the Aotea Harbour.

Linking to Teresa's Good Fences if I can figure out how to do it on the tablet.