The frond-artists have gathered. Spathe surgeons, strop your scalpels. Begin.

When I was a kid, I spent a great deal of time each summer watching the activities down the hill from our house at the Castile-Location Mine.  My brother, Wayne, and friend, Bill, and I would coast our bikes to the bottom and watch the ore cars come out of the hoist and move along the tracks to the end where they dumped, the steam shovel loading dump trucks from the constantly replenished pile, and the bulldozers cleaning up the area when the overspill from the trucks became a hazard.

Now I'm nearly 74, living in a retirement village in New Zealand, and I find I still like to watch other people work. 

Today, the Bark tree trimmers arrived. I don't know if you'll be fascinated with the following, but I plan to show you pictures, with a bit of commentary added, that I took during their efforts here today.   

The trees really look nice now.  I'll show you how they turned out later.  Almost makes me feel as though I too had just had a nice haircut and no longer feel shaggy.  (Well, as a matter of fact, I did, and do) 

Here they are, just getting started. I caught a frond in mid-fall.  

Bark is the company that also provides three full-time gardeners for our village. It's a huge job keeping this place looking so good all the time.  

Here's a shot of some action from our balcony.

And another, even closer to us. 

It wasn't long before they had a pile of tree parts ready for chipping. 

This guy is holding some spathes, which are the sheathing bracts that hold the flower cluster of the palms. They are woody, and about 1/2 inch thick.  Quite heavy. You wouldn't want to get hit by one falling from the tree. 

These are the seed clusters that split the spathe to emerge.   

When they first break free, they are covered in flowers, and the bees go absolutely nuts for them. I think that is one of the reasons the honey made by the bees hived in our gardens have such a wonderful, unique flavor. It has a high percentage of palm flower nectar added to that of an assortment of other flowers and banana blossoms as well.  

I have to put in an action shot for you of the grinding process because I think I would have wanted to feed some fronds into the chipper when I was ten.  I think Wayne, Bill and I would have all wanted to be the chipper-guy, after of course, we were the bucket-guy.  

The before and after view.  Bark did a great job. 

August 8, 2025 above and August 25, 2025 below.  

Next time they come I'm going to bribe them to give me a ride in the bucket. I'm thinking a dozen Krispy Kremes. Think it'll work?    -djf

My favorite tree

When I was a kid, our rural home was ringed by the hills of Northern Michigan.  On one of those hills, the one visible from my place at our kitchen table, was a gigantic lone spruce. It towered above the lesser trees that made up the forest surrounding it. I admired it each and every mealtime.

When we moved into our apartment here at Waitakere Gardens, in Henderson, New Zealand, I immediately spotted this lone tree against the horizon as I stood on our balcony.  It's a Norfolk Island Pine, rather than a spruce, but, in my opinion, it dominates its surroundings almost as well as my boyhood favorite did.  It became my new, old-age favorite. 

I have come to rely on it to provide photographic opportunities.  Today's post will highlight this tree, with pictures which have been taken for the most part during sunrises, many times with birds decorating the space around it, and sometimes in the fog.  

I'll start with my most recent photo. When I saw my tree in the fog that morning, I hoped that a bird or birds would fly by. I held my camera on it for several minutes before this gull graced us with its presence.  

I often share my sunrise pictures with a friend, Trevor, who also loves photography, and I generally claim that I employ bird-handlers who release birds at just the right moment for me to catch them in my pictures.  Here are two that were released perfectly. (The real trick, and the reason my bird-handler charges so much, is to get the birds to flap their wings in unison.) These two have clearly been working together for years and are in high demand, among photographers around Auckland.  

This is one of my all-time favorite shots.  I wish my handler could have released the bird a little closer though.  I've tried zooming in, to make the bird appear larger, but then the framing of the scene by the palm fronds disappears, and they add depth to the picture.  

In most of these, I wish the birds were just a little closer.  Oh, well, I'm lucky to have them at all. 

Not long after I started using this tree as a subject of many pictures, I went walking in search of it. I found it in the back yard of a home less than a mile, as the crow flies, from our apartment. We're seeing just it's tip.  It really is quite a massive tree. My boyhood spruce surpassed it, I'm sure, but when I found it, I saw that this one's trunk, at ground level, was approaching a meter across, so it's definitely an impressive specimen and a suitable substitute for my long-lost Castile giant.     -djf

Let's make some Damper

I just made some oven damper and I am pleased with it.  I called it oven damper because I have watched a number of videos about making it, and in most of them, the loaf is made in a Dutch oven, over and under campfire coals, or even just tossed directly on the coals. It is the simplest of breads and takes very little to prepare.  

Damper is what they call it in Australia.  I imagine that this sort of bread has been made all over the world by all sorts of people and it must have all sorts of names.  

I don't have any pictures of my efforts yesterday, when I made it to accompany a pot of lamb stew. Instead, I'm going to attach one of the videos I watched about making it so that you can get some visual reinforcement, and possibly, motivation. 

This was my recipe:

2 cups of flour + a little bit to put on my hands and dust the loaf with and baking pan with. 

2 teaspoons of baking power

3/4 teaspoon of salt

water

Bake at 375 F for about 30 minutes. Your oven might vary.  Check it now and then. 

I didn't measure the water. I just poured it in a little at a time and tried to approximate the consistency of the dough in the video. I did well.  

Further, you obviously don't have to bake it in a camp oven over coals.  I put mine on some baking paper in a cast iron skillet, but it would have worked just a well I'm sure on a cookie sheet.  It's the kind of recipe that doesn't call for perfect conditions.  

The consistency of the finished bread is a bit coarse, so don't expect light and fluffy. But it's surprisingly tasty in its simplicity and wonderful with jam or honey or something of your choice.  Mine worked perfectly with the stew.  And, it's not the sort of bread that will stay fresh for long. I used two cups of flour and Jeanne and I finished the loaf between us at dinner.  She toasted the last of it and we had it for a sort of dessert a little later with jam.   

So, there you have it. It is inexpensive to make and doesn't take much work. Why not give it a try sometime?  

I know that I'm going to make it again. Here is one of many videos that are available. I'm showing it to you so you can see how he treats the dough. Several of the other videos added butter to the recipe, one used milk instead of water, and others added everything from grated cheese to bacon bits, turning this very plain bread into something like fancy scones.  I'm sure they are all tasty, but I wanted the simplest possible bread, period. And I was satisfied with what I got.    -djf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0DjWOb099k&ab_channel=RangerNick

Comfort zones

I got on a bus this morning and made my way into downtown Auckland.  It's been far too long since I last spent time there.  I used to explore much more than I've done lately but I guess, with age, I've slowed down a bit.    

I didn't try to find new places today.  Instead, I decided to revisit some of my favorite areas and just stroll around. That urge felt a little like wanting comfort food.  The pictures I'll show you today are like Jeanne's fried chicken and mashed potatoes, or her side pork and stew fries to me, but these are comfort places, not food, that I enjoyed today. 

I used my phone for these shots, so they're not as good as they might have been, had I used my big camera, but they'll have to do.  

I took bus 13 from the stop by the Court House to the Motorway Interchange and then hopped on WX1 with a whole bunch of student-types as it came by.  Since it was just after 9 a.m., the Motorway was still fairly busy and we had a couple of slow-downs near the on- and off-ramps that we passed.  

I got off the bus at the 2nd-to-last stop on Queen Street, crossed it, and headed for the  Metropolis Apartment Building.  There it stands in the distance.

This is the front view.

Next to the Metropolis is the first home in Auckland of Krispy Kream Doughnuts.

Then, I moved down hill slightly and passed by this view. I love this juxtaposition of narrow street and skyscrapers. 

Here's a place I've always liked.  This is where I bought my first two P. G. Wodehouse first-editions.  The bookstore is actually up on the fifth floor if I remember correctly.  I can't check it out today because I'm too early. This is not a bookstore that keeps regular hours.  When Jeanne and I visited it the first time, a sign on the door gave us the owner's phone number. She arrived a few minutes later and opened her store just for us.  I think she lives just above it.  

Here's another narrow little street. The breakfast crowd is just starting. It's rather chilly this morning, I'd guess about 45 F. right now.  I think I'd prefer to eat inside, if I were in the mood to eat.  

When I got the idea this morning to come into the city and retrace my steps through favorite places, I thought of this next place.  I showed it to you years ago, but with the passage of time, I had forgotten exactly where it was.  But I found it again!  Turns out it is on Vulcan Lane, between High Street and Queen Street.   

The thing that tickles me about this building is that as you step through the front door, you have to climb a long flight of stairs to get to...get this....an elevator.  I've never heard of such a thing, and yet, here it is.  Sorry the photography is not very good. The zooms will help a bit. 

An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear in conjunction; they are used together. This arrangement seems like a physical oxymoron. Stairs and elevators are conflicting. 

If there's anyone out there who knows how to describe this in terms of language, other than an oxymoron, I'd love to hear it from you in a comment.    

Finally, here is a little lane off Queen Street that boasts a circular staircase at the end of it that takes you up to Mills Lane. 

Let's have a zoom here too.

Now, it's time to go home.  Let's get on WX1 again.

We're getting close to the Te Atatu off-ramp and the Motorway Interchange. 

After a short wait, here comes bus 13 for the trip to Henderson. 

From the Court House bus stop, it's about a seven minute walk to our village and apartment.  I've got to do this more often.   -djf

The new "Palms"

Today I'm going to start my post with a 'before' and 'after' shot of the Palms building, which lies perpendicular to our own Atrium, just one apartment away from our own.  As you can see, it has been given a facelift, and more.  Each apartment has been completely rebuilt. The residents, who have been living in other apartments around the village while theirs have been renovated, will start moving back in a couple of months.  There is lots of interior work to be done yet. 

This picture was taken in February of 2024

 

The plastic wrap and scaffolding came down yesterday and I took this shot on the fifth of July, 2025.

By the way, in case anyone wonders, the crane you see above the building, has nothing to do with our renovation. There is a building of apartments, not associated with our village, under construction on Great North Road.

Here are a few more pictures from around our village, also taken today. 

This is a view in our gardens

A pair of ducks have settled in for a snooze on the croquet green. That's Rosecourt in the distance. 

Let's have some more sunrises to finish this post. These were all taken early in March, 2025.  

What an interesting world we live in/on.  The corn in your gardens (hopefully) is knee-high, while we're in the middle of winter, but our oranges and lemons are ripening.  I intend to take a few oranges each time they are put out in the Atrium. (Mondays and Thursdays)  We may not have a lot of sun lately, except in pictures, but I can at least stock up on vitamin C.                  -djf

A favorite subject of mine

Jeanne and I chose wisely when we selected our apartment at Waitakere Gardens Retirement Village, in Henderson, NZ. Mind you, we didn't know that at the time.  What we did know was that it was the right size and that we could afford it, just barely.  Oh, and that it had a nice balcony.       

The wisdom (pure luck) of our choice became apparent to us though, over the next months and years as we watched the sunrise point on the horizon, opposite said balcony, move back and forth between the summer and winter solstices.  

After approximately 35 years of waking early, and dashing off to work, I am now able to wake early and greet the sun with a cup of coffee in one hand and my camera in the other. Fairly often, especially during the winter months, I have to content myself with greeting the morning clouds instead.  Once in a great while, even they put on a show.  

Today's post is a hodge-podge of pictures of the sunrises Jeanne and I have enjoyed.  Maybe a few other shots thrown in as well.  We'll see.  I haven't begun to search my folders for the photos yet, so who knows what I'll decide on.  But I sincerely hope that you like them. 

Here comes the sun.........

Anyone getting sunburned yet?  Let's have a few of the thinnest Moon I've been able to shoot.  

I think you can tell from these shots, that I'm almost as fond of early birds, as I am of the sun. I do wait many times, before I click, hoping for that happy surprise of an 'extra' in the picture.  Not a photo-bombing, rather a photo-flutter.  

Finally, to end things, one of the cloudy mornings I mentioned.    -djf