Lookin' out My backdoor

 

John Fogerty's song, Lookin' Out My Backdoor, often starts playing in my head as I stand looking out over my backyard. 

My backyard happens to be the circle drive at Waitakere Gardens Retirement Village, in Henderson, New Zealand. Henderson is a western suburb of Auckland, NZ's largest city with about 1.5 million souls calling it home.  

We live on the 2nd floor according to the N.Z way of counting floors or the 3rd if you use the U.S. method. Does that seem a bit confusing? Well, we manage. And the altitude of our balcony gives me a fine view.  

John explained once that this song was written for his then three year old son, and that the imagery in it was inspired by the Dr. Seuss book which John had just finished reading to him, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street. 

While I have no pictures of giants doin' cartwheels or statues wearin' high heels in this post, I do have a number of pictures that are pleasant to rest your eyes upon. They seem to me to be, you see, the sort of 'easy-viewing' photos that calm a restless spirit. And what better function than that for a backyard?

My suggestion is to turn on the song, and then come back an browse through my mini-album. 

(If you're not a fan, just look at the pictures.) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyaQ30mWPE0

"And to think that I saw them on Sel Peacock Drive."  

It's a sun shower.  

The lawn where the black village cat was standing just a moment ago...

Some residents leaving for a day of acting as 'extras' for the NZ TV show, The Apprentice Aotearoa.

It's a warm night, I feel only a gentle breeze but the low clouds whoosh by as if the sky were set on 'fast forward'. The moon, or parts thereof, wink in and out of view.  It's rather exciting. A good night to be nocturnal I think.   

Morning comes the sunrise...This was amazing to see in person. It lasted only a minute or two. Fortunately, I was standing on my 'porch' when it happened. 

 Another sunrise, less dramatic than the last one, but nice. 

 

The same tree later that day as a shower formed a rainbow around it. 

You talkin' to me?  Are you talkin' to me?  

These three are from an air force base about 10 miles north of us.  They are very low. I almost didn't catch them before they disappeared. 

Somebody's fancy car parked just across from us.  

I couldn't sleep so I watched part of the night pass by. It does so very slowly sometimes.  Solid clouds this time.  This sky was set on 'slo-mo.'

I had to ask who this guy is supposed to be. He is celebrating St. George's Day.  This was Friday, April 23rd.  St. George is England's Patron Saint and one portion of their flag is made up of St. George's Cross. 

A squadron of World War II era Spitfires. They shook the air as they went over.  

My last picture, taken late at night.  This is our Sky Tower in downtown Auckland, or at least, the very tippy-top of it, viewed from our balcony, 7.52 miles away.  

A wise man named Fred once told me, 'Guys need to have projects.' 

Well, I think that's true, and I've decided that one of my projects is going to be the collection of Sky Tower shots. My balcony is not high enough to see much more than this bit. I'm going to look for loftier locations and get more and better pictures. (They turn on colored lights at night)  Stay tuned.                                                               -djf