"Someone told me it's all happening at the zoo." Simon and Garfunkel

I do believe it, I do believe it's true.  S&G

Our Social Committee has once again done themselves proud. We boarded a bus and made the easy journey 'from the west side to the park.' (paraphrasing S&G)

Our day at the zoo was laid back and a success.  The tiger was hiding from Jeanne and I.  Others were more fortunate, I'm told.  I did get to see a Tasmanian Devil. (You'll see it next week) I would have preferred that it hold still for at least a split second, so my camera could focus on it, but at least it didn't move around in a whirlwind like the Loony Toons one does.  

You all are invited along. No need for a hat, sunscreen, or water bottle, and I charge no entrance fee. Just come and look through the lens of my camera.  

Albatrosses are huge!  That one's a statue, but wow.  

The little blue penguins have a huge swim tank and can be seen swimming in it from either above or below.  Unfortunately for us, they were hiding under some foliage rather than swimming and I had a hard time getting a clear picture of them.  

That's it for this week.  Come on back next week for some more of the zoo.   -djf

  

Are you hungry? I think you will be.

It's Thursday night and time for another Thursday Night Market in the carpark underneath K Mart.  The market runs from 5 pm to 11 pm.  I always arrive just before 5 because it gets crazy busy later on and is not as pleasant in my opinion, when you're elbow to elbow with the hordes of hungry people.  And it's harder then to take pictures, as you might imagine.  

So, just scroll through this range of pictures and see if any appeal to you.

The squid in the foreground is raw. You select whether you want the body or tentacles grilled. 

Meat on sticks is very popular. Very tasty, and you can nibble as you look for your next treat. 

I guess the blowtorch speeds things up. 

This is what I finally chose. I bought two of each of these, took them home, and shared them with Jeanne.  The girl selling them gave each a squirt of soy sauce before closing up the takeaway box. 

I didn't stay long but I enjoyed the smells and excitement of another market night.  As I was leaving, a group of about 30 students was arriving. They looked hungry, as students often do and were fanning out among the stalls.  

Yup, good time to leave, I thought as I made my way past them with my dumplings.  

I hope that you have enjoyed my pictures today.  Do you feel like getting a snack now?  -djf

Just a bunch of pictures.

We're planning a trip to the zoo soon, and that will undoubtedly generate plenty of pictures. It's been years since we were there. The last time was when our grandsons were small and I was limber enough then to crawl through the tunnels within the meerkat exhibit with them. Those days are gone. This time, we'll be touring the zoo with a busload of residents from our retirement village. 

But that's not for a while yet. Today I plan to show you some pictures from here and there.  Snippets taken out of our lives. I hope you enjoy them.

First of all, let's have some before and after sunrise pictures.

Next, a picture in honor of Lunar New Year, which is today, Saturday, February 10th, 2024. I took this photo at the mall the other day.

That's Jupiter on a somewhat wild night.  The clouds are flying by.  

This is a closeup of Jupiter, taken a few minutes after the photo above, with its four Galilean moons. I normally take this shot on the camera's manual setting. That allows me to set the shutter speed to 1/30 second. Because of the high humidity and wind tonight, I had to use the Moon setting instead and that required a shutter speed of 1.5 seconds.  That's why the moons all look elongated.  The Earth's rotation shows here.  We are really ripping along through space. 

(I don't know what that is down below)   

This is a little hard to see.  It's Orion and for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, it will appear upside down.  

The building is the Palms. It will be undergoing an 18 month renovation soon.  

I went for a walk today and saw Jeanne's posted up on Lincoln Road, quite some ways from our village.  It's nice having a famous wife.  That's her in the green shirt.

This is a short series called, Reflections.  This is where Jeanne and I start most of our summer mornings.  On the balcony with coffee.  

And here is the last one for this post.  This might be one of my best bee pictures. This one has it all. The 'hairs' on the bee, its wings, rough on the ends, its corbicula, its mouth parts and tongue, antennae, claws. Unless we see a picture like this, we have no clue about what the real world is like.  We see so little of it.    -djf

More of the gardens

Last week, I showed you the gardens near the Opanuku Stream. Today, I want to move over to the area behind the Vines. Because we live in the Atrium, I don't get over to the Vine's gardens as often as I should.  Well, at least with a camera anyway.  So, I went over the other day and got some pictures.  

This is the Vines. There is another section of apartments on the left that can't be seen from this angle.  Notice the Sky Bridge that connects it to the Mews/Ferns buildings, which in turn are joined to the Atrium on one side and Rosecourt on the other.    

In the Sky Bridge facing the Vines.

Looking out of the Sky Bridge to the left, 

and to the right.  

I have just exited the Vines through one of the doors facing the gardens.  This is the lower level. That's a weeping cherry tree just ahead. It was 'pink as' not long ago.  

I'm climbing now to the upper level.

The grapes are doing well.

That's the Vines Carpark in the background. Those are individual raised plots in the middle background and a large open flower garden area on the right. Of course, we also have our central mini-garden in the middle of the 'roundabout'.

These are potatoes and zucchini. 

These are pole beans on the left and more zucchini.  

Tomatoes and basil. 

The thing that impresses me the most about this area of garden, is that it was reclaimed from a graveled area.  All that was dug out by hand, replaced with soil and compost, etc., and planted. These are dedicated gardeners.   

This area was once in need of upgrading.  John and Odette have not only produced the vegetables in the other plots I showed you, they have filled this area with color.  I wish you could see it in person.  My pictures fall way short of showing it as beautiful as they have made it. 

This is a closer view of the private, individual garden plots.

I took this picture of a flower to represent all the flowers that are grown here. Once a week, Raewyn picks and arranges a number of bouquets that residents can purchase for just a coin. 

My greatest regret about these two garden posts I've done is that my pictures cannot possibly show you the reality of it all.  I've commented on all the work that has been done, but that doesn't show the hours of volunteer labor so many people here have put in, day in and day out. I've mentioned a few people by name, but there are so many more that also give their time to producing flowers and vegetables that benefit all the residents of our village. I am not a gardener myself, but I respect and thank everyone who contributes to making Waitakere Gardens what it is.    -djf