Stained-Glass Windows

I was going to publish the second part of my walk on Army Bay Beach this Sunday, but changed my mind. 

It's our 51st Wedding Anniversary today and I thought that doing a 'part two' wasn't quite what I wanted. I have been taking pictures on and off for the last couple of weeks from our balcony and will share those with you instead.  

Every year in July, the tree service surgeons come to our Waitakere Gardens Retirement Village and trim our roundabout palms. They do a superlative job in my opinion. I documented their efforts in a post that I published back on the 14th.  

A couple of weeks ago, I was on our deck and noticed that this year's trimming had produced, between a few of the trees, the approximate shape of a church-like window. This is the view I saw at the time.  

Since I've long been a fan of stained-glass windows, whether in churches or elsewhere, I started watching that area and recording some of the nicer images as they developed. 

My post today then, is the series of photos I've taken of my ever-changing 'window.'   

 

I hope you enjoyed the view.  I'll be back next week with part two of my walk along Army Bay Beach.  -djf

While Arram's team warmed up...

Arram (15 year-old grandson extraordinaire) had a soccer game this past Sunday afternoon and I went along with him and Allie. It was being played in Whangaparaoa, north of Auckland. This is also the peninsula that also boasts Army Bay Beach. 

Allie, who is always thinking, and a master of multi-tasking, suggested that after we drop Arram off at the field for his team warm-up and practice, which was approximately one hour before game time, that we should use ten minutes of our wait to drive up to Army Bay for a quick beach comb. Her time management skills are well honed. I applauded her plan.

I got this little picture from Wikipedia. The blue indicates the beach. 

We had a great walk along the very windy beach before the game. The tide was mostly out, the way I like it, and I was able to see some tide pools and interesting rock formations that are inaccessible during high tide. I did find that at almost 73, my sense of balance is not what it was when I was a youngster of 60, especially when a gale is blowing. I took it very easy. I can no longer take chances and make my way out to some of the more interesting, but slippery and precarious spots on the rocks that I did the first couple of times we came to Army Bay Beach years ago.  

Still, I got some good shots, especially considering that I used my phone's camera.  I present the first batch of them to you now. I hope that you like them. 

Some of you have seen pictures from Army Bay before, but it's been a long time so I hope it's not too repetitive.  

Looking to the west,

 

to the north,

 

and to the east.

Let's walk down the beach to the west. 

Two of the most common and sought after fish are the kahawai and snapper. Their pictures, in that order, which I found on Wikipedia, are below. The snapper is by far the tastier fish.  

Whether you call it wind surfing or sailboarding, and I'm not sure of the similarities or differences between the terms, there were several guys out doing it.  They were flying!   

 

The fisherman's car. 

 

I love the patterns in the rocks here. 

Once I saw a starfish and a sea cucumber in some pools, but not today. 

That's it for today's beach stroll. I managed to keep my feet dry, not to slip, and my hearing aids protected.  in fact, the wind was so intimidating when we got out of the car that I pocketed them. What's to hear anyway, other than wind? 

On our way back to the game, we stopped momentarily in the town of Manly. While Allie bought a coke, I stayed in the car and looked at the businesses around me. There was a Manly Supermarket, and Manly Realty, Manly Pharmacy, Manly Bakery, and so on, seemingly ad infinitum. 

Later, as we drove out of town, I even spotted the signs for Manly Beach and Little Manly Beach.  I'm sure they are both very nice. What I could have probably used though was an 'Old Manly Beach.' 

That would be one that had an escalator rather than steep steps leading from the parking lot down to the beach, It would have tide pools, accessible at both high and low tides, with cool critters in them, but with no slippery rocks surrounding them. There would be interesting rock formations of course, with tide-proof benches every 100 meters or so for contemplation. The shells washed up on my 'Old Manly Beach' would all be easy to pick up. And the winds well, they'd always be just right.    

I'll definitely do a post if I ever find this beach of my dreams, you can count on that. Keep watching.     -djf

-And what do you think about free ice cream and coffee trucks always on site?  Yeah, I think so too.  

Features of the night sky on February 28, 2023

I often produce posts ahead of when I publish them.  This one sets the record between the time I produced it and its published date.  I've had it for a very long while and for various reasons, kept choosing other posts over this one each week. Lately, I haven't been getting out to new places and I've run out of material for current posts. So, the time has finally come to put this one up.  

(You may want to view this post in dim lighting. The stars are harder to see in a bright room.) 

I'll now crank up the way-back machine and pull up this oldie but goodie.... 

Last night was unusual. It was clear.  

Our 2022-2023 New Zealand summer has been an odd one. Lots of rain throughout, and recently, a torrential downpour one weekend, followed by Cyclone Gabrielle the next. I've had no opportunity at all for months to take any pictures. I therefore made the most of this longed-for opportunity.  I've also included some pictures here of Venus, Jupiter, and Moon that I took the night of March 1, 2023.

I had heard that Venus and Jupiter would appear very close to one another in the west just after sunset on March 1st. I didn't trust the sky to cooperate then so I went out a night early to see how they were doing.  I found that were not all that close. Still, it was worth the short walk up the hill to Great North Road to see them. Photos below.

Venus is the lower one.

On my way back to the Village, I passed beneath our Sky Bridge and noticed that the Moon was also rubbing shoulders, if you will, with a celestial companion.  

This was great.  I had planned to take some moon shots anyway tonight, and the apparent close proximity of the Moon and Mars caused me to quicken my pace just a little.  

I zoomed in a short time later on the Moon. 

My eyes are getting older and I love to look at craters, so let's go closer. 

And closer still in the 'crateriest' part.

This is a shot of the Moon the next night, on March 1, 2023.  Notice the difference in 'size.'

And closer

An even closer look at those craters on March 1. 

My next picture is full of amazing sights. (So dim the lights. You'll want to be able to appreciate what's up there.)

 

I want to explain what some of those stars are and considered how best to do it. Trying to describe where each star is in the picture would be difficult.  I hate to mess up the beauty of the sky, but figured that numbering the points of interest would be much easier than describing them all.  The next photo is the same shot, but numbered.  

Number 1 is Sirius, also called the dog star, and is the brightest star in the sky.

Number 2 is Betelgeuse, a super red giant, and one of the largest stars visible. It's part of the Orion constellation and is considered to be the 10th brightest star.    

Number 3 is Procyon, the eighth brightest star. 

You will notice that 1, 2 and 3 form what's called the Winter Triangle. I suggest you go out some clear night and try to find it. Although if you're in the northern hemisphere, you'll notice that your triangle will be upside down from the one I'm showing you.   

I did not number the Moon. It's quite apparent. It looks round in this photo, but is actually at about 61% of it's full size, as you saw in the previous close-up shots. I took those pictures just a few minutes before the one above. 

Number 4 is Mars.  I didn't recognize its red color that close to the Moon. (I actually thought at first that number 6 might be Mars.)  

Number 5 is a giant star named Elnath, and an unusual one because it contains the elements mercury and manganese.  

Number 6 is Aldebaran, the fourteenth brightest star in the sky. It is a red giant,  with a radius of about 44 times that of our sun.  I saw the reddish glow and mistook it for Mars. 

I'll finish tonight with one of my favorites, The Southern Cross.  

You may recall that the Southern Cross points the way to the South Celestial Pole and that as the year progresses, the constellation appears to circle around that pole.  

This next photo is one I took back on August 12, 2022.  

I'd like you to compare the one above with this next picture that I took last night. This one was taken just over six months from the one above and it's apparent that the constellation has reversed in the sky.  We have proof, not that we needed it I'm sure, that it does circle the pole.  

 -djf

Got your shades on? You might need them.

"Yes, I know I did...  Well, I understand how difficult it must be for you... No, I'm afraid not."

Sorry folks, I forgot to include the other end of this conversation. Read on...

"You showed sun pictures last time. I'm rather tired of them. So, you'll quit with all the sunrises?"

As you can gather, from the dialogue I've manufactured, I wonder if some of you may be a little frustrated to see bright yellow pictures again, because my last post also featured suns.  

This concern of mine about your opinion, I think, is actually a good thing. This small worry I'm experiencing means that my "worry box," is relatively small. My goal is to attain Ed's view of life. More about that at the end of this post. 

However, since it's my blog and it reflects my interests, I'm going to forge ahead regardless. You'll just have to bear with me. 

And today's sun pictures have a specific theme, other than just sunrise. So, tough it out, if you need to. Here we go with today's installment. 

As we all know, the sun's position on the horizon changes with the seasons. The Solstice and Equinox cycle progresses endlessly. Because we have had five fairly clear mornings in a row now, beyond our balcony, here in Henderson, New Zealand, I thought it would be fun to look carefully at how the sun moved through each 24 hour period. Actually, it accomplished each performance in only about 23 hours and 58 or 59 minutes, since it came up a minute or two earlier each day, according to Jeanne's phone's weather service.  

I took five pictures from the same position on our deck, and tried to get the same zoom and field of view. I did pretty well, I think.  It's easy to see exactly how the sun has moved from August 6th through August 10th, 2024.  With the last two shots, I shifted the field slightly. Otherwise, the sun would have been nudging the edge of the picture.  

You can see that it's moving to the right each day along the horizon. That means that it's moving toward the south. (And remember, because this is the Southern Hemisphere, as the sun rises, it moves to the left across our sky.)  

The 6th

The 7th

The 8th

The 9th

The 10th

Jeanne and I feel fortunate to live where we do in the Atrium building of Waitakere Gardens, the finest, we feel, retirement village in Aotearoa. We face the northeast and we're high enough to see great sunrises. Others in our village are treated to sunsets. On more than one occasion, a friend has emailed me, attaching photos of remarkable hue. I'm sure they too consider themselves fortunate to be a witness to such spectacles. 

I started this post with a bit of tongue-in-cheek discussion of my continued interest in sunrises. I think that most of you share my fascination with the event that 'starts' each of our days. I know I'll never tire of it. I hope you don't either.   

The worry box idea I talked about above comes from a short story, The Worry Box, by Pat McManus. I am and have always been, a huge fan of his. If you've never read his stories, you have missed hours upon hours of happiness.  

I have attached a link to guy reading the story on YouTube. If you have 15 minutes, give it a listen. You'll be introduced to the Ed I mentioned earlier.  See you next week.  -djf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK4qsuSGKr4

August 3, 2024

I'm paraphrasing Garrison Keillor's classic opening to his long-ago weekly monologs about Lake Wobegon (his home town) when I say that it's been a quiet week in Waitakere Gardens.  At least for us.  

A bit of flu and some tooth troubles have slowed us down. Therefore, my post will be very brief.  

We're plodding through mid-winter here of course, and that means that clusters of the days are cloudy, many are rainy, most are windy, and all of them carry at least the threat of any or all of these conditions developing, even on those that actually show some sun.  

Therefore, I've suspended trying to take sunrise pictures.  Until today.  It looked half-way decent to the northeast and as Jeanne and I shared our pre-dawn coffee, I decided to give it a go. The following is what I saw.  

It was 7 Celsius, or 44 Fahrenheit, as I snapped these from our balcony at about 7:20 a.m.  The out of focus fronds at the top of the picture show just a little breeze pushing them to the left.  Above the roundabout, which lies directly below this shot, the winds often swirl every which way.  

It's now just past noon and already Jeanne has a batch of potato bread rising. There's also a pot of very young chicken soup on the stove.  Both will age as the day progresses and mature into a very fine dinner.  

I intend to cook some rice on the side.  I like to add some cooked rice to my bowl of soup. I find if we cook rice in with the soup, its texture suffers badly. As John Pinette used to say, "That's a nay-nay." 

That's it for today folks.  We have a long, lazy afternoon and evening ahead of us. I intend to go downstairs for a cup of coffee soon and sit by the fire for a while. Jeanne has music on, a mix of jazz and tunes from the '70's, and a new book by Stephen King on her lap. Soon, the odors of baking bread and chicken soup will fill our lives. Not a bad way to spend this winter day. 

And that's the news from Waitakere Village, where all the residents are strong, good-looking and above average, in age. (Thanks again, Garrison)      -djf  

If you're interested, go to YouTube and type in "It's Been a Quiet Week in Lake Wobegon."  You'll find lots of audios available of Garrison Keillor talking about his home town.  John Pinette is also all over on YouTube. He was a stand up comedian.