Changing of the seasons.

I love the crisp brown leaves againts the stark grey sky. It always amazes me that something so fragile can hang on in spite winter's attempts to take over.

Officially, it's not spring yet...but these blossoms are marching to their own beat regardless of what the calendar says!

My son was well enough to manage the short walk today.  As I wandered he collected flowers for my flower press...gotta give him 10 points for that:)  Thankyou to everyone who has sent him well wishes, he's finally been diagnosed with glandular fever. I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel just yet but atleast we have a label for the symptoms he's been having. I'm sure the lights there somewhere....

The magnolia's are also in bloom. With the harsh light and bright white of the flowers I thought they'd make a great black and white shot. It was so good to get out with my camera today, I planned a longer outing but just after these photos were taken the skies opened up and we were forced to make a hasty retreat!

Buttercups and Bees

Digitally Altered Buttercup and Bee Photo.

I havn't had much of an opportunity to get out and about these days! I miss walking around with my camera. As soon as my daughter is well enough to go back to school I will be taking myself for a long walk under some trees. I was pleased she was able to manage a small outing to our local pond yesterday and while there I took about 6 photos of this little bee as it got about it's business and enjoyed the short time I had with it!

True Bliss is...

I am so happy! Lots of precious bird's nest and nesty things have come into my life this week. I wonder if it is possible to actually be much more content? The first great bird thing to happen this week was the little, sweet nest my wonderful son found for me. I am not sure what sort of bird it is from but it is so delicate and small! I have seen one of these nests before that a teacher had found at the school. I really wanted it! but I was pleased that it would go into a class of young children so that they could learn about nests and hopefully grow to love birds as much as I do. That was about a month ago and everyday when I go past the spot it was found I think of that wonderful nest...so to have my own one?? Wowee! I was playing around with a photographic collage/still life idea and below is one of my attempts. I think this photo or one similar will end up as a collage image for real one of these days. Above: A wonderful nest, magnolia seed shells, Native Kowhai seed pods, small pinecones, moss on a stick. I actually have all these items on a bench near the kitchen so I can admire them:)
The second great bird thing to happen this week was the arrival of a parcel from a friend in Christchurch. She said she would send me some feathers...by some I thought she meant 10 or so...BUT what arrived was around 200!! No kidding! All sorts of duck and chicken feathers in wonderful colours. I photographed them of course and will post them later with the collage I did using a few of them. I was pretty happy by then, 2 great bird things in one week...but then guess what? Today while I was out taking photos of Tui's (and there were wax-eyes yesterday) and feeling really blissful. I found another nest! The Tui's put on the best show singing and chortling and flirting with each other (honestly, those boys sure know how to fluff a girl Tui's feathers....I was almost embarrassed!) and I was feeling super lucky to be allowed to watch. I wandered around for a bit and didn't notice the nest at first, the Tui's had my full attention but then something caught my eye....a thrush nest! And not just any ol nest but a nest with eggs!

My photography isn't wonderful ..but to be fair, not only were my hands shaking with excitement I was also perched (bad pun!) up the tree on skinny branches with my hair tangling in the twigs! I got such a buzz to see the nest. I'm sure that I can tweak them a bit when I get them printed and it will be all ok. I was going to see if I could take the nest home (usually I only collect fallen nests but this one seemed old at first) when I suddenly spotted 3 precious gems inside. Wow! At first I felt really bad.What if the mother bird didn't come back because of me? What if my fascination was going to come at a big cost to those not-yet-hatched birds? As I walked away half excited at my discovery and half filled with worry I said a quick prayer that this nest be blessed. I thought about it all morning but was so relieved to go back this avo and see the mother Thrush sitting in her nest. Wheeew! It was back to the excitement then!

What ever your bliss is, I hope that my happy vibes rub off onto you and your week is also filled with wonderful and inspiring things!

Nature's Eye Candy!

Out and about this morning I captured these blooms in the early morning sun. I heared we were due for rain so I wanted to get out before the early blossoms were battered. We've had some strange weather lately. According to NIWA Tauranga and Auckland where the hottest main centres in NZ through out August (an average high of 12.8 deg celcius and the warmest August here since records began in 1913) What made it strange was that even though we had 160 hours of sunshine we still recorded 97mm of rain and had severe thunderstorms that recorded as 'major events' in NIWA's books. What is going on? None the less I am very pleased to see these pretty blooms and wondering beneath the trees with the wax-eyes was an inspiring way to start the day!

I recieved the above award the other day, I've been a bit slow to post and share! It was a Meme award and I have to ...1. Share 7 tidbits about yourself 2. Share this MeME blog award with 7 blogger friends. Thankyou Nancy for the tag and award!

So here it is..

1: I have 2 dead butterflies and 5 dolphin teeth in my collection things. The teeth were given to me by someone else...who was given them by someone else...so I am not sure how they came loose from the dolphin. I won't be passing them on because I think they are wonderful.

2: I was named after Elvis Presley's daughter. (It's true...but the singing gene didn't follow)

3: I know the word nest in 4 languages. English, Nest, Italian, Nido, French, Niche, Maori, Kohanga.

4: I have never been to the South Island of my own country. One day....

5: I like to go fishing...but feel sorry for the fish if I actually catch it. I feel mean because I tricked it and it was just looking for food...my kids think that's silly! They are probably right.

6: I love to watch WWE wrestling!

7: I only took art at school because I thought the art teacher was "hot."lol. He had a lot of girls want to take art that year! Maybe I should have focused more on the art...

My 7...I think this awards probably beaten me around cyber space by now however if you visit my blog and think "awwww I havn't gotten that one yet" then please consider yourself tagged! No need for anyone to feel left out:)

Early Spring

As often as I can I like to take a walk with my camera. I do this partly for my daily photo blog and partly for inspiration and a moment to...take a moment. To just listen, walk slowly and watch. Winter seems to have gone by so fast this year and Springs leaving her mark everywhere already. I wish I could share the heavenly scent of the sweet magnolia blooms that I could smell as I stood and admired. Note the butterfy that was kind enough to flutter into my photo! It was quite blissful being out here and spring has more promises to come. How can one not be inspired?

My daughters op has been cancelled for the 2nd time...looks like I'm here to play for a bit longer:)

What inspires...

Pat at The Weaver of Grass recently hosted a meme... inspiration Wednesday...on her blog. I missed the boat completely! It's now Friday NZ time but I've decided to ignore that and post anyway. Pat, my apologies. I will have to pay better attention if there is a next time!

So..what inspires me...hmmm. Well, I feel like I am pretty in tune with what inspires me. Birds, nests, trees and leaves! Flower buds, seed pods, bare branches, feathers, bark, moss...sometimes I wonder if I wasn't really meant to be a bird and not a human! Bear with me now while I tell you about yesterday. Just after lunch I decided to take my camera to Yatton park to see what was new. I have to confess I have been a bit of a winter snob. Autumn is ofcourse the best season (in my not-so-humble opinion) and winter has been a cold and wet necessity to get to Spring (the second best season...ofcourse!) Summer...well it's long and hot which makes for great beach photos and time with friends and family. Yes, we do consider Summer to be hot in NZ! lol. All things are relative! So back to my walk. I was in need of a wander under some trees my heart tuned into the birds and the sights and sounds of winter turning into spring. The first tree to capture my attention was an "I-don't-know-what-it-is-tree." I could see it was breaking out into flower and I thought it would be an early magnolia. This is what I found when I got closer...

This wonderful furry little bud turning into this lovely, daisy like flower! The bud was soft and fuzzy yet quite solid, no doubt to protect the delicate flower inside from the batterings of winter. The tree was still at the more bud than flower stage but I can imagine how glorious it will be when in full bloom!

Another "I-don't-know-what-it-is-tree" was also bursting with these delightful pink flowers. I took a lot of photos of this tree and I found myself wondering how on earth I never knew it existed before! It was the Tui and Wax-eyes that alerted my attention to it and now I am not entirely sure how I missed it before!

So there it is...I could have put it in a nutshell and simply said that it is nature that inspires me...but then I wouldn't have had the perfect excuse to share these lovely blossomy delights with you! I hope they inspire you too:)

PS: Tomorrow is the big DIS-CO reveal day...I hope you will come back to play "Lucky Dip" with me! All shall be revealed tomorrow!