Te Puna Quarry park - Observing Nature

On another one of my travels last week I visited the Te Puna Quarry Park which is about 15 mins out of Tauranga and what a lovely place it is. This time of year for us is winter so I didn't expect much in the way of colour - and yet I was very surprised. Above is one of two Monarch butterflies I spotted on a native NZ Hebe plant.

Near the entrance this wonderful Autumn coloured picnic area complete with seats, tables and sculptures.

At some point I discovered a bush walk and on the way past the stream I saw this rather large Nursery web spider hovering underneath it's web on another native plant. Normally they are only active at night and thankfully it isn't poisonous in any way.

I found these colourful flowers in the nearby Louis Braille Sensory Garden and with some of the textures I can understand why. The pansies above still provide some colour at a time when most things here are slowing down and resting.

And cyclamens plus Gazania dasies are perfect - the latter tend to flower all year round at various times and love poor soil.

Hope you enjoyed this snippet of where I've been this week - have a great weekend - more Saturday Critters here :-)

Auckland Metropolis Museum

In amongt the modern new highrise buildings in Auckland City is this smaller vintage building that is currently for sale (I'd buy it if I had the money). My research found that: "It was designed by English-born architect Charles Towle and erected in the early 1930s as the Church of Christ, Scientist, the building's Graeco-Roman facade has towering columns that frame its impressive entranceway, with three ornate timber doors decorated with leadlight inserts providing access to the expansive foyer. Arched ceilings dominate the former congregational high stud space beyond the foyer and numerous picturesque windows provide a light, airy feel and an ambience many office buildings lack. The building housed congregational and Sunday school services for 70 years until it was sold and converted into office space in 2003. A significant refurbishment was also carried out with care taken to ensure that the building's distinctive character remained intact. Special architectural ...

Family

Photo taken Spring 2024 in Auckland We have been invited to a family reunion in June 2026 which will be held in Auckland so I'm looking forward to catching up with relatives that I haven't seen in over 10 years. This week we have: Had a good chat with a friend who has also adopted a rescue dog - must arrange a play date. I've bought some non alcoholic liqueurs to mix up for mocktails which have been very nice as I don't really drink. We had a massive wind storm 2 days ago, we were ok but a good friend who lives 20 minutes away had a bolt of lightning strike her house, the result was a blown up power box inside and part of her kitchen got burned, she had to call out the fire brigade to put it out. And I have a question for you; when you add your blog post to a blog meme or a blog link up, do you expect the owner of that blog to at least come back and comment on the other blogs that have linked up to it including yours even if it's only occasionally? I actually th...

Hail

Spring is throwing out some strange weather right now. We don't get snow where we live but it is visible on some of the mountains around us over Winter. Last week around 4.30am we had a very loud thunderstorm with hail. It wasn't until an hour or so later my daughter said this is what she saw out on our deck. Clumps of hail all over the deck and on her hand. Apparently various other suburbs around town got it too. Linking up with Through my lens , Tuesday Treasures , My corner of the world , Wordless Wednesday .

Coming Up Close

Search This Blog