Coming Up Close

  There's a local man who owns this vintage car and he regularly drives it around town, I think he's looked after it very well. Linking up with  Tuesday Treasures ,  Happy Tuesdays  and   Wordless Wednesday .

  Right next to a motorway in the central city is the Tauranga Mission Cemetery aka Otamataha Pa which is known as the Military Cemetery. There are monuments to the Naval Brigade, the 43rd Monmouth Regiment and a mass Maori grave. This particular monument is for a man named Hori Ngatai who was a chief of the Ngaiterangi Tribe and was part of the battles of Gate Pa during the New Zealand wars. Linking up with  Shadow Shot Sunday  and  Mosaic Monday .

  This is a favourite place to enjoy coffee. It's our local Mitre 10 (hardware store) cafe which includes a garden centre to the right. They make good drinks and food. After reading Graham's post this morning about politics, it's gotten me thinking about New Zealand's own political system. Why are so many people in power so interested in putting themselves ahead of their own country? Like my late grandmother use to say "it'll all be over for me in less than 100 years so I won't be here to see it". Linking up with  Weekend Reflections   and the  Weekend Roundup .

  My daughter and I took her dog Bug out to visit a friend last week so she could have a playdate with their dog. On the way back we stopped at the local reserve to take photos of the Spring blossoms. It's hard to see but there were loads of Tuis in the trees eating the nectar from the flowers. Linking up with  Skywatch Friday  and  Tom's Signs .

  On a piece of narrow land in between the Grey River/railway lines/main road/supermarkets, the local council (I assume) had workers plant hundreds of daffodil bulbs and every Spring they flower - nice to see some colour after Winter. I managed to get this snap on a cloudy day in between the storms we've been getting. Linking up with  Tuesday Treasures ,  Happy Tuesdays  and   Wordless Wednesday .

  All of the above were seen at Whakatane Cemetery about 7 years ago. Linking up with  Shadow Shot Sunday  and  Mosaic Monday .

  This humungous building in town is about 3/4 finished and is going to be the new library. This town from what I've been following online seems to be dead against it. The old building is sufficient but for some reason, the local council wanted to build an extra one when Greymouth doesn't have the population for it. The costs have apparently spiralled out of control so vastly that everyones rates have been hiked up to an extra 20% on top of the 15% original rates rind alot of people can't afford it.  We got our local council/mayor voting papers in the mail last week - the candidates are a bit of a joke imho. The only 2 choices for mayor are the one we currently have (who isn't very popular at the moment) and a man who doesn't live in this region who thinks that everything should be free and that we should trade instead of using money - like what.....?!? The candidates for council are some I know and some I don't know who again, live outside of this region. Sigh....

  I walked past this man with his dog last week and got talking with him (the man not the dog) - he told me his dog is his best friend. So sweet. I think the man on the left is coming out of the local vape shop. Linking up with  Skywatch Friday  and  Tom's Signs .

  We have 2 new chickens, both black ladies. If any of you are familiar with British comedy tv shows you will recognize the names we have given them. This one is named Miss Brahms. And this one is named Mrs Slocombe. At the moment we have them in a temporary shelter next to the Special Patrol Group that we've had for the last 9 months just so they can get to know each other before we intigrate the black ones in with the brown ones. These ones give us a white coloured egg whereas the brown shavers give us brown coloured eggs. Linking up with  Tuesday Treasures ,  Happy Tuesdays  and   Wordless Wednesday .

  For the last few weeks we've been very lucky on the West Coast to have had lovely sunny Spring weather. Now for the next week or so we have heavy rain forecast. It's been good to see people out and about enjoying the warmth. Linking up with Shadow Shot Sunday and  Mosaic Monday .

  Photo taken at Karangahape Road in Auckland City - November 2024. "Kia ora" is a Maori greeting said here in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It means hi or hello.  It's the end of another week. I've recently come to the realisation that I have developed possible arthritis in my hands and arms which is hereditary - my dad has it and so did his mother (my nana) so at the moment I've found taking Glucosamine in capsule form can help. If you have this condition and have any ideas please leave me a comment. Linking up with  Weekend Reflections   and the  Weekend Roundup .

  I took this photo over Winter after a few days of rain at the local dog park with my daughter and Bug the dog. Bug loves mud and will lie down in it when she can. The van in the background is owned the the local furniture store which has branches all over the country. Unfortunately last week that company closed most of it's stores. It seems people don't have as much money as they use to so there will sadly be alot of jobs lost. Linking up with  Skywatch Friday  and  Tom's Signs .

  This guy came into my work last week with his bird - I can't remember the type of bird but he said she was a type of green cockatiel. After looking online google said she was a Kakariki meaning green in the Maori language. Linking up with  Tuesday Treasures , Happy Tuesdays  and   Wordless Wednesday .

  In the nearby town of Hokitka (half an hour away) is the cemetery with this monument near the entranceway. It commemorates 4 men who lost their lives between 1863 and 1866 ; George Dobson - road engineer, murdered in 1866 Charlton Howitt - explorer, drowned in Lake Brunner 1863 Charles Townsend - drowned at Greymouth (probably in the Grey River) 1863 Henry Whitcombe - surveyor, drowned in the Taramakau River in 1863 Construction of the memorial started 1868 and the railings were added in 1869. Linking up with  Mosaic Monday .

  The local railway station is usually very busy. Every day it rocks in to drop off and pick up passengers for the Tranz Alpine from Greymouth to Christchurch. Thank you to those who commented on my last post about linking up to blog memes/blog link ups - I've decided not to contribute to those ones in the future. Linking up with  Weekend Reflections   and the  Weekend Roundup .

  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...

  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 .