Blackball Cemetery

 

About 20 minutes outside of Greymouth is the small village of Blackball. It has a lengthy history associated with coal mining and industrial action but it was originally a gathering place for gold miners. The cemetery is alot bigger than this photo shows, this is only a small part of it overlooking the road.

Linking up with Mosaic Monday.

Hanging around

 

I think from memory I took this quick photo as I was leaving my hair appointment one day. The man in the photo looked like he was pacing back and forth waiting for someone outside the chemist next door.

Linking up with Weekend Reflections and the Weekend Roundup.

Crafty

 

Down Mackay Street which is one of the main roads in town is my favourite shop "Pins and Needles" - I usually buy my crochet wool here and they have lots of other crafts too. We've had such nice late Winter/early Spring weather here that it's been a pleasure to walk around without wearing a warm coat.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's Signs.

Daffodils

 

It's beginning to feel like Spring here. I drove past our local council buildings last week to see that daffodil sculptures had been put up on display in front of the fountain. These flowers are the one that New Zealand's cancer society use in order to raise funding for their organization. The wooden sculptures have been made by a local community group "The Menz Shed".

I'm not sure why someone's rugby boot got thrown up onto the grass though.

Edited to add: here's my first daffodils that came up last week.

Linking up with Through my lens, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world, Wordless Wednesday.

Old Napier Cemetery

 

Old Napier Cemetery in Hawkes Bay is literally one of my favourite places. So quiet, beautiful and peaceful. Some of my Scottish ancestors on my mothers side - the Dunlop clan are resting here.

Linking up with Mosaic Monday.

Grafton

 

Grafton, in upper Auckland City is one of my favourite areas to visit. So many old buildings mixed with the new ones.

Linking up with Weekend Reflections and the Weekend Roundup.

Mauao

 

This is an old photo from about 7 years ago when we lived in Tauranga. I think this is a suburb called Bureta? With Mount Maunganui aka Mauao in the background. The supermarket that says "Countdown" has now been changed back to the original name of "Woolworths".

We class Tauranga has being a city now rather than a town as the population has grown significantly over the years. But the real estate prices are through the roof and are very very expensive. We would move back there if we could but it's above our budget.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday and Tom's Signs.

Kererū

 

Lately I've been seeing 3 fat Kererū aka wood pigeons out in my backyard. We are just about to go into Spring in September so they are no doubt waiting for berries on trees and for my Kowhai tree to bloom as they like to eat the nectar from the flowers. 

It was a bleak late Winter's day in the top photo so I found the above photo online to show whar the bird's colours look like.

This video is a view of my neighbour's shed and plum tree which overhangs my backyard. The bird singing is that of a Bellbird aka Korimako.

Linking up with Through my lens, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world, Wordless Wednesday, All Seasons.

Spying

 

I saw these 2 boys at the local skatepark yesterday afternoon enjoying the fine days we've had. This skatepark is always an incredibly popular place.

Fries

 

Last time we were visiting Franz Josef we stopped at a local cafe and enjoyed quite a decent lunch.

My youngest child who is 25 years old ordered a meal of chips/fries and to us this was a huge portion, bigger than I think we have ever seen.

It took us all over an hour to try and get through them and then we ended up taking the rest home. Best chips I've ever tasted and here in New Zealand chips/fries are a big thing and very very popular.

Linking up with Weekend Reflections and the Weekend Roundup.

Walking

 

We have been fortunate enough this Winter to have had mostly sunny cold days. The highs in temperature during the day have been around 14 degres celsius with lows of around 1 degree at night. the colder it is at night, the more likely we will have sun the next day. We've had rain on and off but nothing like flooding around the rest of New Zealand.

Apparently people are dropping like flies with the typical Winter coughs and colds. Every years i get the flu vaccination which really helps cut down the amount of times I get sick. This week has been the first time this year i've been in bed with the flu, not doing too badly I think.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday and Tom's Signs.