Stand by John Roy

At Tauranga's Te Puna Quarry Park Gardens there is one wooden carving I've never really thought much about. This one entitled "stand" was created by local artist John Roy overlooks the Bay of Plenty coastline from the top of one of the hills.

He has been quoted as saying "My work revolves around iconic forms, social memory and what people bring to to the piece or their knowledge of that form. I introduce my ideas and thoughts in a way the viewer can relate to or interpret comfortably. Yet maintain my social, political and aesthetic intentions for the work. In effect to provide enough information for the for the viewer to draw upon their own personal experiences to tell their own story".

To me it almost shows a person standing looking out over the overall view and landscape of the area. What do you make of it?

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Time for some Summer colour

It seems NZ is going through some sort of heatwave at the moment. Last Summer was hot but not nearly this hot and parts of the country are experiencing record temperatures of 35 degrees celsius and even higher sometimes. Since many of you in the Northern hemisphere are in the middle of winter I thought I'd share some Summer colour from my recent visit to Te Puna Quarry Gardens. Rhododendron - as above.

Lovely purple Hydrangea - depending on how much you alter the ph level of the soil you can change the colour of the flowers.

Another lovely cream coloured Rhododendron sticking to the shade.

And in the herb and butterfly gardens some Dahlia and Rudbeckia plus some Buddleia line the pathways. 

Because we live in an apartment I only have a small deck area with some plant pots growing miniature geraniums (perfect for coastal conditions) and some succulents I recently planted from cuttings I got from other peoples gardens which they kindly gave me.

Last week however we've had several events happening here...a music concert, surf life saving championships and cricket games so work has been pretty manic and instead of me having my normal 2 days off I worked 7 days - I'm looking forward to my 3 day weekend next week.

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How's the water Mr Frog?

One of the many sculptures at Te Puna Quarry Park is this huge frog located in a lily pond near the entrance. He looks very comfortable there sitting on his rock eyeing up flies.

I wonder if the water is cool enough for him? It's been sweltering and muggy and humid there, recent rain has cooled the temperatures down but now we're back to heat and blue skies. Bring on Autumn I say!

Hello Mr Butterfly!

On a whim Sunday morning my 17 year old and I decided on a whim to take a Summer outing to our local Te Puna Quarry Park. We left home first thing in the morning because by about 10am here it's sweltering hot.

One thing we noticed is that all of the Swan Plants were in bloom and there were ALOT of butterflies and and caterpillars. Perfect season I guess - mid to late Summer.

We walked up alot of the hills and by the end of the day my legs were killing me, reminder to self: do stretches before trying that again. We were only there for about an hour and a half as it had warmed up considerably - think we're looking forward to some cool temperatures once Autumn gets here in March - bring it on!

Linking up with Our World Tuesday :-)

The dreaming stone...

The dreaming stone - Te Puna Quarry Park...

The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened. ~James Arthur Baldwin

Spring at Te Puna Quarry Park

This morning in an effort to getting rid of that cabin fever feeling we drove out to Te Puna Quarry Park, somewhere I haven't visited in over a year.  Near the entrance this part was chained off but naughty me sneaked in and got this quick shot of one of the pink Magnolia trees starting to bloom.

 

In the Rhododendron garden these pinks and reds caught my eye, looks like the insects were enjoying the flowers too.

Near the end of the path was this garden floor covered in a sea of red and white flowers due to the Magnolia and Rhododendron trees towering above.

This white Magnolia was only just starting to bloom so there were more buds than flowers - we think the rain from the previous night has washed many off their branches.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday :-)

Pink Camellias - some bright Autumn colour

Every morning when I walk from my car to work I see this hedge and wondered what colour Camellias would flower, so nice to see some pink at this time of year when we usually see golds, reds, browns, yellows etc. Camellias normally flower from Autumn through the late Winter

Views from the Butterfly Garden at Te Puna Quarry

Last week I drove out for a 2nd visit to Te Puna Quarry Gardens and since it was a very very warm sunny Spring day I didn't just limit myself to taking photos of one particular area. This time I walked around 3/4 of the gardens - this shot was taken from the Butterfly Garden section.

This part of the garden was full of annuals and perennials - perfect for the bees and butterflies.

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Te Puna Quarry Native Bush and Walks

A while back I visited the Te Puna Quarry Park and not only did I get up close with some wonderful pieces of nature but I also spent some time alone walking along one of the native walks enjoying the quiet, the peacefulness and the native New Zealand scenery.

One of the tracks takes about 45 minutes to exlore but the one I took was only about 20 mins long, still it was a great way to spend my time in the late Autumn/early winter atmosphere.

I would love to hear what walks you have been on :-)

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 :-)