KT and Coffee: autumn

Showing posts with label autumn. Show all posts

April Love

And so summer begins to turn into autumn. The circle turning round and round. April is here and the leaves are falling, the garden is calling for a change, I've brought new boots and at last I have sat down to write. Another chance to join in with Susannah Conway's April Love and a month of love letters that may even see me blogging. Mainly though I'll be over on Instagram

Day eleven. Favourite photo of 2014

2014 was the year I really made effort and progress with understanding and embracing photography. This photo was from a day spent crazily taking photos just because. I love the colours and the creation from nature.
There were of course several contenders so it was a hard choice. It was a wonderful time looking back over a year of photos and memories.

Walk 36 - Hahei

They were two autumn beach days. A crystal clear sea that we swam in, a warm sun that we slept in and a walk.

On the southern end of the beach is Te Pare Historic Reserve, which was once the site of two māori pā, Hereheretaura Pā and Hahei Pā.

You can take the route through an ancient pohutukawa grove to the pa sites or as we did and stroll along the beach and up the steps onto the hill. It was a warm afternoon and we sat taking in the views all around, allowing our minds to wander as we watch the sea and the clouds.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Hahei

Walk 35 - Waitakere Dam Walk


I don't know why, but I do find a dam rather fascinating. It may be the dam buster in me!

In the long long weekend we did manage some walking. Not so much as you'd notice or that the clothes are any looser, but let's not think about that just now. I wanted a walk that wouldn't kill me or depress me. I know I'm out of shape - no - I am a shape, I'm just not very fit at the moment. We are (as I frequently mention I know) blessed, there are walks for all sorts at our fingertips. So off west it was. Here to be precise. A road down, then heaps of steps, then along the old railway track. Quick stop for tea and cookies, then an amazing 'oh my I'm having an Indiana Jones moment' end of the track. Actually not the end of the track - we could have continued along for several hours. No, the turn around point for us. The steps up killed me - in that good way - the way that you know you are doing yourself some good but the end is in sight. The road up was a long and winding road. I kept my head down and kept breathing. Hurrah. Out of breath, soaked up the scenery. I think about 6km. I know, but it's better than the couch. Oh and it was so nice to be out walking midweek.

On the dam, it caught my eye, there were loads and it said 25 on all of them...what does it mean

The dam through the forest. Rather hard all this green.

There is really little need for a map on a walk like this, but it's a habit. I'm not apologising, I'm proud. I always have a map.

My autumn leave obsession.

The Indiana Jones moment

The bridges reminded me of our Otago Rail Trail adventure, but these were more slippy.

There is that dam again, less green this time.

A long long weekend

Having decided to stay local for our leave, that is what the holiday felt like. A long, long weekend.

Porridge in bed
Soaked up the wisdom at the Auckland Writers Festival
Feeding the ducks at Western Springs
Exploring here
Cat time
Made some cookies
Using this site to make a photo book
Lots of gardening
Getting a WOF on the car
Cleaning house and enjoying the new sofa
Dinner with friends and discovering a word game I might actually like
Camping in the van for two nights here
Painting the bathroom bright yellow
Acted like tourists here
Swimming in the sea (yes, in May, in New Zealand)
Falling asleep in the sun
Sitting on the beach watching the the sky changing to dark
Signed up for this course
Walked here

Weekending in extreme over 14 days.

Walk 34 - Brick Bay

OK, a little backtracking, this was our Easter Sunday outing. The autumn call to Brick Bay Sculpture Trail was answered. The rain held off until the end of the trail so we could concentrate on taking photos. I seemed to more interested in leaves than sculpture. There you go.

View to the Glass House

No, not sculpture. Enjoying the leaves

The pond, no still not sculpture

The path.

Ah, trees. oh yes and one of the sculpture pieces.

the light on the bark was fascinating

Adam doing his Shrek impression at the listening post

These bells were fascinating. There was a whole series of them as you walked through the Kauri trail. I loved it.

Back to enjoying the leaves

Leaves attached to sculpture, even better

Standing in rain

The weekend that was

Is it more of a memory test for me to remember on a Monday evening how I spent the weekend.

Friday night at the Capitol Cinema night watching this

Moving onto a perfecto ending for a Friday here

A morning shopping in Newmarket

Having a housework frenzy with a new steam mop

An incredible concert in the evening listening to these guys and these guys

Driving out in the van

Farmers market and the town market at Clevedon

Stroking the wood here

Paddling in the sea at Maraetai

Falling asleep to our afternoon movie...black and white Agatha Christie heaven

Tasty dinner to wrap it all up

Memory not too bad then.

Happy number 82

The sun was too inviting to go straight home. Maybe it's knowing that summer is over, autumn is here and soon it will be damp and grey. He had things to talk about and sounded very much like he needed a beer right now. We trundled through the city and had a happy beer overlooking the harbour. Then it rained. We stayed in the rain. Happy

Walk 33 - Whangerai

I've been admiring posts about weekending

The weekend that was by Leonie Wise

Weekending on the Habit of Being

They are helping me morph into this weekday worker. I am such a slow learner. It's a process I guess.

So this weekend we were in Whangerai visiting the family and we took a stroll after lunch along a walkway. Warm autumn day, we all relished the weather, knowing the rain can't be far away.

Happy Evening

The light was just going, the ground a bit damp. We sat bare footed and enjoyed the trees, the birds. Day 73 of the happy days project.

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Bird table raising

The garden hasn't had a mention for a while. We do get into the garden, even a fair bit at times and we've done some great stuff over the summer. In that elusive quest for balance and getting to grips with us both working Monday to Friday in jobs that we love that little bit too much writing about the garden has taken second place. Admittedly second place to lounging on the settee with a glass of wine but that's another story. Our garden is a little overwhelming at times. I really don't care that it's only a rental. I have so enjoyed growing things, eating said grown things or really just watching the seasons and the changes. It's a great feeling to get very dirty and muddy, breathe in the air, talking to the weeds and feeling so refreshed when settling down to that wine on the settee.

Today saw us achieve a goal we'd been striving for over some time. One of those goals that had me throw a strop attack in the DIY store and abandon my trolley, leaving, needed chocolate. It was a bizzare thing. I wanted a bird table. I had a great plan from a magazine and was going to build one - that didn't happen - above strop attack saw that idea die a finial well deserved death. I found a fabulous website, Creative Woodcraft. All New Zealand made, rather wonderful things. Our rather amazing bird table turned up and then the quest for a post began. We learnt a new phrase/word - standard waratah - I'm not going to explain it - you google it and see what you make of it and work out where to buy one. Today was that quest. it really did feel like a quest. When I heard Adam say "I think I've found a waratah" I was cracked up. This really was a quest. Out joy and smile as we high fived, finally finding the post for said bird table. I am carrying around the post thing that was going to be attached to the bird table. Now I'll celebrate the opening of an envelope and in my job you do learn to appreciate the little things, such as being alive, so to say we are sitting here drinking bubble because of completing our quest may explain how much this has meant - or I really do like bubbles.

So while Adam was doing the work, I scrambled around the garden still trying to get to grips with new flashy rather lush camera.