Making the Trip Worthwhile

I have found that it always pays to take the camera along for a road trip - you never know what you are going to see. Derrick and I drove to Auckland on Saturday, then back home on Sunday - whew! a lot of driving in a van AND towing a furniture trailer. As we drove along the Desert Road, the cloud cleared from around Mounts Ruapehu and Ngaruahoe. This year there hasn't been much snow on the lower slopes, but these photos show the perfect day for being on the snow! I have even placed it on the Flickr map.

Mt Ruapehu, the Sacred mountain and active volcano, central North Island, New Zealand.









Mt Ngaruahoe, active volcano, central North Island, New Zealand.

Ragged Beauty

Even though the magnolia flower is getting battered and bruised by the wind it still manages to retain dignity.

Look at what is starting to show from inside!

Here is another magnolia that I can look down onto. It reminds me of a ballgown in reverse - beautiful petal shapes and velvet colours!

A Dance for Spring

This morning driving to work I noticed how the sun was higher in the sky and there was a feeling of anticipation, spring, new life (ah! now I'm getting all romantic!!). But truly the weather ahead looks to be more stable and warmer - yeah! The magnolias are looking more beautiful every day.

Introducing Snap Shots

Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com

I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

I Love the Native New Zealand Kowhai

We have a small grove of kowhai trees which we planted about 5 years ago. They are exposed to the westerly wind and one of them had stunted growth because it was nibbled by the hares. They are taller than me now and this year they will all be in flower. The kowhai tree has fern-like leaves and beautiful drooping yellow flowers. Spring is on it's way and there are lots of tiny buds!!

Spring Is On It's Way!!

The magnolia trees are in bud, what a great sight to see, especially after all the rain we have had. The trees are small but such a delight to watch the furry buds opening up and every day signals change.

A New Blog Started!

Tonight I was at a committee meeting for Rose City Quilters - I have been newsletter editor for a number years - and they gave me the go ahead for starting a blog for the Club! It's pretty basic as yet, but hopefully I will get feedback from other committee members and of course there are members out there who will be able to help with information about the Club. I'm hoping that there will be lots of information on there and soon the newsletter can be published that way - especially if I look at using something like Zoho writer. The Rose City Quilter's Newsletter is published on an Apple Mac, which is a little different than using Word - kind of like using Publisher with text boxes. So, I'm really looking forward to trying out the newsletter on Zoho, attaching it to the RCQ Blog and also emailing it out to members using it's various functionalities.