Raven's New Friends

We are spending the Memorial Day Weekend in Kingsport, TN and driving around with the dogs we have discovered that Raven wants to bark at cows. We thought we were safe when we headed into town, but these guys still got her going!

Life’s been a blur….

Here’s the latest on the kitchen.  We have countertops and appliances in place.  If you haven’t checked out Craigslist we highly recommend it – we were able to outfit the kitchen for $1000 and that includes a range and microwave combo that have never been used!  Sorry this picture doesn’t show the appliances but the old ones are in the center of the room awaiting their sale on Craigslist!

I must say I was thrilled to get a kitchen sink back and the dishwasher was a great boon, but once I had a range, fridge and pantry in the same room – I felt like I’d dies and gone to heaven!

Most of the push is because I have taken a new position and we will need to move to Tennessee.  I start tomorrow and have decluttered all that I can.  It really quite therapeutic.  I can officially say that I have removed college from my life – particularly all my college notebooks!!!  Fear not all that could be recycled has been!

Tomorrow is a new adventure and today is aimed at getting there.  i have no idea the next time I’ll have personal access to a computer – but know that I’m thinking and hope to catch up one day!

In the meantime – know the puppies are doing well.  They look wonderful in the new kitchen.  Black really dresses up the gateway gray.  The last two weeks between jobs and being at home has been precious.  I will miss them terribly!

NZD 12272009

Unfolding Ferns

I live the curves and curls in this one that reminds me of grapes on a vine.I love the sunlight shining through the open leaves and setting the highlights off.

I will do my best to keep these going, but I may miss a few days and have to catch up later.  I am starting a new job tomorrow in another state and have no idea what computer or access I will have for the first few days and even the first week.  Know I’m thinking about you and wishing you a happy Memorial Day weekend!

NZD 12262009

Milford Sound

This is one of the “permanent” set of falls of Milford Sound that exist rain or shine.  Of course, it was MUCH Larger due to the rain!  I have other pictures that are not so visual of the helm of our boat entering the mist of these falls and James right out on the end getting soaked!

I love the turbulence of the water and mist it creates out into the sound.  I love the relative scale to the boat.  I love the darkness and the sharpness of the mountains plunging into the sound that allows for these falls.

NZD 12262009

Glacial Valley

I love the flowers lining the river – the cool colors against the turquoise of the glacial waters.  I love how the river leads the eye from left to right across.  I love the opposing forest line and mountain range that gives the opposite diagonal to the river and flowers – almost like it’s an arrow pointing to the higher alpine range.

NZD 12262009

Alpine View

Again I love the mystery.  How far do the mountains go up in that mist?  I love the three layers that I can see, the three values of the gray and the opposing diagonals.  I love the bit of snow that allow me to recognize the mountain.  Any less or any more and the surface would likely be lost in the mist.

NZD 12262009

Fly on the Wall

This is an artists depiction of the Blackfly or Te Namu.  Maori legend is this nasty biting fly was created to remind people who visited New Zealand of their mortality and to drive people from lingering too long in this paradise.  It worked….

I like the stark black on white.  I like the details of the fly since this one is larger than one’s head (while the real is nearly invisible to the eye).  I like the slight shadow on the wall and the matte sheen on the fly.

NZD 12262009

Falls in Milford Sound

Most of the falls in Milford Sound only exist when it rains.  These were one of those peeking through the mist the rain also brought.  I love the mystery of the picture.  I love the break in the mist to show the falls, and the steadiness of the falls and the water of the sound.  I love the basic monochromatic picture, but found there is a great deal of blue lost if I let it become B&W.  I think the blue give it a depth.

NZD 12262009

Giant Mountain Buttercup

I love the raindrops all over this buttercup.  I love the pure white and the fresh yellow.  I love the slight hint of green of the stems.  The background was far off and indistinguishable, but distracting, so i let the shadows take it away.  (In case you are wondering – giant in this case is about the size of a daisy – 1.5” in diameter.  For a buttercup, that’s giant!)

NZD 12262009

The Chasm

The Chasm itself is much larger than this waterfall, but is impossible to photograph for where I was permitted!  The rains were heavy this day which allowed for even dramatic side waterfalls.

I love the fantasy world of ferns and moss.  i love the high volume of water that fills up a great deal of the picture and is even able to show movement even in a still photograph.  I like the moving “diagonal” of the falls, the soft verticals of the ferns and the hard horizontals of the rocks.

NZD 12252009

Yellow Rose of Queensland

I love the range of yellows for nearly pastel at the highlights to a deep orange in the shadows.  I love the many curves of the petals and the out of focus continuing in the background.  I love the three petals cupped in the “bowl” of another.  This being the main focus in this world of yellow.  I love the softness.

NZD 12252009

Iris

I love the combination of cool colors – green, blue, purple – with the highlight of yellow.  I love the depth of the shadows.  I love the texture of the leaves that almost give it a hardness like something permanent made out of stone.

NZD 12252009

Stones on Lakeshore

I love the color combinations and how the water has brought them out in all their richness.  I love the different shapes, textures and layers of rock.  Then there’s a child in me that begins to see a nose in the large rock towards the bottom.  Could that be a cheekbone and downcast eye to the left?  What else could I hide in a field of stones?

NZD 12252009

Fjordland Canopy

I love the feeling of stained glass that leaves can give as the sun shines through.  I love the cathedral height of the trees and the strong vertical lines of the trunks to draw my eye higher and higher.  I love how all the lines seem to bend towards one another like I’m a child looking up a a number of circling adults who are looking down at me.

NZD 12252009

Water Lilies

I love the depth of the green and the occasional pool of water changing the face of the leaf.  I love the triad of flowers not quite forming an perfect triangle.  I don’t like the brightness of the flowers – but I’m sure with the right software that could be dealt with.  Now if there were just two eyes poking through that one bit of deeper water – a frog or a fish?

NZD 12252009

Kepler Track

I love connecting the “dots” with the trees.  The path gives one meandering line to follow off in the distance, but the trees do as well – except in a different direction counter to the path.  It allowed me to take in more of the picture and find the ferns to the left.  I love the ferns and the moss.  It reminded me of Appalachia.

NZD 12252009

Rose

I love the richness of the color and the delicacy of the edges of the petals.  I love the highlights of the edges that give softness and movement.  I love he slight texture of the petals and how they overlap.  I’m undecided about the one bright highlight in the center, but I do love the raindrops on the lip of the most central petal.

NZD 12242009

Lakeshore

I love the number of colors and textures on the shore in the foreground.  I also love the shape of the mountain – the folds and slope down to the lake.  I love the blues of the mountains in the background and the turquoise of the lake.  I do like the interest of the clouds in the sky, but I’m sure if the sun were out, these colors would be even more striking.  I also love the winding road on the foreground shore and the highway on the background.  It gives a bit of scale!

NZD 12242009

Glacial Creek

I love the deep clear turquoise of the water.  I love how the rocks break it up with the gray and cause the turbulent white.  I love the different lines in the white – the swirls, the curves, the vertical drops and the straight lines on the surface.  I also like how some of the rock can be seen under the water.  Now there’s a weaving challenge!

NZD 12242009

Reflection on Lake Paringa

I love the stillness of the water and the nearly perfect reflection.  I like the layers of the mountains.  I love the rocks in the foreground.  I wish for a more interesting sky and the corresponding reflection in the lake.

NZD 12242009

Sunset on the Lake

After the picture from the campsite, we just had to go to the lake.  Here is the experiment with the sunset setting on the camera.

I like the darkness of the mountains with the occasional pop of snow at the ridges.  I like the diagonal lines of the clouds and the shading from the sun.  I also like the other lower clouds that frame in the mountains.

NZD 12242009

These were simple flowers on the shore of the lake at Wanaka.  I likes the coolness of the blue and the heat of the pink.  I also like the black and white of the background to allow the flower to stand out.  The evening was overcast and there is the feeling of cold and calm on the shore.

NZD 12242009

Sunset on the Mountains
This was taken from our campsite – I’m not sure it could have been better anywhere else!
I love the drama of the light and shadows.  i love the lake peeking through with it’s blues.  I love the trees in shadow poking up periodically.

Old Mother Hubbard Went to the Cupboard

Here’s where we left it last week – thrilled to see rebuilding to a point of changing the atmosphere…

 

 

We were preparing for the cabinets that James had built and were at a furniture refinishing shop being painted.  The clock is ticking… The cabinets showed up on Wednesday and it’s been a week of installing them, making measurements for the countertop, and glory be – putting in the plumbing for the sink and dishwasher.  In fact, I am just now hearing for the first time in weeks – the hum of a dishwasher! Here’s a better picture without the overhead light to see how the ceiling, crown molding and cabinets all come together. Another big news for the week – while in New Zealand we commissioned a sculpture to make a crèche for us.  It came in this week.  This is by Ian Anderson who lives in Oamaru in North Otago on the South Island.  Ian works in limestone that is from the local quarries.  The crèche stands nearly a foot tall and is out of the multicolored stone.  There are reddish hints that run through it and add a new dimension to the folds in the robes.

NZD 12242009

Thunder Creek Falls

The picture does not tell everything.  This set of falls is 28 meters high and does it thunder!

I love the lush green of the vegetation, the brilliant white of the falls and the darkness of the wet rock.  On top of that, I am amazed by the bright turquoise blue of the pool of glacial water.  It seems to tropical of a color to be there, yet there it is.  I like the texture of the trees and shrubs and the number of smoothed rocks at the bottom of the falls.

NZD 12232009

Alpine Waterfall

These are hard to capture – where do they begin and end.  This was not one of the largest at Franz Josepf, but was at least one we could fit most of in the lens.  Still there is a bit of white far up to the left pointing to a source much further up.

I like the combination of the green, gold and gray.  I like how the water has carve a niche further into the face of the rock and hidden itself there.  I love how the white of the water doesn’t allow it to be lost.  I love the curves of the water, the multiple sets of free falling water and the fact the free falling water has it’s own direction rather than straight down.