Off to the Gardens with the 85mm

Auckland's Botanic Gardens have some lovely blooms on display right now and really are worth a visit if you're in the area.  I headed off there earlier today to get a shot for my 85@85 project.  I can't say as I'm finding it easy to think of shots I can get for the project and I have 83 days to go still!!

I started walking up from the Everglade end of the gardens and was really taken by the wonderful Hibiscus blooms on show.  There's quite a variety of colours and shapes to see.  I've just posted one shot of a very vivid bloom.  Gorgeous flower, but not one I wanted to use for my 85@85 project.

I suppose I was looking for something a little different.  Something more abstract and "arty".  I'm sorry to say this doesn't come naturally to me, but I was quite taken with the light on the Ligularia leaves you can see in the second shot.  Then the brick footpath into the herb garden caught my eye.  Lovely textures and patterns and the way the sunlight bit the brick was quite lovely.  Almost a monochrome effect as you can see in shot number 3.

I still needed a shot for my 85@85 project, but these weren't the ones.  Neither was the image of the autumn leaves, although I must admit I rather like this shot.  The leaves are pretty damaged, but the colours are quite special.  Curious which image I used and why?  Take a squiz here ;-)

Gorgeous Hibiscus Blooms.  Unbelievably vivid in colour.

Wonderful light on these Ligularia leaves.

The footpath.  For some obscure reason I quite liked the shapes!

Liquid Amber leaves again.  Autumn is upon us!

Back home

Can't say I'm feeling the best after my trip back to New Zealand.  Quite a bumpy ride due to turbulence, and, well, it's a long way from the UK to NZ no matter which route you take.

Backyard hibiscus.

I enjoyed my time in the UK.  In fact, I was sorry to leave.  There are so many things to see and do there.  The weather was surprisingly good and the chance to see the trees come to life with their new leaves and blooms was really quite special.  So much history around also, but I also got the impression that there's a lot of unhappy people.  Seems there's a reasonable amount of unemployment and the gap between the rich and poor continues to widen.  Lovely to visit for a holiday, but perhaps not the best place to live unless you're wealthy?  Whatever the case, I'm back in NZ now and the weather is, well, rather pleasant.  First thing I noticed when getting off the 'plane was how clear and bright it was here in Auckland.  Glorious blue sea and sky and you could see for miles.  Oh so very very different to the Manchester Airport I left about 36 hours earlier.  It was cold, grey and wet.

Anyway after a sleep I awoke this morning at 6am convinced it was 7am as the clock have changed whilst I'd bee away and I hadn't changed them being as I was in the UK.  Looking out the window I saw these lovely hibiscus.  not something you'd see outside very often in the UK!  And then in the front garden a Monarch butterfly on the Callistemon.  I suspect this'd be yet another rare sight in the UK :-)

I'll close this post with a few shots of the front garden butterfly.  I'm not feeling the best after my trip home, so I suspect I'll be heading back to bed now :-(

Monarch butterfly on Callistemon "Little John"

A walk to The Gardens

I've been on leave from work for a few days and have been decorating parts of the house that have been looking somewhat depressed for a while.  I've also been looking at photographic opportunities.  I'll keep you posted with "developments".

With photography in mind rather than paint and masking tape, I set off to Auckland's Botanic Gardens.  There's always something good to see at The Gardens, and this evening was no exception.

Many of the plants have finished flowering and are now going to seed as we progress through autumn.  There are exceptions though and the evening light helps accentuate the warm colours of the blooms.  Particularly pretty are the hibiscus.  We've had a bit of rain recently which has damaged a few of the blooms.  The second bloom in this post, however, seems to have escaped damage.

Besides flowers there were fungi and ferns ... as well as weeds!  Haha!  Even in the botanic gardens there's the odd weed.