A Joke

What kind of  bees make milk?

Boo Bees!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I loved the prompts this week for Scavenger Hunt Sunday. I hope you enjoy too :)

1. Geometry

Sitting on the stairs leading to the beach I noticed the shapes made not only by steps, but by the protective mesh and the shadows of the railing.

2. Brushstrokes

I love macro shots of paintings!

3. Hanging by a Thread

A rather thick thread granted, but still there is thread, and it's hanging. . . 

4. Collage

A collage of the 'pretty' snow photos I captured during last Sunday's freak snow storm.

5. On the Dotted Line

This is a stretch. See the seaweed? It's forming a 'dotted line' along the shoreline. . . right?! Ah well, it was the best I could come up with. :)

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Two!

I follow a fabulous blog - Mortal Muses. It's a collection of nine woman from around the world that love photography and are either professionals or amatuers. They have a theme, call for readers contributions, then each of the nine woman muse on one of the images and share one of their own. They have a Black and White page and a Everyday Beauty page too. They've also done 'Muse University' posts with lots of advice about techniques etc. I've contributed to both the themed and black & white pools, but am yet to be lucky enough to have my photo chosen.

This week they've started a new feature where at the end of the theme (roughly every 2 weeks) they do a mosaic of the photos submitted and then invite the readers to link up to their own blog posts on that theme. It's another great way to get involved and to get my photos out there for others to see.

You can check out the website and other 'two' photos from the wonderful readers out there by clicking on this button:

Meanwhile, check out my favourite 'TWO' photos from my peronal collection:

I was drawn to the TWO chairs at the outdoor table during the recent freak snow storm

(seriously, in 30 years living in Wellington, it's snowed twice before and it has never sat on the ground. But on Sunday, it snowed for hours, settled on the ground and was AMAZING!)

Here are those TWO chairs again. I was still intrigued by them. I think because I had been reading the mortal muses post on 'two' that afternoon.

TWO buckets of blueberries.

The star and his reflection creating TWO stars.

TWO lorakeets sitting in a tree, k i s s i n g.  . .

TWO little feet, trying on TWO shoes.

SNOW!

It's snowing in Tawa! We are at sea level and it's almost unheard of to get snow here, let alone snow that is settling on the ground. In all my years living in Tawa I remember only two other times that it snowed, at at those times it didn't settle on the ground. The weather forecasters have been talking about snow in wellington for day. Yeah Yeah we thought, but I'm so glad it happened!

The snow started about 3.30pmm, was part of the rain and was melting as it hit the ground. But then it started to settle. . .

After we realised it was not only settling, but coming down pretty damn fast, we put on better shoes, hats jerseys and coat, to join all our neighbours out on the street for snowball fights, snowman making, and photos!

Before putting away my camera (because by now it's covered in snow) I took some shots of the house and the yard. It was just so beautiful.

It's currently 1 degree, still snowing and about 4 inches thick on the ground. Hopefully it stays like this and we won't be able to go to work tomorrow. Fingers crossed! We're rugged up warm, got a roast beef in the oven and candles at the ready.

(FYI: All these photos are SOOC - straight out of camera, therefore no editing yet).

Luke Adam McCaffrey

Ele and Dave welcomed gorgeous wee Luke Adam McCaffrey into the world on Saturday 6 August. I was honoured to have a long cuddle with him on Monday and then again yesterday. Of course, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take ome fabulous, newborn photos of Luke and the new family.

Bye Bye Bunker

This morning John and I buried my good friend Bunker at the bottom of the garden. He had disappeared on Tuesday after a few days of going down hill fast. He hadn't been well for about a year, but he was clearly not going to pull through this time. I had worried that I'd have to make the decision to have him put down, but he took himself off (as cat's often do). Our neighbours found him under their house and we were able to bury him. At least now I know where he is now.

Bunker was such a grumpy old man cat. He was very protective and snooty about other people being around. But he loved cuddles, climbing on people and he was brilliant at comforting people when they were sad or sick.

I shall miss him.

Mystrey Novel

I was looking for a mystrey novel to read for my brownie badge. Rach gave me a book of her, but I couldn't get in to it. John got me some books from the library, but for whatever reason I just didn't feel motivated to read them. Meanwhile I found a new John Grisham book at the bookstore which I bought (seeing as he is one of my favourite authors to read).

When I spent the day at the hospital waiting for my gorgeous wee nephew to arrive I managed to read the entire book. While you could argue that technically John Grisham is a crime, legal, thriller writer, I argue that there was a mystrey involved in the story and therefore can count as my 'mystrey' novel.

Theodore Boone, The Abduction by John Grisham.

Theodore Boone is 13 years old that know more law than most lawyers in town. This is the second book about Theodore Boone. In the first book he finds out some vital information in a murder trial and works hard at clearing the innocent mans name. He must have been popular because he is back again in a new story.

This time round Theodores best friend April disappears, presumed kidnapped. Theodore works tiresly, looking for clues in an attempt to find her. Eventually he finds a clue that no one else does, deciphers it and goes on a road trip with his uncle to find April and bring her back home.

I have enjoyed the Theodore Boone character, he's a bit of a change from John Grishams' normal courtroom dramas. He's a teenager with an almost romanticised notion of the law. He's smarter than the average teenager but still naive in the way of the world. He makes for a nice change and a great segway for John Grisham. He's obviously proven popular for him to quickly release another book with the same character.

As my assessor, I need to discuss my favourite part of the book with you. I don't think I have favourite part overall, but I did really enjoy the ending. I liked that she wasn't dead, or traumatised, or even kidnapped really. That would be the ending you'd expect from one of John Grisham's 'grown up' characters but not perhaps the most appropriate ending for a teenager character. I liked that Theodore was smarter than the lawyers and all the adults when it came to finding clue and solving the mystrey of what had happened to his best friend. I loved that he loved her so much and knew her so well that he didn't give up on finding her no matter what. We should all be so lucky to have a best friend just like him.