WE WON!!

Last night was the Rugby World Cup Final. And WE WON! What a nail biter the game was. I couldn't help but feel sad for the French to loose by one point, it so easily could have been us! But it wasn't. We've had a tough year with natural disasters, deaths and bad economic times. This Rugby World Cup has lifted New Zealanders spirits, united as as one, and now given us cause to celebrate.

Over the last 6 weeks I've watched every single All Blacks game and a few of the others.

New Zealand vs Tonga.

John, Rachel and I watched from our living room.

New Zealand won

New Zealand vs Japan.

John, Rachel and I watched from our living room.

New Zealand won.

New Zealand vs France.

I watched with the girls (and John) from Ness & Chris' living room.

New Zealand won.

New Zealand vs Canada.

John, Rachel and I watched with Rachel's parents from their living room.

New Zealand won.

New Zealand vs Argentina (quarter-final)

John and I watched from our living room.

New Zealand won.

New Zealand vs Australia (semi-final)

I watched with Dorian from Lee & Morgan' living room.

New Zealand won.

New Zealand vs France (final)

I watched with all my very best friends from Tracy & Candy's living room.

NEW ZEALAND WON!

Here are a few pictures from last night's party (mostly in Black & White, because it seems fitting)

Mark & Mark (aka Ogre & Candy)

Rachel

Jo, Ness, Chris, John, Lu & Rachel. Intently watching some pre-game show.

Pre-game photo. 5 minutes before kick off. Nervous much?!

Tracy & Me

Tracy, Me & Jo at half time

Post game photo - We Won!

Gardening

About a week ago I was sitting on the lounge room floor of my girlfriends place talking about Gardening and the best place to put your washing line so that you get the best out of the sunlight. We said it then and I'll say it again, we definetly aren't in our 20's anymore.

Gardening is not something I was ever very good at or interested in. I have a slight neglection problem with indoor plants. As in, if they are indoors they might as well be dead becuase they soon will be. I don't mean to kill them, I just don't remember to look after them. And before you say "you have to keep a plant alive before you can keep a pet alive before you can have a baby." That's stupid. My cat's alive and scratching and he's 14 years old.

The garden at my house is large. Huge even. Mum is an avid gardener and it was hers before I inherited it along with the house. Don't get me wrong, my parents didn't die, they just got sick of waiting for me to leave again and decided to do it first.

Now that the weather is warming up and I'm keen to spend the summer days and evenings outside having BBQ's and relaxing in the sun, I'm making a real effort to do more and more gardening. Of course before doing any gardening I need my appropriate gardening tools. In my bucket I have everything I need and I carry it around the garden. It's my Gardening handbag.

I started with the little patch by the garage. I de-weeded it, pulled out pretty much everything except the lillys and the bulbs, laid down new soil, planted new bulbs and some sunflowers.

I picked up the hose to water the patch and was pleased that I had followed my number one Gardening rule: ALWAYS HAVE YOUR CAMERA HANDY.

On patio and deck there are hundreds of pots. I've been de-weeding them all, but decided it was time for an overhall. I've pulled out and de-soiled all the odd pots that had either nothing in them, or I didn't like the plant. The deck is now the 'Orchard'. I've had two lemon trees for a long time.

And now I have a Lime Tree.

And Strawberry plants.

The plants were only $1.84 each. I think I always thought it would be difficult to make little houses for the strawberry plants, but we had the mesh and the plastic ties, so I wrapped the pots up like christmas presents and whalaa! Hopefully it works and those birds keep their dirty paws off my fruit! I can't wait to have fresh strawberries this summer.

There are three things I don't like about Gardening:

1. I hate getting dirt under my fingernails.

2. The prospect of spiders at every dig.

3. It's hayfever foder.

But I'm excited for my new orchard, and the nice summer area, and of course the potential to spot photographic opportunities is fantastic. Especially when I always obey rule number 1.

Mortal Muse Mosiac

This fortnights Mortal Muse theme was 'blurred'. I always aimed for the perfectly focused shot and would be disappointed if it wasn't right. But after reading the post about the theme I started to look more closely at my supposedly non-perfect shots and saw new potential. Now I love trying to capture the movement or creating the blurry shots on purpose.

Please check out this link below. It will take you to the Mortal Muses site. The mosiac this week features one of my favourite photos. It's from Lu's birthday party when the girls played Ring-A-Ring-A-Rosey on the bouncy castle. It's number 16, the very bottom right hand picture.

I've got three new blurry shots to share this week. The first is the blossom tree moving in the wind. The second is an unfocused shot of my scarf tassles. The third is the same scarf, but this time I moved the camera as I took the shot.



Soaking up the Atmosphere

Most sunny weekend days are great for taking a walk along the waterfront. A couple of weekends ago we went to take advantage of all the things happening in town.

The New Zealand Navy was in town. All 6 ships. Yep, just 6 ships. The lines to get on board for a little looksy were way too long, but we did have a good nosey from shore.

There were kids playing EVERYWHERE.

These wee girls were getting a better look at the baby seal lounging on the sunny rocks on the shoreline. He was drawing a large crowd, but he was totally relaxed. We did start to wonder if he was actually still alive, but when you concentrated you could see him breathing. Phew!

The Rugby World Cup match playing in Wellington that Sunday was the pool game between France and Tonga. France was expected to win (they didn't!), but the passion from fans on both sides was high. While there was many french accents, I suspect that lots of the fans didn't have an ounce of French or Tongan blood in them. It was so awesome to see people get in to the spirit.

At Te Papa there was a pair of artists creating a mural on the side of the building. They were using tape only. It was a 24 hour piece of artwork, making it even more interesting.

  

Along the way a street entertainer had gathered a very large crowd. While everyone gathered to watch him set things on fire and what-not, I stood on a bench and photographed people around me. I have read a lot about street photography and while not brave enough to get right in peoples faces when they can see that I'm taking their photos, I enjoyed this opportunity to give it a go.

An ice skating rink was set up on Queens Warf. While watching the crowd skate (and fall down) around and around, this wee girl stopped and stared at me, so I took her picture.

All the Navy ships and boats docked at the wharfs were showing their support for the Rugby World Cup teams. This one was flying the Welish, Scotish and English flags. I loved that they were suspended of the structure.

The first spring ducklings were hanging out in the lagoon, enjoying the bread being thrown in by passerbys.

And here's one last shot. It's not special to this Sunday outing, and is a shot that you've probably seen many time before, but I still love photographing this part of the wharf and it looks good in Black & White too.

Macro Mortal Mosaic

Macro is one of my all time favourites. When I bought my camera, a macro lens was my number one top 'want'. I saved for months, did lots of research and have loved it from day one. It's been awesome to see some wonderful macro shots this past fortnight over on Moral Muses.

I love the abstract nature of macro shots. Flowers, textures and insects are best. This ladybug was sitting on top of an outdoor chair. It sat there for several minutes while I took photos.