A Little Wild

Down by the Heathcote River, this part of the walking track looks a little overgrown and damaged.

Stripey Cat in the Stripey Chair

My beloved cat, Tatie (yes the url is hers!) at rest in "Nanni's chair".  3 years on, and I still think of the lounge suite as mum and dad's - certainly not my choice of colour or style.
But Tatie enjoys cosying up on it (and scratching it to bits)!

What's For Dinner?

It's time to make my home-made Italian Pasta Sauce!  The basil, tomatoes and courgette are all from my own garden, making it even more home-made!

The Digger That Fascinates

There's a little digger (well it looks little from here, bet it's not) that fascinates me at the very top of the HGC.  Wish I'd seen it being put up there on the crane!

I know its technical name probably isn't a digger...  but they're all "diggers" to me in Chch.

Note the lean of the building!

Great Intentions...

It's Friday night, and time to relax.  I SHOULD use these props and do some yoga, but as you can see, I've already thought of a better alternative!

Great Northern Sky

It's a nor'west again, though I've missed most of the heat while at work.  I took this snap of the sky while stuck in traffic.  I thought the pattern was rather cool.

Sun Stand-In

Blimey, you would NOT think it's summer here today at all.  Grey skies, cold wind.  So this caught my eye with its warm splash of colour, and a semi-sun shape!

The Little Things

There are lots of little things brightening up the city.  This cute section is in the City Council's "new" Lichfield St Carpark.

Greening the Rubble... nice job guys!

Noisy Traffic

Re:Start Cashel Mall might be bright and cheerful, but the other side of Colombo Street is also a hub of activity... just of a different type.  Diggers, trucks, men in hard hats...  all busy on the demo jobs.

Unfortunately the colour tends to come from the paintwork on the trucks and diggers.  The rest is just beige - from dust and broken bricks and concrete.

Odd sights

Occasionally, you see a strange sight when walking around the place.

Maybe the cones stop the birds from landing (or worse!) on the roof?

Lemon Heaven

Back in the garden today...  I couldn't resist these fine specimens!

I love lemons, they're so useful!  So I'm happy that my tree is finally starting to produce good fruit.  

Outdoor Entertainment

World Busker's Festival ... what a brilliant festival to have in our city.

Busker's Park Entrance, 2012.

Big Digger

Wow, overnight more changes.  Walking to work and in the city of diggers, there's a BIG one right opposite our Colombo Street door... taking out the bus exchange from the rear end.

Spot the water spouts at the side of the claw, trying to keep the dust down... not very effective in a nor'west.

Celebrations...

Gotta splash out on the good stuff when you've got something to celebrate...

Whanau and friends in town.

Visitors....

Well travelled visitors staying with me...

See?  People still want to come to Christchurch!

Bye Bye, Bus Exchange!

Love it, or hate it.... as I walked back to the car after work today, this is what I saw.

The demolition starts here.

You Know It's Nor'west When...

the planes fly in overhead and are this low!

A few attempts to capture the planes today, with this the best of the bunch.

You Can Never Have Too Many...

Books!  It's only taken 22 days but I finally picked up the CDs and books that fell on the 23rd Dec shakes and put them back - note the CD rack on the floor.  It's staying there!

I'd really like one of the bookshelves from bookloversporn.com ... but until I win lotto, my humble bookshelf has been with me from home, to flats, to here.  I don't buy so many books these days - the Christchurch Library is fantastic - but I always have something on hand to read.

Instrumental Items

Music has always been part of my life.  I could go through life without a TV, but not a stereo.  Nor these two instruments.

Life gets busy, and I can go days without touching either, but eventually the urge comes over me, and I just have to go to this corner of my lounge and play.

Filling The Gaps

There's a wonderful initiative in Christchurch called "Gap Fillers" - a group of creative folk that have installed things where gaps have been made by demolished buildings.  Driving down Sydenham today I stopped to take a photo of this one... it's a massive piece of wall art, that spreads along a large area - this is just a section of it, but I liked the little raised gardens in front of it as well.

Christchurch, rebuilding itself with funky containers, and art works!  I like it.

By Two Wheels!

It's a fabulous day out there today, and the twilight market is on at Riccarton House.
People are enjoying the sunshine, feeding the ducks, going for bike rides ... and stopping for a browse at the market or having a wine or a coffee in the lovely grounds. Wandering through the grounds I found the kind of bicycle stand I like... a natural one!

An empty basket ready for taking goods home?

Sit And Watch The World Go By

Today's photo isn't from an abandoned red zone site... although it kind of looks like it could be.


This chair by the side of the road kind could be a bus stop for one!  But actually it's part of an old art installation near the university - random seats set into the paving.  Most of the chairs have gone... but there are still around 3 or 4 along Creyke Road.  It does look a little sad and lonely with its overgrown grass.

Two Sides Of A Street

Two photos today - just because!

Both photos show simply, a poster pillar.  Each pillar is in the same street - just different sides of the red-zone cordon.

One is bright and colorful, one hasn't been touched for nearly 12 months.  West vs East Cashel Street (separated by Colombo Street).

Tidy, colourful, new plantings nearby. Re:Start City Mall

Ripped, sad and 'grey'.  Notice the bicycle on the ground, abandoned. Red-zone City Mall

Quite a contrast, don't you think?

Glad-i Did, Dad

While I don't want to turn this blog into photos of my garden....

My dad's favourite flower, much to mum's horror, was the good ol' gladioli.  On Father's Day last year I planted about 10 gladi bulbs in memory of him - a mix of white and green ones.

Today I discovered the first one has opened and it is one of the green ones and,  I reckon, it is very groovy...

BTW, in case you're wondering, mum always did plant a few for him every year :-)  One of the secrets to +50 years marriage? Perhaps!

Summer Garden Snapshot

The last of the lilies are opening, and I gasped with delight when I saw one last burnt orange head.  Usually the first colour to open, this one saved itself for the last sprint of flowering!

...And Relax!

It's the weekend, and there's nothing like a glass of NZ wine to get wind down on a Friday evening.

Riesling in a decent sized glass!

A splash of colour

Amidst the empty spaces in town, you find a bit of colour that makes you smile.

Summer Fun

Crowds gather to watch a busker rehearsing for the Busker's Festival in the hot sun, at Re:Start Cashel Mall.

Taken on iPod, so a little grainy.  Good to see that the Buskers still find the Mall a good place to prepare for the main event.

Counting Blessings

There's not much damage over my side of town, something I'm forever grateful for.  

Fence being held up in Ilam.

The Project

At the end of the year, I was feeling lethargic and a bit demotivated.  I decided I needed to be a bit more creative and do something to lift me out of the zone, so I decided a photographic challenge was in order - to take a photo every day of 2012.  That could be a bit of an ask... but my attempts to do so will be posted here.  The photos may reflect my mood, the kind of day it is, what's happening in and around Christchurch as we try to rebuild the city, or just simply something that caught my eye.  So anything might happen!

I'm not a photographer, although I did do a course a few years ago, so I hope to see my shots improve as the year goes by... but there's no guarantees!  

As I've left it a day or two to find a blog spot, the first two images of January 01 and January 02 are loaded here.  

Cheers

Susan

Jan 01 - the clear blue-sky day that started the year.

Jan 02 - the curling bark of a silver birch that looked a bit jaded - how I felt after enduring 15 aftershocks in less than 12 hours!