A Moment Frozen in Time

Why did the black and white dog cross the road? 

To see the huge writing that had appeared?

I was checking out the Street View on one of the roads overlooking the small local town of Katikati for a mural I am doing, when I found this cute dog, captured and immortalised, if not forever, at least until the google camera car drives up this road again. 

Has anyone else seen something funny on Google street view?

Con Trails and Stars

This very unusual sight (in New Zealand) this afternoon reminded me about my amazement at the huge number of aircraft condensation trails I saw criss-crossing the sky on my visits to the Northern Hemisphere.

Which then got me thinking how lovely it is that downunder, we can see so many stars. More of the Milky Way, because our position down here, and also more of the tinier stars because of our clear, clean (rather wind-swept) maritime skies.

Which leads me nicely into the following: a little preview of a couple of Andrew Caldwell's fantastic photographic images.  He's going to be showing his work in the next exhibition here, along with a few of my little oil landscapes.

Ours is the Best Beach in New Zealand.

I really should get over to the beach more often. It's only 15 minutes away. Trouble is, in summer it is so crowded over there, and hot, and it's hard to find a park. 

And, well, it's just so lovely and cool and restful at home under the trees, to be honest. And I could always launch one of the kayaks and head up the river for a lovely paddle too.

But I was still delighted to see that Mount Maunganui has been voted Best Beach by Trip Advisor.

A Few of Me Tomatoes

Such a bumper crop this year! Must have been the sheep poo. And so child-hood-memory tasty too!

A Stink of Bugs?

What's the collective noun for a group of vegetable bugs?  Mine seem to be all clustering together this afternoon.

I'm pretty sure these are the young of the 'Southern Green Stink Bug' Nezara viridula, originally from Ethiopia, but which has now made itself at home almost everywhere.  They spray a toxic, foul-smelling substance when disturbed.

Pretty, aren't they? They are about a cm long each.

Just don't eat them along with your lettuce. I can assure you from first-hand experience, you need only the rear end in your salad in order to have an extremely memorable experience.

The Google Art Project

I have just discovered this amazing project! Dozens of art collections (museums and galleries throughout the world) to browse, rather like Google Street View.

Marvellous!
Here: https://www.google.com/maps/views/streetview/art-project?gl=us

Let the Lawn Go

Ok. It's just a thing I have.  'The lawns should be mowed'.
Then I read somewhere recently that 5% of greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to mowing.
(Probably includes mowing of wheat etc., but for the sake of argument, let's pretend it's just home lawns.)
That made me think, how crazy is that?

Imagine this in the future:
My Grandie: 'So Nanna, you used to have a machine in the garage that was just for mowing the grass?'
Me: 'Yes Dear, everyone had one, pretty much.  Or hired someone with one to do it.'
Grandie: 'But why?'
Me: 'We thought that's what you should do, you know, to keep your garden tidy, because people might look over the fence and say "That person doesn't care about their house much!"'
Grandie: 'So, you kept your garden tidy, but didn't take care of the world environment!? Why didn't you grow vegetables there, or at least plant wild flowers for the bees? Didn't you realise you are the world?'
Me: '(lamely) 'people just didn't think you should let your lawn get long'.
Grandie: 'And on top of that, you burnt fossil fuels to keep it short?  What an illogical thing to do, and not very environmentally clever either!'

Pic nicked from the Guardian.

Windows of New York

You may have heard of the series of interviews 'People of New York' (and if you haven't, you probably should check it out), but here is 'Windows of New York'.

Curious if the addresses were authentic, I checked a random one out using Google Street View and it was.

This is labelled 308 Canal Street, Chinatown:

Here's the real 308 Canal Street Chinatown. Spot the window.

http://www.windowsofnewyork.com

Eye Candy Day 49