The Wonderful Wellesley Street Eucalyptus Trees - Gone!

I now have it on the best authority (Tony's fabulous 49 year-old restaurant on Wellesley Street) that this wonderful tree (and its neighbours) have been cut down over the weekend. I posted about it here in May 2010, because, at the time, it was about the best thing I experienced on a trip I had made up to Auckland.

What a terrible pity.

Thank you to the anonymous commenter who drew it to my attention.

The woman I spoke to at Tony's said she thought it was because a block of apartments were going up nearby.

The role of the Space Programme (and other thoughts.)

I'd be very interested to read your reaction to this clip from Neil deGrasse (no relation).

Superdog

I don't know whether to be delighted or horrified.

Part of an on-going TLVD post series, also entitled 'Why Dogs Bite People'.

Older posts:

#1 here

#2 here

Music Awareness.

Benjamin Zander, conductor, appears in this Ted Talk. Yep, 20 minutes long. But wonderful.

Dijea's Photo Challenge. Window.

While we were up north, as I've mentioned, we visited the Leigh Sawmill Brewery. Sadly, it wasn't open but I leaned over the garden and peeked through one of the windows to try and catch a glimpse of the mysterious copper vats and pipes that accompany the alchemy of beer-making. I was up close and personal with the window to take a shot of the inside when that usual thing happened, and the camera focussed on the window stencil, instead of the inside.

I stood back had a quick look at the image in the LCD screen and nearly leapt out of my skin, as I had taken a shot of a humungous spider that was sitting in its web right over the window!

I'm not really one for being nervous of insects and spiders, but this one made so unexpected an appearance I have to confess to having an elevated heart rate as I took this next one. It was some warm Northland monster, about 2.5 cm (1 in) long. Brrrr!

Ah, sweet memories.

A couple of mornings ago I came into the kitchen to make breakfast.

What's this on the counter? A half-drunk tankard of not-very-stout stout? An unusual sight in our house where beer is not usually left around but consumed while it's still fizzy.

Many thousands of years ago when I was at university, a saying was circulating around our group of flats. It originated from a time one non-rostered cooking night (possibly a Saturday) someone asked somebody else what was in the fridge that could be used for the makings of a meal. When the door was opened, all that sat on the shelves was a single cracked cup containing solidified fat left over from a roast long gone.

From then on the joke stock answer to "What's for tea?" became: "A cup of fat".

Funny, I hadn't thought of it for ages until I saw the tankard on the bench - liquid removed from a meatloaf my son made the other day, with a 'head' of fat.

McLaren Falls Park

More images from my favourite part of the local arboretum.

The first is another view of the image in the last post. I cropped out the sources, and just presented the reflections. I was interested to see the two partial 'lines' that divide up the image, in, I consider, an interesting and pleasing way.

What do you think of the rest? Some are more successful than others, but I guess any consideration depends on the end use or aim of the image. Some are definitely 'calendar' pages, where others are almost semi-abstracts that might come under the heading 'moods of water'... or something.

They all look better larger.