WINTER LOVE

Finally managed to get out for a walk on a beautiful winter morning.  Still haven’t totally thrown this bug, but it was good to get out.  Such beautiful colours of leaves and berries everywhere…

berries, the miracle
of God’s provision before
the winter chill

EPITAPH FOR A TREE

So sad to see this old tree go…

gnarled and tired
with drooping jowls
limbs riddled
with rot

beaten down
by the years
sawdust now
blowing in the wind

EXPERIMENTAL

Not doing much at the moment – winter blues…

Winter, and I’m playing with my camera settings.  Finally biting the bullet and learning not to use automatic all the time, but sometimes I wish these modern cameras didn’t have so many bells and whistles.  At my age bells and whistles are more challenging.  Still, I have to be able to control something in my life – failed with Rod and the dog…

sneezes
and golden leaves
on the grapevine

ENDURANCE

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever…

Isaiah 40:8

BITTERNESS

More bad news on the news this morning.  The devil’s work.

Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.  Their feet are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not known.  There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Romans 3

in its death throes
hatred rages
shedding the blood
of innocents
as the serpent writhes
and the roaring
of the sea is heard
across the land

REMEMBRANCE

the wind blows
where it will
freely over the earth
carrying our dreams

ANCIENT SWIMMERS

New Zealand’s longfin eels (Anguilla dieffenbachia)

The longfin eels of New Zealand are a unique and threatened species with a precarious future.  They can take 20 or more years to reach maturity, and reproduce only once In their lives.  Once they are mature they leave their freshwater homes and swim many miles out to sea where the eggs are laid and fertilized.  They then drift back to New Zealand on the ocean currents, eventually swimming upstream to restart the life cycle.

interplay
sunlight on water
hiding place

HEIRLOOMS

These beautiful rugs are designed in New Zealand and produced in Afghanistan using traditional methods.  I was struck by their vibrancy and richness.  A real treasure in Parnell.

NEW ZEALAND PARAKEET

Kakariki
little green parrot
beloved

These beautiful native parakeets were once widespread throughout New Zealand, but have now become very rare, and are under the protection of the NZ Department of Conservation.  This is the Red-crowned species.  Photographed at Mount Bruce.

LILIES

Consider the lilies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.
Luke 12:27