What on earth...?

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What on earth is it?

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These figures in partial sun, partial shadow make mysterious figures, almost scary, if you are that way inclined.

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With the things hanging down over their shoulders they look a bit like high court judges, but with bare chests? I don't think so!

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And what's with the sticks they are holding? Could they be shepherds from somewhere minding their sheep?

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Surely they're not real people being that grey colour?

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Follow the arrows down to find the answer.

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. Still no wiser? Neither am I. These two figures are located in the Hamilton Gardens 'Italian Renaissance Garden.' Search as I might I wasn't able to learn just who these two concrete characters are. But I wouldn't want to meet them on a dark night!

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(I am taking a blog break for a couple of weeks to complete a presentation I am preparing for the end of the month. Will be back after that.)

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A vase of roses

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These were picked from our garden during a better rose-growing year. I like to remember these because early this summer I accidentally sprayed them with weedkiller instead of rose spray. It proved the hazard of having two spray units, and what happens when we are careless.

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The white rose was beautiful with a strong bewitching perfume. It was called Margaret Merryl and was given to us by our youngest son some years back. It was also a profuse bearer, even as a standard rose, which it was.

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The pinky coloured rose is called Maggie Barry, bred in NZ and named after a local TV gardening personality. It was a beatuifilly shaped rose but beware of those vicious thorns!

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Sadly we lost the white rose, but the pink one is valiantly struggling on and giving some not-so-healthy blooms. A new planting will be needed this winter after we pull out seven of our now-dead rose plants. We look forward to having a nice rose garden again.

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I will be very careful with the spraying in future!

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A child's bouncy ride

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This cheerfully coloured fellow was reclining outside a shop in Otorohanga, a country town in South Waikato. Under the body you can see the strong green spring which makes the object rock forwards and backwards as the child changes the way they move their weight. Kids seem to have fun with these and they cost nothing to operate. Mums can leave their child on this to play while they shop inside the store. It's a clever way for shopkeepers to keep young hands off their shop merchandise.

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Stopped fountain

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This fountain was stopped in time by the camera which showed the beauty of stalled photography. Perhaps if our eyes could allow us to see such objects we might admire the world's beauty more? Often things happen too fast for our eyes to see. (click on the photo to enlarge) .

"See Sis. This is how I build up my muscles!"

Kittens

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The ginger male kitten trying to climb over the chair bar looks like he's trying to impress his sister, Grey who is watching him.

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Who's that pretty girl in the mirror there?

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The female kitten we currently are looking after for the Hamilton SPCA. She is a cutie, but clever too. She wasn't fooled one bit by the mirror.

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Green Waikato Pasture

This photo was taken from the top of the water tower hill at Tokoroa a while back. I think the picture is very restful when enlaged. To enlarge double click photo.

. Passion fruit flower . For those who may not have heard of the passion fruit, it is a smallish dark purple coloured fruit, round-ish and full of yellow flesh and smallish black seeds, and a wonderful flavour! You scoop the flesh and seeds out of the shell with a knife and teaspoon and crunch up the seeds with your teeth as you eat the flesh. Mm mm! . Above is the flower of the passion fruit, which is very exotic-looking, and is also quite unusual because once the flower has been pollinated the fruit grows right out through the front of the dying flower. The fruit begins green and as it ripens it turns deep purple and is then ready to eat. I think that they taste best if picked when they turn purple and are placed in a shaded place for a few days until the skin begins to wrinkle. How wrinkled doesn't matter, so long as the fruit doesn't dry out completely and the skin turn a brownish colour. It then becomes too dry to enjoy. . If you have not tried them be adventurous and give them a go. You will enjoy them!

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Laurel and Hardy ornament

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I spotted this a year after the larger photo was taken after enlarging the photo for a better look.

Never even knew it was there!

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I guess we should all look closer at our photos. We never know what we may spot in them! .

Men and their machines

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These men are looking over an old Hart Parr tractor at an antique farm-machinery show in Hamilton about a year ago. The Hart Parr was made in New Zealand it appears.

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Two of the guys in regular hats are old timers, probably retired farmers. No doubt both were enjoying the old machinery on display. (Click to enlarge)

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Ginger kitten

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This little fellow is one of two kittens we are fostering for the Waikato SPCA till he is big enough to go to a permanent home. He is one of two - his grey sister - and they are both really cute. He is going to be a semi-longhaired cat and is extremely affectionate and sociable.

Our Portulacca garden

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This little garden had miniature roses which struggled along on the side of the house which gets full sun. However, the roses were never very healthy and this year I made a mistake and accidentally sprayed them with weedkiller diluted with rose spray. They died so I removed them, dug the garden over and planted portulaccas.

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Now having grown portulaccas before I knew that they loved the heat as they seem to be related to the cactus, and have the loveliest variety of clear, bright colours. The photo above shows our portulacca garden this season.

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Here is a white portulacca flower. It is about 5 cm wide. I have photos of other colours too but felt that the white flower looked very special.

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Pukeko

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One of my favourite New Zealand birds. The photo was taken at the Hamilton Lake.

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The Pukeko is a wading bird which gets much of its natural food from under the surface of water. These birds can fly, but in Hamilton I have never yet seen one on the wing or up in a tree, though I have in other parts of the country. Perhaps in Hamilton they are just too lazy?

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They are attractive birds with their blue and black colouring and red 'caps' and beaks.