Clematis flowers. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Clematis flowers and bud. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Clematis flower bud. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Up close; clematis flower bud. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Friday flowers
Month: September 2017
Regular Random: five minutes with tea and lemon-rosemary cookies
Afternoon tea, with lemon-rosemary cookies. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
My friend Sarah at Art Expedition sent me her recipe for Lemon-Rosemary cookies, and while my first couple of batches do rather lack finesse, Sarah’s recipe is really good and the cookies taste fantastic.
Afternoon tea with Lemon-Rosemary cookies. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Afternoon tea with Lemon-Rosemary cookies. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Vintage tea cup and saucer. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Afternoon tea with Lemon-Rosemary cookies. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Afternoon tea with Lemon-Rosemary cookies. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Five Minutes of Random (the #RegularRandom challenge) is hosted by Desley Jane at Musings of a Frequently Flying Scientist.
If you’d like to join in:
- choose a subject or a scene
- spend five minutes photographing it – no more!
- try to see it from many angles, look through something at it, change the light that’s hitting it
- tag your post #regularrandom and ping back to Desley’s post
- have fun!
Wordless Wednesday
Fern frond; seen on the Cascades path, Waitakere Ranges, Auckland, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
On birthdays, bugs and being grateful
Lily stamen. Image: Su Leslie, 2017. Shot with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 IS USM macro lens
Well the election gods haven’t (so far — hung parliament) come through with the new government I wanted for my birthday, AND I’ve managed to spend the last 36 hours feeling utterly miserable from a gastro-bug-thingy , BUT …
… the Big T floored me with a particularly thoughtful and wonderful birthday gift.
I’ve been dithering for ages about buying a macro lens, and now I am the ecstatic owner of a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 IS USM macro lens. I’m a bit hopeless with technical terminology, but even from my first experiments, I can tell this lens is seriously cool.
I have no idea what these are, but I found them growing out of punga (silver tree fern) logs in the Waitakere Ranges. The tallest stem was about 5cm. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Otherworldly. Unknown micro-plant found growing in punga logs, Waitakere Ranges, Auckland, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
As my interest in photography has grown, I’m turning my lens more and more on nature, and particularly on the tiny details. In a world that I find increasingly — well, scary — I am comforted and sustained by the beauty and resilience of the smallest life forms.
And by the love of the good people like the Big T. And not just for the awesome gift — I’m even more grateful for his thoughtful compassion and nursing skills — especially at 3am when I’m sick and grumpy and, frankly, stink.
Six word Saturday: I voted … and now I wait
Polling has closed in NZ’s general election. Now we wait for the result. I’m waiting with a glass of wine because it’s my birthday and I’ve asked the universe for a new government. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Regular random: five minutes with some lavender, a bee and the hope of new beginnings
Lavender lunch. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Lavender lunch. Image: Su Leslie
Coming in to land. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Lavender lunch. Image: Su Leslie
Lavender lunch. Image: Su Leslie
Lavender lunch. Image: Su Leslie
The images for this week’s Five Minutes of Random (the #RegularRandom challenge) were all shot at Savage Memorial Park on Bastion Point in Auckland.
Savage Memorial is the burial place and monument to Michael Joseph Savage, New Zealand’s first Labour Prime Minister — and one of the country’s best loved leaders. He died in office in 1940, having led the government that established our country’s welfare state — now largely dismantled by successive neo-liberal governments.
Tomorrow there will be a general election in New Zealand. Growing inequality, increasing poverty, declining child health and the highest youth suicide rate in the developed world are all issues that have come to the fore in this campaign, and there is real hope that by tomorrow evening we may have a new government. One committed to the values of compassion and justice that informed Savage’s Labour government in the 1930s.
Spring is, after all, the season of hope.
Five Minutes of Random (the #RegularRandom challenge) is hosted by Desley Jane at Musings of a Frequently Flying Scientist.
If you’d like to join in:
- choose a subject or a scene
- spend five minutes photographing it – no more!
- try to see it from many angles, look through something at it, change the light that’s hitting it
- tag your post #regularrandom and ping back to Desley’s post
- have fun!
Friday flowers
Seen at the Savage Memorial, Bastion Point, Auckland. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
DP Photo Challenge: layered
Echinacea (I think). As the flower opens, new layers are revealed. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
One of the great revelations I’ve experienced from turning my camera lens on the natural world is how complex and multi-layered even the smallest life forms can be.
I’m still not great on the actual names of plants or their constituent parts (e.g. are these images of echinacea?), but I’m getting there.
Echinacea flower, close up to reveal multiple layers. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Wordless Wednesday
Sign of spring; first leaves and buds on fig tree. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Silent Sunday
Viburnum. Seen at Auckland Botanic Gardens. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Zimmerbitch 