My September began in Omapere, on the Hokianga Harbour — a long weekend for the Big T and I revisiting an area we first explored in our early days together. Without knowing it when we booked, we even stayed in the same place, though it has been transformed from a small motel into a larger hotel complex.
In the thirty years since we lasted visited, the giant sand dune on the western side of the harbour has begun to disappear under vegetation — an environmental success, but making the dune a little less spectacular.
On the other hand, the foreshore at Omapere is disappearing into the sea. Along the beach was clear evidence of massive erosion, including several houses and large areas of reserve that have collapsed into the beach. Enormous concrete barriers have been placed on the lawn of the hotel to “protect” the building, but I suspect that if T and I were to visit in another 30 years, we’d need to find alternative accommodation to stay on dry land.
My gardening efforts this month have been very modest; lots of planning and tidying, some helicopter parenting of a few seeds and seedlings, and trying to enjoy the spring flowers before wind and rain destroy them.
T and I celebrated my birthday with a few days in Wellington — my favourite home away from home. T hardly ever visits our capital city, so it was fun playing tourists together. As always seems to happen when I visit, the weather was good for most of our stay and the clouds were rolling in as we left — perfect.
About The Changing Seasons
The Changing Seasons is a monthly challenge where bloggers around the world share what’s been happening in their month.
If you would like to join in, here are the guidelines:
The Changing Seasons Version One (photographic):
- Each month, post 5-20 photos in a gallery that you feel represent your month
- Don’t use photos from your archive. Only new shots.
- Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so that others can find them
The Changing Seasons Version Two (you choose the format):
- Each month, post a photo, recipe, painting, drawing, video, whatever that you feel says something about your month
- Don’t use archive stuff. Only new material!
- Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so others can find them.
If you do a ping-back to this post, I can update it with links to all of yours.
Update
Because I’ve been a bit slow this month, four of my fellow bloggers have already posted their Changing Seasons;
Ju-Lyn at All things bright and beautiful
Pauline at Living in Paradise
Tish at Writer on the Edge
Jude from Life at the Edge
Please pop over to see how September played out for them, and also:
Tracy at Reflections of an Untidy Mind
Lani at Life, the Universe and Lani
Marilyn at Serendipity — Seeking intelligent life on Earth
Joanne at My Life Lived Full
Sarah at Art Expedition
Ruth at Ruth’s Arc
Brian at Bushboys World
Gill at Talking Thailand
Lovely photos Su, I feel like I’ve been on a holiday.
Leslie
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Thanks Lesley 🙂
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🙂
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Wonderful and so elegant! I really love your work, from the tiniest sprout to to the sky and ocean.
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Thanks so much Marilyn. I feel very lucky to have got out of Auckland to enjoy the big skies and quiet beaches beyond.
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Hear, Hear, Marilyn. Just what I was thinking – from Su’s sweeping land-and-sky vistas to the intricate features of buds and seedlings.
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You are both very kind 🙏
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Pingback: Changing Seasons – September 2019 – life at the edge
Beautiful photos Su, especially the focus on the tulips and Big T (?) contemplating the ocean and that quotation. I’m starting to get itchy feet now, not having left the county this year. I don’t necessarily want to go far, but just a few nights away from home will do for a change of scenery.
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Oh dear that is a very visual reminder of how climate change and rising oceans is taking affect. I don’t think buying waterfront houses is now a good idea and certainly, in my opinion, not paying extra for. Love the Wellington photos, such dramatic skies. Thanks for the link.
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Very beautiful pictures
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Like the saying goes, “Nothing beats Wellington on a good day”. Brother and family from Brisbane are enjoying the city this week. Though I think you managed the more cheerful weather. I enjoyed the photos of a place I haven’t ventured to for a while.
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We were very lucky! It was incredibly windy one day, but in general we stayed dry, weren’t too cold and found lots of places to stop for art, food and coffee when our feet were tired from all the walking.
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Changing seasons and rising seas! Us live your wide angle panoramic landscapes, those skies tell tales in long-white clouds. It’s worrying that the sea is encroaching and eating into the land.
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It is; and more worrying that people are continuing to build on the coast, destroying the natural vegetation and filling the streams and ocean with topsoil in the process. Grrr.
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Pingback: The Changing Seasons – September 2019 – Reflections of An Untidy Mind
Pingback: The Changing Season – September 2019 – Little Pieces Of Me
Your month was filled with beauty Su!!!!!!!
Stunning photos for these galleries.
Here is the cliff notes from my past 30 days.
https://littlepiecesofme1.wordpress.com/2019/09/30/the-changing-season-september-2019/
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Thanks so much. I thought I’d been busy until I read your post 🙂
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Fall is definitely the busiest time of year for me…in a good way.
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Wow, Su. 😄 Your photos are lovely, if not a little restless. I hope you don’t mind me saying that? In some ways, i feel this challenge has become more than just documenting the changing seasons, at least it has for me, as even at the local level, the affect of climate change becomes more obvious. Still, stopping to sniff those beautiful freesias is a good antidote.
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I’m definitely feeling restless! And grumpy about how many people I know are blithely carrying on with “business as usual”.
But as you say, freesias (and nature in general) is a healthy tonic if not antidote. 🙂
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Tonic is a better word, Su. Yes, that attitude depresses me.
Taking action that inconveniences is a struggle, including for me. For example, I should put my camera down long enough to fix up my bike. Should I get a pressure cooker? Etc. There must be many small things we as individuals can do. It would be nice to know that it wasn’t in vain and that, at least in Australia, government policies were aligned with all these myriad small but important efforts.
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That’s precisely it Tracy. I struggle with the same issues — convenience versus doing the right thing — and all around me, people are buying new SUVs and an extra massive TV set and jetting off for their third overseas holiday of the year, and councils are granting water bottling companies free rein to suck our aquifiers dry for export. And the farming sector is engaged in a massive propaganda exercise to persuade us that despite the science, they aren’t destroying the land, water and atmosphere so we can have bigger burgers.
Aaaaaaaaggggghhhh!!!
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It is so lovely for me to see this beautiful part of the world, Su. When I was around 12-13 years old, I had a pen pal in New South Wales, Australia, so this is very fascinating to me.
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Always happy to bring you images of this part of the world.
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I am still amazed (though I am getting slowly used to the opposite cycle of seasons in the southern hemisphere), when I see like in your post today images of radish seedlings in September. Great photo essay on your September impressions, Su!
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Thanks Peter. I guess its easier for me because I’ve lived in both hemispheres.
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Pingback: The Changing Seasons – September – Life, the Universe, and Lani
wonderful shots – love the Hokianga
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Thanks Maureen. 🙂
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Sounds like a great month, and belated happy birthday, Su 🙂 🙂
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It was Jo; thank you 😀
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Happy belated birthday! Always so fun to see how differently the seasons change for people around the world. I love the mix of macro, big-sky landscape photos with the micro shots (those radish seedlings are darling!) in your gallery.
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Thanks so much 🙏
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Happy belated birthday! Love the gardening shots. I don’t have a good camera so I basically drool over those lovely zoomed in shots. 😉
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Thank you. The camera does help, but I’m seeing so much good photography done with phone cameras these days that training your eye is as important as equipment.
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Yes, very true!
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As usual, Su, you have a great collection of beautiful photos to highlight your month as you head off into summer. I typed that sentence with more than a touch of envy 😏
I think for the first time, my Changing Season post will be late. September was just that kind of month.
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Thank you Joanne. I hope you’re ok.
Summer is feeling a long way off — we’re shivering under a southerly blast at the moment.
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Thanks for worrying about me, but no it wasn’t ‘that’ kind of month. Just the kind that made it virtually impossible to do all the things that I wanted to do. My post is almost ready 🙂
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Whew! Glad to hear it 😀
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Like the sign says: WOW. Beautiful shots, Su.
Deb
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Thanks so much Deb 😀
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Happy belated birthday! It looks like it was a very full month. And I was just reading about similar beach erosion and the futile efforts to preserve homes on the dunes on Cape Cod.
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Thanks Amy. There are a few coastal communities here which are having to be abandoned all together, and others fighting for “bigger barriers.” It IS futile, and as always it is the poorer and older residents who suffer most.
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On Cape Cod, it is probably more the wealthier ones—those who built houses on the beach for vacation homes. No one poor could afford oceanview property. But in the end, yes, they will suffer the most because anything that hurts the economy will affect the poor the most.
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I’m sure our Cape Cod equivalents will start to be inundated before too long, and we’ve definitely seen cliff-top mansions fall into the sea because the cliffs have been eroded. So far though, the worst-hit have been poor, rural-coastal communities; often those where people have retired to the (often very modest) family beach house.
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😦
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Pingback: The Changing Seasons – September 2019 | Art Expedition
That’s so lovely to go back to the place where you two travelled to in your early days! And I’m really happy for you that the weather behaved in Wellington!! 😀 Love your gardening shots, especially the radishes and the kakabead seedling – and I KNOW that that tui shot is waiting for you!! (Maybe camp out in your garden for a couple of days like those impressive wildlife photographers? 😉 )
This past weekend we had such stormy weather and sunshine – I felt like I was in New Zealand and enjoying a rather wet spring! 😀 But I’m not complaining, it’s really nice to have some rains finally, even though my jeans and socks got soaked through today when I went grocery shopping! 😉 xxxxx
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Thank you my friend. We were so glad to get good weather in Wellington too. It has something of a reputation for really really bad weather!
If it stops raining here, I’ll go find the camping gear ⛺️📷
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Happy belated birthday. Lovely photos, such a diverse September. Love the seedlings (of course) and that cloud photo is spectacular!
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Thanks so much Desley.
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Pingback: Changing Seasons: September – My Life Lived Full
Lovely month, with two trips away. How romantic to end up in the same hotel, less pleasing to find out about the erosion. Wellington looks good – I hope you had a lovely birthday there.
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Thanks so much Anabel. 🙂
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Pingback: Changing Seasons – September | RuthsArc
Lovely to see different parts of NZ.
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Thank you Ruth 🙂
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Pingback: This is September 2019 – bushboys world
Happy birthday, fellow-September Baby!
Thank you for sharing your month. It certainly looks like it has been a productive month, no matter how slowly the seedlings grow.
How do you feel revisiting places after such a long spell? I am unsure how I would respond when I revisit with certain memories in mind to meet with a reality so changed.
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Thank you — and happy (belated) birthday to you.
We realised as we were driving to Omapere, that we didn’t remember all that much about the first visit. Partly it was a long time ago, and partly because it was on a longer trip where we also visited other places. I found a couple of photos from the first trip and realised that a) I am a MUCH better photographer now, and b) T looks infinitely better with short hair 😂😂
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What a bittersweet post. A visit to the land that soon won’t be that any more, that marvellous bird boat and even better “I live at the edge of the universe like everybody else”, and a grand discovery for me – that on the other side of the word kumara means sweet potato. In Slovenia it, spelled exactly the same, means (the long) cucumber, where its diminutive is ‘kumarica’ for gherkin. Fascinating.
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