looking back

I started this blog about a year before I found my way around blogland, long before you wonderfully followers and readers found me. There were a few interesting things you might have missed, so I thought I'd pull up a few highlights.  This was an article in the paper just a few months after I got here.

Now, every time we go by that particular rest stop, one of us invariably mentions something about a tire tyre!

And the total count for the stitches was 60, not 57 (that's what the doctor counted putting them in--60 was the nurses' count when they took them out).

settling in

It seems that I have settled into my new homeland quite well. After all, it's been almost 5 years since I started on this new journey.

My new life has taught me many new things.

• Kids can always melt your heart, no matter where you live.
• It's pretty neat to live in the country that is first to see the sun come up each day.
• The world won't end if I don't hear every word of dialog on tv shows--even with 'livepause' (tivo) I can't figure out some of the British words and expressions.
• It takes some people more time to adjust to new things than others.
• One won't actually die without coffee from a drip coffee maker
• If I hadn't moved here, I would never have started a blog and met all my wonderful blog friends.
• Cats aren't half bad to have as pets.
• I'm pretty good at taking photos as long as the camera does most of the work.
• I still miss sunrises. (No, I don't still long to see them--I still don't get up early enough.)
• People show they care in surprising ways.
• There are some very strange looking animals here and I'm glad I could see them.
• If there's an American working in the kitchen, you can get 'iced tea' in a restaurant (thank you, Lone Star in Nelson!)
• The beauty of this place still astounds me and I hope that never stops.
• Photos of freshly fallen snow in blogland are much more appealing than my memories of slush and piles of plowed snow.

And all this show me that I'm never too old to learn new things (even at my age of 'older than dirt').

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I don't feel comfortable discussing my personal life on my blog and the culture shock has worn down a lot, so it seems I may be running out of things to share with you so often. No, I won't stop blogging here--it just means that my posts may be further apart than they have been.

I will, however, still be posting photos regularly to entice you to visit NZ on Photographing New Zealand (click for link)  and I will be trying to inspire the world more with the photos on incidental imagery (click for link) so be sure to stop by those blogs occasionally to see what I've been photographing.

Christchurch memorial service

There was a memorial service for the city of Christchurch today. I don't usually watch this kind of tv program, but this one was really moving.  Here's what the local paper had to say about it.

They came in their thousands, the family, friends and loved ones of those killed in the Christchurch quake, to be told that "grief is the price we pay for love".
Prince William's beautiful, simple words, echoed across Hagley Park today as the country stopped to remember the terrible devastation brought by the quake which struck at 12.51pm on February 22.
People came sporting red and black, ignoring the terrible carnage that still impacts on everyday life, to mark the loss of at least 182 lives.
Four more quake victims were named this evening. They are; Mary Louise Anne Bantillo Amantillo, 23, of the Philippines, Ian Foldesi, 64, of Christchurch, Linlin Xu, 26, of China, Naon Yu, 21, of South Korea.
It brings the total number of names released to 146. Police expect the final death toll to be 182.
The crowd gave rescue workers attending a rousing standing ovation before the service started and talked among themselves about their own experiences.
The ceremony officially began with a Maori warrior blowing on a conch shell, stirring the crowd to attention.
Prince William, wearing a korowai given to him by Ngai Tahu especially for the service, was joined by other dignitaries including Prime Minister John Key and his wife, Bronagh, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the Governor-General Anand Satyanand and his wife, Susan, Mayor Bob Parker and his wife, Jo Nicholls-Parker, and Labour leader Phil Goff.
However, the ceremony was firmly all about the people of Christchurch.

Read more... http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/4784542/Christchurch-earthquake-memorial-Grief-the-price-we-pay-for-love

A little help, please

This guy and several of his siblings are climbing all over one wall of our house to find a place to become a chrysalis to hang out on the side of the house.

I think it might be for a white butterfly, but that's just a guess. Does anybody else have any idea what this is the caterpillar for?

**EDIT**  I should have asked Hubby in the first place, as he's the one who found a definitive answer for me--thanks, Hubby!!!

This is the caterpillar for a kowhai (ko-fie) moth  http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/research/biosystematics/invertebrates/invertid/bug_details.asp?Bu_ID=127