FSO - Open Theme

This week I'm invited to show you My Town in any way I choose.  At first I thought I'd show you the roads I travel but have narrowed it down to the road on which I live.  The farm sits on the corner of two roads so I'll include a couple of the side road as well.  

Our road is no super highway.  It's a gravel road, commonly referred to as a metal road.  Basically they are dirt roads with gravel spread on top.  Ours have a nice camber, better than you find on most paved roads.  They are constructed like that to aid drainage but it does make them more pleasurable to drive.

This is the only close up I have of the road materials.  Here, after heavy rain, because of poor drainage on the high side of the road, the flood water has formed a gutter right across the road for the water to escape.  It grew worse by the day and a couple of complaints to the council got me nowhere.  Until I sent them this photo.  I had another shot of my foot in the water with the water up over my ankle but can't find it. 

This is what Georgia calls a fluddle - a flooded puddle.  In places they creep right across the road after heavy rain.

So come for a ride down the road towards my home.   We'll meander along, twisting and turning, waving to the neighbour when he goes past.  That will probably be the only vehicle we will see in the 10-15 minute drive. 

No point in hurrying, there could be a surprise in front of us.

Just down this hill, across that little bridge and up the other side and we will be home.

You can carry on past my place if you like.

It's just more of the same.

The side road goes up over the hill country.  It's our long way to town when our road is flooded.  Takes a good deal longer to get there, too.

There will be lots of photos of others' home towns at Friday My Town Shoot Out.

FSO - Beaches and Shores

I've been in Taranaki this week so it is some of my favourite beaches and shores of Taranaki that I will show you. The coastline of Taranaki offers great variety.  

 Stretches of wild coast with steep cliffs marching away into the distance

 Beaches strewn with driftwood

Beaches where little mountain streams empty into the sea

 

Places where waves smash on to rocks

and a little distance inland, lots of lovely stoney creeks

running down from Mt Taranaki towards the sea.

I'm looking forward to doing the Spotlights this week.  Can't wait to see the beaches, shores and watery places that the Friday My Town Shoot Out participants will be showing us this week.   They will be here, drop by to have a look.  Or, better still, join us.  Share some photos of your community.

FSO - Street Fairs

I've thought about this a lot.  What would be my local equivalent of a street fair?

I spent hours looking for photos I'd taken at a street parade for the Maungakaramea centenary celebrations.  When I found them I was amazed to be reminded that was five years ago.   Five!  And anyway it was a parade. But there was one photo I took that day that I think just might fit the topic. 

I've trawled through the archives to find a few other shots that have the components of a Kiwi fair. 

lots of people and entertainment

a sausage sizzle

activities

information stalls

and for some, a lot of standing around.

Want to see photos of street fairs around the world.  Just come over here and visit Friday My Town Shoot Out.  Or, better still, join in and show us the street fairs where you live.

FSO - Bridges

I remember having bridges as a topic twice before on FSO.  I've checked out my posts for those two to make sure I don't repeat myself.  It seems my thinking has changed a bit over the years.  When thinking of bridges now I no longer think of the functional, concrete spans across the creek as it twists and turns along our road from town. But there's one little bridge I see every time I travel the road to town that I must repeat.  I fear it will disappear completely with the next flood.

In town an old bridge has a new life as a footbridge and, on most Saturdays, an Artisan's Market.  I went for a little walk yesterday to get a few shots of it. 

I'm sure there's a nautical term for those little foot bridges jutting out from the walkway in the Town Basin. 

 

 Some are fancier than others:

Walking away from the old bridge along the river bank, a new structure is springing up between the Town Basin and Te Matau ā Pohe,  the new bridge with the fish hook shaped lifting mechanism I featured two weeks ago.  This is the new cycle/footbridge which will be part of a loop walkway from the Hihiaua Peninsula to connect the peninsula to Te Matau ā Pohe.  There will be a pivoting section attached to the end of the bridge that extends from the far side (from where I'm standing), to allow boats to pass up and down the Waiarohia Stream.  It looks as if it will curve as it crosses the stream.  We won't have to wait long to see what it looks like, it's expected to be completed in June.
 

The little guy in this photo will be staying with me in June.  I wonder if it will be opened in time for us to explore the new walkway.

I discovered, when I was trying to find out more about the bridge under construction that there is a website dedicated to the bridges of Whangarei, their construction and maintenance.  So next time bridges comes up as a topic, I will know where to find some more.

I look forward to seeing bridges from all over at Friday My Town Shoot Out blog.  Everyone has a bridge of some description in their town, why not join us and show us yours?

FSO - Landscapes

I arrived back home yesterday evening without giving a thought to this week's topic.  No, that's not true.  I thought about it but I thought about the wrong topic, I had bridges in mind and they are next week's topic.  Luckily, I have a number of landscapes in different seasons, taken from roughly the same place just up the back road from the farm.  

a summer view

after a little rain

after a lot of rain

 a wider view

I'm delighted to be doing the Spotlights this week.  I know there will be some great landscapes posted on our FSO site.

FSO - Construction

Whangarei needed another river crossing to alleviate rush hour traffic problems.   It was interesting watching it take shape.  In the beginning there were just a few heavy machines.  The bridge connects the industrial side of town with the airport.  Because the bridge is downstream from the marina, a lifting mechanism was needed to allow the bridge to be lifted when boats need to pass under it.  We heard there would be fishhook shaped counterweights, the idea of British architect, Martin Knightt.   Mr Knight said that when he was looking into aspects of this place that were really important, the relationship with the coast and the river and the cultural history, the fishhook motif came up quite frequently. 

The bridge crept out from either side of the river.  This is the side from which I watched progress.

I kept trying to imagine what it was going to look like when the final link was installed.

It's called Te Matau ā Pohe, or "The Fishhook of Pohe", and once you see it, it's easy to understand how it got its name.  Wiremu Pohe is said to be the Maori ancestor who took care of the first European settlers to make Whangarei their home.   It was officially open on 27 July, 2013. It is not raised between 7.15 am to 8.45 am and 4 pm to 5.30 pm.  At other times skippers of boats over 6.5 metres in height phone or radio a request for the bridge to be raised.

It has not been all plain sailing.  The warmth of summer had an impact - the steel bascule expands more than expected once it gets over 26C, meaning the bridge could jam if the temperature is too high.  For a while the District Council would not lift the bridge if the air temperature (measured at the nearby Whangarei Airport) reached 26C, meaning boaties had to contact the bridge control if they wanted to negotiate a suitable time to enter or leave the harbour.  

It's the first bridge of its type that's ever been built so I guess teething problems are to be expected.  I think they have sorted the problem now.  Or maybe we will have to wait till next summer to know for sure.

The Friday My Town Shoot Out topic this week is show us construction and the architecture in your town. Maybe even a comparison from the old to the new. Or, give us the before and after.  The contributions from the rest of the team will be here.  Why not pop over and have a look.  There are some terrific photographers amongst us and it's always interesting to see how things are in other parts of the world.  

FSO - Weather

My grandfather used to quote something like this:

Whether the weather be fine 

Or whether the weather be not

 Whether the weather be cold

 Or whether the weather be hot

 We'll weather the weather 

Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not!  

It's true.   Farming folk rely on the weather, it's a sure fire topic of conversation wherever farmers  meet.  I can remember my grandfather having chats with neighbours just like those my son has with his.  

We've been looking to the skies a fair bit lately, hoping, hoping it will rain soon.  

Last Friday evening there was no sign of rain.

  
Saturday evening there was a darkish cloud over the mountain:

 But by Sunday morning it was gone, just a wisp of late cloud lifting:

Mid week, the usual clouds of dust were to be seen along the road every time a vehicle went past.

Then ... yesterday afternoon, coming home from town, I noticed the dark clouds ahead of me as I turned into our road.  I wanted a photo of one the new signs that have appeared along the road as I spotted a logging truck during the week and wondered where it had come from.  (I'll post about that next week.)

I had to stop a number of times, to try to capture the moodiness of the sky.

I got home just as huge raindrops fell.  There were about 20 of them!  The dark cloud was still sitting there off to the north west but it was moving away.

The rain came after dark.   I sat out on the deck and listened to the gentle pit pat of rain on the roof and smelt that lovely aroma of rain on dry earth.  It wasn't heavy, just soft gentle rain.  Those dark, heavy clouds had dropped their load somewhere else.

This morning, the sky is blue again but the soil in the paddock opposite my house is still damp and you can just see the first pale green shoots of new growth.  They really needed that rain.   Oh, and yes, that power pole in the middle of the paddock really is on a bit of a lean.

 That was the weather around here this week.  I'll be visiting the rest of the FSO contributors to see what weather images they have to show.  They will be here.

I'll be in Auckland for the next few weeks (as from Tuesday, plenty of time to do the Spotlights first).  Exactly how many weeks I'm not sure, it will depend on how long my daughter takes to recover from major back surgery.   Hopefully I'll be able to join in FSO, I've been taking photos with the upcoming topics in mind.  

Good luck to North Queenslanders with some horrific weather headed their way in the form of Cyclone Ita.