Opportunistic stream

For some curious reason, a section of roadside guttering on State Highway 99 nearby to where I live, has a stream of water constantly flowing along it. It's strange and I've never before seen a gutter used in this way; as a kind of open channel to direct water from a property. It's interesting to observe. The water always runs clear, which is encouraging, though as it's so shallow, algae grows as soon as the water temperature rises. Every now and then, the slime disappears, perhaps because of a cold snap, or maybe the road sweeper brushes it away. I'm watching to see if any creatures appear in the 'stream' - they'd need to hang on, it's quite swift. I can imaging a small fish or three in there; perhaps a torrent fish or an inanga. Certainly, I wouldn't be surprised to see an elver. 

3 attractive images

Island

From the fungal archives

There are very few, if any, ephemeral fungi around at the moment. It's curious that, in the springtime when other forms of life are stirring and appearing for the first time (or x time, if their perennials), fungi are keeping their heads down. I photographed this one two months ago.

The magic of lanterns

Father's Day was a wonderful time for me; my children, grown now and with off-spring of their own, came home for the celebration and brought their new families with them. We ate very well, shared stories from the past couple of weeks and laughed at the liveliness of our children and grandchildren. I lit a fire in the wood-burner and one in the forest. We had candle-powered lanterns on the table and the moon was waxing near-full.

This beast...

...caused me some anxiousness while I was collecting scions from the Trotter orchard near Woodlands. It would have been fine; he was in the next paddock, only the fences were so flimsy, a butterfly could have pushed its way through...

Horseradish leaves

These have been hanging in my kitchen for over a year now because I like their straw-like colour, especially when the evening light catches them.

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...it's taking an age to load this blog and I don't know why. My apologies and thanks to anyone making the effort to get here. I'm posting less often because of it and feel eventually your interest will flag as a result of the long delays. Is this part of some evil plot to extinguish my online presence? Or just a technical glitch that shouldn't be happening? I'll wait it out, as I do most problems that come my way :-)