A Week of Rain

We've had a week of rain, hail, sleet and snow in Christchurch and during that time, I've been more than a little transfixed by the effect its all had on the city. So today, my camera and I went to inspect - long after everyone else has already covered the worst of the elements but there was still plenty to see. In fact, it seemed to be the activity of the day. With a little sunshine, everyone was out walking, eyeing up the still swollen rivers and creeks.

Certainly the river that normally meanders at a gentle pace through Beckenham and Opawa (is it the Heathcote River perhaps?), was still a fast-flowing torrent lapping at the edges of gardens.

The paper-delivery girl stopped in her tracks.

The extensive surface flooding in South Hagley Park giving birth to a tangle of reflections

The black, bare branches looking slighting ominous and animate.

The South Hagley cricket pitch 'rained off.'

The riverside picnic tables stranded in the meddle of fast-flowing floodwater at Beckenham.

Roads closed all around Opawa.

Little Hagley Park in the north - the gaunt trunks of giant trees sleek and shiny with winter wet.

Opawa, where river and street merge

Making the most of extra water at Beckenham

And impossible for me not to refer the earthquakes at some level. Here, a reflective view of the ruins of the Catholic Basilica - always a sad sight.

"in a winter landscape - especially in a wood - there is the same kind of purity that the Greeks saw in the unclad human form..."

Reflecting

Millbrook Resort

Queenstown

2007 Ajr

A Study in Winter

"The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one king of a world and wake up to find yourself in another quite different......."

J.B. Priestley

Apes and Angels

I'm ready to wake up in a different kind of world

A winter world of snow and purity

Of stark trees and mists A world devoid of ruin and uncertainty A world where the air is still

A world where the ground is still

And reliable. All Photos taken in Christchurch and Lindis Pass Ajr 2011

City Treescapes - Auckland

I love a city stripped bare by winter.

That time when trees 'come to life' in a new 'semi-dormant' way that alludes to a shadowy 'other presence.' I have an active imagination at the best of times and trees seem almost human to me - imbued with a dignity and a beauty

Admirable somehow. Lively and interactive.

Most especially, I love the way winter trees interact with city architecture. For me it's an intriguing coming together of Nature and the manmade - as if one is striving to outdo the other. I took a whole series of photos when I was in Auckland this last winter - strolling along Symonds Street at dusk, observing the contortion of limbs writhing toward the sky, up and across the face of surrounding architecture. One tree skeleton after another seemed to come to life in a new way, with their silhouettes reflected in nearby glass towers.

Mirror images, a tangle of shadows.

Stretched limbs, reaching, scratching against glass and concrete.

There's a purity in all those 'unclad' forms - a severe natural beauty

That comes to life in the afternoon slant of winter light.

Spring Green

When it's autumn, I say autumn is my favourite time of year, but then comes spring and I have to revise my preferences because there is something so fresh and crisp and full of promise about spring. Fat buds bursting into life on trees, new grass galloping to lush, verdant heights, blossoms.........all well-worn cliches but all speaking of a potential that I can't get enough of.

I took these shots recently on a drive out to Taitapu, just outside Christchurch. Always a sucker for trees in any shape or form, I find a recurring and resounding inspiration in orchards and vineyards. There's something about those soldier-like rows of trees that stirs me in ways I can't explain. So an orchard in the full blush of spring was always going to be a target for my camera. A place of beauty in a time of beauty.

Associations - Colour - 2

Autumn

A Blush of Red

April 2010. Ajr

Where There's a Tree.......

I'm never far from a tree

(with camera in hand)

Especially if said tree is enshrouded in mist.

I took these photographs one misty morning in South Wairarapa on my recent trip around New Zealand researching the 1st edition of the all-new, full colour Frommers New Zealand Day by Day 1st Edition, which will be published in 2011. I'd been staying in the far south and left early, to take the winding drive around Lake Wairarapa on my way to Wellington. I'm not quite sure what it is about trees that evokes such a strong emotion and aesthetic response in me. It's always been that way regardless of the creative medium I choose - some element of the tree is invariably present. It's as if my creative psyche is somehow entangled in the branches and leaves. I always feel them 'almost human' somehow, imbued with a presence. I don't suppose I'm alone in that, after all, many ancient civilisations worshipped trees and for many, Maori for instance, the tree is still culturally important. And then there are the literary greats and their passion for trees: "I never knew how soothing trees are - many trees and patches of open sunlight, and tree-presences - it is almost like having another being." D.H. Lawrence.

A Winter Morning

Winter Birches

Leading the Way

Through Morning Mist

Blenheim, 2010, Ajr

Remembering Autumn

Another Day

Another Leaf

In Scarlet

April 2010. Ajr

Spring

A Bud

A Leaf

A Promise Spring 2010. Ajr

Random Visual Inspirations

Just Because

May 2010, Ajr

Last Leaf

A Lone Survivor

AUTUMN

In Christchurch

May 2010. Ajr

Trees - Two Takes

Dead Totara Forest

Sinclair Saddle Banks Peninsula

2005 Ajr

On a Windswept Peninsula

I wonder if it's wise for me to publicly confess that, along with my passion for hedges, I'm rather fond of an unusual tree or three? My 'Tree File' in fact (doesn't everyone have a tree file?) is bulging with photographs of trees that I've taken a shine to over the last few years. These three were all taken on the remote tops of Banks Peninsula three or four years ago, when I joined Tuatara Tours for their Akaroa Walk - a rather energetic stretch from Christchurch to Akaroa, striding along the windswept hilltops that characterise the landscape between the city and Akaroa Harbour. The two above - windswept totara were photographed on the Waipuna Saddle.

And this stark beauty - a stripped-naked, dead totara, one of a whole dead forest still standing in Watarangi Totara Reserve, which is a good walk into the hills near The Hilltop, just before you descend into Akaroa Harbour itself. The complete walk? Stunning - perfect photographic territory but make sure you're fit for hill climbing before you take it on. It's seriously up and down all the way. www.tuataratours.co.nz You'll find many more pictures of this and other Tuatara Walks by clicking on Tuatara Tours or Akaroa Walk in the label line below.

One Tree, Two Views

Sadly, it was a gray afternoon when I ground the car to halt to photograph this perfectly shaped tree sitting in the middle of a normally golden barley field. There was a lovely symmetry to the scene...... an even spread of green foliage and a shimmering sea of barley heads swaying around the tree trunk.....which is not quite captured here. But that didn't stop me taking at least thirty photographs and you will see it again.