Remembering Summer

Waikuku. Feb.2009. Ajr

It was high summer when I visited Waikuku Beach last - about 30 minutes north of Christchurch. The clouds were clearing, ready for another blistering hot day and early walkers were out and about before the heat. I wandered the beach for a while; I picked my way through part of the pine forest that separates the little community from the sea; I photographed some of the fantastic fat hedges that enclose old baches; and I sat on the edge of this river, watching shags fighting in the trees along its banks. As I sit here now, in the middle of a freezing, bare, bleak Christchurch winter, it seems a world away - a place and a time so remote and removed as to be unreal.

Hedge Architecture

Hedges, Waikuku Beach. Jan. 2009. Ajr

I've shown you plenty of my favourite hedges - just click on Hedges in the label line below if you need to refresh your memory - but now I'm doing 'the inside job' - unveiling the cross-beams, the architectural support system. I've always admired the bulk and heft of a good strong hedge - their almost animate qualities, the tightness of their weave - and when you peek inside a hedge you see all the inner workings that make that possible - the tangle of branches and twigs that have knitted in and out and over and around to create the framework for that green spongy cushion we see on the outside. When I was a child growing up in the Waikato, I loved to make huts inside hedges; now, as much as I admire the inner workings, the thought of getting in there with all those bugs and beetles gives me the creeps.

More Freakishly Good Hedges

Waikuku Beach, Canterbury. Jan 2009. Ajr

These Solid Beauties

Spotted at Waikuku Beach just north of Christchurch

For more of my favourite hedges click on HEDGES in the label line below

Go On! You Know You Want To!

Purple Paddocks

Waikuku. North Canterbury. Jan. 2009 Ajr

It was a HOT day when I drove up to Waikuku and when I stopped to photograph this pretty scene at Lavender Fields, I could hear the whirring and buzzing of bees pollinating the flowers.