Apple

Several years ago I found this apple

tree right at the back of a plant nursery.

It had been put there and to a large 

extent, forgotten. The owners offered 

it to me for $50. I hesitated, went home,

but then decided to go back a buy it,

a decision I have never regretted.

It's a compact form, not having

many side branches, in fact the type is called

Ballerina.  This particular variety is 

know as Bolero.

Although close to being 2 metres tall

it has much of the bonsai look to it.

Ideally suited to growing in a pot

it has barely increased in size in all the time 

that I have had it.

This photo I took perhaps 6 years ago,

but the one with the blossom I took

yesterday.

Puriri Moth

New Zealand's biggest moth, it was

always an exciting moment to find one

of these when I was a boy and living in 

the country. 

It has been several years since I

have seen one. They are also

known as Ghost Moths.

Sometimes, at night, they flew inside

our house, laying pearly eggs

by the hundred it seemed.

The moth lives for just a few nights.

It does not feed, it has no mouth parts.

Their caterpillar stage 
can live for five years, in a burrow
in a tree, not just a Puriri, even in
some introduced species like oak.

Recycled Hare

Recently this photo was 

reproduced as a billboard

and displayed on the outside

of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery.

Once the exhibition was over

the vinyl billboard was sent

away to be turned into

shoulder bags.

Earthworm Studies

More than ten years ago 

I made some closeup photos

of earthworms, 

it was Herald Island days. 

I have the negatives

and a contact sheet but

 apart from making a couple of quick

prints, I didn't pursue the image 

further. I don't know why,

perhaps it was because other photos

were coming along and crowding it out 

and I was distracted.  I don't know

where those two prints are at the moment although

I would like to. They are somewhere in the

drawers here though.

But the idea has constantly gnawed away,

so recently I bought some clay

and began making shapes

based upon the photos that I had taken,

and drawings that I made from time

to time such as these below.

The photo at the top of the page is 

my first clay version.

I would like to see it turned into

bronze, or even  marble. Or

perhaps a photographic image.

I'm not sure, so I'm exploring it now.

Black Nerita

Shellfish huddled together

after the tide has gone out.

 

Farm Study

A view of some cows.

The quality of the image is not good

because I took it with my phone

camera, and the wind was very strong,

making it extremely difficult 

to keep steady.

I don't think that it is really

the cows that I am interested in

as much as the way that

they are dispersed.

I recognise this image, I've taken it

before, except that time it

was a view of ants.

Stick Insect

The Auckland Art Gallery

has just published a small book

entitled I Spy NZ Art.

It is a type of alphabet book,

the letter H,

for example, 

is accompanied by a Peter Siddell

painting of a house.

All of the art works used

are in the gallery's collection.

On the page illustrating

I, there is a photograph of a 

stick insect.

I took this photo in 1992.

I 

Taniwharau Rugby League Football Club

Here is a Huntly rugby league club

on the banks of the Waikato River.