Grandad's photos

The wall is finished, end of a hard week's work, especially the 2 tons of concrete broken out by sledgehammer and put in a skip. Next job - pave the driveway....

This is one of the old Internet Legends, made famous by Dave Barry. It really did happen! Here are the video pages, if you have broadband, choose the 11 MB one.

You can even buy the book in $NZ.

It's a rainy Labour Day holiday. Every window I look out from shows neighbours' houses where the owners seem incapable of even minor repairs.

#35 has a gutter full of leaves (buy a ladder), and a letterbox that was knocked off 3 weeks ago (buy 4 screws and a screwdriver from the $2 shop). If you let gutters overflow, the water can come in under the eaves and down inside your interior wall - big mess and insurance claim.



#31's downpipe needs reattaching and the gutter cleaned. That should take 5 minutes but it has taken over 3 years so far.



And the people over the back have been there at least 10 years, time enough for our neighbour-blocking trees to reach about 10 metres high. Still the clothes-line isn't fixed. Two people to lift it off, straighten the arm and put it back in the pipe, about 20 minutes and no $$ at all. Then Momma could hang the washing in the sun.

The baby blackbirds that were in the feijoa tree nest are hopping about being fed. Mother hops down and brings back delicious worms. (500 ASA was too slow for these pics in the shade).

These are very pretty birds, and very fast! I tried 1600 ASA and f11 this time, exposure was around 1/2000 sec. About 1 picture in 20 has something useable. No problems when they stand still....

Do you mind? Can't a girl have a wash in peace?



A lot of oxygen weed has filled the main pond at the gardens, the ducks can walk on water, but the eels like it.



I'm still trying to get some good flying shots of Welcome Swallows - it's not easy, these little guys are faster than a speeding bullet and autofocus can't be used.

Datsta seems to be going OK with new owner John Robb of New Plymouth, sitting third in his class.

Full info at Silver Fern Rally

Sunday was busy after the big Saturday night do. These pics are taken with the 50mm 1.8 lens kindly given to me by K & R & D (Thanks!!). First up was Charlotte & Alex's christening at the Otahuhu Anglican Church. As well as blessing two human kids, it was St Francis' Day and two goats, two dogs and a cat were also blessed!







Then after a revolving lunch in the SkyTower (thanks Terry!) it was off to Stacey's poolside birthday party - 5 years old and off to school this week.

As you probably know, Ugly-Brute was shortened about 31". It would be fairly straightforward to restore it to original as I have all the necessary bits and it then might look like this. This may be my summer project, but I have to pave the driveway first, I'm told.