Week 43: Breathtaking backdrops

A recent run around the Kelvin Heights Golf Course produced these shots. It's easy to become complacent about your surroundings, so I like to remind myself that this really is one of the most stunning spots in the world. And the air is so clear and fresh too.

Meanwhile, Chester continues to break records for cuteness.

Week 42: Aspects of Arrowtown

I took my camera for a walk so that I could get some shots of the areas where I usually run. The Arrow River Track is bursting with vibrant green and resonant with bird song.

Meanwhile, things are peaceful and still at the cemetery and cenotaph. You would be hard-pressed to find a more tranquil final resting place.

From the cenotaph the little village looks likes Toytown.

The Chinese settlment on the outskirts of the village preserves the little huts in which the Chinese gold-miners made their temporary homes. It's picturesque in the spring sunshine but the hastily erected dwellings would have been bitterly cold in winter.

Marching past the row of poplars, views on the way back open out over Michael Hill's golf course and the road up the Remarkables.

Week 41: Cats and books

I haven't taken many photos this week. I went for a walk up, run down Queenstown Hill and the panoramic views were spectacular but I didn't take my camera - it's too hard to run with. So here are a couple of pictures of Chester - always photogenic on demand.

I'm still unpacking the boxes and, although I was going really well, I've now sort of come to a halt. The problems are - too many pictures; not enough wallspace and too many books; not enough bookcases. Of course, the bookcases reduce the amount of available wallspace so it's actually a double dilemma, or is that quandry?

The upshot is that I have to decide which books to have on display, and which ones to relegate to boxes in the garage. It's a very tough job and is taking a long time. It's like a literary Survivor. Maybe that's what I should do - open it up to the vote! Atkinson or Atwood; Tolstoy or Thackeray; Blyton or Rowling?

Week 40: Spring snow

Less than two days after I posted on Kate's blog about how much I love Spring flowers, it snowed in Arrowtown and the poor delicate little blooms got a pasting of the white stuff.

There's a certain feeling when you wake up with snow falling outside. The light is simultaneously flat and bright and it is so still and quiet as the large flakes flutter down. Chester was singularly unimpressed, tucking his nose under his paws and wrapping his tail tightly around his little body, but I was leaping up to grab my camera and a cup of coffee and take photos. And, believe me, not much gets me leaping up in the morning.

Remember when you were a kid and it snowed and everyone raced to the windows going, 'It's snowing; it's snowing!' and after a while the teacher made you sit back down again, saying, 'Come on everybody, back to work - it's only snow' but they were as excited as you were but just better at hiding it? Well, I still feel like that and so I phoned my sister in Wellington, whom I knew would be jealous, and then we went out for a walk into town.

And although the light is flat and oyster grey, the sharp almost monochromatic lines and shapes create a pearl of an image.

What better time to take in the views up Sawpit Gully...

...and Tobin's Track, from the top of which we can see the whole of Arrowtown, including our house. Him Outdoors says you can see whether or not we are having a party. Fortunately (because we're not actually there), we're not.

It's cold up here though, so we head home to the fire before the next snow shower closes in.