Roaming

Our chooks have been allowed out to roam the backyard. The vege patch has been well weeded and dug over. We are still being rewarded with a plentiful supply of yokey orbs of goodness. The chook that was laying blue eggs, ceased fire about two months ago has oddly started up again. The only creature I know that is hungrier than a chook is a teenage boy.

Rust Fossils

I first stumbled across this bed of what appears to be rust fossils about 20 years ago. They are only visible at low tide. The place is Kakanuni about 10 kms form Oamaru. My theory on these is, many years ago this area was used as a dumping ground for old unwanted railways bits. Because this is at the bottom of a cliff it was easy to to just shove the rubbish over. The continual tumbling of the waves and rocks eventually pounded, corroded and fused the bed rock and rubbish together. This whole area is part of an extinct volcano around about 35 million years old.
I took these snaps recently. I met a geology student taking measurements for part of his course. He told me how old the area is.

More Hearts

More hearts lurking in the wilderness. The top one is in the McKezie country the other is in an Oamaru beach. I have a friend who collects heart shaped rocks. She has some displayed on the windowsill above the toilet. That last big quake in Christchurch flung them about, resulting in a smashed toilet bowl.... Nature creates and nature takes away.

Sea Sick?

I stumbled across this rough heart shape on a beach in Oamaru a few weeks back. This beach is well known for Yellow Eyed penguins. There are signs pleading with visitors to be off the beach by 3 pm. I was there at 1 pm.This beach is also inhabited by fur seals. I saw one as I surveyed the beach. I was looking for the best way to stroll with out disturbing the seal. You don't see the other eight until you nearly stumble over them!
I think mark on the sand maybe some sort of bodily fluid ejected from a seal.

Crust

Nature works in very mysterious ways. Is this a sign from the local sparrows and starlings, thanking us for feeding them, or just a random design pecked out in a hurry before a cat, lunges at them from the surrounding bushes?
I've been noticing a few shapes that we interpret as love hearts have been turning up in places I been lurking in recently.

Daisies

Heading out of Oamaru towards Dunedin, I found these daisies bursting out of a concrete retaining wall. They were like a pink, white and green cushion, just hanging there. There were several others of smaller size. I'm intriqued with the way plants just get on and grow where ever they can.

South Island

Still in Oamaru, this masterpiece of the plasterers skill was being accentuated by the early morning sun. It resides opposite the railway station. There is a real southern pride coming through, who needs the North Island?

Fabrics

A couple of weeks ago we were in Oamaru for the weekend. Helen was adjudicating a speech competition and I was free to roam and snap or scavange. The busyiness of these printed fabrics so carefully displayed, were just begging to be photographed. I was tempted to purchase some and have a shirt made.