Shopping for Sunlight

I was sitting at my computer on Saturday morning, wondering whether to go out or stay at home, and thinking perhaps I couldn't be bothered. Then I read Tony Hoagland's poem The Word at Mary's blog, Creative Voyage, and it was just the impetus I needed to get out of the house:

Down near the bottom
of the crossed-out list
of things you have to do today,

between “green thread”
and “broccoli” you find
that you have penciled “sunlight.”

So I headed off to the Riccarton Farmer's Market to shop for sunlight, something that has been in short supply around here lately. This is the first weekend in a while that we have had two sunny days - but on yesterday, there was no guarantee that the sunshine would continue, so I'm glad I grabbed it while I could.


Pots of sunlight




The empanadas were delicious.


The children played while their parents were busy shopping. Who remembers doing this as a child?


Feeding the ducks


This little dog apparently waits patiently in the saddle bag of his owner's bicycle every week.

A Weekend of Walks

Lyttleton is the harbour town for the city of Christchurch. I don't go there very often as I tend to think of it as "out of town". There is a large hill between the city and the port. In reality though, it is only a ten to fifteen minute drive through the road tunnel from my home, which is about half as long as it takes me to drive across town to work twice a week.

Over the weekend there was a walking festival at Lyttelton, with many interesting choices of walks, so I made the effort to get over there and take part in a couple of events. The first was a photography walk, based around the Farmer's Market and the main street - not much walking, only a few blocks, but plenty of photographs were taken and some useful tips given.



Farmer's Market



I spotted Rose Tremain's Music and Silence at a very reasonable price in this second hand bookstore, and ducked in to buy a copy.



These two young boys couldn't resist posing when they saw a bunch of photographers.

The second event was a visit to Ohinetahi, a historic home with beautiful gardens.



Again, I took many photographs. I'm crazy busy this week, but will try and find time to post more photos from both days.