High Tea Kitty

I have wanted to have high tea at Melrose House Cafe in Nelson for a couple of years, finally having the opportunity today. On arriving at the beautiful grounds we were greeted by a sleek black cat named Francesca. She came out of the house through a cat door someone had kindly installed for her in a window. She smooched against a car then came over to be adored. Francesca then led the way to the house and sat down on one of the seats on the veranda, letting us make our own way into the house.

We had a lovely high tea;

Upon leaving Francesca was still in her seat on the veranda, and she allowed us a goodbye cuddle.

Bunny Hugs

I can’t resist looking in at pet stores, so when I spotted Roselands Pets and Plants I couldn’t help myself! They had some very active bunnies for sale, the light brown one hopped around for a while then plopped down for a cuddle with the black rabbit.

Rawr

Te Papa currently has a phenomenally good exhibition on about the Tyrannosaurus family of dinosaurs. There are lots of brilliant interactive exhibits as well as some impressive skeletons and models.

The feathered dinosaur models are particularly fascinating to look at as it really does start to make the link between modern birds and dinosaurs more apparent.

And this skeleton shadow was particularly impressive as it periodically moved independent of the skeleton it apparently shadowed.

The Windy City of Dogs

Wellington is well known for it’s sea “breezes” causing havoc for hairstyles. The long haired dogs that walk their owners along the harbour precinct are definitely not immune to this. I bet a lot of de-tangling spray and patience is going to be required when they get home!

Fritz

In Wellington city there is a very well photographed statue of a dog named Fritz and his master John Plimmer. It’s quite an iconic statue and always makes me smile.

It seems he makes others smile too…
http://i.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/local-papers/the-wellingtonian/features/8868609/Beloved-Fritz-voted-into-top-spot

Have a Molly jolly Christmas

Feeling festive I grabbed some tinsel, a Christmas cracker, and a small Santa hat and went in search of Molly (the neighbour’s cat).  Molly is normally quite playful so I figured all I would have to do is wave the tinsel at her and she would come and play with it and then I could snap some lovely festive shots…

This is Molly’s opinion of my idea;

However after some patience and lots of petting I just about had her ready for a good shot… Then shake shake shake, we got a wee earthquake and she got all spooked.

Eventually she got into the Christmas spirit though… As much as a cat can!

Alley Cat

This black and white cat was lurking on a fence in an alley that we take sometimes when out for a walk. It was a very demanding kitty that I think must have chosen that location specifically for it’s high foot traffic.

Herd of Ducks?

Walking home from the supermarket tonight I spotted this group of ducks assembled outside a house. There was no apparent food source but they were all very intently watching the wall for ages like they expected something really good to come out at any minute. Eventually they seemed to sort of give up and started wandering around the driveway, presumably looking for scraps of food.

Sandy the crab

It was a lovely warm day today so I went to the beach where a friend found this crab.

A difficult subject

I came across this heron sitting in the canal in Woolston, a seemingly perfect subject.  However as soon as I got my camera out I found it had flown across the canal and beyond the reach of my long lens.  So I trotted down to the bridge and over to the other side of the canal.  I got a couple pictures and then my camera malfunctioned.  However after some fiddling about it was working again and I looked up and the heron had gone back to the other side of the canal!