Greetings from Crete

I popped by to see my mum today because she's been feeling a bit under the weather with a change of season cold. Of course being my mum, she still prepared lunch and a pot of coffee.
I swear, even when she's feeling unwell my mother is a complete energiser bunny.
A load of wood was delivered while I was there which I offered to help her stack, but even that was turned down, 'I haven't exerted myself in days and I need the exercise,' she said, 'I'll do it later, so just leave it for now.'
Still, I could tell my mother really wasn't feeling that well.

After visiting, she walked with me to her gate to say goodbye. At the bottom of her driveway she checked the mail and in her letter box was a postcard from my cousin Fi who is on holiday in Crete.
Fi's note was short; news of an emerging sun tan and daily dips in the island's azure blue waters.
But even so, I noticed that as she read the card, my mother starting looking quite a bit better.
I thought, how amazing. A thing as small as a postcard can make a difference in a person's entire being.
Fi wouldn't have known that mum was feeling ill, but somehow, even from as far away as Crete, her action of buying a card, writing a short note and posting it to New Zealand, made a difference.
I might send a postcard tomorrow.
You never know, someone might just need it.

x Cat

Learn how to choose a great wedding photographer

I video I made to help out anyone choosing a wedding photographer
x Cat

What's your wish? And the 'family cake'

Not last night but the night before we had a special birthday dinner for my fantastic, dreamy niece Penelope.
When it was time to blow out the candle's and make a wish, Penelope took a really long time. I meant a really, really, REALLY long time.
I think she thought so long and hard about what she wanted because when you're little you KNOW what you wish for is going to come true - AND - you only get to do it once a year, so you'd better make it a goody.
I think when we get older, sometimes we stop making wishes, or we become a little bit too realistic for our own goods. When I saw Pp (we've called her this since she was little!) really take time and effort over deciding on exactly what she wanted for her birthday wish, it made me remember how important it is to have wishes and really believe that they can happen.
Sometimes I get a bit jaded and ho hum, and sometimes I need Pp to remind me that for beautiful things to happen sometimes all I need is a little bit more faith. Thanks Pp, beautiful girl!

(That's my mum in the background, and in the corner of the photo you can see the little 'family' that mum cut out and put on the cake...)

I've just got to tell you one more little story...because I think this is SO lovely...

The family cake 


My mother had a plan for Pp's birthday cake : chocolate.
On the morning of Pp's birthday mum actually asked her if she had any special kind of cake that she really really wanted (so she could make a last minute flavour change if necessary!), and Pp said she wanted a 'family cake'. A cake that represented her family!
After some thought mum came up with this fantastic idea...she made a teeny tiny family of Pp (on a horse because she's been learning to ride), her little brother Jeremy, her mother Rachelle and my brother Romilly and put it on top.
What do you think? I think it's amazing!
My mother is so clever and thoughtful!

Have a great day and don't forget to make a wish!
x Cat

Just can't say no!

Lordy, you know you have a problem when you come home with a bag full of paua and kina shells.
And I don't mean ones that you've picked up during a romantic stroll along the beach - no, I mean ones someone else is THROWING AWAY.
And why?
Because I can't say no to free stuff.
I think it's part of the same sector of my brain that makes me keep those little bread plastic do-uppy things, which quite frankly you just never know when you're going to need.

At the moment my mother is doing a fabulous spring clean and in the weekend she was in her sewing room collecting up old piles of knitting needles to give away and I nearly asked for some...and I DON'T even knit!

Having said that...... how cute are these shells...I wonder if she has any more...

PS .... I'm in total bliss, I can hear a lawnmower in the distance, and a tui in the oak tree right outside and sunshine is streaming in my window .... mmmmm spring is here early :) Beautiful Gisborne!

Blue photo

I just love the blue, and the light catching him while he's floating in air.

x
Cat

Where the wild things are

Clearly, they're at the Gisborne Library.
Well that's where MY favourite little wild thing aka Max's dog aka Penelope Brown has been performing this week with the teeny tiny Unity Theatre group.
Bless!
So courageous!
I admire anyone who can get up and perform in front of others.
It's quite a skill.

Testing times between friends (and family, geese etc...)

I've got a new camera and like all new toys....errr professional equipment...you've got to make sure you know what all the bells and whistles do.
In effect this means I've been carrying it around with me for the last couple of weeks, practicing with it so when I pull it out to use on a job I can use it with my eyes shut (ok, not literally, that would be weird...)
So, thanks to my friends and family who have been in the line of fire while I've been testing things out and here are some of my practice shots:

Here's mother and daughter Anne and wee Eve enjoying a cafe break in Gisborne:

Eve close up


'Ali, can you just sit there for a second while I test this exposure.....'(x1000000000000)
Thanks sweetie!

I don't normally do landscapes at all, they're the realm of the early riser, and that's not me that's for sure...but as this was practice time, then why not! Here's the tide coming in at Kaiti Beach, Gisborne:

Here's a moon palm, along the Turanganui River...

This was taken on the morning of my birthday. Here's my little nephew Jeremy checking out his bday hat in the mirror with my family looking on.

Jeremy at the park...

and with my mother with a nice parallel with the seesaw against the playground boundary line...

At the river near where I live there are two geese that hang out all day and here's one of them looking good in white...

And last and probably least, the very first photo I took with the camera when I got it out of the box...
the obligatory self photo....I'm not smiling but I WAS on the inside because my new baby had finally arrived...!

Yours in sweet shots!
x Cat