The start of another year

So here we are another year I hope you all had a great New Year. I have been working through Christmas and New Year (except for statutory days), so not much to report. However this is not to say I haven't been doing anything! In fact looking over this I've probably been quite busy.

Saturday 11th January 2014
This morning we decided we would get out and about early.
First off we stopped off at Potters Park, and what did we see but the new Splash-pad which opened about 4 weeks ago. Pretty exciting makes you wish you were a kid again.

We then went and look at our new house, just up from Potters Park.

LOL.... This is a tiny house in fact it stands about 10cm tall. The John Radford work is titled 'The Sound of Rain'.  The minuscule structure is a commentary on what Dominion Road used to look like. The scale was Radford's attempt to encourage viewers to make a personal connection with the piece.
From here we went to La Cigale French Market. Now if you live in Auckland and have never been, you definitely should, there was so much seasonal fresh fruit and veg, all sorts of seafood, pastries, coffee and wine, there was also fashion, antiques, French Gifts in fact almost anything French you could think of! But it was busy, busy busy. Will be up early to go next time that's for sure. The music today was The French Touch.

From here we went to check out 'Kaitiaki' at the Auckland Domain.
(Also to eat pastries from the market.)
This is the work of Maori artist Fred Graham. The enormous steel Hawk towering over the landscape demonstrates the sense of guardianship that the birds were traditionally known for.

Lastly today I have finished the last two Gabions I was making.
Both filled with pine cones.

Friday 3rd January 2014
Here are some flowers from our garden.

Hibiscus

Petunia Calibrachoa

The Celebrity Solstice has been berthed down town, I know you have already seen photos of this, but it truly is a magnificent site.
Also check out this video which was taken April 2013. Celebrity Solstice

Also berthed at the Viaduct is the Belle Aimée you can hire this for a cool $250,000 per week!!!

Thursday 2nd January 2014
Today we went to the Auckland Botanic Gardens to look at the Sculpture in the Gardens which are art installations placed around the park until February. If you were feeling 'flush' you could even buy them, but we are talking thousands not hundreds of dollars here.

Atta Mediae - Samantha Lissette

Regeneration - Oak Garden Spade - Jim Wheeler

Jericho - Neil Miller

Pineapple Twists - Christine Hellyar

Tuna - Bing Dawe

Splayed - Regan Gentry

Split - Marte Szirmay

Infil Housing - Mia Hamilton

Oh Crabby I do believe we are rather lost - Jamie Pickernell 

Ariel - Llew Summers

Monkey Puzzle Pagoda - James Kirkwood

Alien Invaders - Todd and Karuna Douglas

Over the Farm Gate - Bryan Verey

The White Horse - Ben Foster

Rooks - Oliver Stretton-Howe

Weather House - Richard Wedekind

7 Days - Jane Downes

Home Sweet Home - Jeff Thomson

Flotilla - Lucy Bucknall and Andy MacVicar

Stone Flowers - John Edgar

Stem - Rory McDougall

Alterations - Louise Purvis

Tree Man - James Wright

Michael Klaja and Gordon Smith - Carving up the Land

and as though there were not enough photos already here are some of the gardens.

and to finish a bunny. 

Wednesday 1st January 2014
It was a glorious sunset tonight.

and you can see how bright those lights are!! The mauve on the wall is caused by the sunset.

We can now see the the Sky Tower from our place, so on New Years Eve I put the camera on the tripod to see if I could get some photos of the fireworks.
I managed to get a few fairly good ones (not perfect as the Tower is quite a few kilometres away)