Struan Farm

Sharing A Guest's Vision

As previously reported, we had quite a bit on here at Struan Farm over the recent Easter holiday weekend, including quite a number of farmstay guests. One of those was New Plymouth based photographer Russ Dixon and his family and friends. Russ has been kind enough to share a few of the photographs he took around the place during his visit, and has given me permission to publish them on our blog and FB.

He confesses to have a particularly moody vision. Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

It's always interesting for us to see what others find beautiful in our surroundings. Find out more about Russ Dixon and his photography here.




 

Cercis at Sunset

I haven't had much if any time of late to stop, look around, and enjoy the late afternoon autumn light here at Struan Farm. Until this week, when I took some time after a few stints of extreme weeding. We've had some magical days, with brilliant warm sunshine and golden light in the late afternoon as the day ends and starts to cool down.

Yesterday I grabbed my camera and walked around the gardens. I ended up sitting underneath and beside our burgundy weeping cercis, which has started to transition to autumn colours. Sunset was streaming through the leaves, and the combination of texture, line and colour was just my kind of abstract thing. Beautiful, really!

After the Rain

As reported, we've had some rain last week here at Struan Farm and are ready for more. I had fun walking around with my camera between the showers to see what I can see in the gardens. Drips can be quite intriguing, don't you think?

 

Flowers, Up Close and Out of Focus

A few nights ago John left me to my own devices at the dinner table here at Struan Farm. We'd finished eating and he went off to stalk two large rabbits who have been wreaking havoc in the flower gardens. Yes, again. They usually come out at sunset and play around in the paddock in front of the house before heading into the Garden of Eating. (Cutting to the chase on the rabbit front, they lived to wreak havoc another day.) 

But while all that was going on I grabbed my camera and played with the evening light on the flowers on the table. They're intentionally out of focus--for me it's about the colours and shapes, the sense of flowers rather than flowers in sharp relief. Hope you like them.

 

Tonight's Cloud's Illusions

To quote Joni once again. Tonight's clouds off the front deck at Struan Farm were too amazing not to share, enjoy!

 

Both Sides Now

I came inside a few days ago after a cold, damp but sunny day in the gardens here at Struan Farm. The time before sunset is probably our collective favourite time of the day. Often John and I will go outside and walk around, hands in pockets, talking and dreaming about the next project(s). The new(ish) house looks out over trees, across hills, and off into the sunsets.  It's a time for reflection and recovery from the day's effort.

This particular day the clouds and light were amazing. On one side of the sky a silver sliver of crescent moon was on the rise, while on the opposite side a plane was streaking across and leaving a contrail. I grabbed my camera and got carried away. Normally clouds don't cooperate but for some reason these did.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now

From up and down and still somehow

It's clouds illusions I recall

I really don't know clouds at all. 

                                --Joni Mitchell

Ephemera

Yes, off on another tangent here at Struan Farm when I'm meant to be gardening. I was working to finish the seasonal cutbacks and weeding of the back half of Hydrangea Hill when I discovered hundreds of skeleton leaves on the ground where the hydrangeas end and the flowering and native shrubs begin. They were littered below the camellias, pongas/tree ferns and native trees-- something about this micro-climate that caused the leaves to deteriorate in this way.

Beauty when one is least expecting it, one of those Struan Farm "moments." 

For some reason the word "ephemera" popped into my head, which means "things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time." Seems to apply.

Veggies at Sunset

I came up from gardening at the Homestead at Struan Farm a few days ago and spied the late afternoon light streaming into the backyard veggie garden through a window in the garage. It was almost sunset, and the golden light was hitting dark purple beet leaves and spring onions in a rather spectacular way. It was also shining into the glasshouse. Funny how fatigue doesn't matter when creativity strikes! 

The spring onions above bring to mind the Japanese concept of "Wabi-sabi," that of finding beauty in imperfection.
 

 

In A Previous Life

A few days ago John had me thinking about my "pre-New Zealand" life, and encouraged me to share some of that. He thinks most people view me as a bit of a mystery, something I can assure you I'm not!

After growing up on the East Coast of the USA, where I attended university and started my professional life, I lived in Southern California for many years. In 1992 I started coming to New Zealand annually for holidays, after an initial trip a few years before that. I became a rather serious nature photographer, spending most weekends outside in the wilderness somewhere. I published a series of notecards (these were the days when people still sent cards), even had some images published in several magazines, including "Birder's World," "Nature Photographer," and the National Wildlife Federation's "Your Big Backyard."

This was in the prehistoric days of film. And while I've made the shift to digital photography now, life has intruded on my time. I've never not yet spent the time needed to learn either my Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera or any editing software properly. I pretty much "point and shoot" as a result. Maybe someday that will change, although I appreciate the actual amount of time it would take to do that, and do it seriously.

Here are some images from my previous life, at least those I have in a digital format. They were all shot with a Nikon F4 camera, mostly on Fuji Velvia film (except the birds).

"Along Bishop Creek," Eastern Sierra Nevada, California.

"Elegant Terns at Bolsa Chica," Huntington Beach, California.

"Lake Rotoiti," Nelson Lakes National Park, South Island, New Zealand.

"Roadside Barn," near Motueka, New Zealand.

"Roadside Ferns," Fox Glacier, South Island, New Zealand. 

I was almost an artist, once. My eye has always been drawn to "pieces" in a wider landscape--line, texture or colour. I'm someone who misses the forest for the trees, sees beauty in often overlooked details. May that long continue.

 

 

Tomatoes Up Close

They just looked so beautiful sitting on the kitchen bench I couldn't resist!

Sharing Spring

Some random photos of spring starting to happen around Struan Farm. It's early days, but nice to see the first tulips and bright red rhodo in bloom at our entrance gate, along with the plum trees starting to flower!

 

 

Travels Up North

Just returned to Struan Farm from several days up north in the Kaipara District with friends Kris and Bob visiting from California. Enjoy some of the sights and the road less travelled!

 

 

Tomatoes, Up Close & Personal

Yes, just a wee bit obsessed and inundated with tomatoes right now at Struan Farm. And as regular readers of this blog might expect, it was only a matter of time before Karen and her camera closed in on them. The shapes and colours are interesting, they're actually quite beautiful.

 

This last one is my Georgia O'Keeffe moment:

 

Textures in the Struan Farm Landscape

Some random shots from down at the river at Struan Farm. I get captured by the textures in the landscape this time of year:

Lunch Date in Marakopa

John and I travelled over to Marakopa to meet friends for lunch this past weekend at their "bach" on the west coast. There were a number of interesting routes for us to choose from, with varying degrees of windy, gravel roads and scenic views.

We opted to go down Mangaotaki Road, past our friends at Hairy Feet Waitomo and Waitanguru Falls. At a certain point we came across this sign (it was on both ends of this stretch of road), where the road turned to gravel and got a little wild and wooly:

 

We made our way through bush and past scenic vistas, out to Kiritehere, where the sealed road then paralleled the coast up to Marakopa.

 

 

 

After lunch our friends took us out for a ride along the beach in their quad bike before the tide came in; they have an improvised seat on wheels that was fun to ride in. As you can see, it's a black sand beach, with interesting rock formations.

And as we started to ride back given the incoming tide, I caught sight of a young seal perched on one of the rocks. Apparently not a common sight, so this was an added bonus to the day (just wished I'd had my long lens with me!).

So while John and I don't get away from Struan Farm together all that much, we do manage to have fun adventures when we do!

More Scenery from Up North

Just thought I'd share with you a bit more from my recent trip up north to Kaipara. John and I were able to drive along Baylys Beach in our 4WD to Glinks Gully. We then took the road to the end of the Pouto Peninsula, and also went out to Mangawhai and Mangawhai Heads.

Yes, it's a beautiful part of the country!

The Road to Recovery

I had my first outing a few days ago. I was getting a bit of cabin fever, so accompanied John on a run to the local Piopio dump, then we went for coffee at The Fat Pigeon Cafe and for berries at Piopio Berry Orchard.

Afterwards he decided we should go exploring some surrounds, so after heading down one side road near the Berry Orchard we went off towards Aria, a rural settlement not far away. There is an abandoned church on a hillside there I've wanted to photograph for some time.

For some reason we encountered quite a number of friendly free range pigs willing to pose for me along the way. John was a bit nervous about the last hairy guy, he reckoned he was a domesticated wild pig and didn't want me getting too close.

John and I rarely if ever take time to wander the local countryside. There is so much beauty on our doorstep, we just need to take the time out to see it.

Details, Details

I wandered down to the Homestead gardens at Struan Farm yesterday thinking I was going to photograph the dahlias, which have just started to bloom. And yes, I did a bit of that, but I also got into some detail shots of the hydrangeas and poppies. 

Makes me realize I've been doing a bit too much farmstay laundry lately, haven't stopped to smell the flowers nearly enough....

The Texture of the Trees

I get captured by things, I know. Right now it's the texture of the trees in the winter landscape at Struan Farm. Love the lines and the contrasts.

Captivated by Color & Texture

It's been raining quite a bit lately in Piopio. I've found myself repeatedly drawn to a particular corner of the gardens at Struan Farms, captivated by the saturated autumn colors and textures. The contrast between those mossy branches and the red maple leaves against the different conifers are speaking to me:

Are they speaking to you too?