‘To Brighter Days’
27 January 2023 in Auckland saw a record 258 mm of rain fall in one day.
That’s an awful lot of water, and there was widespread flooding and damage in the city, Tragically, a couple of deaths are attributed to the weather event.
I did get out and about after the deluge, to shoot these vivid blooms, still wet from the rain.
To brighter days then…
‘In A Fog IV’
‘In A Fog II’
‘In A Fog’
Taken yesterday morning in downtown Auckland – a photo of fog blanketing the streets and buildings.
The fog lifted and gave way to a perfect, sunny day. Fog may be all enveloping at the time, but rarely lasts. There is a life lesson in there somewhere I suppose.
Meanwhile, in something unusual for this town, the fog has rolled in for the second day running… but that’s life too!
‘Mackerel Sky II’
…forever changes…
‘Mackerel Sky’
…change is in the air…
‘Divining Weather II’
‘Divining Weather’
‘Parched’
This is what a drought does.
It leaves the local freshwater lagoon almost devoid of water and its normally hidden base soil left desiccated and cracked.
From a photographer’s perspective the repetitive abstract patterns of the dried mud are brilliant.
But the birdlife and fish at the lagoon have struggled through Auckland’s worst dry spell in a quarter century .They have boxed on in their sad-arse environs and I have felt sorry for them.
Rain is forecast for today, mercifully. The dawn showers are starting to fall, the heavier stuff will roll in later in the day. Being a pluviophile (rain lover) of sorts, I have a sense of keen anticipation. And the ducks, herons, geese, eels and carp are gonna love it!
When you are parched, you fully appreciate that which slakes your thirst.
Following on from the sprinkling I got and mentioned in the previous post Hollyhock, things got a whole lot wetter at the bowls tournament venue today.
Lawn bowls, it may surprise, is not an underwater sport.
But rain it did today in Auckland, right on cue for my biggest bowls day of the year.
After 45 days or so without rain.
It was a deluge at times, rendering the greens unplayable.
A drought breaker.
A wet welcome…
Spring in Auckland – a stack of sun, reams of rain – and cumulus clouds like these reflecting both.
Clouds are for dreamers.
You can see what you want in their shapes.
Giant sheep and rabbits; Jesus; your late father’s face; portents of the future or maybe the outline of a Central Asian country…
Anything you like, everything you could imagine.
All illusory, but not necessarily in a bad way.
Queen Joni once sang :
” I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It’s cloud’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all ”
– (Joni Mitchell, ‘Both Sides Now’)
So this was the view on Thursday this week – from Orakei Marae, where I work in the morning, over a shimmering Okahu Bay and towards Auckland’s CBD.
It’s a usually breezy town but on this day the fog was only fully lifting towards noon, and the sea was like glass.
I work from a community house, which is a pretty humble structure to be fair , but with this stellar vista of man and nature as compensation.
Other versions of the same outlook: The City, To The West, Shining and The City ,To The West, Clouded . I am a sucker for changing weather overlaid over one scene(obviously!)
Man, the Easter weather has really turned, and the yellow leaves referred to in the lyrics on the previous post are now soggy yellow leaves. Wet old day, so now feel compelled to post a link to The Kinks’s song to brighten the mood. At least will have a rain delay on leaf raking!
Ebb Then Flood 