My Life May Be Odd Because I'm Odd

This morning was another cold one and I couldn't resist taking pictures of the frost. At the moment I find it hard to resist taking pictures of anything. During the work day I got a pretty good snap of a heron and also a kingfisher, both of which were hanging around areas which are normally dry but are currently under water.

After work we picked up Rush again and brought him home and I took him for a walk along one of the lanes just so that he had a little exercise before we slobbed in the house. At the end of the lane we saw some cows with covers on which was totally cute but so strange as most farmers would just let them deal with the cold. They may have only been old grain sacks cut in half but the thought counts.

Just outside our house I found a baby hedgehog which is definitely odd for this time of year as they should all be hibernating. Its a real small one though and oddly tame so I picked it up and brought it in. I can pick it up without it curling into a ball and it has a kind of weird cough/sneeze going on so I think it's underweight and ill. I've popped it into my old rat cage on the porch with some hay and an egg to eat. We are planning to buy some cat meat tomorrow and we will fatten it up over the winter and release it in spring which we have done before with another hedgehog a few years ago. Hopefully the little cutie lives.

Rush had a bit of a hissy fit this morning and refused to eat his breakfast. Mum is determined that he doesn't like his dog food because the biscuits are burnt. They aren't but the fact remains that he wasn't keen so since he had to stay with us again tonight I decided to bake his dinner for him and he got tonight's serving still warm from the oven.

I have changed the original recipe so many times that now only the oats, eggs and flour remain from the ingredient list. Tonight I wanted it to be a meat and veg dinner so I added beef stock, garlic, carrots, parsley and silverbeet. I mixed it all up, rolled it out and baked for 30 mins. Don't ask me what nutritional value it has as I have no idea but Rush loves it and ate 2 biscuits in a matter of seconds! I reckon tomorrow he might decide breakfast is worth eating after all.

The Oddities Of My Life Never Cease To Amaze Me...

Last weekend our closest town was turned into a disaster zone with flooding. It was quite a shock really even though we'd had a lot of rain our town usually only floods from the river but this year we had a lot of surface flooding too which made things a lot worse. This was the worst flood I have experienced in the 10 years that I have lived here and they reckon it is the second worst in the last 50 years.

To make matter worse for me, I had been staying away from home pet/house sitting. A lot of the main roads got closed due to slips and surface flooding and the owner of the dogs I was looking after couldn't make it home. I had been booked to stay for 2 nights but ended up staying 4!

By Sunday the entire town was on lock down. There were literally no safe routes in or out of the city and all of the bridges over our main river were closed to traffic. We were an island. I got stuck on the wrong side from home so had to spend the day, somewhat lost, at my boyfriends house.

This might have been fun except that he is a rural fire officer and had been drafted in to help save the town, he worked 56 hours in three days! So I spent the day at his house alone, tidying up and stoking the fire in the coal range that he never uses. I on the other hand have fallen in love with it and could almost tolerate living at his house if I got to play with that stove every day. I need one in my future house!

After another night spent away from home I was very keen to get back and set off before true light. One bridge had been opened and two routes were now available out of the city so I headed for home with Rush in tow as it felt mean to leave him behind when his master didn't know when he would be home. Later in the day we headed back to town to asses the damage to the places where we work. A lot of the lawns and gardens will have to be left for a long time to recover so we will have to tighten our belts for a while.

The next morning there was a record low temperature in New Zealand of -20c! Luckily it wasn't where we live but it still felt cool enough here at 0c. We had a good frost all round so had to wrap up warm before we left the house. We managed to do a few jobs in town before heading home to sit by the fire again. There had been reports during the day of a radar fault that had grounded all flights across NZ which is apparently a very rare event and then at 10pm, just as we were thinking of going to bed, a big boom sounded through the house. We thought something must have hit the house wall although we had no idea what. We went out to look and the neighbours were checking their house too. Turns out the boom had been heard as far away as Waitotara (1 hour drive north) and possibly Wellington (2 hours drive south). Theres still no explanation as to what it was. Some kind of explosion or possibly a meteorite seem to be the most popular theories so far. Hopefully an answer will be found.

So there you have it. One of my stranger weeks and it's only Wednesday! Sorry that this entry has bee a bit blocky too, I'm still having comp trouble and have to work around brief fits of frustration when nothing happens!

Photography Lessons - Day 1

It's day one in my self training for how to use my new Canon SX530 and things are going pretty well considering I have no idea what I'm doing! Jack was keen to help this morning, he's not a very good model though as he was too busy trying to press all the buttons with his teeth.

He did round up two of the girls for a group shot though. Dusky, on the left, takes these things very seriously and made sure her pose was just right before I took the picture!

I had a bit of a play with the settings too and had a go at depth. I think it turned out rather well but I'm not sure what setting I was on when I took it so I guess I'll be doing some more practice.

I never realised that shutter speed could make such a difference. These three pics have no filter on them and they were all taken within minutes of each other. The only thing that I changed was shutter speed!

Also while playing around I found out that I can remotely control my camera while in a wifi area . This one was taken while my camera was sitting on my desk and me and Mum were warming up by the fire. It's a cool little trick but only works in wifi zones I think so I'm yet to determine how useful it will be.

I just had to stop in and visit Rush of course and he is such a good poser when I ask him. He was a bit confused about the size of my new beast though I think, it's rather larger than the phone he is used to.

Last one for now and I really like this one. I actually took this at the gas station. I was being lazy and didn't even bother to get out the ute to take it which is perhaps why I like it so much.
It's quite hard to find subject matter at this time of year with the weather so bleak but if today was anything to go by then I guess I'll find enough to practice on before my holiday.
Do you have tips or tricks for taking great pics that I should know? Let me know in the comments.

What a Weird Weekend!

I'm finally back!  My comp has been away for awhile now as it's on the go slow and went away for servicing. It's better than it was but still not brilliant tbh but then I have been told "What can you expect from something you only paid $200 for over 2 years ago...' I guess tech these days doesn't last as long as I think it should. Although I think the actual problem is that I really HATE the windows 8 system on my current model so just want to upgrade at all costs to anything that doesn't run a shitty block system. Unfortunately I have been spending up large on other things lately so it will just have to be added to the wish list along with the S6 Edge that I'd like to replace my poor cracked S4 mini with!

In better news say hello to my new camera! It's still sitting on my desk though waiting for it's battery to charge. I'm dead keen to get playing with it but I guess I'll have to wait (please hurry up battery!) I actually don't have any idea how to use it and since I currently take all my photos on my phone it will be something of a learning curve! Expect some better pictures in the near future (if I can work it) although 'better' is perhaps a matter of opinion as the subjects will still be much the same.

Also on the subject of 'new' and 'tech' I have acquired two second hand phones to play with. I am hoping to teach mum how to use one for music and checking her fitbit etc. They are windows phones though so I have no idea how to use them myself yet... They have the same stupid block system as windows 8 which is the most user UNfriendly system ever invented and my patience is rather thin already. They are most likely to be returned where they came from before tomorrow as, after a quick play, I haven't worked out how to even turn them on or off which should be a 3 second discovery.. I think the new windows can make even the most tech savvy person angry to their core but maybe I'm just having a real hate on windows. I can't be the only one?
Do you have a tech wish list like me? If so let me know what you are dreaming of in the comments.