Marjorie Dawson

It’s been a difficult couple of weeks with a lot of nose across the back fence (builders) but the bright light on the horizon was a trip to Neko Ngeru Cat Cafe for a cheese tasting evening! I was sooo looking forward to cheese at the cat cafe!

A company called The Cheese Wheel discover and showcase New Zealand’s best artisan handmade cheese. They showcase it to customers in monthly boxes delivered to the door. It’s a human version of the cat lady box and we were were invited for a tasting.

As you can see Neko Ngeru resident cat Delilah had her eye on the tasting plates of customers!

The presenters took us through four different and constrasting cheeses from Brie to Blue with tasting tips, and questions about what we, as tasters, could actually taste, from words like nutty, smooth, creamy, woody and so on. Smell, texture, colour and taste all matter with cheese.

Of course….

The cats kept stealing the show as you can see but, we were very interested in the new world of artisan cheese makers.

The supermarkets in New Zealand stock a wide range of cheeses that taste of nothing in particular (just creamy, or cheddar-y etc.,) so it was really awesome to discover some people really do care about the cheese New Zealand can make and the future of NZ cheese.

My eye was caught by a gorgeous black cat with golden eyes called Kohl. I admit my two photos are not very good (I was too busy enjoying the cheese) but I want to point out how essential LIGHT is to show off Kohl’s fur. See how the light gives him shape and texture?

There was a lot of clear ambient light, nothing too bright or fussy, and do you see how much the gloss of his well kept fur shows? Light!

Of course everyone wanted his photograph!

Sometimes you are carrying your camera and you see something fun, even if it’s not cats. You have to record it and share with friends. This what happened yesterday on our first trip out after a super stressful week.

We visited Greytown in New Zealand’s Wairarapa and found a nice place to eat called The White Swan where they have a quieter room out back that is less lively ‘gastro pub’ than the busy dining areas that face the busy street.

We sat near a window and noticed the fruit tree outside. It was alive with Tui and Silvereye birds!

I used my zoom lens to get as close as I could and discovered that the fruit looked as if it had been there there many weeks.

As we are just approaching spring here, we think that the fruit has been there (unpicked) since last autumn so the birds were having a feast. At the moment our own fruit trees have only just blossomed and fruit is a couple of months away.

Check out some of the wrinkly fruit in this photograph. Paul and I think the fruit is plum but are not too sure. Do you have any ideas?

Watch The Birdie

The tree is surrounded by low buildings and seems very sheltered from the strong winds and extreme temperatures that are usual in this exposed area of the Wairarapa. If you look at the fruit, you will see that there was a lot of texture and interest for me to practice my depth of field with.

Most of the birds kept moving and were just blurs on my photographs. Frustratingly, capturing speed is still a challenge for me but I did capture one good bird shot! Sometimes this is all you get and it’s better than nothing I guess!

Animal Crackers Spotlight

Finally, a reminder that the lovely Ann of Zoolatry has featured Miranda on her Animal Crackers series. She has done a really kind write up of the blog and several people we don’t know dropped by as a result. It was lovely to see them and we will visit the other blogs features over the coming days.

After a long recovery from major perineal uresothomy surgery, our hero tabby Toulouse is finally exploring the great outdoors again! I could not resist capturing some of his first adventures with my DSLR, including a playful butt shot (at the end of the post!)

Toulouse spent almost an hour exploring close to home, rediscovering his favourite haunts before coming indoors again and crashing in one of the window cat beds.

From his vantage point Toulouse can see the layout of the houses marked on the other side of the fence. They are extremely close which is why the new trees I was checking on are so important to us. He jumped down to take a look so I walked away (a trick that usually has him scampering back to my side) and he did.

Okay, so I was slightly frantic trying to get the shots, and the photos ended up a little unfocused. I think that, like many of us, I need to work on my eye focus skills! I’m dreaming of the day when my Canon camera can magically lock onto eyes using eye-control autofocus. Until then, practice makes perfect and I keep trying. (Sadly I can’t afford a mirrorless eye autofocus camera as they run into thousands of dollars!)

I know Pete Cusack, of Timmy Tomcat blog enjoyed my camera reports and he would have loved to see the development of a camera finding and focusing on cat’s eye eye without human help. Funny how these thoughts come to you.

Saving the best until last, I was happy a got a shot of Toulouse’s bare butt disappearing over the fence and one of him back inside ready to nap.