An avenue of cherry blossoms is a classic site in many cities, but this one is special to me. The first year we moved here (in August) I was so desperate for the advent of spring and the repopulation of the playgrounds that I watched this row of spring heralds with devoted interest, willing the blossoms to open and announce Spring’s arrival.

The front cover of my Bio 101-102 text book had an up close image of a magnolia center, spiraled with stamens. The spring tree bloom last a long time in Christchurch, months compared to days back in NY.

Kowhai trees are a NZ native legume. I love the masses of bobbling yellow bells.

This plant is not anywhere close to a New Zealand native (it’s from the Carolinas) but I think it’s just about the coolest of them all. Overnight our Venus fly trap caught two flies, one of them a big fat house fly (closed pocket in the rear on the right). The closed pocked in the front left of the photo has the squirming fly in its clasp, you can see its dark shape. We came back a couple hours later and the pocket had pressed shut even tighter, immobilizing the fly. It’ll spend the next few days digesting it. Yum. But I guess when food is scarce in the swamp, fly guts sound good.