Windows around the world

[vilakins]

Take a picture of what is outside of your window right now and post it.

Two from upstairs, taken around 11:30am


This is from a bedroom window upstairs. You can see the city in the distance, including the Sky Tower.


This is out another bedroom window. The hill between two trees to the left is One Tree Hill (now None Tree Hill, sadly) with its cenotaph on top. The many hills like that around Auckland are extinct volcanoes. The stripes in the sky are reflections of Venetian blinds, not some strange weather phenomenon. :-)

And while I'm at it, here's my summer tree, inside two windows. :-) I found some very cheap summer-related decorations on-line that are unbreakable, so I put up a tree that celebrates summer, sand, and sea. The kittens have batted the lower ones round a bit, but they can't hurt them, or be hurt by them.

Summer tree


It's a bit bare, but there are starfish, shells, fish, and a seahorse. :-) I also put some real shells under it. Behind are the new blinds; I'll be able to use the spaceships and planets in that corner next year as there won't be any direct sun to focus through the glass balls. :-)

Comments

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

What a beautiful view you have. And your summer tree is making me envious, because I'm already sick to death of snow.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

But it's been years since I've seen snow. And believe me, a snowy winter is crisp and cold and fun, not wet, grey, and depressing like our winters which don't even have any festivals to brighten them.

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

The other day I had to pour boiling water over my car door because it had frozen shut.

Having been through rainy, mostly snowless winters while living in Washington DC, I know they can be really depressing. And I certainly like a white Christmas. But snow and severe cold can be unpleasant and hassle-filled in a lot of ways (also dangerous).

Heh. This has been a particularly cold and snowy winter so far where I live (and I'm constantly cold because my apartment is freezing) so I'm a bit winter-averse at the moment.

All that shoveling is probably doing good things for my arm muscles, though.

[crycraven.livejournal.com]

I love this meme! I am a nose monster. Thanks for posting. Once my battery issues are over I shall picspam - oh and I got Lorac's permission to post her image, so ball pics are coming, too! xx

ps I've been up that tower!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

You've been up the Sky Tower! Cool! When was that? DId you eat at the Orbit (haha) restaurant? It does an excellent menu; I've been there three times, and it's got to be one of the top (in more ways than one) restaurants in the city.

[kalinda001.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's lovely. Wonderful greenery everywhere. Some may object but I think green Christmases are wonderful! I love the shells and starfish and the whole nautical theme of your tree.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Christmas means summer holiday time here. I should add a pair of jandals to the decorations under the tree. :-)

[nautile26.livejournal.com]

Everything looks so lush and green. Oh, and pretty, pretty shells and star fish, I just love your summer tree!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Of course! I even have one of your shells under there. :-)

And I love your icon.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

The summer makes a lot more sense considering it is midsummer for you.
Love the window views.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I just wish we had something to brighten our horrible, grey, wet, depressing winters. :-P

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

You'll have to celebrate your midwinter Solstice too!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Well, I could, but no one else does. What's needed is some time off work and an excuse for general partying. I have some small hopes for Matariki.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

You live in a gorgeous area. Hills! Extinct volcanoes! That is so cool.

When I put up a tree with cats, I had all sorts of non-breakables for the lower branches- wood, and cloth and plastic, mostly. In the evening I'd gather up all the things they'd knocked off, and put them in a basket near the tree. If I was feeling ambitious I'd rehang them, but mostly I just let the lower branches evolve to bareness.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I live on a hill, but I don't think it's the right shape (too long) to be an old volcano. Pity, because the old ones are capped and safe from new ones coming up; the field isn't extinct. :-P

Next year I'll put the summer decorations and wooden apples I also have down low, but the older cats were never even that interested.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

You can *see* a volcano from your window. Hellholeah is totally flat, absolutely the most boring landscape in the world. Even the waterways are dull, narrow canals.

One year I made a whole bunch of stuffed tiny felt and sequins animals as decorations. They were cute, and the cats couldn't hurt them. I gave away most of them, but I think I still have a camel and a cat.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

What a lovely idea! These ones are foam covered with some sort of material and sequins.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

It was fun. I just drew a side view of an animal on felt, laid that on top of another piece and cut out, then laid one of the cut-outs over 2 more layers of felt and drew around the lower portion to make the inner gussets for the legs and belly. Blanket stitch it together partway, shove in a bit of stuffing (I used up the cotton from pill bottles), finish stitching and then sew on sequins with a tiny bead on top of each whereever I wanted to further decorate the animal. I think the cat just got a sequinned collar, but the camel got a blanket with decorations. Some animals got embroidery floss manes & tails, too.

[wolfma.livejournal.com]

I love your view! *misses summer*

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I miss it--and the sun--terribly in winter too.

[arenee1999]

Nice, summer weather! It's cold and snowy here. :(

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It isn't that nice today: very dark and cloudy and about to rain. You can see it clouding up in the photos. :-P

I envy you your snow though. I used to live in Germany and loved it: it's so cold and dry, your clothes actually keep you warm, unlike in winter here where the air is so damp, you feel miserable all the time; the cold just penetrates so much.

[jecono.livejournal.com]

Wow - what a wonderful view you have! :)

I like winter but unfortunately we live too low to have snow. And it's getting warmer again today...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

We live on a hill, but some of our view is being lost to growing trees. I must have some of ours pruned.

I used to love German winters so much--and the Christkindlmaerkte!

[thetisonline.livejournal.com]

I love your view, and the new venetians look great. Won't post a picture right now ... it's pitch black outside!

Your tree is great ... what a fantastic idea!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I miss my previous tree decorations--planets and spaceships (http://vilakins.livejournal.com/246392.html)--but I'll combine these decorations with them next year when the kittens are older. :-) Huh, you can see the old Roman blinds in the first photo on that post. They looked fine, but the only way to cut out direct sun was to have them down.

Do you live by the sea? We can see it from the top of our drive (out the other way) but not from the house, sadly.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

So beautiful, green...and the summer tree, what a lovely idea!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Where you live is much lovelier though, with lake and woods.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

What a gorgeous view. And a clever idea with the tree.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Most decorations here tend to the traditional and northern, so it was lovely to find something relating to living here.

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

Love the theme of the tree. Appropriately bright and cheerful for an NZ christmas.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It beats the horrible fake snow any day!