Watching the Roses, Smelling the Snails

It's taken me an inordinate amount of time to figure out how to get these pictures loaded, and I still can't figure out how to line up the text with them. (I know I should learn some HTML, but I can only handle so much tech-y stuff at a time. Tonight's efforts have already left my head spinning.)

Back to our main story . . .

Last week's stormy weather blew itself out Sunday night, and Monday was glorious - as you can see from the photos. About 20 minutes north of the city, there's a beautiful coastal track, which we took from Mairangi Bay to to Waiake and back - about 3 hours total. It took us past white sand beaches, native bush, and even the back gardens of some posh suburban neighborhoods. Honeysuckle, jasmine, and roses are all in full bloom, perfuming the air. The spot where the picture with me in it looked like there were black olives strewn all over the rocks. I stooped down to look more closely, and saw they were snails, moving at break neck speed - for snails.

Cheers,
Sandie