Baby swallow photo, with added baby swallow. 😆 🐦
Good local news:
The Horowhenua Star will be published by ID media, which already publishes community newspaper Otaki Today.
The news comes just days after the final issue of the 134-year-old Horowhenua Chronicle, which was closed by parent company NZME. …
‘A local newspaper is one of the cornerstones of a community. It’s not just about news – it’s about connection, engagement, and a sense of pride in where we live.
Uh oh. This is a road we may be using a fair bit after we move north — :
SH1 Whangārei to Marsden Point - Northland: NZTA said that from 2011 to 2021, 22 people had lost their lives and 73 people had been seriously injured on that stretch of highway. Mostly they were either head-on crashes or caused by people turning onto or off the highway, it said. The road is one of the government's Roads of National Significance with plans to make 22km of SH1 south of Whangārei four lanes, including upgrading the SH1/SH15 intersection.
Via What are some of New Zealand's most dangerous stretches of road? | RNZ News.
The system I use to track my reading
Hollie wrote about wanting to keep track of reading. I almost exclusively read books I've bought from Kindle, but find the Kindle device worse than useless for organising and tracking.
I created a list in OmniOutliner on my Mac that tracks title, author, purchase date, cost, URL of all books, Kindle or not. When I finish a book I write a very brief blog post that I copy to my OO list and I check the book as Read.
Then I look at my list to see what I want to read next.
Sometimes I search my OO list when a book's offered at a special price to see if I already have it, have read others by the same author and liked them, or have abandoned or hated books by that author.
This system works very well for me.
For some reason I don't so often post photos of the Australian coots on the wee lake down the road. Rectifying … 🐦
OK, compose the picture of the baby swallow on the zendo roof, carefully and slowly depress the shutt…
Gone! 🐦
At brunch at Floriditas in Wellington yesterday I was looking out on this electronic billboard and space mural.
It's rare to see BBEdit discounted, but WinterFest 2024 is offering a coupon:
BBEdit is the leading professional-strength text and code editor for the Mac. Crafted to serve the needs of writers, web authors, software developers, and everyone else who deals with text
BBEdit is my text workhorse.
Today we visited Wellington for brunch at Floriditas, where I ate Brioche french toast, Lewis Farms strawberries, strawberry caramel syrup & chantilly, first with a hot chocolate and then with a green tea.
It was fun to join half a dozen others in our now 30+ year Brunch Group.
It's baby rabbit season.
Working on a friend's tiny plain HTML and CSS web page. Grr, doesn't work … still not working … still not working.
Brain wakes up: try editing the correct file. 😵💫
Well! Would you look at that! 😁
I wanted to watch something light and fluffy. The Grinch did not disappoint.
I liked all of it, but especially the animals, Max the dog, Fred the reindeer, the reindeer family and also the goat.
It was a fun watch. 🎥
A wee reminder for Kiwis who may have $20 to spare. This time of year family violence intensifies. Gift A Safe Night to Women's Refuge:
One night of safety at Women's Refuge for a woman and child costs just $20. It includes A safe, clean bed; Secure transport; Hot meals; Supportive staff; 24/7 crisis line; Helpful advice.
Thrilled that there were 3 little Tūturiwhatu | New Zealand dotterel chicks hooning round on the beach this morning. This one was watching me carefully. 🐦
Not sure about this, but I think the Spur-winged Plovers that hang around the beach have also reared chicks. The one closest to the camera looks smaller than the other two. 🐦
The adventure continues in Dreadnought And Shuttle: Halcyone Space, book 3 by LJ Cohen. Our team of heroes are enterprising and creative. Another good read. 📚
As the former shipmates track Maldonado down, each course they plot endangers the life of his hostage, threatens to reveal Ithaka, and uncovers conspiracies that could brand them all traitors.
Beautiful and amazing 5 minute video — 5,000 drones light up the night sky in a record-breaking winter show – The Kid Should See This — included Santa and his reindeer flying over planet Earth:
Like pixels in a three-dimensional display, each drone carries programmable LED lights and precise positioning systems. Computer programming orchestrates the images, maintaining exact coordinates, colors, and movements within the dark canvas above.
Well, today's Waikawa Beach news. The driver can't have known there's nowhere to go with a car once at Waikawa Beach. And those Walkers Lane paddocks — just a short sprint from our house.
But look how quickly it went down: about 10 minutes.
Thanks to Collin Donnell for the Image Playground inspiration. This was fun. Our two dogs, Oshi and Sasha, as camper and astronaut …
I asked Image Playground to make one of my dogs a fantasy hero and the other a chef. Seems pretty accurate.
You may have to look very closely at these photos to make them out. Above the zendo door is a mud bowl swallow nest. Yesterday when I touched my fingers inside the nest I could feel warm bodies. There was no squeaking though.
The camera angle is tricky, with no room to manoeuvre. Baby swallows. 🐦
