Somewhere in there is a dog. Just wait till tomorrow! 🐶
Tuturiwhatu, Banded dotterels in the multiverse… 🐦
I’m pretty sure this is a female Kuruwhengi | Australasian shoveler with her 3 babies on our nearby lake. 🐦
A medium-sized dabbling duck with a large black spoon-shaped bill … females are mottled light brown with a dull brown bill and eyes, and brown-orange legs.
Here’s one for the pen and pencil fans…
Actually, it’s a recycled plastic fence post, about 1.5 metres long (a yard and a half), washed up on the beach.
This, my friends, is almost certainly a Hemideina crassidens — Wellington tree wētā.
It had made itself comfy on our neighbour’s outdoor chair. Probably about the size of my index finger (or maybe longer).
Busy day:
- walk the dog (15 minutes these days)
- walk on the beach — took a load of photos
- brunch with a good friend, followed by a 15 minute walk at a nearby reserve
- teaching someone how to post to the local Ratepayer Association’s WordPress website
- afternoon tea with friends
I find it interesting that the Google Alert I have in place for Waikawa Beach found me an item about Kai Iwi beach. No mention of Waikawa in the source.
The invitation words that always fill me with terror 😱:
bring a plate to share
Today’s tea is a rich golden colour. Thyolo White Peony:
To create this tea, each pluck is three leaves and a bud. Gathered together, the leaves are dried in partial sun and shade, before being finished in the tea factory’s air drier.
3 TBS is crazy. I use 1 teaspoon.
A pair of Eastern Rosellas has been taunting me for weeks now. Today I finally “caught” them. 🐦
Not actually a floor mop. Sasha on the floor in the early morning. I’ve finally been able to get her in for a groom next week. 🐶
Early in the piece I didn’t think my first loaf of bread made with our new Kitchenaid mixer would work out very well, but it looks fine fresh out of the oven. Basic Bread Recipe. I haven’t tasted it yet…
This was a simple read — an easily solved murder mystery, a bit of romance. Always on Duty: Companion Novella (A Klondike Mystery) by D. B. McNicol. 📚
These clouds seem rather opinionated. ☁︎
I’m not a Royal watcher, but Princess Anne seems like the pick of the bunch. Princess Royal to visit New Zealand:
Princess Anne is travelling to Aotearoa at the request of the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals, of which she is Colonel in Chief, to attend its 100th Anniversary celebrations
Today’s tea: Yunnan Yellow —
It has a heady and exotic fruity and floral aroma, a thick mouthfeel with intense marmalade and papaya notes and hints of eucalyptus and walnut.
Hmmm, tastes like tea to me. 😆
Sasha on another barky morning. Surely she can’t know it’s the anniversary of her brother Oshi going away and never coming home again… 🐶
Apparently, according to Sasha 🐶, 01 February is The Day of Barking. Not sure if this is a National or even International event. In any case, I’m hoping it’s one of those morning-only things… 🥺
Today’s tea: Kyobancha
This soothing tea is perfect for a cold day or as a night-time tea. March 2021 harvest.
I’ve tried a couple of times to give blood, but they won’t let me. That could change — Ban on blood donation … likely to be lifted:
A ban on people giving blood because of mad cow disease is likely to be lifted later this year … The ban … applied to anyone who had lived for six months or longer in the United Kingdom … between 1980 and 1996.