An almost pastoral idyllic scene as a cow relaxes by the shore of the rainwater lake in the paddock next door.
Spotted on today’s trip to the supermarket: Wakachangi Beer. I suppose the ‘humour’ is supposed to somehow neutralise the use of a stereotyped swooning woman with breasts all but exposed…
Good grief! I was listening to some Andalusian Arabic music and wondered about an instrument that sometimes sounds like a cross between a duck quacking and a dog barking. I figured it was a bowed two-string instrument and called up Wikipedia’s List of bowed string instruments. That list has hundreds of entries.
I think the one I was looking for was the Rebab.
Turns out I love listening to Andalusian Arabic music…
The movie Master Cheng, aka A Spice for Life, was an absolute delight. A Chinese man and his young son arrive in a tiny village in the north of Finland, looking for someone no-one has heard of. I don’t want to say more and spoil it, but I loved every minute. 🍿
Sasha: Excuse me. I’m pretty sure it’s Anchovy time. 🐶
[Because she’s blind, she doesn’t know she’s not actually looking at me.]
Excellent 7.5 minute video: Where does the name “black hole” come from?:
…used to be called “gravitationally completely collapsed objects” so where did the name “black hole” come from? Especially considering they’re not “black” or “holes”!
Spoiler: Black Hole of Calcutta.
With the wet Winter and now Spring all the grass and weeds and whatnot are growing. I spent an hour and a half weedeating today. One small portion was the track down to and then around the septic tank.
Lynda McDaniel kept me reading avidly in A Life for a Life (Appalachian Mountain Mysteries Book 1):
Laurel Falls, N.C. … looked like heaven to me—ancient mountains brimming with tall trees and songbirds, peace and quiet. Until I found the body.
I’ll read more for sure. 📚
Jana DeLeon manages to keep her Miss Fortune series fresh, not just repeating plots. In Swamp Spirits (Miss Fortune Mysteries Book 23) one minor recurring character has been elevated while another doesn’t actually appear. A good read! 📚
A seeming haunted house mystery.
A good and well-written read: The Sheriff’s Wife (The Sheridan County Mysteries) by Erin Lark Maples:
When she stumbles over a body on a favorite hiking trail, the sheriff’s wife becomes the chief sleuth
📚
Recently read a 2-book freebie with Cooking Up Trouble (The Fun Cruise Mystery Series, A Sweet Romantic Cozy Mystery 1) and Undercover On The Calypso: Book One: The Cozy Cruise Mysteries, both by Lizzie Josephson. 📚
I enjoyed Undercover On The Calypso well enough and may read more in the series:
Adrianne Chrisander inherited a small cruise line from a great uncle she hadn’t seen since she was two. Exciting, huh? But there were problems.
Cooking Up Trouble had a lot of cooking competition detail, plus a romance, neither of which is really my thing:
Veronica thought a cooking competition was a great way to introduce Fun Cruises to the world, but she hadn’t counted on trouble rearing its ugly head.
This is one of 3 ring-decked doves that hang out on our lane. They let me get so close. 🐦
Mother and son napping in the late afternoon sun. 🐴
Loved Seasons 1 & 2 and really looking forward to S3 — My Life is Murder is Lucy Lawless’s love letter to Auckland:
It’s not often a series about murder is full of joy, but [this] breaks the mould. … a lighthearted, easy watch full of quirky characters and quick one-liners
Finally a duck came to explore the temporary pond on the paddock next door. Didn’t stay long though. 🐦
An important woman who helped bring the Māori language to the forefront — Remembering Hana Te Hemara’s Māori language petition, 50 years on:
Hana Te Hemara was the driving force behind the Māori language petition that led to the revitalisation of te reo in Aotearoa, and a tireless campaigner for indigenous rights for decades after.
I’ve used MarsEdit for >18 years now. (Back in the day it belonged to Brent Simmons.) You’d think I’d know it pretty well. However, my latest feature request was solved by simply using the Status Bar menu item already available to me! 🤦🏽♀️ @danielpunkass is a gentleman!
My iPad just popped up this photo of two pigeons from 2004. Taken in Wellington I think, on Oriental Parade. 🐦
The neighbours we’ve been helping with dog walking for the last few weeks bought us lunch at Salt & Pepper in Ōhau. I had beer battered Terakihi, fries and salad. It was delicious, but 2 big bits of fish were more than I could eat. Leftovers tonight. 😀
The pre-dawn light really shows up the two new ponds in the paddock next door. This year’s excessive rainfall has created two large ponds. The groundwater level is so high they just can’t drain away even though it’s all sand round here.
