A neighbour has a couple of sheep on his property, and recently lambs have appeared too. They weren’t very keen on my taking their photo.
New Watch OS9 feature that I love: Save a Custom Timer — swipe left on the timer and tap the Star. I use 2 minute and 3 minute timers all day when I make a cup of tea. Now they’ll stay in my list whatever other timers I may also use.
A bit of 7 am drama today as the Rescue Helicopter landed at the beach entrance where apparently there were 4 cop cars. Rumour has it the cops are looking for a silver vehicle containing a person with a gun.
Some of the most hilarious and clever scientific names have been applied to spiders or insects … a spider named Apopyllus now, a beetle named Agra phobia, a fly named Pieza rhea and a wasp named Verae peculya.
Source: Life in the Shallows The wetlands of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Blood in Tavasci Marsh (The Pegasus Quincy Mystery Series Book 2) by Lakota Grace was a great follow-on to Book 1. I like the setting and the characters and the story flows well. 📚
Peg is furious when her life is threatened. But she must discover who killed old man Nettle!
I very much enjoyed Appalachian Mountain Mysteries Box Set by Lynda McDaniel. I’d already read Book 1. Book 2 was a bit preachy and put me strongly in mind of Forrest Gump.
All told though, it’s a good series, interesting and very readable. I expect to read more. 📚
This is intriguing. I typed my previous post in BBEdit on Mac then copied and pasted to iPhone. Look what BBEdit did with the facepalm emoji — turned it into 4 characters: base character plus colour plus presumably zero width marker plus female marker.
On Monday I happened to be there when our rubbish bin was emptied. Of course, it would have been a better video if it hadn’t taken me so long to remember to actually press Record. 🤦🏽♀️
I’ve discovered I really enjoy Andalusian music. Here’s an almost 2 hour joy: Andalusian Echoes: Abir el Abed & Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra. 🎶
I visited Palmerston North today and looked at the aviaries in the public gardens. This Cockatiel was a good-looking bird.
I really enjoyed spending the day reading Death In Copper Town (The Pegasus Quincy Mystery Series Book 1) by Lakota Grace. It’s very readable, in a great setting, followed a logical process and the characters were believable. I’ll definitely read more by this author. 📚
ROFL — Police respond to ‘racist’ flag in Wānaka, find Klingon insignia:
Police responding to reports of a racist flag [at] a Wānaka property found the home was instead flying the colours of the Klingon Empire from Star Trek.
It’s so worth reading the rest of this short article. 🤣🖖🏼
Aha! I wondered about this after grating the Havarti — How to Grate Soft Cheese:
Place wrapped cheese in the freezer. Only keep the cheese in the freezer for ~15 minutes. You want it hardened but not frozen.
Re: Today I made Roasted Cauliflower and Cheese Mini Frittatas.
Today I made Roasted Cauliflower and Cheese Mini Frittatas. They were pretty delicious. The recipe lists red wine vinegar in its ingredients, but doesn’t actually use it. 🤷🏼
Roasted cauli; The mix ready for the oven; The finished product. Grating soft cheese is hard.
The commander had to issue the “Fire” command 96 times! Clouds of smoke filled the air as the shots bounced around re-echoing off the hills of Wellington. And indeed, it took about 16 minutes to fire all the shots. Won’t happen again in my lifetime.
Here it comes (video): Queen Elizabeth II Death Gun Salute to mark her passing. At 1 round every 10 seconds (my guess), 96 guns must take ~16 minutes. That’s a lot of guns!
Wow — The Queen’s death: All you need to know about what happens next:
There will be a 96 gun salute starting at 6pm, Friday night on the Wellington waterfront in front of Te Papa.
96 guns. I’ve heard a few less than 20 in my time, but 96! Won’t be able to hear it from here…
Today’s neighbours include some who are beefier than usual.
An interesting little snippet: Queen Elizabeth Sent the First-Ever Royal Email in 1976!:
On March 26, 1976, the Queen visited the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, a telecommunications research centre in Malvern, England, and using ARPANET… sent an email.
I’m no Monarchist but this is still a huge moment:
Queen Elizabeth II … has died at Balmoral aged 96, after reigning for 70 years.
her eldest son Charles … will lead the country in mourning as the new King and head of state for 14 Commonwealth realms.
