A big walk for Sasha 🐶 these days is to go all the way to the speedsigns, 500 metres away. On our early morning walk today we rounded a bend in the road to see this beautifully lit scene. Behind those dunes is the sea.
Ready for some feelgood, with dogs?
the dogs had to learn about 80 new behaviors before they [could] get their paws on the wheel of an actual car. … little things … like desensitising them to seatbelts …
The day the dogs drove. Video: Driving Dogs. Skip to 3 mins on vid 2. 🐶
An even better morning display today at 0644: low in the eastern sky a crescent Moon, right beside mighty Jupiter. Arrayed above them, Venus, Saturn and Mars. My photos don’t do them justice. ☽🪐
To keep an eye on the sky, Stellarium Web Online Star Map is very useful.
This is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s smallest birds, often heard but seldom seen. I got lucky a few months back. Riroriro, Grey Warbler 🐦 :
Length: 11 cm; Weight: 5.5 - 6.5 grams
I had Keen shoes that were new many years ago, were demoted to dog walking several years ago and finally to gardening. This year they fell to bits. For gardening I’ve now replaced them with Hard Yakka Women’s 3056 work boots. They should be great, but I don’t want to dirty them!
This is bizarre: it’s not quite 5 am, pitch dark and I’ve been hearing a loud motorbike roaring around for 5 minutes or more. They may be on the beach — we hear it clearly from here — but why would someone be hooning on the beach in the dark? I guess dawn will reveal all. 🏍
I had low expectations for what turned out to be an excellent book. Murder on Port Meadow (Oxford Dog Walker Crime Thrillers Book 1) by Annie Dalton with Maria Dalton 📚 drew me in immediately and held me engrossed to the end. I’ve bought Book 2.
Has Apple Maps always had this? Just today I discovered Guides, and that I can add places to a Guide I’ve created. Very handy for a trip to Palmerston North. It syncs from my Mac to my iPhone too. Now, if only it would sync to the car’s GPS…
At 6 am I remembered Mars, Venus and Saturn were to be close together in the morning sky. I popped outside and found the Moon hanging out too. Handheld Phone photo, plus Milky Way by Scorpio and Southern Cross. 🌌 Bonus sighting of ISS. 👍
I’ve been listening to and enjoying @Matti’s excellent podcasts, The Early Riser and The Puppycast. That’s probably why I found myself speaking into Voice Memos on my phone as I set off for my beach walk this morning. Drafts app transcribed it for me, with not too many mistakes:
It’s 7 am on Monday the 28th of March 2022. I’m walking down the lane with Venus and the crescent Moon as my companions. The air’s cool but pretty enjoyable. It’s not really light yet but it’s getting there. The sun is just thinking about rising over in the east. I can see a bit of a glow and some shadows of the clouds. I’m on my way to walk past the lakes and down to the beach, down to the Waiorongomai Stream.
Hardly world-shattering stuff, but I wasn’t actually thinking of publishing when I started.
When I reached Waikawa river I stopped for a moment to record the Pied Stilts, with the noise of the sea as background.
Just experimented with Drafts transcribing a brief Voice Memo I made. Not bad at all. The hardest thing was getting the Voice Memo into Drafts. Sharing it did nothing. Voice Memos files, BTW, are stored at: ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.voicememos/Recordings/ .
I suppose articles like Escape from Kyiv are ten a penny just now. It moved me deeply though. And made me think about how NZ is so remote I can’t even begin to imagine invading bombers flying overhead. We’re so sheltered here.
I’m not given to sharing Wordle results, but today’s was very unusual:
Wordle 281 3/6
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Abandoned 40% through: A Deadly Course (Sugarbury Falls Mysteries Book 1) by Diane Weiner 📚. Amateur detectives leap to various conclusions. I think I prefer trained detectives.
I abandoned Aged for Murder (A Tuscan Vineyard Cozy Mystery—Book 1) by Fiona Grace 📚 about 33% through. The write-up didn’t make clear it’s a romance with lots of ‘chiseled jaw’ and ‘stunningly handsome’. Romance is so not my thing, especially if it’s hetero.
I quite enjoyed Murder Under the Palms (Detectives Preddy & Harris Book 2) by Paula Lennon 📚. It was a little slow though.
I bought myself an autumn day treat while out and about this morning. A very delicious real fruit blackberry icecream cone at the nearby blueberry farm.
Hah, remembering this day in 2020 when global Covid cases numbered less than 500,000.
I don’t often listen to music but this morning I’ve been captivated by Deva Mahal. For example this just released All Your Ships Have Sailed by Troy Kingi, performed by Deva Mahal and ensemble. Lyrics What a voice!
I’ve had this M1 MacBook Pro for over a year now. Today after 9 hours of use the battery has ‘already’ dropped to 50% charge from full. How easily expectations change! Any of my previous MacBook Pros I’d be amazed to get 9 hours battery use at all.
