Sasha was groomed yesterday. Here she is eating dinner. 😀 🐶

Small black dog, eating. Photo taken from floor level, looking up.

I avoid driving my car because a] CO2 and b] petrol costs. Today I put 2/3 of a tank in: ~40 litres for almost NZ$120. The price is hovering round $3 per litre and is likely to keep rising. For 1 litre ($3) I could instead have bought 3/4 of a cup of green tea at a cafe nearby. 😒

I’d love to see this as a movie! Great article! How Death Positive Women Kickstarted a Civil War:

By October [1846 in Portugal], two governments had been deposed and the country was neck-deep in a civil war.

And all because an old woman had chosen a terrible time to die.

I think I’ll be watching this. It looks fun. Apollo 10 1/2 📺

Before I could plant these 3 cabbage trees I spent a couple of hours over several days digging out lupins, gorse and blackberry, weedeating, gathering mulch and tires. Finally today I spent about 45 minutes in the heat actually planting. 4 more to go!

3 cabbage trees.

Sometime I want to bike along this trail myself. Really interesting article today: Lake Dunstan Trail: 55,000 more riders than expected in first year.

In … January, 12,068 people passed the trail counter – almost as many [as] they’d [expected for] the entire year of 2028.

Bike parked and woman sitting beside an astonishingly blue lake in beautiful surroundings.

Busy day but it started with a dawn beach walk and an encounter with Taranui, Caspian terns. 🐦

Taranui Caspian terns on a low tide beach at dawn.
Taranui Caspian tern in flight.
Taranui Caspian tern in flight.
Two Taranui Caspian terns in flight.
Solitary Taranui Caspian tern on a low tide beach at dawn.

Only 2.5 minutes in on this 12 minute video and I’ve already learned a really useful tip about longer night exposures. How to capture the night sky with a phone & camera | 3 TIPS for astrophotography beginners

Screenshot from the video.

It’s roughly new moon, very little wind, and a 0.3 metre low tide almost 2 hours before this photo. With our gently sloping beach there was a vast expanse of damp sand between the dunes and the water’s edge. Photo looking south at 1x on iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Expanse of beach at very low tide.

I almost missed seeing this brilliant scarlet sunset.

Scarlet clouds above dark hills.

This is a very thoughtful piece by Anna Rawhiti-Connell in The Spinoff : Aotearoa is different now who reflects on the recent occupation of NZ’s Parliament grounds and the riot when occupiers were cleared out. She also considers the pandemic and the Christchurch earthquake.

Enjoyed Broken Places (A Cass Raines Mystery Book 1) by Tracy Clark 📚:

Cass Raines took a bullet in the line of duty… Now, the Chicago PD has one less African-American woman on the force and Cass is the head of a one-woman private investigation agency.

Book cover: Broken Places.

6 years ago we bought a property we’ve been renting out. The grass at the front was terrible. After a year or two we had it taken out and planted as garden. That led to years of battling weeds. Now we had that ripped out and turf laid. Organising watering is a nightmare though.

Front lawn in bad grass.
Weed riddled front garden.
Sprinklers at work on turf.

The other day I found several jellyfish on the beach, mainly brown and dead looking. This 15 cm specimen was an impressive translucent red. The Wildlife of New Zealand Facebook group confirmed it as a Lion’s Mane.

Circular pink Lions Mane Jellyfish on the beach.

Some of the (male) illegal occupiers are berating Police for advancing when there are women and children in the protest. Well, a] women can look after themselves! and b] children should be removed by their caregivers in any case.

At long last Police seem to be actually working on clearing the occupiers at NZ’s Parliament: Live: Anti-mandate protest enters 23rd day as police descend on Parliament:

Police are descending on Parliament, with at least 4 large paddy wagons … and a helicopter overhead.

Sometimes folks fish off the beach with a kontiki — a motorised thing that takes hooks and lines up to 4 Km. Today a fellow had rods and reels set up on the beach and used a drone to take the hooks out to sea. He was fishing for gurnard, trevally or snapper. Drone at top left.

Fisher with drone and shore based rod and line.

This is an amazing thing. Not sure I’d be brave enough to do this ‘walk’ in Fife, in the south-east of Scotland: The Elie Chainwalk is safe, as long as you follow the signs. 3.5 minute video.

Screenshot of man holding onto a large chain while he clambers up over the edge of a cliff.

The Carrot & Coriander Soup I made tonight was delicious and really easy and quick. Next time I may try adding just a hint of ginger. Forgot a photo, unfortunately.

Sometimes Sasha likes to rearrange the rugs and towels in her crate. 🐶 Today things went a bit awry… until I finally gave her a hand to sort it out.

Dog tangled up in a towel.
Dog emerges victorious!