The archaeological research (PDF) I was looking at the other day reveals that around 150 years ago:
The 1887 electoral roll lists 69 voters in the Ruakākā area, 36 of whom were gum diggers. Gumdigging was one of the principal late nineteenth century and early twentieth century occupations in the area. The activity was focussed inland on areas between Marsden Point, One Tree Point and Ruakākā, a landscape of swamp and old consolidated sand dunes where great kauri forests had once grown.
Research ahead of big projects adds to the store of our local knowledge
One of the great things about Meridian building a huge solar farm very close to our new house in Ruakākā is that first all kinds of investigations take place.
That's how I came to know that all the birds listed below have been observed within a radius of about 5 Km of our house. 🐦
As well as matuku, a number of other Threatened and At-Risk species of birds have been recorded within the Proposal site, namely, spotless crake/pūweto, dabchick/weweia, brown teal/pateke, banded rail/moho pereru, pied shag/karuhiruhi, little shag/kawaupaka, little black shag/kawau tui and pipit/pihoihoi as well as South Island pied oystercatcher/torea and Northern New Zealand dotterel/tuturiwhatu.
The white dot on the map below showing where various birds were spotted is 2 Km in a straight line from our house.
I'm specially excited that Bitterns | Matuku are in the area.
I also love the special engineering provision to help prevent cars and bittern colliding as the birds fly to a nearby location:
A 2.0 m earth bund and vegetation planted on top will ensure birds flying directly from the wetland will have sufficient height to avoid the road corridor as they will need to gain elevation to pass over the vegetated bund.
First visit to Wellington in a while and everything's so quiet — almost certainly related to this awful government hacking back civil servants, services, everything really.
I'm waiting in the Library for Deb to finish a dental procedure next door. How can anyone concentrate in these environments?
How many people can be the parents of one child?
This is interesting (my emphasis) — Polyamorous throuple fight to keep their names on children’s birth certificates - NZ Herald:
A polyamorous throuple won the right to put all three of their names on their children’s birth certificates, but have been pulled back to court after the Attorney-General appealed the decision.
… the appeal wasn’t because of the family’s sexual orientation, but simply because it wasn’t possible to have more than two people listed in the system. …
Perkins said there was international consistency used in registering information from Births, Deaths, and Marriages, and allowing this throuple an exemption simply couldn’t work.
Seems to me there are places around the world where families differ significantly from two adults and one or more children. What about places where there are multiple spouses? Surely an internationally consistent system would have to allow for more options.
This was a bit of froth I got for free — Death by the Dunes: A Pelican Shores Cozy Mystery by Bessie Barr. 📚
Nothing ruins a gorgeous coastal sunrise quicker than…a dead body.
Bystander asks a few questions, solves the mystery.
Imagine the nightmare for word-processing software if this hadn't settled down:
Like the Greeks, the Etruscans and Italic-speakers wrote from right to left at first. Later they went through a phase called boustrophedon or ‘ox-turning’, when a line written right to left alternated with one written left to right, until they plumped definitively for left to right.
Source: Proto: A New History of Our Ancient Past, Chapter 5, by Laura Spinney.
I wasn't entirely gripped by Death at Dark (Martha's Vineyard Murders Book 2) by Raemi A. Ray. 📚
a summer squall reveals the wreckage of a legendary pirate ship … Conservationists, treasure hunters and media descend on the exclusive island to lay claim to the ship.
There were interesting ideas about the conflicting needs and desires of fishers, ecologists, salvagers and the people of the island.
One quirk in this series is the author often mentions the sound of feet or shoes on the floor and the verb is always in italics:
The soles of Kyra’s flip-flops slapped the herringbone floorboards.
This was a worthwhile 7.5 minute watch from Minute Food, a useful channel — The secret loophole in food advertising:
There’s a robust system in place to protect US consumers from misleading advertising…but that doesn’t mean you should actually believe what companies say.
Spoiler: puffery.
We went sightseeing today along the newly opened Te Ahu a Turanga | Manawatū Tararua Highway:
The road features a range of mahi toi (cultural art) at lookouts, roundabouts and on bridges that have been designed by the project’s iwi partners.
There is a shared path for pedestrians, cyclists and mobility devices.
It was very impressive, with big terracing work either side of the road and the sweeping arms of the wind farm all around.
The rest areas were full, so I simply grabbed one shot from the car. The shared path was busy too, with walkers, runners and cyclists.
We visited Nanyang Flavours in Shannon which now opens for lunch.
For $15.50 I had an extremely delicious and filling Sweet BBQ 'Char-Siu' Bento:
Roasted chicken marinated in a sweet BBQ 'Char-siu' sauce served with rice, hard-boiled egg and seasonal salad with 'Charsiu' sauce dressing.
LOL, our builder said the painters are working on the inside of our new house and wouldn't let him in because he'd track in dirt and muck. I'm glad they want their work to be best quality. 🏡
Meanwhile, someone from the firm who stays at a nearby house sent me this photo of the windows all screened off. Apparently the painters spray these days rather than brush or roll.
Also, the temporary fence has been taken down.
Why Puanga is the star of this Matariki:
Māori ways of marking time are inherently place-based, whakapapa-based, and deeply rooted in the local knowledge of each hapū.
… we don’t just read the stars – we read the land, the tides, the birds, the trees and the wind. Puanga’s reappearance in the pre-dawn winter sky is just one tohu among many. It signals a time of pause, of remembering those who have passed and of planting seeds – literal and metaphorical – for what comes next.
Hmmm. Colonisation via timekeeping — Why Puanga is the star of this Matariki:
With colonisation came a new system of timekeeping – the Gregorian calendar. In 1868, New Zealand became the first country to have a nationwide time decided by the government for everyone to follow. There were 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year. Laws like the Tohunga Suppression Act 1907 aimed to repress mātauranga Māori in favour of western knowledge, leading to the loss of many traditional practices.
I guess the fact that this was book 22 in the series shows that I enjoy this author's work. Murder Under the Sun (DI Hillary Greene Book 22) by Faith Martin was enjoyable as always. 📚
Fifteen years ago, Imelda Phelps was battered to death in the hallway of her home. The brutal crime shocked the residents of the pretty market town of Chipping Norton. The killer was never caught.
This random find has been a very relaxing 3.5 hours accompaniment this morning — Black Cats Sax & Deep Bass Show (music only, no video).
No rules, no rush—just a natural flow of music that feels effortless and deeply soothing.
This playlist captures the spirit of a free and easy lo-fi jazz session, imagined through the quiet charm of black cats.
Sunrise this morning was OK.
There was a decent frost this morning. Looking south, towards the paddock with the neighbour's gorgeous horses it wasn't so evident.
But looking northeast the frost was a lot more obvious.
Popped in to the supermarket, which was busy with lines at every checkout.
Then I realised it's superannuation day …
Hmm, this is the part of the country we're moving to in a couple of months … The future for Northland weather: Storm alerts are 'the new normal' | RNZ News:
This year has already brought almost every possible weather extreme to Northland, with record rain hot on the heels of a drought, a cyclone and even a tornado. Are Northlanders experiencing a new normal? Is this a sign of things to come? Or just par for the course in a region that's always had its share of extremes?
My initial reaction was that the businesses that destroyed the habitat should be paying for this — but it turns out that is the case. I'd say the headline's careless / provocative.
DOC spends hundreds of thousands to care for snails after mining destroys home | RNZ News:
Not all of the cost of the species' survival had been shouldered by DOC.
"The majority of the money to keep the captive population going came as part of the permitting permissions for Solid Energy when they were first set up," Aikman said.
"That was part of the agreement - if you remove the habitat, this is what we need to do."
And most of the revegetation work was being undertaken by Bathurst, which now ran the mine.