I’m learning a heap of useful info from the free videos from The Cornell Lab Bird Academy. Here’s one example: Inside Birding: Size & Shape.
If you want to learn more about birds this is great stuff! 🐦
I have a huge job ahead of me over the next unknown amount of time. I’ve been very poor at labelling the photos in my Apple Photos.app collection. I’ve now set up a Smart Album, just for last year to start with, and will work away on it a few images at a time. 📷
With temps in the high 20sC we took the for us unusual step of going down to the beach for a “swim”. For me that means jumping over waves. Our beach is so shallow we waded out maybe 30 metres or more and were still only thigh deep. Pretty splendid really.
It was a perfect sunset last night. I found I could even see the Makara Wind Farm (via binoculars) some 100 Km away. In the third photo most of the land on the horizon is the South Island or islands in Cook Strait.
I love that BBEdit can compare documents and I can selectively copy text between windows.
I have a lot to learn about taking photos of shags in trees. Just look at this dork though! 😆 🐦 Try zooming in.
This is for @Cheri. Deb and I both looked at this Facebook Post and couldn’t figure out at first why someone wanted to give away half a bathroom sponge…
[@Miraz](https://micro.blog/Miraz) I enjoy Britishisms, but eating a sponge sounds so bizarre to American ears!
I don’t post my daily selfies, but did on 01 January 2021. So here’s my New Year’s Day 2022 selfie. 😀 On the beach at dawn, waiting for sunrise to see in the new year.
I don’t do reviews, resolutions or plans these days — not sure I ever did really anyway. But this evening the thought popped into my head that I should make sure 2022 includes variety — it’s so easy to end up in a rut. So I guess that’s my word for 2022. Keep changing things up.
Every year a local couple mount a huge display of Christmas Lights on their house. The lights tell a story as Santa and elves move around delivering presents. Now others are putting up displays of lights too, like the tree at the village entrance. It’s fun to visit after dark.
Initial results of my new zoom lens are very pleasing. Two different Oystercatcher chicks at the beach. 🐦
I hadn’t realised just how ginormous my new zoom lens is compared to the old. Camera: Fuji X-T2. Old lens: Fujifilm XC 50–230mm f4.5–6.7 OIS II. New lens: Fujifilm XF 100–400mm F4.5–5.6 R LM OIS WR. The price is also suitably ginormous. Excited to start taking photos of birds. 📷
Trip to Wellington today. Photo of the Wellington waterfront on a nice summer’s day from a 9th floor apartment on Oriental Bay.
Haere rā, e hoa. RIP, Alana.
Hmmm, this book didn’t quite gel with me: Nookie (Alex Dixon Humorous Mysteries Book 1) by Katrina Kyle. 📚
Alex Dixon has problems. She’s unemployed, unattached, and may or may not be in hot water with her former employer, the US Navy.
But her friend has bigger problems…
For a while now I’ve been eying up the Fujifilm XF 100–400mm F4.5–5.6 lens to attach to my Fuji X-T2 camera. I was planning on buying when we sell a rental property in a few months. Today though I gave way — all the birds I want to photograph are around now. 📷 Ordered.
Out of nowhere the other day, I wondered what a Mint Julep tasted like. I don’t drink alcohol so made a Virgin Mint Julep. It was easy and delicious, but has so much sugar. If I ever make it again I’ll cut the sugar way down.
The other day on a whim I bought a couple of mini loaf tins. Today I baked White Bread Mini Yeast Loaf. I brushed on egg white to make a shiny crust. This bread was easy and delicious!
Today I noticed the Australian coots on our nearby little lake have babies. 🐦 When I arrived with my camera they hurried off, but a couple of shots worked. That white frontal shield is a giveaway.
A very useful read: 😀
Baking and baked goods are a perennial source of US/UK miscommunication—in large part because most of our current baking/eating habits were only invented after the split between American and British English.