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.
Up, up, down, down. 🐦 Canada Geese, on the wing.
These ring-necked pheasants are very common round here. They’re splendid birds, but also kind of incredible. That eye belongs in a cartoon. 🐦
My new favourite — Shedunnit:
a storytelling podcast that unravels the mysteries behind classic detective stories.
I’ve listened to 3 episodes so far and it’s just so good! If, like me, you enjoy reading mysteries, or perhaps if you write them, give this show a try.
We see Kingfishers around here quite often — usually in the garden. I didn’t really expect to see this little one on the beach yesterday. 🐦 Kōtare, Sacred kingfisher
I spent an age today making a Big List of Waikawa Beach Birds. Counting only live birds, not those washed up on the beach, there are over 50! 🐦
These Rock pigeons, although common everywhere, are actually not that easy to find at Waikawa Beach. 🐦 I first spotted them a few months ago, but it was only yesterday things came together for a quick photo of one. It flew away immediately. 😒
This spammer failed to trick the detection engines by using these intriguing font forms. However, I do like the overall look. Must have been a big job to create.
These two annoyingly distant Spur-winged Plovers were at the beach this morning. I’ve been wanting to get photos of them, but am a bit disappointed with the results. 🐦
