Tonga is tiny islands in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean. It’s no surprise that a huge volcanic eruption on the doorstep of the capital cut off communications with the world. Internet is via a now-broken undersea cable. Satellite comms are impossible through the ash cloud.
Many thanks to Batch Resize Images Quickly in the OS X Terminal for giving me a quick and perfectly adequate way to make thumbnails for a web page from 32 photos:
sips -Z 256 *.jpg
Destructive! Work on copies.
Waikawa Beach For Sale: 75 Strathnaver Drive; Offers over $849,000; 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 95m2 floor area, 8794m2 land area, 2 garages.
I haven’t spotted any Pukeko at the lakes recently so was glad to see a couple at sunrise today. 🐦
Fiji to Tonga is 800 Km! Turn up the volume and watch this video clip of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano eruption as heard in Fiji. Must have been deafening in Tonga.
It seems the Hunga eruption in Tonga was a one-in–1000-year event:
Radiocarbon dating suggested one major eruption of this scale occurred about AD1100 and another in AD200
And we heard it here at Waikawa Beach, 2,500 Km away. 🌋
I very much enjoyed the Swedish book Still Waters (Sandhamn Murders Book 1) by Viveca Sten (Author), Marlaine Delargy (Translator) 📚
On a hot July morning on Sweden’s idyllic vacation island of Sandhamn, a man takes his dog for a walk and makes a gruesome discovery
Watch these videos at Stunning satellite animations of extremely powerful volcanic eruption in Tonga. That’s amazing stuff. Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano.
Lots of aroha for our neighbours and friends in Tonga!
What’s that repeated thumping / booming we asked one another as we ate dinner outside. It sounded like maybe the army shelling nearby. The answer apparently is: shockwaves from the enormous volcanic eruption in Tonga about 2,500 Km away! Astonishing! 🌋
Kee-yah!
On our Swan Plants some Monarch caterpillars are thriving. Meanwhile, the gory scene in the second photo shows a Paper Wasp devouring a young caterpillar.
This proved very handy today when I had 32 photos to deal with: Create a Contact Sheet of Thumbnails with Automator in Mac OS X. Slightly outdated, but still extremely helpful.
How lucky was I to get this shot of a Greenfinch on a moving flax spear! The flax spear was waving around all over the place, yet on this one shot the bird’s clear and in focus, even with a glint in its eye. All other shots deleted for being utterly blurry.
I know others have felt unwell for a day after their Covid booster. I’m not quite up to par after yesterday’s jab, but it’s mainly just a bit of a headache and needing some extra naps. That could be equally attributable to not having slept at all well for a couple of nights.
Murder mystery with a huge helping of travel writing: Destination: Maui (Destination Murder Mysteries Book 1) by Ann Shepphird. 📚
I liked it well enough but I think on balance I prefer more investigation and less travel writing… Maybe a different destination would work for me?
I borrowed on paper from the Library Backyard Bird Photography: How to Attract Birds to Your Home and Create Beautiful Photographs, 2014, by Mathew Tekulsky 🐦
Not so much a “How-To” as a “How I did”. Disappointing and I was also concerned cameras have advanced a lot since then.
Wow, this 28 minute film is entrancing: Hargila 🐦 :
Through the efforts of a remarkable conservation leader, Dr. Purnima Devi Barman … the [endangered Greater Adjutant storks] are now protected, celebrated, and increasing their numbers locally.
Gorgeous photography.
As all us ‘rich’ folks get Covid jabs 1, 2 and 3,
The World Health Organisation now says that Africa (the entire continent of 1.3 billion people) won’t reach its target of vaccinating 70% of its population until late 2024.
Source: The Key Covid–19 Questions For 2022 | Newsroom.
And:
A handful of wealthy European countries are blocking a proposal at the World Trade Organisation to loosen patent rules for coronavirus vaccines, which would allow the doses to be manufactured more widely.
And:
One thing is certain: The pandemic won’t end for New Zealand [the world!] until it ends for everyone. As long as the developing world can’t access vaccines, we’ll always live under the threat of new variants blasting holes in our own vaccine-acquired immunity.
Covid boosted. 💉
If you enjoy reading mystery stories by excellent authors then you may be interested in Make 100 Mystery Stories: Crimes Collide:
100 Mystery Short Stories by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith in Five Volumes
The Kickstarter has already passed its target so rewards are guaranteed.
