I always think the 6 p.m. sunset is a bit of a milestone.
Unfortunately that will all change in a couple of weeks when we fiddle with the clocks …
Hooray! Te Puhi Ariki Ngawai Hono i te Po Paki, 27, to succeed her father Kiingi Tuheitia as Māori monarch:
Kiingi Tuheitia's youngest child and only daughter has been announced as the new monarch of the Kiingitanga.
Te Puhi Ariki Ngawai Hono i te Po Paki is the eighth Māori monarch and the second woman. The first woman to hold the position was Kiingi Tuheitia's mother, Te Atairangikaahu, who died in 2006. And at 27, Ngawai Hono i te Po is also the second youngest Māori monarch to be appointed.
For the past week or so I've had scratchy eyes, a bit of an itch on the roof of my mouth. Figuring it was hay fever, I bought eyedrops yesterday that immediately helped.
Now the farmer next door is hard at work cutting down the gorse and lupins in the paddock next to us. That should help a lot too.
Important day today: Kiingi Tuheitia to be laid to rest, new Māori monarch welcomed:
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII died on Friday, aged 69 …
Tainui have been hosting mourners and dignitaries from throughout the motu and further afield … at the tangihanga at Tuurangawaewae Marae.
… at 10am the Tekau-maa-rua (the Kiingitanga advisory council) will usher the new Māori monarch to the throne.
The ceremony will be followed by the funeral service for Kiingi Tuheitia.
First time since midwinter that I've noticed the morning sun finding its way into my west-facing bedroom. Nice!
This morning the river was full after heaps of rain in the hills; the tide was nearly full, with a 2.5 metre swell. When the two met at the river mouth it was all action.
The sea had also carved out half metre high 'fingers' in the sand. For the Pacific Wave Appreciation Society. 🌊
Down at the beach today I thought I saw a piece of fluff blowing in the wind. Then I realised it was actually a Black-fronted Dotterel (16-18 cm; 30-35 grams; orange beak). Then I spotted a Banded Dotterel (20 cm; 60 grams) too. Then I managed to get both in one photo. 🐦
Whoo! 🌋 : Talking about the Taliban: culture versus politics – language: a feminist guide:
So, don’t tell me that as a white western feminist it’s not my place to condemn the Taliban; but also don’t tell me that as a white western feminist I can only condemn the Taliban, and not the male supremacists in my own backyard. It’s perfectly possible—and in the current state of the world, I would say, necessary—to do both.
Faster 110km/h speed limit to accelerate Kāpiti:
A new 110km/h speed limit for the Kāpiti Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS) has been approved to reduce travel times for Kiwis travelling in and out of Wellington
This is such a have. I did the sums. It's approximately 25 Km of road. Travelling at 100 Kph that takes 15 minutes. At 110 Kph it takes about 13.5 minutes.
The On This Day script on my blog today brought this amazing music back to mind. Just loving the listen: Holland Festival: Ensemble Rhoum Bakkali, Orchestre Temsamani, Zainab Afailal & AAO.
Rough weather over the last few days has thrown big driftwood onto the beach. There were also occasional Bluebottles. Not shown: the about 3 metre tentacle on this big one.
I stopped reading Orleans Avenue (Remy Fontaine Thrillers Book 1) by Robin Mahle a couple of weeks ago and left myself this note:
Not a very good book. I'm abandoning it.
No more by this author for me.
It seems people around Special Agent Nikki Hunt keep getting knocked off. Lost Angels (Nikki Hunt Book 3) by Stacy Green. 📚
It all gets a bit personal and her team wonder if she should still be leading the hunt.
Good read.
Nikki is devastated to see the victim is her childhood friend …
One reason I'm awake at 1 a.m.: 28.66 mm rain fell since midnight. For the metric impaired that's 1.13 inches. In one hour …
I didn't warm to A Cotswold Killing (The Cotswold Cozy Mysteries Book 1) by Rebecca Tope. 📚
The village people were weird, the main character not specially endearing, the story a bit flat. Then, early on, there was troublesome behaviour towards an animal, and I can't abide that. Abandoned.
We visited friends in Paekakariki for brunch today. Their dog Gracie, an 8 year old Vizsla, was permanently optimistic that food may fall from the table, however, none did. 🐶
It's been a few months since my last burst of activity on the Lego build, but the Lego Technic Surface Space Loader is now complete. Whew.
I have a friend whose grandkids would probably enjoy pulling this apart and putting it back together, so that'll be its future home.
I'm really enjoying bingeing Rutherford Falls 📺 :
The show uses humor, jokes, and irony to highlight the biases that are present in today's society surrounding Native Americans. … While hard-hitting topics are presented throughout the show an overarching sense of comedy, irony, and light-heartedness is evident from the beginning.
The Wild is a great podcast. In Ben Goldfarb: How America’s roads alter our ecology there's a fascinating part about animal crossings where the speaker points out that wildlife needs more than just some narrow 'bridge', but instead a whole habitat that also blocks road noise and so on. Transcript.