Yesterday the stiff southerly was evident in the cabbage tree leaves. Today, now the cloud has cleared away, some peaks of the Tararuas are showing off the first snow of the season. The snow doesn’t get down to us. 😀
“While socks last”.
The Kindle book ‘Lethal Suds (Abigail Kinsman Mysteries Book 1)’ has taught me that every author needs someone to take a look at their book before publishing. Dumb characters, fairly dumb investigation process. Bored now. I ended up returning it and getting my $1 back. 📚
Last week I read The Crossing Places: The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 1. I was ambivalent about it as I read, but really didn’t get on with the ending. I very much disliked the several creepy characters. I won’t be buying more of this series. 📚
Hmmm, Scared to Death was a book I read to the end, but I’m not sure I’ll buy any others in the series. The murder mystery was fine, but some moderately graphic scenes of torture and terror of a young woman from the bad-guy’s point of view, aren’t something I like to read. 📚
Volume down for the annoying wind noise. Southerly sand storm at the beach today. The dogs still had fun. 🐶
I absolutely adore the massive vocabulary of the English language. I love words in general. So sometimes a word in a book trips me up. Twice an author referred to ‘clouds scuttling’ across the sky. Took a bit of effort to dredge from my brain: scudding is the word she wanted.
Well the good thing about having to get up to let Sasha out at 1 am is that I was able to load more wood into the wood burner. With a freezing southerly storm outside it’s good to be toasty.
I need to be careful what I read in the hours before bed. Scared to Death (Detective Kay Hunter murder mystery series Book 1) is a thriller with too many (for my taste) overly detailed descriptions of terror and torture of a young woman. I found a nice Cozy for night reading. 📚
Today I learned that Quiet parks are a thing.
Wilderness Quiet Parks are large pristine areas offering exceptional sonic beauty and opportunities for extended periods of pure natural quiet.
As with Dark Skies, I’m in favour of Quiet Places.
I watched the first 40 minutes (the lecture) of this. Its fascinating stuff: Kelly Wright: Raciolinguistic profiling: Passing for American means speaking without an accent. Sounding ‘non-standard’ has real consequences.
5 years ago this basic Westinghouse Saturn electric oven with spiral elements was brand new. Today we’ve replaced it with a Belling dual oven with induction hob — the same oven we used to have in Wellington. My partner, who enjoys cooking, is thrilled.
Today I spent an hour watching the front yard as my part in the Aotearoa New Zealand Garden Bird Survey. Something happens each year when I do this — all the birds go somewhere else for a nap or something. I hardly saw any birds today. 😒
Cold southerly at the beach this morning. For once I took my camera. Photo of Kuaka (Godwits), which usually return to the Arctic for our winter, but these stayed. Oshi and Sasha also enjoyed their outing.
🐦 🐶
This Micro Monday I suggest @jennifermjones , a local reporter who lives with her dog in the deepest darkest Southwest of Scotland and has a dailyish podcast.
[Posted again as I messed up the post yesterday and cant edit.]
We Dig Dinosaurs was great. Host Emily Graslie does a fabulous job and has so much fun.
Cretaceous … T. rex dominated the planet … what happened to these tremendous animals? … how did other life forms survive an apocalyptic asteroid crash into Earth 66 million years ago?
I knew mid-book in Lies to Tell: An utterly gripping Scottish crime thriller (Detective Clare Mackay Book 3) by Marion Todd who the bad guy was. I was so wrong!! Good book, enjoyable series. Love the Scottish setting. 📚
Clare realises too late she has trusted the wrong person.
Turns out Aotearoa New Zealand is just the tippy tops of the lost continent of Zealandia:
only 6% of the continent is above sea level. That part underpins New Zealand’s north and south islands… The rest is underwater
Map: A map of Zealandia, outlined in grey.
We abandoned Ad Astra half way through and switched to Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga which was way more fun. 🎬
Singing, dancing, Iceland, it had a lot going for it.
Our broadband died this morning. After 40 minutes on the phone to a very pleasant person in India Ive been given 100GB free data to hotspot from my phone until the issue is fixed. New modem on its way to replace the 5-year-old model. Indias in lockdown so there are some delays.
