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.
27-Jun-20: daily quake. 〰️ 4.9 near Rotorua, but quite deep. Shook us around slightly. I thought it would have been one of the Levin quakes.
Ive become the fun police and have reported this nearby smoke nuisance to the local Council. This green waste burnoff means I have to keep all doors and windows closed. Its crazy these fires are even allowed. Discouraged but still allowed. Pollution! Nuisance!
I didnt realise how poor this photo was — it makes Sashas eyes look really weird. Anyway, freshly groomed dogs looking fantastic. 🐶 And while they were being groomed I had breakfast at Taper in Levin 👍 and finally wrote the June newsletter for the Ratepayers Association.
It seems this year I need a section called My Daily Earthquake. There are so many quakes this year and so many nearby.
When Fri Jun 26 2020 6:52 AM
Where 10 km east of Upper Hutt
Shaking Light
Magnitude 3.6
Depth 26 km
Sigh, sexist assumptions… :
2,600-year-old Scythian remains … considered to be male because with him were … an axe, a bow, arrows,… But the child’s DNA revealed the remains were actually female … [so perhaps] girls also participated in hunting or military campaigns
I was surprised by how profoundly moving this was, both the views of the ‘audience' and the music itself: Barcelona Opera House Reopens With a Concert for 2,292 Plants
Gran Teatre del Liceu reopened … with … Puccini’s Crisantemi played before a packed house of 2,292 plants.
👍
