Whew. Second day in a row where I’ve been sitting in the midday sun listening to a podcast and woken up when it finished. 💤💤💤
The diggers next door have moved to behind our house. They’re now ~140 metres away. Our house shakes several times an hour while they work. Maybe that’s because of the 6 metre piles that support our house? I don’t notice it as much sitting as when I was in bed, thank goodness.
Well, that woke me up!
Light earthquake occurred 15 km north-west of Levin: www.geonet.org.nz/earthquak…
I found a trailer that would actually play. Looks great! Star Trek: Picard - Official Teaser. Not long to wait. 🖖🏼
The Te Waiohua people, who gave Auckland its original name of Tāmaki Makaurau, settled there about 1100 AD. Moa still roamed scrublands and Rangitoto hadn’t erupted to dominate Auckland Harbour. The area … contains New Zealand’s oldest stone-walled field systems, windbreaks, heat-conservation areas for tropical crops, burial caves, and the foundations of whare.
Ihumātao eviction: Planned Auckland development reignites anger of the land wars
Today there were 2 black swans and only 4 cygnets. One has disappeared. 😒
It’s been a very weird day. My partner was shocked to learn she has an older half-brother who just ‘found’ her. And also that some family members died a few years back. Families can be very complicated, eh.
Our bathroom is tiny. When the house was built 5 years ago they used the wrong kind of paint and now there are water streaks from condensation, and a few flaking parts. Yesterday the painter started repainting with acrylic, which stinks. Here’s the ‘before’, ready to be painted.
Who knew Kiwis had so many guns?! Obviously, quite a few have more than 1.
Police said 2143 people handed in 3275 firearms, and 7827 parts and accessories since the first collection event in Christchurch a week ago.
Pleased to see so many being handed in.
My cat Ares is 17.5 now and fading. He’s lost some or all of his sight or gone a bit doolally recently, losing his way and bumping into things. He’s lost weight and a challenge is to get him to eat. He only licks at wet food. Today’s supermarket selection aims to tempt him. 🐈
We thought one of ‘our’ black swans from the lake had been killed — a neighbour saw a dead swan on the beach and one of ‘our’ pair was missing. I now suspect she was just being a diligent mum. Today we have a pair of adults and 5 little grey cygnets.
In March 2017 we bought a plastic tunnel house. It’s about 8 square metres and is working well for us. Now in mid-winter we’re starting to think about what to plant this coming year. My first job though was to clean the plastic. Half way through and you can see the difference!
Ugh:
the size of the global dairy herd hasn’t changed much over the years. But every year for the past 15 years 21,803 dairy farmers close down. … roughly 50 dairy farmers with 50 cows each are being replaced by 1 farm with 2500 cows.
I thought I spotted a dog emerging from the dunes. But No! It was the first seal pup of the season. I scrambled to leash the dogs and get the camera out, but the pup took its time. I hadn't known they went all the way up to the dunes.
NZ had to wait a bit longer … to see the moon landing in 1969.
We didn’t have a direct satellite link … so a pilot from the RNZAF flew to Sydney… picked up the tapes and then NZers were able to see the footage about 4.5 hours later.
The Waikawa Beach Ratepayers Association website runs on self-hosted WordPress. Folks can sign up to receive new posts by email. The trouble is, I’m gradually adding historical info such as Minutes of meetings in 1974. To selectively stop emails I finally found instructions.
Usually the Eastern Rosellas turn up and then fly away before I can get to my camera. Today I got lucky.
a brightly coloured, broad-tailed parakeet native to south-eastern Australia. It was introduced to New Zealand in the early 1900s.
Length: 30 cm. Weight: 90 - 120 g
Go on: give us a treat. Pleeeease. 🐶
Ares is being a good boy too. 🐈
Watched the 2.25 hour Luc Besson movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The plot was a bit thin, the creativity, visuals and special effects pretty good. Besson also did the marvellous The Fifth Element. There were distinct resemblances in creativity.
The annual eye check, and cataracts
Today at my annual optometrist visit I learned several things:
- My eyes are very healthy.
- My prescription has fluctuated slightly again, but not enough to need new lenses in my glasses, thank goodness.
- There are different kinds of cataract. Some make glare worse.
- A cataract is just a clouding of the lens of the eye, rather than a 'thing' in itself.
- The cataract in my left eye is slightly worse than last year.
- The cataract in my right eye is so slight it's not even on the scale.
- In New Zealand you can't even get on the waiting list in the public health system for a cataract operation until it affects your ability to drive. The waiting list is long.
The lens [of the eye] is mostly made of water and protein. The protein is arranged in a precise way that keeps the lens clear and lets light pass through it.
But as we age, some of the protein may clump together and start to cloud a small area of the lens. This is a cataract, and over time, it may grow larger and cloud more of the lens, making it harder to see.
I find driving at night to be not my favourite thing already. Oncoming headlights and bright streetlights are hard for me. If it's raining, everything's super glary and I really try to avoid driving then.
UV radiation is a possible contributing factor for cataracts and New Zealand is notorious for its high levels of UV light in summer. Good sunglasses can help.