Oshi and his duck have been together since we first brought him home. The duck’s a bit the worse for wear. It’s been buried and dug up again a few times, hidden under cushions and carried round protectively. It’s still hanging in there though. 🐶 Substitutes not accepted.
Growing Waikawa Beach
In the earliest times of course, the dunes of Waikawa Beach were covered with native plants. They were perfectly adapted for the climate and conditions: fierce westerlies, stormy tides, cold and hot, wet and dry.
Then came people who cleared the land. They planted marram to hold the sand long enough to put in exotic forests. But the marram thrives at the expense of native species such as pīngao and spinifex. Marram doesn’t much like salt water and creates steep rather than extensive dunes. Native plants make lower dunes that also reach closer to the sea.
Most years the Horowhenua District Council invest about $5,000 into Waikawa Beach, buying spinifex and pīngao — around 3,500 plants. Locals (and some generous off-duty Council workers) gather together and plant out areas of the dunes. It’s a great community activity — an opportunity to work together to create something of enormous value. After all, we’re enhancing, even enlarging our land area, protecting it from erosion and helping to shelter the community from wind-blown sand.
The other benefit is that because the labour is free, the Council can buy more plants.
And so, a year to the day from the previous planting, a dozen or so folks gathered at the end of September with spades and goodwill to plant out 500 pīngao and about 3,000 spinifex. The turnout was lower than in 2019 2018 but spirits were high. Dig in a spade, wiggle it around to make a hole, then insert the plant — good and deep so the roots get into the cooler, damper sand — then tuck the plant in firmly. Next!
We didn’t get all the plants in the ground that day, but over the following week various people planted out more, and then on the first Sunday in October another dozen or more willing volunteers gathered for a final push. Within the hour the remaining 500 or so plants were tucked into place.
Interesting was that during the week several trays had been covered by windblown sand a good couple of centimetres thick. There can be much more sand blowing about than you realise.
Thanks to the Horowhenua District Council, the Council staff who helped out on their own time, and the volunteers from the community. Waikawa Beach is growing — in the best way.
Originally published in Ōtaki Today, October 2019, page 22.
It’s always good to get an all-clear after a mammogram.
Humans left Africa a very long time ago … and ended up in New Zealand, the last place on earth to be inhabited. From Africa To Aotearoa Our Story — 25 minute video.
A colonial view has Māori accidentally sailing to New Zealand about 800 years ago, when there is evidence to show they were expert navigators and sailors who knew exactly what they were doing. The man hijacking the Cook commemorations to tell the story of Polynesian exploration
It’s too early in the season really, and we haven’t yet had steady warm sunny days. Today though I picked strawberries, carrots, silver beet, quail eggs, celery. I’ve eaten the strawberries, saved the eggs, and the rest are cooking as part of dinner.
Woohoo.
The tunnelhouse is coming along slowly. Today we set up an automated watering system for 4 pots: tomatoes, broccoli and zucchini. We have far too many strawberry plants 😀 The AutoPot system doesn’t use soil, but instead a growing medium with nutrients in the water.
As usual with all the books in the Take Control series, Take Control of Apple Mail was well worth reading. I haven’t used Apple Mail before and discovered several very nice features. Examples: inserting an iPhone photo into a message on Mac, and MailDrop for large attachments.
Turns out I maligned Apple Mail for something I did. At some point I set up a Keyboard command to use ⌘V for “Paste and Match Style”. That prevented me from pasting or using TextExpander in header fields when composing a new message in Mail. 😊 I could Paste from the Edit menu.
Read: There’s a Depressing Difference Between The Sewage of Wealthy Areas And Poorer Ones
chemicals in wastewater reflect the social, demographic, and economic properties of the respective populations
Chocolate is an important feature of my daily life. I know I’m unwell (just a cold, but urgh) when I don’t even want to eat any. 🍫
I’m experimenting with Catalina. I’m trying out via voice control.😺 with a bit of practice this could be quite easy.
The neighbours got their macrocarpa tree (I think) hedge trimmed today.
In New Zealand ’Women aged between 45 and 69 years can get a free mammogram every 2 years’. Mine came around today. It’s odd stripping off shirt etc and then having your breasts placed carefully between plates that squish for a few seconds. I’m not complaining though…
Before the Kindle
Heh, back in December 2005 I wrote this blog post (lightly edited):
Here's a quick list of items I need to sell. It all works.
- Panasonic TV: TC-21PM50Z
- Panasonic DVD and CD player: DVD-S35
- Panasonic VCR: NV-HD630
- iPod: 3rd generation, 30Gb. Includes whatever came in the box with it.
- Belkin Media Reader for iPod
- Laser printer: Apple LaserWriter 16/600 — ethernet and postscript
- Videos: Babylon 5 TV series: full set of all 5 seasons
- Handspring Visor: Edge, blue
- Handspring Visor: Deluxe
I started my small-screen reading on the Visor Edge. It displayed a dozen words per page, but even back then I didn't want to read books on paper any more.
I have a clear memory of being in American Samoa for the weekend in around 2001 — I was working in (Western) Samoa for a week or so at the time. I was reading a book on the Edge at night in my hotel room.
Just look at the stuff on that list: old-style TV, DVD, VHS. We haven't had a TV in the house for well more than a decade; I haven't had a printer for a decade or more either. I upgraded from iPod to iPhone and iPad. How my life has moved on.
There are a few Barbary doves, aka ring-necked doves, in this area. I’m pleased there are some near us. This little one was outside our property today.
The Barbary dove is … a native of the Sahel, Ethiopia and the Arabian Peninsula.
… its confiding and gentle nature
I like this use of emoji to show the weather forecast.
