Oh, time to start paying attention to Apple Pay, as it is now available with Westpac in New Zealand. Will I be able to use it in small-town New Zealand though?
In 2.5 hours in Levin waiting for my car’s new windscreen to be installed I: had a flu shot, visited my dental hygienist, and discovered that to use the free WiFi at Te Takeretanga o Kura-hau-pō (the Library) a Mac user needs Firefox to be able to get online.
Our dog Sasha loves to chase a ball. This cool early morning on the beach she had a heap of energy. Her eyesight’s poor so I have to be sure she’s looking the right way then almost roll the ball so she can see and follow it. She was having a great time! No actual fetching…
Our barking dog got me outside at 0524, just in time to see a sliver of moon rise below Venus over the Tararuas into a clear sky filled with stars. The Milky Way was bright, splitting by Scorpius, where Jupiter also hung out. Thank you, barking dog.
This year I’m learning Te Reo Māori by distance from Te Wananga o Raukawa. I’m really enjoying hearing and reading fairy tales. So far: Kōuraraka, Hinarata and Ngā Poaka E Toru (Goldilocks, Cinderella, the 3 Pigs).
Ka hawhe! Ka pawhe! Ka pūhia tō whare!
Christchurch mosque attacks: Some Muslim women are still too scared to wear a hijab in public and school children fearing for their mothers' safety are needing counselling, says migrant women’s organisation Shakti.
Clair, 60, says the streets are her home. She eats at a bus stop, wanders the CBD, and sleeps on the ground by the railway line … She says NZ’s homeless women work hard to remain unseen because they feel vulnerable to being sexually assaulted, beaten, and intimidated.
Why Women’s Voices Are Getting Deeper
This video dives into why women’s voices are getting deeper, a phenomenon that spans research in 1950s Australia to the 2012 Election in the U.S.
A bit of gardening — hard yakka
A bit of our property beside our lane has always been a struggle. The rabbits dig numerous holes, it’s steep (75° according to my iPhone level) and uneven. I can’t use the mower on it and using the weedeater is very hard work.
Over the last while I laid down mulch, then realised I should do a better job so I laid down cardboard on top of the thin layer of mulch, then added a thick layer of mulch on top. Old tires form the edges. That was exhausting.
Also exhausting was planting 9 plants: Leptospermum Mahinepua, Leptospermum Nanum Kea, and Coprosma rugosa Lobster. The coprosma are in the back row. The leptospermum are a kind of mānuka.
To plant each one I dug through the mulch and cardboard then made as big a hole as I could. I added a fertiliser tablet, potting mix (our place is all sand) and filled the hole with water. Then the plant went in, the hole was filled and the mulch put back.
It’s only about 8 square metres but the slope made it perhaps the hardest gardening job I’ve done at our place.
We’re due some 35mm rain tomorrow. I only hope the wet mulch doesn’t just all slide down the bank!
A fan of space opera? I’m buying The 2019 Space Opera Bundle, curated by Dean Wesley Smith: “Space, the final frontier.”. I love the work of Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith, and the other stories sound great too.
This little Chaffinch came and sat on the flax. Photos through a window.
Chaffinches are the commonest and most widespread of New Zealand’s introduced finches, and are found in a wide range of habitats from sea-level to 1400 m.
Every Kiwi over the age of 35 well knows this feelgood #1 track from 1984: Poi E - Patea Maori Club. Watch it for the haircuts, the break dancing, the Māori performers.
the song was a way to encourage young Māori to be proud of being Māori … young Māori loved the song.
Not airforce and not an Orion
We live not very far from an Air Base so seeing military craft flying low is pretty common. The other day I spotted one I hadn’t seen before. Its RNZAF markings, and my poor visual discrimination, led me to misidentify it as an Orion. Thanks to @yorrike though I learned it was in fact a commercial Douglas DC3 and nothing to do with the airforce, in spite of its misleading markings: DC3 New Zealand Air Tour.
It beats me how it can get away with being marked as an airforce plane when in fact it isn’t.
Interesting read: Personal blogs: the elements of structure
And, indeed, the weed-spraying has already started next door. I’m a little surprised they spray even with cows in the same paddock. They’re spraying meturon, organosilicone and congest. One targets gorse, the other lupins.
I’d say this is the helicopter that is going to spray gorse and lupins in the paddock next door to us soon. The pilot gave me a cheery wave as they passed.
Darn it! Last night as friends and I drove to Levin for dinner a truck passed going the other way. Next moment a loud thump left this chip in my car’s windscreen. I’ll need to get it assessed. Luckily our insurance will replace glass free. Inconvenient though.
Recently this plane flew low on its way south. Royal NZ Air Force Z3546.
Update: it’s a DC3. More info to come.
My research leads to: Lockheed P-3K2 Orion.
surveillance & reconnaissance of NZ’s areas of economic interest … (including search & rescue, humanitarian relief & support of natural disasters).
Crikey! I’m often overwhelmed with 1 acre and no cows. Chatted with our neighbour: he looks after 800 acres, 350 milking cows, a bunch of other stock, and it’s just him! Good news is he’ll be doing weed control by us soon. Too much gorse and lupin!
Some mornings, when you live next to a beef and dairy farm, you wake up to find two young steers tromping around in your yard.
