Well, at almost 11pm I’m finding it hard to believe that 2019 is about to begin. Best wishes for this new year about to launch. May we all find peace and fulfillment.
These baby quail, born 5 days ago now, remain unbearably cute. Photos: yellow chick peeking out from under mum’s wing; yellow chick makes a blade of grass look huge; watchful mum with stripy chick head-down in front of her; stripy chick head-down eating.
We went to see The Favourite recently and the film has stayed with me. It’s intense, unusual, and features Queen Anne and her two courtiers Sarah and Abigail who vie for the Queen’s attentions and the power that comes with that. All rather bizarre, but amazing acting.
Women and rebels honoured
Look what happens when you get a government that is actually working for people, rather than the rich and business: a New Year's Honours List evenly split between women and men and covering a huge swathe of social concerns.
There are scientists in there, folks who've served their communities, people who've worked for Māori, for children, for film, for women, health, fashion, people with disabilities, art, publishing, wildlife …
When I was much younger and New Zealand was much more rigid than it is today, it was against the law to say the word bullshit
in public. Famously, Tim Shadbolt, who went on to write a book called Bullshit and Jellybeans
was arrested. Now look what he's up to:
Sir Tim Shadbolt has completed his journey to respectability, from activist to a knight of the realm.
Once best known as an anti-Vietnam war protester who was arrested 33 times, including once for using the word "bullshit", Sir Tim has gone on to become the country's longest serving mayor. …
Sir Tim said the honour was a reflection of the Queen taking a more inclusive view of the sort of people who should be recognised in society.
Source: New Year Honours list revealed | RNZ News.
I like the little note about the monarchy trying to be more inclusive …
Whew. It took nearly 24 hours but I’ve finally modified the Comment form on our Community WordPress website to: remove URL field, improve some wording, add a required radio button for where the commenter usually lives. So blimmin hard!
Thank you Inoreader and BBEdit! After searching all over for a way to capture items from a single RSS feed (Word of the Day in Māori) and save them, I found I could show Read items, select all, copy and paste to BBEdit where cleanup was trivial. About 250 items saved.
Little Flop, in her third day, finds straw a bit of a challenge. Photo: yellow quail chick in straw. 🐦
Little Fliss, in her third day, is so photogenic. Photo: stripy baby Japanese quail. 🐦
A few hours later: Mother quail, Felicia, and babies Fliss and Flop are doing fine.
Birds can change sex
Sex Reversal in Chickens Kept in Small and Backyard Flocks - eXtension tells us (of chickens):
How does spontaneous sex reversal occur? Typically, a female chicken has only one functional ovary, the left one. The right ovary and oviduct are present in the embryonic stages of all birds but usually do not develop … Most cases of spontaneous sex reversal result from a disease condition that damages the left ovary. … Residual tissue in the right ovary develops in the absence of the functional left ovary. This regenerated right gonad is known as an ovotestis … There are reports of hens with ovotestes producing semen, making them capable of fathering offspring.
The MOST exciting thing: we unexpectedly have 2 baby quail! Especially unexpected since the adults are all female (but apparently birds can change sex). They are soooo cute.
Dark mode was so hyped that I switched to it immediately on installing Mojave when it was released. I really really tried to like it but have found much relief in turning it off again. Ahh, nice clean, easy-to-read screen. Screenshot: light mode.
Are you familiar with earth — a visualization of global weather conditions? I visit daily. The screenshot below shows a ‘river’ of rain arcing down to New Zealand from the tropics. This time last year we were in a declared drought. This summer it’s all about rain.
This Micro Monday I’d like to mention @smokey who is thoughtful, generous, interesting, and a pillar of this community.
As a contribution to our shared lunch with friends tomorrow I’ve made Lemon Butter Biscuits and Gingerbread Dinosaurs. Unfortunately Halide, while a fab photo app for iPhone, sometimes loses photos. The butter biscuits photo is before cooking. Dino photo after.
The Levin dog park, next to Lake Horowhenua, is splendid: 50,000 square metres (12 acres), fully fenced, large and small open areas, shaded areas, loads of trees. Free poop bags, lots of bins, drinking water for dogs, seats. Wonderful!
A “hidden figure” in the development of GPS technology has officially been honored …. Mathematician Dr. Gladys West was recognized for doing the computing responsible for creating the Geographical Positioning System, more commonly referred to as the GPS. Via vdebolt.
The pause point
It’s 4.45 am on summer solstice. I have been awake an hour already. Sunrise will come soon, bringing more than 16 hours of daylight.
I sip my tea — a Rare Kenya Silver Tip — and am eating fresh sweet strawberries from the tunnel house.
A nearly full moon is setting behind clouds in the west while the birds start their dawn chorus all around. The constant sea roars gently behind me.
Oshi has come up on the bed. He’s lying quietly by my ankle, occasionally hiccuping, as he sometimes does.
This is a moment of peace as the world reaches its turning point. The year-end holidays have begun, the longest day has arrived, the summer is underway. We will rest now before launching ourselves into a new year.
Nice: 16 hours and 12 minutes of daylight today.
After several fatalities recently, we have new signs between Waikawa Beach Road and Levin on State Highway 1. “Keep left, high crash rate.” The new soft barrier in the median strip along some stretches might help drivers behave too.
