At sunrise today there was a nice little inversion layer over the paddock next door. Photo: 2 black and white steers grazing in a misty paddock with flax spears in the foreground.
One of the delights of Te Reo Māori is that it doesn’t have to suffer apostrophes. But what I was really going to say was “Good on you Ōtaki for these bilingual road works signs”.
This morning’s beach theme: black-backed gulls and an oystercatcher on the wet sand with Kāpiti Island in the background.
I really enjoyed Elseworlds parts 1 & 2 under the show names of Flash and Arrow. But part 3, under the name of Supergirl, was all about the boys, extra boys even. Supergirl barely even had a role. Pretty darn perturbing!
These starlings, I think, have given themselves orange heads by dipping into the flax flowers. Photos: starlings on flowering flax spears; flowering flax spears against a green paddock and blue sky background.
And again it’s thundery weather. These are my favourite clouds today.
One of the best parts of this story about a homeless man in hospital in Brazil:
The pups were eager, but also patient — settling at the doorway to wait for their friend.
While the staff got César squared away … they … invited his dogs inside as to not keep them apart.
There’s thunder in the air. Photo: low and dark clouds.
The farmer next door is baling hay a couple of paddocks over. Hooray for a zoom lens. Photos: tractor and baling machine collecting hay, wrapping it into big round bales, putting the bales on end on the ground.
Jean @macgenie was kind enough to send me a copy of The Sun. By the looks of these amazing night sky photos by Marc Toso there’s some good summer reading awaiting me.
Dogs are great! Pets are being trained to detect invasive fish: “The dogs sniffed 17-samples …holding their nose by the sample … for long enough they received a treat. If they did not detect koi carp they nudged a little lever which brought around the next sample.” Video too.
On this morning’s beach walk we saw (photos) two horses, and a fishing boat. The sea was very calm.
Bush Giant Dragonflies often come into the house at this time of year and generally can’t find their way out again. I rescued this one (2 photos) today (finger for size). It’s about 80mm long.
In summer the dogs and I head to the beach early. It’s too hot for them by 8 am on a sunny day. Today we saw (photos) one person (a regular) swimming, and a small group with quad bike and trailer using a Kontiki for fishing. The dogs waited patiently while I took photos.
Sounds mysterious
Aha, I knew it!
Well, I didn't or I wouldn't have had to look it up. What I did know was that the speaker's accent had vowels that sounded very 'pure' English, but a 'softness' that sounded Kiwi. Ella Morton is a New Zealand-born, Australian-raised, Brooklyn-based writer
.
That doesn't account for the 'pure' vowels, but I was satisfied about the Kiwi connection.
All my life I've had a fascination with words, with language, the sounds of words and languages. As I listen to podcasts and the like I sometimes hear an 'odd' pronunciation or stress or inflection. It stops me paying attention to the next part as I savour the sound, roll it around in my mind, try hearing the word that way and this way and my way, comparing, contrasting, assessing.
And always, always, I'm amazed at the infinite variety in the ways we humans express ourselves with language, the myriad distinct ways of pronouncing the 'same' sound, or the difficulty of certain sounds made adjacent, or at the start of a word rather than the middle or end.
Today I heard someone pronounce the word athlete
as ath-e-lete. I guess the 'thl' combination is tricky for them. In English I have no trouble pronouncing the 'ng' in the middle of the word 'singer'. Put it at the start of a Māori word such as ngā
though and I stumble.
The sounds of language are endlessly interesting!
The 200 funniest words in English: That sounds funny — the science behind why certain words make us laugh. Not a family-friendly list. The surprise item: “how’d”. Apparently we do complex maths while reading / listening and that’s the basis for if something’s funny.
Driving past the lake this morning I caught a quick glimpse of a baby pūkeko: a tiny ball of fluff on legs. No photo, I’m afraid, but here are 2 adult pūkeko in that same spot from last year.
What a great story, and with a surprising New Zealand connection: The Hopeful Story of a Doomed Fox, a 7 minute video from NPR’s Skunk Bear. The Island Fox in the US Channel Islands off the California coast was brought back from the brink of extinction.
I had an hour today with Karen, a Clinical Massage Practitioner. It turns out all the time I’ve spent using a weedeater recently (darn this warm wet ‘growing’ weather) has really taken a toll on me. She unlocked a bunch of muscles in my back, neck and arm.
$95 worth of high-quality beef mince, stir-fry and steak from my favourite Green Meadows Beef. A pleasing gift was the unexpected free pack of venison sausages.
