I'm a little mixed about the lesbian love story Beowulf for Cretins: A Love Story by Ann McMan. 📚
A burned-out English professor toiling away at a small college in Vermont’s Champlain Islands finds love and ensuing complications that very well may spoil her last shot at tenure and happiness.
With a cast of brilliant academics and a university as the setting the book wandered off into highfalutin topics and verbal exchanges that were too stratospheric for my simple tastes.
It was a decent story though.
People pay thousands to go to a Pacific Island for a holiday but here we are living just down the road from a cafe with tables outside and a view across the marina to Mt Manaia. Bliss.
Drove with our friend J to brunch at the Anchorage Cafe, then biked around the area seeing sights.
[Legend says Manaia] began battling Paeko with incantations. Because of the two men’s power, they became frozen as peaks on the mountain, along with Manaia’s wife and their children.
Via Manaia.
Spotted this sticker on a car. 🤣
I've been monitoring a magpie nest high in a nearby tree for a while now and I believe there are new chicks up there. I saw 2 adults leave the nest, but there was still movement. I'm pretty sure I could see a chick's head. 🐦
Mallard ducks on the Dune Lake. 🐦
Pretty sure I just heard a horse whinny. According to Google Maps the closest possible horses would be about 350 metres away on the far side of the slight rise behind our place … 🐎
Beyond that is the racecourse.
This photo from 10 October 2025.
A flash of very vivid blue caught my eye across the river — it turned out to be a Kōtare | Sacred Kingfisher. It's barely visible in the two photos below, flying at centre right. 🐦
Meanwhile a Matuku moana | White-faced heron took flight.
Today I strolled across the road to the river — a 3 minute walk. After going about 500 metres south beside the river I turned and took this photo looking upstream. The trees on a small hill behind the river are on an old pā site, not far away. A few middens have been found beside the river too.
Yes! This is in my near future — Apple unveils new 14‑inch MacBook Pro powered by the M5 chip:
Apple unveils new 14‑inch MacBook Pro powered by the M5 chip … faster storage, up to a phenomenal 24 hours of battery life
M5 also includes a faster and more efficient CPU, an enhanced Neural Engine, and higher memory bandwidth
This was a very interesting 1 hour podcast episode: Clutterbug Podcast - Why You’re Still Drained — and How to Get Your Energy Back:
If you’re exhausted, unmotivated, or mentally fried, this episode is for you.
I’m sitting down with Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, physician, researcher, and author of Sacred Rest, to talk about the 7 different types of rest — and why getting more sleep isn’t the real solution to burnout.
I always find this nerve wracking. Multiples of triple checks. Especially since roads round here aren’t the highest quality. Made it safely though.
Opened Apple Maps, put in the address for the first of today's errands (driving) and was bewildered by all the surrounding street names at my destination.
Looked closer. Of course Apple Maps had me driving to Sydney Australia from my home near Whangārei, Aotearoa.
Sigh.
Today my new iPhone 17 Pro stopped being able to make or take calls. I checked my provider's Outage Status page, checked my account, failed in being able to make contact with them, decided to follow up tomorrow when I go to town.
Deb's suggestion: turn it off and on again. 🤦🏽♀️
Which worked … 🤪
On our train ride up by Kawakawa the other day we spotted this Kawaupaka | Little shag in trees by the line: 🐦
the little shag’s diagnostic short-billed and long-tailed silhouette, along with its small size and stubby yellow bill. Shape alone is sufficient to identify a little shag.
At least, I think that's what this bird is. It was quite little and has a stubby yellow bill.
On yesterday's vintage train ride out of Kawakawa we had to stop for a few minutes for staff to open huge gates that blocked access to a bridge.
I was interested by the sign cautioning people, especially cyclists on this part of the Twin Coast Cycle Trail, to watch out during nesting season for swooping magpies. 🐦
Warning Swooping Magpies (nesting season)
Dismount & walk.
Move quickly through the area - Don't run.
Protect your head & face.
Wear sunglasses.
Today we travelled for 2 hours on a special outing of the Bay Of Islands Vintage Railway:
pass through beautiful countryside, past rivers, native wetlands and over the longest curved wooden bridge in the Southern Hemisphere.
… the first railway to be opened in the North Island of New Zealand and the only one that runs down the middle of a State Highway.
It was fun and we enjoyed canapés and live jazz as part of the Awa ki te moana – River to the ocean - Savour Northland festival.
This Granny Smith apple tree was planted around 3 months ago, in about July 2025. Look at all the blossoms!
Easy to make and totally delicious. Pearl Barley Soup - RecipeTin Eats:
Barley Soup! Simple to make, clean-flavoured and filled with nourishing veggies, the little trick that elevates the taste here is sautéing a small amount of herbs and spices for the soup. It really makes the flavour bloom. You will be surprised!
This tiny skink lives round our house. I'm happy to see it, but don't know what kind it is. I just hope it's not a Plague skink:
Native to Australia, plague skinks were first recorded in Auckland during the 1960s and are now posing a threat to our rare native lizards. …
They look do look very similar to native skinks but are smaller.
Plague skinks are able to reach high population densities in a relatively short time. Because of this they potentially compete with our native lizard species for food, habitat and space.
