It seems people around Special Agent Nikki Hunt keep getting knocked off. Lost Angels (Nikki Hunt Book 3) by Stacy Green. 📚

It all gets a bit personal and her team wonder if she should still be leading the hunt.

Good read.

Nikki is devastated to see the victim is her childhood friend …

Book cover: Lost Angels.

One reason I'm awake at 1 a.m.: 28.66 mm rain fell since midnight. For the metric impaired that's 1.13 inches. In one hour …

Graph shows 28.66 mm rain fell between midnight and 1 a.m.

OK, that's a bit of fun: Your Name in Landsat 🛰️:

Images of landforms from Satellite photos spell out Miraz.

Thanks to @chadkoh for the link.

I didn't warm to A Cotswold Killing (The Cotswold Cozy Mysteries Book 1) by Rebecca Tope. 📚

The village people were weird, the main character not specially endearing, the story a bit flat. Then, early on, there was troublesome behaviour towards an animal, and I can't abide that. Abandoned.

Book cover: A Cotswold Killing.

We visited friends in Paekakariki for brunch today. Their dog Gracie, an 8 year old Vizsla, was permanently optimistic that food may fall from the table, however, none did. 🐶

A mid-size sleek brown dog waits at attention near the dinner table.

It's been a few months since my last burst of activity on the Lego build, but the Lego Technic Surface Space Loader is now complete. Whew.

I have a friend whose grandkids would probably enjoy pulling this apart and putting it back together, so that'll be its future home.

Lego Technic Surface Space Loader - complete.

I'm really enjoying bingeing Rutherford Falls 📺 :

The show uses humor, jokes, and irony to highlight the biases that are present in today's society surrounding Native Americans. … While hard-hitting topics are presented throughout the show an overarching sense of comedy, irony, and light-heartedness is evident from the beginning.

Rutherford Falls poster.

Southern right whale near Whangārei Harbour

Southern right whale spotted near Whangārei Harbour a ‘promising sign’ - NZ Herald, 26 August 2024:

A couple fishing in Whangārei caught more than they bargained for when a southern right whale decided to give them a majestic performance.

Pauline and Alan Hall spotted the whale just outside the entrance to Whangārei Harbour, near Busby Head, on Thursday. …

Southern right whales are mostly black in colour and can easily be identified by lack of a dorsal fin, a V-shaped blowhole spray and white growths on their heads called callosities, according to the Department of Conservation.

The Wild is a great podcast. In Ben Goldfarb: How America’s roads alter our ecology there's a fascinating part about animal crossings where the speaker points out that wildlife needs more than just some narrow 'bridge', but instead a whole habitat that also blocks road noise and so on. Transcript.

Well, thunder and lightning! And as I typed that a huge crack of thunder overhead sounded like a massive explosion! That got the heart rate up! 💗

A different view from last time of the fast flowing river carving off chunks of sand from the edge.

It's only a small chunk, but that splosh is satisfying.

Our little peach tree is convinced it's spring.

Small peach tree with pink blossoms.

Those earbuds were specially delivered after I queried the Fliway helpdesk. Their website hadn't told me the parcel had been passed on to Courierpost, with its own tracking number. Apparently Courierpost claimed it had tried to deliver them several times, but I don't believe that at all.

Being mid-winter there are few birds around. I was pleased to see the spoonbill back. It was joined by a couple of spur-winged plovers and a dozen Pied Stilts. 🐦

Spoonbill, spur-winged plovers, stilts in shallow water on the beach.

Our normally sluggish river is quite swift today thanks to loads of rain up in the Tararua ranges.

That means it's carved a deep channel through the sand and the bank regularly crumbles. Fun to watch for a minute or two on my walk.

Peeved. I ordered Sony earbuds on 17 August. Here we are 10 days later on 27 August 2024 and they've struggled down from Auckland to Palmerston North (an hour's drive away) where they're having a nice long rest (5 days so far).

Can't wait for the vendor's customer satisfaction survey!

Shipping diagram shows the parcel stalled in Palmerston North.

Another good read: A Hymn of Death (Sister Agnes Mysteries Book 5) by Alison Joseph. 📚

I didn't find the plot quite as interesting, but the author's wordsmithing skill more than made up for it.

This seems conclusively the last in the series, but I thought that with books 3, 4 and 5 …

Book cover: A Hymn of Death.

I keep highlighting excellent turns of phrase in the book I'm currently reading: A Hymn of Death (Sister Agnes Mysteries Book 5) by Alison Joseph. The author has a way with verbs … 📚

Snippets of text.
The window shivered with raindrops.
Connor O'Grady hugged his knees, curled up on his navy-blue sofa. The white walls of his flat dazzled in the sunlight. Next to him a vase of golden roses exploded with colour.
The paperweight crushed the pale sunlight into a bright, narrow beam.
The door swung open, and in a swish of shiny white mackintosh, Trina arrived.

Home made muesli

A friend gave me this muesli recipe. It gives me an enjoyable and healthy breakfast every day. I add stewed apple, milk, and a couple of other things too.

Muesli

Ingredients

  • 2 cups of whole oats
  • 2 cups of quick cook oats
  • 1/2 cup honey (can add maple syrup)
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1 cup shredded coconut
  • 1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
  • 1/2 cup sultanas
  • 1/2 cup cranberries
  • 1 cup chopped dates
  • 1 cup chopped apricots
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Make

Lightly toast sesame seeds.

  1. Add oil and honey to oats in baking tray.

  2. Toast in oven at 160C for 10 mins or until light brown. Stir every few minutes.

Put into large mixing bowl while still hot.

  1. Sprinkle cinnamon on toasted oats.

  2. Then add remaining ingredients.

  3. Mix thoroughly and allow to cool.

Whew, stewed apples, made juice and made muesli all at the same time. Forgot the crucial step of tipping the still hot oats into the big bowl and mixing with the other ingredients before cooling, but, oh well.

The juice was delicious, the breakfasts to come will be too.

Muesli and stewed apple in bowls.