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.
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.
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.
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. 🐦
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!
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 …
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 … 📚
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.
-
Add oil and honey to oats in baking tray.
-
Toast in oven at 160C for 10 mins or until light brown. Stir every few minutes.
Put into large mixing bowl while still hot.
-
Sprinkle cinnamon on toasted oats.
-
Then add remaining ingredients.
-
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.
Occasionally, like yesterday, I sit for a few minutes at the picnic table by the south track to the beach and watch the world go by.
(We inherited the picnic table when we bought our property, but it was surplus to our needs so a neighbour with a tractor helped us place it by the beach.)
I found One Perfect Grave (Nikki Hunt Book 2) by Stacy Green to be a good read. 📚
When the remains of two bodies are found in an open grave along a desolate highway … Special Agent Nikki Hunt knows exactly who they are … the missing boy she’s desperately been trying to find for the last two days. The other body is his mother Dana, who had been Nikki’s lead suspect.
LOL (my emphasis):
Luxon’s speech was met with groans and various oral expulsions of disapproval.
It's almost dawn and this is my view from bed.
Electricity supply crisis: What you need to know | RNZ News:
New Zealand is heading towards an electricity supply crisis. …
in 2023, 60% of New Zealand's electricity was generated through hydropower, 18% through geothermal, 9% through gas, 7% through wind and just over 2% from coal.