It’s been an intensive research day for our upcoming holiday in Samoa. Put together useful travel info in one Apple Note (thanks @annahavron for (sort of) suggesting that in one of your posts). Worked out the best deal for Internet while there (Vodafone SIM for tourists). 🇼🇸
Went back to a book I started weeks ago, and recalled why I stopped reading. I'm now declaring it abandoned at 18%. Spite Your Face (Detective Carol Wren Mysteries Book 1) by Emmy Ellis isn't for me and I shouldn't have bought it. It takes us into the mind of a depraved serial killer. Just No! 📚
Breakup: … when Alaska awakens from its Arctic slumber. Snows melt. Rivers flood. Winter's secrets emerge.
Kate is having an extremely bad day. Then things get worse … and worse … and worse.
Another excellent read: Breakup (A Kate Shugak Investigation Book 7) by Dana Stabenow. 📚
This morning Tiu | House Sparrows are enjoying hanging out on the dead panicles of the Tī kōuka | Cabbage tree only a couple of metres from my bedroom window. 🐦
The snow on the hills nearby has come down even lower, I think.
Greedy developers are looking for ways to exploit resources the Native people should be controlling. Luckily Kate gets pulled into the whole thing by her grandmother Emaa.
Blood Will Tell (A Kate Shugak Investigation Book 6) puts Kate and Mutt in Anchorage, a place where Kate does not want to be. 📚
Sometimes you glance up and wonder, where did the world go?
Apparently the Library in Levin has a Friday lunchtime concert — a singalong. What a cool thing. Most folks attending seem to be older. One table of about 8 are chatting away all through — in NZ Sign Language. 😆
An experimental photo. I'm hanging out in the Library in Levin while my car has a service and an annual Warrant of Fitness check.
This photo was taken using the front facing (and only) camera on my M1 MacBook Pro, using Photo Booth. Not bad.
A cold southerly has brought snow to the tops of the Tararua range.
Season 9 of one of my favourite shows, New Zealand murder mystery series Brokenwood, has just started. This 28 minute radio interview with head writer and co-producer Tim Balme is very interesting. 📺
Brokenwood is somewhat Tardis-like, he says.
It may appear like a small town, but once you enter it, it’s as big as you need it to be.
These golden plants at the beach are native Pīngao. Fantastic for binding sand.
I have an Olympus Tough TG-870 camera that I last used in 2018 when we went snorkelling in Niue. With a holiday in Samoa coming up I've dug it out, charged the battery and am now checking the manual.
16 megapixel, 21 to 105 mm zoom, 21 scene modes including 4 underwater.
Apparently when a Kōtare | Sacred Kingfisher hangs around I am compelled to take photos of it. 🐦
Their beaks fascinate me.
Just a little clip from the other morning of a Scaup and a Shoveler on the lake.
At Harrison's Garden Shop cafe for brunch with my friend J today I noticed Bushy Tailed Tea: green tea with echinacea and lemon. Turns out to be delicious.
Oh, and brunch was good with a different good green tea and perfectly cooked scrambled egg with halloumi.
Excellent conversation too.
Another Dana Stabenow book down: Play With Fire (A Kate Shugak Investigation Book 5). This one wasn't my favourite but is still a reasonable read. It's heavy on the discussion of extremist religion; not so big on the action that made the last few so compelling. 📚
Hah hah. I'd heard about the TV series Deadloch and have now watched episode 1.
It's definitely over the top, part sendup of small-town cops meet serial killer, part caricature, fairly funny, and inverts the usual sexism.
Nice to see a series from this part of the world.
I'll be watching more. 📺
Well! Watched a recording of the Nigeria v Canada football match. Lots of yellow cards and even a red card. I’ve now in two days watched more sports than ever before in my life I think. Also, I’m exhausted, after watching all that running around. 90 minutes is a long time! ⚽️
I wrote that word minorities
in my previous post and now regret it. In my world, as a pale-skinned woman born in England and living most of my life in Aotearoa, stories have always been about white men or boys. In fact, they are the minority in this world, far outnumbered by non-white & non-males.