This morning's tea is Bagua Shan Dong Pian. Perfect!
Dong Pian is a special Taiwanese tea. It is harvested in the Winter Solstice when the weather is unseasonably warm which tricks the plants into thinking Spring has arrived, so they produce new leaf buds. The warm days and cool nights imbue a unique flavour into the leaves as they grow.
I very much enjoyed The Fells (Detectives Donovan & Young Book 1) by Cath Staincliffe. 📚
I found intriguing that it's written in the present tense, by an all-seeing author, which gave the effect of a TV show or movie where the camera shows us the scene with immediacy.
I'll definitely read more.
I do all my book reading on a Kindle. Today I upgraded from a Kindle Paperwhite to a Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition. It feels much snappier, the text feels sharper and it charges wirelessly on my iPhone charger or can use a USB-C cable.
I'm looking forward to seeing if I enjoy it more.
There's a blue marker post on the beach that (theoretically — it's almost invisible behind beach grass) shows where one of the pedestrian tracks to exit the beach is.
This morning I took a photo of it, noting it's now half buried in sand.
Here it was on 15 July 2020 for comparison.
Ours isn't the kind of beach that has seaweed. Except today it does, and a lot of it.
If you're into dogs at all this 11 minute video is a must-watch. So interesting! The Canine Rainbow and How Dogs See the World 🐶 :
The first episode of Howtown from Adam Cole & Joss Fong is all about dog vision
I've subbed to the Howtown videos too. Looks like a nice series.
Detective Chief Superintendent Fran Harman works on a frustrating case of stalking in Do No Harm (Detective Fran Harman Mysteries Book 2) by Judith Cutler while another team looks into an unpleasant serial flasher. 📚
I found this very readable and am looking forward to the next in series.
Whangārei city and environs
Whangārei lies about 165 Km north of Auckland and about 260 Km south of Te Rerenga Wairua | Cape Reinga, at -35.5515, 174.3414.
Nestled in a broad valley between hills to its west and east, the city lies on a long inlet of Whangārei Harbour on Northland’s east coast. Initially a service centre for the surrounding district, it has developed through its proximity to some of the country’s deepest harbour waters, and through the north’s expanding tourism.
The cows in the paddocks next door have been yelling a lot the last couple of days. This morning they're too busy eating. 😁
Different day, same (presumably) kōtuku white heron.
I was so pleased to discover iCab allows AppleScript. This script in TextExpander allows me to grab the Title and URL of the front tab and copy it as a Markdown link.
tell application "iCab"
set theName to name of current tab of front window
set theURL to url of current tab of front window
return "[" & theName & "](" & theURL & ")"
end tell
It's been a whole week since I spotted an unusual visitor to Waikawa Beach and I assumed it had left. But today I again spotted the kōtuku white heron by the river and was able to get quite close. Such beautiful birds. 🐦
Yesterday afternoon I lit the fire early — there was a cold wind. This morning we have our first snow on the mountain tops.
After a supermarket trip this morning I’m treating myself to breakfast at Salt and Pepper in Ōhau. Avocado and salmon smash for me.
Each month I post on Waikawa News that I've sent out a Newsletter. Now I can duplicate the previous post as my starting point, thanks to the update in MarsEdit 5.2.
And more space for Alt Text!
A big and very welcome update to MarsEdit today with 5.2, including:
The “Search” field in the main window now features a filter selection to toggle between searching everything or searching just the current selection. …
A new menu item for duplicating posts …
Alt Text field in Upload Utility and Media Manager now grows vertically to accommodate longer descriptions
Today’s random beach find: a large blue piece of tin.
Bah, last night I realised that on 22 May 2024 I wrote about a book I'd read, but somehow managed to use the wrong title and link and book cover. I'd tangled up books 1 and 2 in the series. Sigh.
Now corrected: Detective Chief Superintendent Fran Harman faces many challenges in Come to Harm… 📚.
Ugh, woke just after midnight and still awake in these wee hours where the world is adrift.
Stress always turns up the volume on the tinnitus too. Ugh.