Miraz Jordan

At 5 am, before turning lights on to make a cuppa, I stepped outside for a few minutes.

Jupiter, who had greeted me through my bedroom window, was there in the west, close to the Pleiades, Taurus, Orion and Sirius.

The Milky Way, so bright. Crux and the Clouds of Magellan.

A great start to the day!

It beats me that 10 people will spend a collective 15+ hours digging a ditch to move water away from the vehicle entrance so they can get their vehicles on the beach.

Yet none of them ever turn out to help plant 4,000 spinifex plants. A single spinifex plant can trap 16 m³ of sand a year.

Respect to Maya Sharma and the others — Same-sex marriage: The lesbian activist seeking equal rights in India - BBC News 💪🏻 :

Ms Sharma doesn't want marriage for herself - in fact, she "despises the concept" … "The term marriage comes with a lot of associations," she says…

I love The Spinoff — they almost always make me laugh.

The Greens won three electorates and what may become their highest ever vote share by employing two clever political tricks:

1. Offering to help people with their number one concern.
2. Not screwing up constantly.

Few other parties managed to execute these complex strategic manoeuvres.

☛ Winners, losers, big losers and gigantic losers from the 2023 general election.

As expected for our 2023 Election, the country swung to the right so we'll have a National-led Government supported by Act. Te Pāti Māori took a few seats too, and the Greens did well.

By my count, there are 53 women who will be in Parliament — nearly half of our ~120 MPs (it's complicated).

Election Day is the one day every 3 years when no local politics are aired in media. So blissfully peaceful. In about 10 minutes though the polls close and for the next age we'll be barraged with results, analysis, guesses, coalition talks, policies.

The media love it, of course. But, aargh!

The best coverage of today’s election in NZ: Election 2023: Dogs at polling booths | The Spinoff 😆 🐶

Your payment is pending confirmation wasn't an advice I expected to see … for a free book. 🤣

I watched all 8 episodes of Sweet Kaaram Coffee and it was a delight. 📺

Three generations of women from one family take a road trip, so, of course, things change …

I don't want to give anything away so won't elaborate, but it's excellent!

As I walked to the beach yesterday I became aware of a beautiful scent in the air. I soon spotted the reason: it's spring and some of the Tī Kōuka | Cabbage Trees are starting to bloom.

I wish I could bottle up that scent and send it to you — it's so wonderful.

Alas, a photo will have to suffice.

I don’t know why I never thought to do this before … Today I took several photos with my iPhone, exported the GPS data and then made a map to show where the new spinifex plantings and driftwood are, south of Waikawa River and estuary.

I used gpsvisualizer.com and Shottr to help.

Bad news: Climate outlook for Aotearoa predicts rivers in the sky, heatwaves in the sea:

NZ's average air temperature has risen 1.26C since 1909, and that … is already having huge impacts.

Extreme weather (causing floods, slips and droughts) is becoming worse, and happening more often

For 2 years some folks upset by their inability to get their motor vehicles onto the beach 24/7/365 because nature sometimes cuts off access have been trying to get the local Council to create a vehicle track across our much loved pedestrian-only North Track. Today that option was ruled out. 🙌🏼

It was almost dark last night when we went to check on something in the zendo.

The entrance was being guarded by this little Warou | Welcome swallow.

Her nest was in the tiny space between the top of the door and the roof of the porch.

I was relieved the flash didn't worry her …