These poppies brightened up Browns Bay on a recent dreary day.

(I did fiddle with this photo a bit)

Very shortly after returning from Aitutaki, I played in the first day of interclub pétanque. Summer is coming!

Midday, we were overflown by the old fighter plane squadron. They usually turn up on holidays, but none of us could figure out what holiday it was.

It turned out that there was a commemoration of the Battle of Britain. Since we in America were mostly focused on staying out of the conflict at that point, in school we didn’t learn as much about the Blitz as we did about the post-Pearl Harbor parts of the war.

As we confront – or try not to confront – the awful reality of shooting wars in Ukraine and Israel, it’s even more important to remember what happens when you drop bombs.

This short week in Aitutaki was focused on swimming. We had seven swims in four days, plus the whales on Day 5.

Our routine was to head out in the boat at 10 AM and drop off somewhere in the water…

Then we’d swim toward one of the small outer islands, maybe an hour in the water. Then island lunch. The lagoon around Aitutaki is really shallow… often we had to weave through coral heads and once or twice it was easier to get up and walk. But the water is crystalline, the fish abundant.

One day, Captain Ned (below) told us more about coconuts than we would’ve thought possible. Really interesting!

After coconuts begin to sprout, the inside turns all spongy, but you can still eat it.

Then, back in the boat for the afternoon swim. It was usually shorter and had a theme… outside the reef in deeper water one day, giant clams the next. The tame’ish giant trevally are a hit…

I didn’t bring an underwater camera this time. Good and bad… it’s nice to live in the moment instead of fiddling with the gear, but some pictures not taken. The whole place is basically the most perfect tropical aquarium you could possibly imagine.

And then back home by about 4 pm. Happy hour, then dinner.

That was plenty of water time and I’m tired. But compared to how much we ate and drank… more exercise needed!

Tell me your super power without telling me your super power…

This white-faced heron was hanging out on a footbridge we crossed on our morning walk today. Startlingly close! They very kindly sat around while we gawked and took pictures, not fazed even by a passing jogger.

I often think about how to describe the benefits of living in and/or visiting Auckland. Nature- and climate-related things feature prominently in the list. It’s hard to say if “conveniently accessible walks through nice parks” (which we’ve had in all three houses here) is worth flying around the world for, but it sure is nice once you’re here.

Our new house is on a street where the power lines haven’t been buried yet. But this kereru makes the best of the situation.

You’ve seen this view before on this site, but normally there’s a hillside covered with houses and trees and stuff. The other morning’s fog was thick as.

And… did you know the title before? I vaguely thought it was from Charge of the Light Brigade or Gunga Din or some such. And therefore it would have been “through” instead of “thru”. But the first several Google hits point me in a very different direction…

As we head into spring, the sun is swinging around (or we are I guess) so that our sunsets are more dramatic.

Saw the biggest pod so far today, 8-10 of them swimming and jumping.