Windblown e-scooters

Like a row of fainting goats.

I’ll go on by foot

Cheap brolly! Windstorm!

Too-small trash bins tell the world

You should’ve spent more.

It’s been a quiet couple of weeks here in Lake Whaungangong, my hometown.

In addition to seeing Downton Abbey, my birthday included cupcakes and ice cream, a nice walk around St. Heliers, a giant church rummage sale (not pictured) and a great dinner out.

Besides that, it’s been workaday life punctuated by weekend stuff: ocean swimming on Sundays, a boat ride and picnic, day trips around town.

Winter is giving way to spring, and the final citrus harvests from Tom’s grapefruit tree yielded gallons of delicious juice.

Now it’s wisteria time, and the tulips are blooming.

I’ve joined a community jazz band, the Auckland Big Band, and I’m busy learning the repertoire. My first gig with them will be at a retirement home in early December.

Local elections are coming up soon.

Desley Simpson, who looks quite a bit older in person, has plastered her campaign picture all over town. Defacing things is bad, but the observation that she is the voice of big money is not unreasonable. She really always wears things in that pink color.

That’s all for now…

You know you’ve turned some sort of corner in life when you’re more excited about going to see Downton Abbey than any of the last several Avengers movies.

This beauty is a puriri moth that we found, probably just at the end of its life, on the footpath.

The caterpillar lives for up to five years inside a tree, eating and growing. When it metamorphoses into a moth, it lives a maximum of two days (has no mouth to eat), during which it hopes to meet another puriri moth and make babies.

Last Saturday we did two fun things.

In the AM, we went to the North Shore Miniaturists show. Which is like dollhouses, only a bit more varied than just the traditional dollhouse idea. Lots of cool stuff… some real talent on display. Lee is working on a couple of mini arts and crafts projects and this was an inspiration.

Then in the evening we went to the KBB Music Festival gala concert, for the second time. It seemed less good than that first year, but the kids still did some great work.

Our furnished rental house came equipped with a very sleek black and white colour scheme. It showed well, but over time we have found both the furniture and the decor to be too sterile.

We’ve been acquiring stuff of our own here and there, but the dining room wall was still home to some old framed stock photos. They were only united by the B&W scheme.

So, did a thing we’ve done before: a collection of mirrors… united only in being mirrors, I suppose, but still happier for us than the noir.

We laid them all out on a sheet first, trying a bunch of different arrangements before ending up pretty close to the very first design. The sheet technique worked great for transferring the positions to the wall.

Whenever we do move out it will be a fair bit of work to restore the look back to the original… maybe we’ll choose to say goodbye to some of our deposit.

Above, Tutukaka’s Paradise Bay, where I went for a swim on Sunday morning that featured a sea cave and a fur seal.

Below, Auckland’s Rothesay Bay, where I went for a run yesterday afternoon.

Or does it?

After almost two years we thought it might be time to repot the star jasmine plants on the deck. We were right, they were totally root bound.

It was a shame to have to bash the pots, but also kinda fun.

We celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary this month, which is apparently the year to give furniture. This old wardrobe will help keep Lee’s sewing and crafts supplies safe from curious marauders…