Posts by ChrisW
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I knew that the rat knew that I knew that
something was afoot,
but still
I wasn’t fast enough to capture
the fullness of the walnut bandit’s turning getawayinto the autumnal rain.
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Capture: Lost, in reply to ,
Fine photo when up-right, but even then I reckon that Buzzy Bee will find she was confused by the unfamiliar perspective, those marshmallows are bigger than she thought, eyes too big for her tummy and all that.
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Hard News: Incomplete, inaccurate and misleading, in reply to st ephen,
Key -
"I will be recommending to the Governor-General that [Collins] be granted use of the title 'The Honourable' for life."
He and she can try, but people will continue to snigger, or find other ways to diss the dishonourable.
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Thanks Jonathan, what a treasure!
Each segment full of interesting fragments, some that are timeless, much that is of its age but still seeming thoroughly familiar to me from aspects of continuity with the late1950s-60s diminishing since, but extending well beyond my memories to my parents' generation.The itinerary was certainly non-linear, so some good surprises like Waikaremoana magnicently framed through the windows of Lake House as was at the beginning of the second segment. Many other gems, like the "1940 World's Fair" in Wellington (sic, NZ Centennial Exhibition) in full colour. Definitely worth repeat viewings.
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Capture: Lost, in reply to JacksonP,
The Dreams Lie Deeper doco on TVNZ on the key anniversary last week was a great prompt – Dave Dobbyn visiting Greymouth and the mine portal, talking with the families, writing then performing that fine work with the massive Orpheus Choir in Wellington in May – well done all round, very moving.
Albeit that the then prominence of hope for mine re-entry and retrieving the men’s remains has been overtaken. The memorial reserve with safe access maintained to it – so it becomes as much a monument to the failure of under-regulated capitalism and its safety practices as a memorial to the lost men – seems a better prospect for the future.
Alongside civil proceedings?
And Andrew Little is now better placed and based to push against the Government on its regulatory failures. -
Lost:
the 29 men in the Pike River Coal mine. Today being the fourth anniversary of the second explosion, when it became apparent to all that they had all died.I posted on the PAS: Where nature may win thread a description of my taking this photo from my doorstep, at low tide in the early pre-dawn hours following the news, and some of my perceptions that followed –
… the moonlight and river, the profile of the hills showing through the tree, and a scattering of lights and houses of my sector of Gisborne. [ … ] Then I see that the lights in my photo may number 29 if I were also to count the patches of reflected moonlight. Immediate sense of connection and connections, as if by fibre-optic cable - they're just out there through the glass, on my doorstep, within my community. …
My community too, within the national community wrapped around by the never-ending high-tide wave that circulates anticlockwise around New Zealand almost twice daily.
In that pre-Capture year, it needed a link to the photo off-site to be organised, through that ontoit guy Recordari and RB, before it could be seen by others. Now, because I can, I post it here directly on Capture, lest we forget.
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Duckling update –
It is indeed a hazardous world for ~Peking ducklings in the ‘wild’.
Dawning yesterday Day 4, the three ducklings were at peak agility, climbing a metre-high hedge of dense grasses etc, lined up at the top before plummeting to earth again to stay close to mum as she got her share and a bit of the small pottle of maize I feed the adult ducks, a token of my esteem encouraging them to hang out around my patch of riverbank, as I have for twenty years. But no sign of any ducklings in the afternoon – Auntie and all were on the river without them. Not the usual pattern of duckling disappearance by ones and twos – on circumstantial evidence, a rarely seen neighbourhood cat is the prime suspect.This morning after feeding, as if to formalise that absence and loss, the parents climb the slope to my doorstep and maintain their solemn symmetry, Halfring and Fullering flanking Auntie, for an hour. (These seen through a glass door brightly, albeit a little smudged.)
Then after a thorough preening, she signalled her readiness to Halfring the alpha male and they were back into another attempt on the cycle of life. Fullering’s turn will have come later. -
A local expression of this Government's social housing policy via Housing New Zealand - seen through a glass darkly.
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Later in the morning, better light and further afield.
Easy to imagine that's an expression of wary pride.This afternoon's great weather for the ducks.
Twin brothers Halfring and Fullering have agreed they share paternity and family flotilla flanking escort duties. -
Less colourful, but definitely Spring on the riverbank -
Auntie's first showing of her brood, before 6am on their Day 2.This morning ditto Day 3, just a little more confident, and there are still 3 ducklings. I'm impressed she incubated any successfully, after her choice of nest site was submerged for a while in a spring tide or two. But there are many more hazards ahead ...
