A Suburban Journey
Spotted this cool sign on a neighbourhood fence during a Whitby walk. Made me smile. I love that the invitation to passers-by has an openness to interpretation. Be kind to bees, be kind in general, and maybe beekind, as in bees being considered collectively, as in humankind!
Continue reading “Bee-kin”
I might be going balmy trying to rescue moths that have fluttered in through the kitchen door at night. It seems rather futile in the challenging swirl of the times – wars, pollution, deep fakes. What does it matter? But moths make me interested in the idea of navigation, of finding a way through. They are mostly nocturnal and orient themselves by the moon and stars. Our city lights confuse and startle this ancient ability to chart a course, and so the fragile beings batter away their short lives at our windows and streetlights that shine into the darkness – false beacons. Some of our ancestors shared that same ability to navigate using celestial bodies, and some people still do. Others quest even further beyond moon and stars for direction and meaning. Are we all somehow drawn together through space, searching for a pathway beyond the incomprehensible?
Continue reading “Wayfinding by Moon and Stars”
It’s Aotearoa Moth Week! Science communicator, Morgane Merien says moths or pūrerehua are incredibly important. We have over 1800 species of moths in New Zealand, with around 90% of them being unique to here. They get a “bad rap” but are wonderful pollinators – second only to bees, an important food source for birds, and indicators of healthy environments (like a canary in a coal mine). Yet, relatively little is known about them and whether they too are declining like many insects.
Continue reading “Night of the Bag Moth”I think I’m becoming obsessed with the temperature gauge as the weather flip flops between extremes. No sooner has a cold southerly snap arrived than it vanishes, followed by sudden and often intense heat. The other day it climbed to 17C in the shade and, for a time, the sun strike on our deck was 32C. Too hot to sit there! We heard on the radio that Japan had recorded its hottest June temperature ever – 40.2C. But the northern hemisphere is not even into its proper summer yet!
When the air temperature climbs I come across moments of frenzied insect activity on some of my walks. It seems to be the exotic plants they are dipping into such as flowering bottlebrush, dandelions, gorse, lavender, rosemary, buttercups, tree lucerne and nightshade, plus some natives including the odd manuka bush and hebes. What would they forage on in winter if it wasn’t for the introduced plants – some of them considered weeds.
Continue reading “Moments in Warmth”The weather has turned. A low-pressure bomb travelled up from Antarctica and into the Tasman Sea, lashing thunder, rain, hail and tornadoes onto our coast.
Walking down to Pauatahanui Inlet, my nose and eyes stream in the wind, tips of fingers icy. I notice a white-faced heron, hunched in ruffled grey coat, observing the brown waters that race into the inlet from Whitby’s streams and drains-turned-torrents, flipping storm water lids. Seagulls turn steeply, their undersides flashing white under pink clouds. The sound of traffic as evening commuters head home to warmth, children and dinners. A driver yawns. Back up at Postgate Park a huge gum tree has crashed down, perhaps overnight. Its remains lie in butchered lumps and splinters, after someone has been in with a chainsaw. Old yellow toadstools lie in the grass nearby, rotting like sloughed skin. On the news I hear that hundreds of kororā/little blue penguins have washed ashore up North at Ninety Mile Beach. A DOC spokesperson believes they are starving to death as climate change is creating waters too hot for the fish they feed on.
Continue reading “Queens and Storms”
Edge of Things 