I've decided on a different sort of topic for my post today.  I think it's rather interesting but the pictures won't be as beautiful as they sometimes are. Here's the explanation.   

I had gone back to our old neighborhood on Harvest Drive to get a haircut several days ago from a guy who has a shop in his home.  I've been going to Peter for many years for my trims and see no reason to change, just because we now live where we do. It's only about a 15 minute bus ride to his place from the main bus stop across from the Court House in Henderson.    

Anyway, as I was waiting for the bus to arrive for my homeward trip, I spotted a new sort of recycling bin in front of the houses along the street.  It was collection day and as I watched, the truck came along to pick up the waste. I was so impressed that I spoke briefly to the truck driver. More about this sort of recycling toward the end of the post. It was because of this event that I decided to do a post about recycling at Waitakere Gardens Retirement Village.  

I thought that I would start by showing you the range of efforts here. Waitakere Gardens has earned a couple of prestigious environmental awards in the past and continues to lead the other retirement communities in the Auckland area. Several times, representatives from other villages have toured ours and were showed what has been accomplished.   

I think that you can read that both awards were presented to the Residents Group. I want to stress that it was the residents who have done most of the work in building the gardens here and organizing the recycling plans. The management has assisted, and supported the residents to a tremendous degree every step along the way, but it was a group of residents who had the vision and spearheaded the work.  

Let's take a look around the village.  

This is the closest recycling room to our apartment. 

This sort of recycling only represents the tip of the iceberg here. What I really want to show you are the other efforts.

Let's start here, with this innocuous little container.  You'll find them all over the village. It is in these containers that many residents deposit their vegetable scraps for our worm farm. Yes, we have a worm farm, and worms don't like things like onions, so their food is kept separate from the other kitchen scraps that are destined for the compost bins.  

Some people bring their containers of worm food down to the farm themselves, but we also have a team of volunteers who come around twice a week and empty the worm farm containers for those residents who are less mobile.    

Here we are approaching the worm farm. You'll notice that no area of land in the gardens is wasted. Those are pansies planted to the side of it. Behind the worm farm are cabbages and a few broccoli. Beyond the farm you an see the upper end of the hydroponic beds with lettuce that is approaching harvestable size. 

If you look 'skin-deep,' our worm farm is not a thing of beauty, but it is gorgeous if you consider the wealth that it provides to our gardens and the hundreds of pots of plants on balconies all over the village. 

Look at what our worm farmers produce. These are bottles of 'worm juice' that residents can take and use to fertilize their houseplants.  

Believe it or not, this miracle tonic for plants is held in such high regard that a man from outside the village was sneaking in and stealing it as it was collected and was full strength. (These bottles each contain a small quantity of concentrated worm juice and are meant to filled with water before using.)  

If you'll look back up to the previous picture, you'll see a small, rectangular box behind and below the level of the farm. This is the collection point for the concentrated worm juice and is now protected from thievery by the locked container.  

Now lets jump over to the composting efforts. We have bins like the one below at several locations around the gardens.  Notice that the gardening crew is very specific about what not to put into the compost.  

Other things go into the compost too.

Some things do not go into the compost.  

Our composting bins

There are four compost bins at varying stages of maturity. Bin 4 is full of mature compost and Jeanne and her crew are currently using the compost to replenish the lower garden plot. After the compost is dug in, she will plant a green manure crop there (oat grass, lupin and mustard) which will slowly grow over the mild winter. John will dig it in next September. Fully fertilized now and ready for the new growing season, this plot will be planted with potatoes, which will be ready for harvest by Christmas.  -jmf

We also have two 'tumbler' compost bins. 

This is an 8,000 liter water tank for rainwater.  We had an older tank that was sold. We are purchasing another, larger tank that will be used to collect rain water as well.  

The Waitakere Gardens Village complex was built over 22 years ago. At the time, it was considered a pioneer in providing an active lifestyle model for retirees. Not a rest home, but a place to be active, enjoy life, make new friends and continuing to contribute to society. Many of the original villagers were in their 50's and still working at jobs in the community.  Inspired by the residents featured in this display, they envisioned a village that was sustainable and eco friendly. The information provided on this display is also in a booklet which is given out to new residents so they know what a remarkable legacy they are inheriting.  

Recently, the Auckland City Council has allocated funds to promote a more sustainable life style for the entire city and they looked to Waitakere Gardens for inspiration. The mural below was a result of this new sustainability measure. It is planned to become a visually attractive notice board. Additional removeable "leaves" can be added with written text on them, to educate villagers on ways they can contribute to recycling, conserving energy, and saving natural resources.

Our village mission statement is "We care about the life our children, grandchildren and all generations will inherit. We at Waitakere Gardens envision a future where all of New Zealand is loved like a garden." - jmf

At the beginning of this post I mentioned seeing new recycling bins in our old neighborhood. The following pictures were taken then. 

Auckland has begun a new composting plan.  They are collecting food waste; things like  bread, meat, bones, cooked foods, and nearly anything else and anaerobically composting them. These systems are sometimes called digesters because they work very differently than a normal aerobic (with oxygen) compost pile.  The digesters work without oxygen. They don't generate the heat that aerobic systems do, and so do not destroy dangerous microorganisms that way. Instead, the 'germs' present are killed because of the very acidic environment that is developed in the giant digestors.  I'm sure we'll all be hearing much more about this process in the future.  

The driver told me that this collection process started just two weeks ago.  

Within the next few months, our village will also begin food scrap collection. We will begin with an educational effort to let every member of our village know about the process, what food scraps to include, and where to put it. The Tree Mural will have lots of informational messages on added leaves to help.  -jmf

Well, there you have it.  A very brief look into what has taken decades to produce and continues to be improved.  There is so much more to tell about this amazing retirement village but that's for another day.  I want to thank my wife Jeanne, who is the one of us two who has taken a very active role in the gardening and environmental activities here and who has today written parts of this post.  Thanks for the help, Hon.    -djf

A dribble of drabbles,

...a modicum of memories, a smidgen of smart-talkin.'

It's Friday morning, 4/21/23, and it's raining.  I'm walking hallway laps around our Atrium building.  Each lap is roughly 124 of my steps in length, and I define a step as one right and left stride.  

                                 Our apartment is most of the way down this hallway on the right. 

I'm not walking at the rate I do when I hike around town.  There, my usual cadence is 52 steps (defined the same way as above) per minute.  In here, I am more laid back and I find that I usually do 49 steps per minute or about 47 if I'm strolling.    

I was thinking as I walked this morning, about my blogpost that is due out in a few days. I have a bunch of pictures that I could use to develop one, but I wasn't in the mood to work on one of my usual sort of posts. I felt that I should do something a little different this week. And then, I had an idea. 

But first, some background...  

I retired in 2010.  Oh, I worked for a while at a very rewarding part-time job, and I volunteered at our local hospital during the same period, something I enjoyed tremendously, but I was out of the mainstream working world. I discovered during this time, possibly because I had so much free time, that I had an urge to write. 

I wrote a number of essays then, bits of reminiscing, stories of experiences; that sort of thing. I probably knocked out more than a dozen of them before the urge to write tapered off a bit.  However, I remember having a very hard time showing them to anyone. 

I had taken one intro-level writing class while at N.M.U., half a century ago now, but have never had any other training or experience. I was afraid that my writing would make me look foolish to anyone I allowed to read it.  Happily, I overcame that reluctance and now realize that I don't care if someone else wants to criticize my efforts. Especially now. Heck, I'm old. I can blame my lack of talent on any number of excuses if I want to.   

Several months ago, I read a novel by an English author, Jeffrey Archer.  At the back of the book, he had included a little something extra; a story that consisted of just 100 words. I enjoyed it, and decided to try my hand at writing one as well.  

I discovered that such a story; one that consists of exactly 100 words, is called a drabble. Since I started, I've written 33 of them and decided that a few are worth sharing. That is what I intend to give you today in lieu of my usual fare. 

So, here we go.  I hope you like them.    

 #4 

“Ladies and gentlemen,” said the professor, “You find yourselves today in my class, Writing the Short Story. Surrounding us on every side is the University of Limerick, one of the finest places in all of Ireland.  

Are you ready?  You’ll do a lot of writing here and we’ll start now with a very short story; a ‘drabble’, consisting of exactly 100 words. 

Your goal is to write a good drabble, 

Surpass lesser writers, such rabble. 

You must be precise! 

Just 50 words, twice, 

Your reward will be immeasure-abble.

May your words be less and your content be more. Get started.”    

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

#5 

“Arthur, huh?” said the woman at the bar. "That’s no good. Neither is Art. Geez, Chum, that’s too bad. Not interested.” 

“Huh? Sure. I been with plenty of guys like you, but I gotta have ‘em with four letter names like Jose, Bill, Chad or Andy. Yours just don’t excite me.”   

As closing time approached, she began to worry.  

Finally, a guy with CHET written on his shirt pocket sat down.    

Relieved, she smiled at him and said, “Hi Chet, I’m Peggy.”  

“Peggy, huh?” said the guy. "That’s no good. Neither is Peg.  Geez, Doll, that’s too bad. Not interested."   

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

#29 

Come children; listen to my story about a faraway land of mountains, clouds, and sea. 

The mountains there stand straight and tall, and clouds cover their tops like a wooly blanket. The sea rocks itself all around. 

The clouds give of themselves to the mountains. They nourish small, wild, happy rivers, which rumble-tumble down the steeps to the sea, sometimes flinging themselves into the air in their joy. They carry with them offerings from the mountains, which nourish the sea. 

  

The sea accepts their gifts, and in its pleasure, sends the purest part of itself up to nourish the clouds. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This last one, as you saw, included a picture.  I took that photo while on our cruise through Doubtful Sound last October. I named that area in my mind, The Land of Vertical Rivers.

I'm so used to including lots of pictures in my posts, I feel compelled to add a few more.  Here are just a few that I like. 

In Tui Glen

Also in Tui Glen. The second tree is a chestnut, the others are plane trees, a type of sycamore. These pictures were taken just a few days ago.  The leaves are starting to fall. 

For this next picture, I had taped a pair of solar-viewing glasses over my phone's lens.  This was taken at the height of the partial solar eclipse that happened here yesterday, 4/20/23.  Unfortunately for us viewing from Auckland, only 0.061 percent of the sun would appear to be covered by the Moon. I was hoping to be able to see at least an outline of the Moon as it just 'kissed' the Sun.  I could have had it been clear out. The very heavy cloud cover during the event made that impossible. 

I had used an Auckland website to verify the moment of 'greatest' coverage and I took this shot at that point. Even though it doesn't show what I had hoped that it would, I like the photo. It sort of reminds me of a Van Gogh painting, sort of, if you squint a certain way, and have had a couple of beers.    

That's it for this week.  A little different I know, but I needed a change.  

I know that most of you are working.  You don't have the free time that I do, but may I make a suggestion? Try writing a drabble.  You'll be amazed as you tell your story at how quickly the words add up.  Part of the trick is to decide which ones to weed out. You might find that it's fun.  

I'll give you one more to encourage you.  This one documents an experience we kids had one summer afternoon in our backyard. Unfortunately, I got into trouble for this chemistry experiment. I was the oldest of our tribe and 'should have known better!'

#24 

The kids who were visiting next door taught us, precisely.

“Add the ammonia three times. Rinse the purple ‘mud’ with water after each mixing. Then let it dry.”

I bought iodine crystals and ammonia water at the CO-OP.  

We each made some, mixing the ingredients in jar lids and using paper napkins as filters to rinse the mud. 

Finally, breathlessly, we moved back, anticipation high as they dried.   

Wayne, the youngest, must have carelessly handled his lid. The first explosion happened under his thumbnail. The napkins and even the lids detonated soon after.  

 Our nitrogen triiodide production was summarily halted.   

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you're curious, here is an article about this stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_triiodide                 -djf

Hiking the bike trail to Swan's Arch Reserve

Today, we are going to take a walk along a bike path that follows the course of the Waikumete Stream. The Waikumete is made up of the Opanuku and the Oratia Streams.  The scenery itself along the stream is pleasant, and especially so today because we had gorgeous fall weather, and we will also be treated to seeing and leaning about an interesting, historical site along the path as well.   

Come along if you care to.   

We start in Tui Glen

I know that I said it was fall, but here, plants do what they want, when they want.  I call this my Green Bay Packer tree.  

There are various work-out stations along the path. I walk right past them. Pesky things. 

Here we are at the historic site.  I think this one is a rather unusual one.  I'll show your three pictures that I took and then tell you a little about it.

“In 1898 solicitor Henry Charles Swan purchased land here. Around 1901, reputedly telling friends he was embarking on a solo voyage around the world, he sailed his yacht Awatea to this former tributary of Henderson Creek. Swan lived aboard his yacht for the next 30 years. Between 1901 and 1931 Swan built this brick arch, as well as two cellars to store fruit from his orchard and to house his book collection.”

I found a number of pictures of the original Swan Arch and his yacht, but I don't want to copy the picture directly, due to copyright issues.  I wouldn't want to have any problems. Therefore, I will just list the address and let you take a look at several pictures on a Facebook site if you're curious.    

https://www.facebook.com/HeartOfTeAtatuSouth/photos/pcb.2159874274081777/2159872617415276/?type=3&__tn__=HH-R&eid=ARBOjioCzudnUbmeGfUl1lvWdRVn7D2gve1qx_wXImXRMsU9GLZ82rGioMeiDKNkSaO3lDOSsk7A4P2o&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARCwncpQTcahAgn3clelopRpUDkwOIijmt37o6TjR3fMfg4h_rmDz21Wx4QDmfyzhoeos0x3IAdqnJdnZf7J10K7_nMIluNOBLFKx7HBUa3JppAEdVvXa8CTjk4QTb56wV3dpYXgGjJBpHr24qJz4cAG5BDPqnflCf1q-U6MBcyZy_s5e4Bml4Mu7Iu3iRFR1MrADIKWuiz1Uy59jrWQTQTo1d_wKnxHcD0hz9CvdFf3XV5_YzX3Bwp0Jhv7oQhdL0lHP4IDhUqzjyjagQ9VD_3ifpK4FYbf

It sounds as though Henry Charles was a unique kind of guy. He'd be happy to know that his arch is still appreciated.   -djf

You're back.  I'm pleased.  You are here to find out more about the tower crane that I featured in last week's post.  

Or, maybe you just happened to land here.  Well, that's okay too.  Welcome.  If you have just arrived here for the first time, you might want to scroll down and catch up on what you missed in last week's offering.  

I started off last week by talking about sunrises, so let's continue that theme today and show you a few more.   

If you look down at the previous post, you'll see how the sun was moving northward (to the left) with the passage of each day. (I probably should have mentioned it then.)  

This first picture below will show you how much the sun has moved since last week.  

I ended last week by wondering how far away the crane was and so on. Well, I found out.  I first went to Google Maps, as I intended, and found that their satellite photo of this area is in fact, very current. I used their 'measure distance' choice, and found that the crane is just 1.15 miles from us, as the seagull flies.  Not far at all, and just down the street from a bus stop on Te Atatu Road. Perfect. Easy to get to. I could ride either a 131 or 133 bus. It'll probably take about 10 minutes to get to the corner I need, what with the twisty, turny roads and all the stops the driver has to make.  But come along, see what I see.   

The 133 came along first, so off I went.  The cross street I needed was easy for me to watch for. It had an obvious landmark.  

This next shot shows you that this area is fairly high. 

That's Rangitoto, the dormant volcano, on the left. It's about 2 miles off off shore, but you'd never know it standing here.  

Here's a little closer look at our City of Sails. Those clouds could be the sails.  

We're in New Zealand of course, and the winds, which predominately blow from the west, are also usually brisk. I think that is clear from the way these trees have responded.  

Do you see it? I'm almost there now. 

Success! 

I took this little excursion on March 27th.  

So, now we know. We've studied the crane both from  a distance and close-up. I feel satisfied. 

On the 29th, two days after the above, I once again looked to see if our friend was heading for his high perch.  He was. Let's watch him one more time in these next shots. 

I hope you noticed the bird.  

This one is the perfect last shot. As he disappears onto the platform, all except his foot that is, the birds come into view once again, this time in the foreground. They seem to be heading home, their jobs done. Good work, you feather-heads.  

As I sit and think about how to end today's blogpost , I am struck with how the simple act of taking a sunrise picture, developed for me and for you too, into much more than that, thanks to a coincidence.  

Also coincidentally, I happen to be reading a Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child as I write this. It's called The Hard Way.  

The Reacher series of novels is extremely popular. You've all heard the term that 'Might makes Right', and we've found in the real world that that just isn't so.  All too often, the powerful, but evil seem to win. Well, in Jack (no middle name) Reacher's world, he Is might, as well as right, and it's satisfying to read. 

I think that's why Child's novels are so successful. His character, Reacher, often bends, or even breaks a rule of law, but he does so for the sake of justice. You may not agree with me about these books, but as I watch our world becoming more and more out of control, and that (in my opinion) mainly because of the lust for power by the elite, it is satisfying to read stories about true justice overcoming evil.  

I thought of these books while working on this post, because Reacher stories all start out in a similar way.  Jack just happens to be living his life and coincidences lead him into situations he didn't expect.  Much like my morning photographic attempts coincided with our tower-crane operator's work schedule, and that lead us to an adventure.  As Fred likes to say, "Who knew?"    -djf