I'll have a small flat white, with one packet of history stirred in.

I've done several posts in the past about New Lynn. You may recall that it was one of the early centers of brick making in the Auckland area. In those posts I showed you photos of a kiln, public buildings and pieces of brick art made with the local bricks. One of the buildings I showed you then is the one I am going to highlight today. 

This past October, a couple opened a coffee shop in this structure that was originally a post office. 

I think this building is beautiful. I love the bricks, the compactness of it, the chimney on one end. I'm very pleased to have had the chance to get inside it. 

I was hoping that the interior would give some hint of what it might have looked like years ago, maybe with bare brick walls, but that was not to be. Oh well, at least I got to stand inside it and imagine the thousands of people who must have passed through it before me. 

Here are the few photos I took. I bought a coffee and a base ball cap as a souvenir. 

I like this sign. Coffee beans/tracks

That bench may be made of bricks, but it is quite comfortable.   -djf

Here comes the sun.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNS_SUmCJm4

Maybe using this song to open my post is over-the-top trite. I mean, come on. Couldn't I have found some other song related to the sun to use instead? 

Well, I did look. And I couldn't find one half as good in my opinion. You're welcome to try of course and let me know if you find a suitable substitute. 

Besides, I found this version that I had never seen before. (Boy, that was a long time ago) I thought it appropriate to view sun pictures by. (I know, that's a sin of syntax) 

I was sitting and enjoying the late-fall sun about two weeks ago. It's far less likely to crisp up your skin than the full-summer version is, if you bask in it without protection. It occurred to me then that I had never tried to get a proper picture of the sun and I wondered if I could. I'd like to get rid of the glare and be able to see it as it really is. Hmmmm?

There it is in all its glaring glory at about 2:30 p.m. 

I don't remember where/when I picked these up.  (Possibly the U.P. State Fair) It was years ago and I've never used them until now. Just hold them up in front of the camera lens and snap! I'm a solar observer. 

Actually, I'm quite pleased that this worked so well because Mercury will transit the sun in November of this year and I'd love to be able to post pictures of it. 

This was taken at 90 power.

This is what 120 power looks like. 
Can you imagine a little dot (Mercury) against the sun? What a cool picture that would be. I hope that I get a chance to try. 

I also have a couple of pictures of the moon and Jupiter and Saturn that I'd like to show you. The night I took these shots was warm, almost balmy, and I was sitting on the deck after dinner, simply enjoying how it felt to do so. Since I was out there anyway, when the moon started coming up I thought that I might as well snap a few pictures. Grabbing my camera was the work of a moment. 

I took these two shots and a bunch of others as well. Many of them didn't turn out too well and I discarded them. Even these are just so-so. 

Two or three days later, Jeanne was on a site she likes and often visits called https://earthsky.org/  She wasn't aware that I had been taking pictures a few nights earlier. 

She looked up from her screen at one point and said to me, "Well, this is interesting. The moon has been occulting (passing in front of) Jupiter the last few nights and it will again tonight at 12:45 a.m. It also occulted Saturn, but that was when it was much lower in the sky and may not have been as visible."

I said, "Hmmm."  I brought up my pictures and found that I had two that showed, not an occulting, but the period before the occulting of Jupiter and the period just after Saturn. 

In this one, the moon is just up. Jupiter is at about 11 o'clock in relation to the moon. The moon will overtake and hide Jupiter later on. 

In this one you can see Saturn just below the moon. 
(I was having focus trouble because of the clouds. Both the moon and Saturn disappeared behind them shortly after this picture was taken) 

What a coincidence it was that working independently, Jeanne and I each contributed something to the other's enjoyment of the night sky. 

I thought of staying up until 12:45 that night and trying to get a picture of the moon just about to occult Jupiter but decided against it. I was tired and it was somewhat cloudy anyway. My chances probably weren't that good.  

I'll close this post the way I opened it. With a song, this time about the moon, and since I'm going to show you a post very soon about foraging and harvesting, I'll make it a harvest moon song.   -djf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2MtEsrcTTs

Soccer, lunch, and Howick Beach on 5/04/19

As we adults sleepily assembled this past Saturday morning to start breakfast proceedings, the boys intoned seriously, "May the fourth be with you."  Gotta love 'em. 

Arram's soccer game that day was way over in Howick. (South and East of downtown Auckland.)  The Athleticos played the Howick Fencibles, and beat them soundly. Arram says it was 11 to 1.  I had lost count. He did really well and was named player of the day.  

After the game, which ended at noon, we headed to Subway for lunch and then Allie found our way down to Howick Beach for some relaxation. 

The pictures today are from that beach of course. We found that it was a combination rocky and muddy beach and the perfect habitat for crabs. Arram is especially fond of these crustaceans so he found it very much to his liking. It's the first one we've found with almost unlimited 'Krusty Krabs.'  (Reference to a SpongeBob character.) 

Hope you enjoy the photos.

 From the car park. 

 It looks like sand, but is very fine. I'm not sure if the correct term would be mud, muck or silt. 

 See what I mean? Rocky and 'muddy'.

And since we're on the Pacific side of the island, we can see Rangitoto.

 Allie always picks up trash when we visit beaches. It's a shame that in such an amazing environment there have to be those who toss their trash anywhere. Of course I realise that some of it gets washed in from who knows where. 

Look how big these guys are getting.  Arram is still in his soccer uniform. 

Here is one of the 37 crabs that the boys caught. All were released. 

Arram's splint should be off by the time you read this post. 

I think this is little Motukaraka Island in the foreground and Waiheke Island behind it.  

 Shells accumulate in the low spots in the rocks. Much of this 'rock' is actually very firmly pressed mud, muck or silt. 

 Checking out the crab count. 

 Over in the corner, under some trees, I found this World War II bunker. 

 These must be the steps that led down to the bunker from the top of the hill. Now they disappear into the dirt. 

 Entry into the bunker was on the right in the very back. Unfortunately, collapsed dirt and rocks and very large tree roots now block the door except for a very small opening at the top. 
The steps I showed you in the previous picture start to the right of the border of this shot. 

An mature southern black-backed gull. The juveniles are almost as big as the adults but are dark brown (they look black against the sky) all over. There was one circling around the beach but I couldn't get a picture of it. They're common all over the island.     -djf

I liked 'My Kitchen."

I've talked about how I like to try new foods before. A bunch of times actually and you may be tired of hearing about my newest finds. I beg your indulgence here. 

Let me do a post about this really fun little Cantonese restaurant I ate lunch in today. I guess it would more properly be called a 'delicious' little Cantonese restaurant. 

I've also talked about how I like 'hole in the wall' places. This place had six tables. That certainly qualifies. Now, it's not quite as impressive as the Thai place right next door that has only three tables, (and small ones at that) but I wanted to try this one today. 

 Okay, to be accurate, there are two booths and four tables; my kind of place. 

 Sitting at my table looking out at the street.

 I had salt and pepper chicken, cooked in onion, cold seaweed, and hot black tea. The apple slice is my free desert. Yes, they served the hot tea in a milk bottle with a straw.  I was surprised to see it presented that way, but it worked. 

 I noticed these little rice dumpling things on a shelf next to the order counter. They were labeled 'alkaline.' They were $2.50 each. I couldn't imagine what the alkaline description meant, but I thought I'd have to buy just one to find out. When I ordered one, the kid working the counter told me that they were sweet and that I needed some syrup to put on them. "Well", I said, "if they're sweet, give me two of them."

Here is the first one unwrapped and drizzled with the syrup. The rice is very, very sticky and the syrup is good, but I couldn't think of what sort of syrup it might be. It had a rather unique, mild sweetness. 

I looked them up when I got home and got the low-down of what I had found. 

Duan Wu Jie (Dragon Boat Festival) happens each May or June, and these rice dumplings are made to celebrate this event. The rice is treated with lye, hence the name. They are called Gan Sui Jong. The rice is wrapped in bamboo leaves and steamed. Palm sugar syrup is commonly served with them, or, they can be dipped into the raw palm sugar and eaten that way. This is a popular breakfast item. 

I love to keep learning.     -djf

At the fish market

 I was in our favorite fish market the other day and noticed this ugly mug. Since I had my camera out anyway, I thought that I'd take a few more pictures and show you some of the other items that are offered. 

 Whitebait run periodically and are very popular made into a fritter. And yes, you eat the entire fish.

 Kina pots hold the gonads (male) or roe (female) of sea urchins. 

The tuatua have big heavy shells, but the clam is really delicious. Endemic to NZ. 

 I didn't get a photo of tarakihi, which is Jeanne's favorite fish. The boys like the lemonfish, which is actually a rig shark. Lemonfish and hoki are the ones used in most of the fish and chip shops. 

I hope you've enjoyed walking through the market with me. I love walking into this store on a hot day because it is always so delightfully cool. And this fish shop actually smells good. The fish are always very fresh and it is kept spotless. (Can't say that about every fish market I've been in)   -djf

And here is a bonus picture. I took it last night, 4/25/19, at about 11:55 p.m. It's your birthday moon Pat. 

2019 Wild West Food Fair at Summerland.

The words 'wild west' used in my title actually refers, not to the American Wild West, but to the ethnic foods of Auckland's wild west. And that is us. We live, as I've mentioned before, in the Western Heights.   

Although the weather appeared threatening, rain never bothered the hungry hordes who descended on Summerland's 'court' area. 

Long gone are the days when the boys would stay close to mom at this event. Now, they both look up friends and spend the time circulating the campus with them. Oh, they may wander past their mom or grandparents occasionally, hoping that some additional currency might find its way into their pockets from ours, but that's all the adult 'supervision' they need or want at this point in their lives. 

And we adults enjoy watching them growing up and becoming independent. The area is small enough that it's easy for us to watch their meanderings from our vantage points on the benches under the oaks, or at the outdoor stage seating. 

Here are some pictures of the event. 

 I don't know where the name comes from, but the object of course is to knock the coconut off its pedestal. 

Arram winds up to deliver a tremendous throw. That's his teacher from two years ago looking slightly uncomfortable being so near the impact zone. The prize in this game is the coconut itself. Unfortunately, although Arram's attempts were blisteringly fast, they didn't connect with the nuts. I was glad to see too that the wall didn't suffer any denting. They were bean bags after all that were being launched. If they had been balls, I think the bystanders might have been in danger from the rebounds.    -djf