Long dog walk, haircut, finally found somewhere that sells kaya (we’re getting through winter with “nice things on toast”) and a poddle through the art gallery. Spent some serious time with a full-of-waggle Duncan Grant collie next to a Frances Hodgekins of two small snoozing dogs.

T'is the season to prune the flowreing currants on your do walk (they are a weed) to bring branches with buds and soft pink flowers into the house. In related news, where does one find flower frogs?

This is a gorgeous exhibition (will be going back this weekend) and this piece is going to stay with me: www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin...

That was an enthusiastic shake #eqnz

I was able to take some flexi-time this afternoon, and I had a gentle afternoon reading "Emma" on the outside sofa (we're reading all of Austen this year), a long walk up the hill and then still had the energy to make a huge bowl of hot and sour mushroom soup with noodles for supper.

Charred broccoli on toast covered in a yoghurt/tahini/lemon dressing. Pot of tea.

Ah bugger. It was going to happen but this isn't good news. www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3610...

Colleague comes over: “Dr Fern?” My entire team dissolves into giggles. Well they are not wrong. It is genuinely absurd.

I am firmly noticing all the small good things, but if anyone has spectacularly good news to share, I would love to hear it and celebrate it.

Winter sunrise

Crack a bottle of Two Paddocks for Sam Neil, who was so super kind to a bunch of film students 25 years ago.

This morning's coffee has a teaspoon full of honey, a big pinch of salt and oat milk. May I suggest trying it, because it was very good.

Absurdly beautiful dog walk along my favourite track, looking out onto the harbour, some wee islands, boats and harbour-side villages, a seal resting on the roads edge in the sun. Home to fruit cake and tea, and once the sun hits the back garden, I'm going to plant my garlic.

Tofu and veggies with noodles and curry-lime sauce. Thankful for the drying room at work that warmed all of our coats/boots and umbrellas. And super thankful to work with super smart people including some very old friends

So I take it that Belgium won a football match?

📢 Latest Dunedin weather update, 3.50pm Monday "The Dunedin City Council’s Emergency Operations Centre will close at 3.30pm as its response to the significant rain event of the past 36 hours transitions from emergency to recovery." www.dunedin.govt.nz/news-and-eve...

A while ago, a man yelled at me to “go fuck yourself, bitch” when I asked him to put his dogs on lead. When I have seen his car since, I have just delayed/cancelled our walk. There he was this evening, walking up as I was coming down so I couldn’t avoid.

📢 Latest Dunedin weather update, 9.20am Monday morning: www.dunedin.govt.nz/news-and-eve...

@apocalypseelf.bsky.social things OK at your place?

We have been firmly advised to work from home so have unpacked my lunchbox and am starting the day with coffee and lemon peel cookies, with the dog snoozing next to me. The stream is well within its bed, and even the hill is looking ok. Phew

Link to road closures: www.dunedin.govt.nz/news-and-eve...

📢 Latest weather update from the DCC, 7.15pm

having a cooking-and-podcasts day - so far we have pumpkin soup, lemon curd, lemon peel cookies, a winter fruit loaf and sesame ginger dressing. Still to go: red curry lime sauce, seitan, smokey tempeh and carrots. Podcasts was Empire, The rest is history and Material Girls.

Post workshop recovery day of thanking folks, light admin and then finishing up for the week. Lunch was loaded chips at the village cafe, and now maybe a nap.

workshop done! Lots of great chats about ecosystem health, pressures on the ecosystem and evaluating ecosystem pressures. Also lots of food and massive support from my colleagues.

Starlit frosty pre-dawn dog walk, and I can smell that the sheep are in the paddock behind the house. Long day coming up.

Another workshop tomorrow and I'm not quite ready for it yet. For my team, this is the fourth in a week, each with a different community group. As a team, we are a bit overwhelmed and exhausted.

I have done my submissions to the things. May they make a difference.

Sunday lunch of roasted orange veg soup with freshly made bread, rhubarb from the garden poached with orange peel with a dash of sour cream. Cup of tea, on the deck, in the sun, with the dog and a book. The neighbourhood kids keep hooning past on their bikes and scooters.

The Duleep Singh episodes of the Empire Podcast are so good.

pea risotto and a pot of tea in front of the fire. It's a cold night in Õtepoti.

Today the way that we mistreat out planet and each other made me want to howl.

Having great difficulty focusing today so have pulled out the “ you just have to concentrate on this for one Messiah” technique that got me through thesis writing.

Fun singing lesson tonight. Now home with the fire going and a huge bowl of bok choi noodles

Making the most of the sun by airing out the house, doing multiple loads of laundry, making jam and making lemon scrap cookies.

If vintage wallpaper is your thing, please check this wee place out. Yes I do want the kitchen cabbage-and-garlic paper, please and thank you: www.trademe.co.nz/a/property/r...

This was this morning’s sky as I walked in to work.

Am running another workshop tomorrow, and I ran out of spoons about Tuesday lunchtime. So supper has been field-trip pancakes (oats, flour, eggs and milk) with pears poached with butter and the bottom of a bottle of maple syrup. Then it will be yet another early night

Hornsea Pottery on Taskmaster - basically two of my beloved things at once. Greg Davis was wrong to be unimpressed.

💯 this. Support public transport.

Absolutely gobsmacked, and not in a good way, at a seminar that I just sat through.

At work, data crunching with a cup of tea, listening to my Mum’s favourite album. am only just managing not to sing along!

Two days co-facilitating a conservation planning workshop. Really fun, and I feel that we as a team have a much better handle on delivery aka actual projects that will happen on the actual ground. Or in the actual freshwater. Or the sea.

I won't be going to see Dad this year, and I hate that I won't be going to see Dad this year.

I have just paid my chronic illness tax of $50, aka picked up my prescriptions for the next few months

Someone on here had a recipe for feijoa skins I think? anyone remember?

Welcome to “my brain is very tired so it starts coming up with nonsense“ question: What would be in your pet’s merch line? The small one would have: a fragrance based on the smell that the herb garden leaves on her head in the mornings. A really glossy black paint. a fabric as soft as her ears

Team - your day will be made by watching this. About Te Au Roa o Te Rakihouia, our newest marine reserves: www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/ma...

In case any of you are music industry people who love working with young people, Amped Music Project Coordinator role is open... nz.seek.com/job/92377849 (Bonus - would be working with ish me 😍)

Well that was a Very Big Day.