I feel a bit of a fool telling this story but I'm also very relieved that my 'dead' computer came back to life four days after it got zapped in the lightning strike. I was packing it up to send it away and thought I'd check out what lights came on so I could jot down a short report for the technicians. Not only did all the lights come on but it booted fine and has been going ever since! I don't want to question why; I reckon it's a miracle and I now have a full backup safely tucked away. Others haven't been as lucky with zapped motherboards, modems and power supplies.
We've had far less rain than places further north but that doesn't mean that the ground is dry. The water table isn't far from the surface at the best of times and it's rare to walk across grass without squelching. The roading guys have been clearing ditches at the front corner of my section with the cunning plan of moving water away from the roadside and preventing flooding in heavy rain.
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There's a culvert under the road on this corner but the natural water
table level pretty much fills it up all the time |
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| The west side (lhs in pic above) of the culvert |
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| The east side (rhs in first pic) of the culvert |
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| The new drainage channel now bordering the front of my section |
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| Even after extensive digging, the culvert is barely out of the water |
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Not too many mud puddles on my driveway - the trees are growing fast
and it won't be long before the house is hidden |
Kakapo are one of the reasons that I moved to Stewart Island - my life's U-turn happened after living on Codfish Island for two weeks as a feed-out volunteer. I spent a lot of time with Sirocco, the world-famous kakapo and great ambassador for his species. At present, parrot behavioural specialist, Barbara Heidenreich, is on Codfish and there's
fascinating footage of her with the kakapo (link opens in new window). There's also heaps of information on this unique bird, along with volunteering opportunities
here
Temperatures have been a bit cool with the easterly so I'm wearing my woolly hat when I go out; it made me smile when I saw a family of fungi on the roadside all wearing their hats too.
