Another little something

Somehow, without being aware of what I have done, I have offended the gods of water. Perhaps it was hubris; my claims of having a weather witch stay with me could have disturbed the higher gods. 

Whatever, the waste water pipe from the kitchen sink (and the waste disposal) became blocked last night, and instead of leaving early this morning to travel north as we had planned, we had to stay back and contact the plumbers. Fortunately he was able to come, and he extracted the offending eggshells.

Apparently the most common cause of blocked pipes from waste disposal machines is eggshells. They get stuck to the sides of the pipe, and other stuff accumulates and blockage ensues. His advice was to run hot water for a time after putting egg shells down.

Having not been able to leave early, we were most unkeen to go in the very hot afternoon sun, as we expected nose-to-tail stop/go traffic for the last half of the journey. By coming when we did, it was a straightforward trip, and we arrived in plenty of time for me to get a walk at Southend before the whanau gathers for a meal later this evening.

My walk in the incoming tide was shorter than expected as the memory card became full quite early, and despite deleting some, it was soon again full. At least I was there long enough to get this photo of bird 45 for the year. The Poaka (Pied stilt) is mostly very skittish, and flies off early in my being in the vicinity. This one (on its own, unusually) remained with the herons after I conceded the cause and returned to the beach house.

As you can see, the poaka has a wee tidbit,; less than 10 secs earlier it had caught and swallowed a slightly larger crab (I presume)