To put my tongue away and fell asleep instead!
Snoskred Photography
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Sunday Selections Week 36
I had zero plans to garden this year. Three Sydney Funnelwebs have been found on this property since Autumn. For those of you not familiar with this creature, it is extremely venomous and quite aggressive. Never fear, there are no spider images here. I would not do that to you! Arachnophobes know better than to post certain pics as a surprise to other people.
But then, I saw these gorgeous gloves at Aldi, and I re-thought my zero gardening plan. Maybe I would feel more comfortable wearing a pair of substantial gloves. We tried them on – The Other Half got large ones, my hands fit perfectly into medium.
My zero plans were quadrupled into “no *#@!&*%$ way am I gardening this year” when two absolute nitwits posted images on a local community group of Sydney Funnelwebs they had found out and about after the floods. UNSUBSCRIBE ME URGENTLY! I left both groups. Life is way too short for spider images on my Facebook feed. The damage was done, though. My skin crawled for an entire week. Not cool at all!
These people had put these creatures into plastic containers with sawdust, which implies keeping the creature long term. That freaks me out. Plus I feel like it is a bit cruel to the spiders. Not quite as cruel as what my chickens do to them which is dead them and eat them. But if they are found on my property, I’m backing the chickens 100% – dead them and eat them, girls!
Gardening this year was back on my agenda despite the images, because the chooks have been getting plenty of free range time and they have been spending a lot of it in the garden bed. I’ve compromised with a – sort of – gardening plan.
I decided to put some baby spinach, silverbeet, and brussel sprouts into the large planter box. I’m not sure how it will go because last year the kale was a massive failure in there – many moths laid eggs on it and they never grew the way they should have. I might end up screening this planter box in, if that happens again this year.
Into the large garden bed, I planted two Nasturtium plants. There is already one Nasturtium down the back and when the chooks are in the garden bed they mostly leave it alone. There are bugs to dig for, ain’t no chook got time to be eating plants! If I pull some out and throw it into the chook pen they gobble it up with great glee, because they have usually already eaten all the bugs in there before midday. I will buy any new varieties that I see of this plant because I love the flowers *and* humans and the chooks can eat it.
The chooks are on the lay again – on average I am getting 3-4 eggs a day. When I make my snacks, I sometimes mix a Manning Valley egg in with the girls small eggs, which are the largest ones they sell.
If I were *not* an Arachnophobe, I would post a picture of this little orb weaver which I see every single day when I check the chook coop for eggs. It has found a tiny home in a small screw hole on the chook pen and every day when the sun rises, it folds itself into this teeny spot.
I’m ok with certain kinds of spider making a home around the chook pen – they help with catching mosquitos and flies. Once I know where the web is, I am not likely to walk into it by mistake. The only thing that spider has to worry about is the chooks, who will eat any spider they see. Luckily they cannot reach where it is, nor could they see it unless he moved. It is well camouflaged. My little friend will find many tasty treats this spring and summer.
If I see one of those scary aggressive venomous creatures, I’m probably going to want to be on the next flight to Antarctica. I’m certainly not going to be putting it into a plastic container, nor will I be trying to kill it myself, and there will be a lot of screaming.. You’ll hear it, wherever you are.. :)
Would you like to join in with Sunday Selections? The rules are very simple:-
1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title
2. link back to River at Drifting Through Life, somewhere in your post
3. leave River a comment so that she knows you’ve joined in and can come over and see what you’ve posted.
Weekly Wrap Up –
Loads of goings on here at home, but nothing especially exciting that has not already been turned into a future blog post. My readers who have zero interest in Mr Robot can skip this next bit because it is a Mr Robot Finale Festival! ;)
The Mr Robot finale was awesome in some ways, but also slightly disappointing in some ways. I think the extra week of waiting meant that my expectations were very high..
Alan Sepinwall said “What a fascinating, off-kilter, 100% “Mr. Robot” way to end this season” and on reflection I have to agree with that concept. I have not re-watched it yet purely because I did not feel ready to – I’m letting it sink in first. One thing I do know, that scene in Times Square was an enormous explosion of colour in a usually quite muted show colour palette.
I’ve collected up a roundup of interviews and linkage for you. SPOILER ALERT – there are spoilers in these interviews. You do not want to click unless you have seen the entire 10 episodes of Mr Robot.
Interviews with Rami Malek
‘Mr. Robot’ Star Rami Malek on the ‘Emotional’ Season Finale (SPOILERS)
Rami Malek of USA’s ‘Mr. Robot’ | ‘The Andy Greenwald Podcast’ – This interview is older but was deeply excellent. Grantland has a lot of Mr Robot content – Grantland – Mr Robot
Rami & Twin Sami on Jimmy Kimmel – Having a twin is a great way to figure out what you would look like with a beard and a different hairstyle.
Interviews with Christian Slater –
Christian Slater weighs in on Mr. Robot twist and season finale
Mr. Robot Speaks: Christian Slater on ‘Mr. Robot’s’ Shocking, Roanoke-Delayed Finale and Season 2
Interview with BD Wong –
BD Wong on Why Mr. Robot’s Portrayal of a Transgender Character Is Radical
Interviews with Sam Esmail –
Sam Esmail Joins Andy Greenwald To Discuss ‘Mr. Robot’ First Season This is an hour long video interview – it was brilliant
Mr. Robot’s creator ‘did everything in my power’ to telegraph the big twist
Mr. Robot finale: Creator Sam Esmail answers burning questions
‘Mr. Robot’ Boss Talks Finale and Season 2: Elliot “Is Past the Point of No Return”
Mr. Robot Creator Sam Esmail on His Plans for Season Two and What the Show Is Really All About
‘Mr. Robot’ Finale: Series Creator On White Rose, The Wellicks & Elliot’s Memory Dump In Season 2
So… what did you think? – Sam Esmail asked what people thought over on Reddit and he also replied to a few of the comments.
Opinion re the finale –
How the Mr. Robot Finale Tumbled Backward into Its Most Piercing Social Message Yet
How Mr. Robot Killed the Centerpiece of Prestige Television: Capitalism
How Mr. Robot Became One of TV’s Most Visually Striking Shows
Mr. Robot had a perfect season on Rotten Tomatoes
About the mail program Elliot uses –
Over To You –
Anything interesting happening in your world? :)
Carter Gets A New Hat
A couple of months ago, we were sitting down at our local bowling club watching a band (sadly not The Villains) play and there were these kids with sparkly sequin hats. I said to The Other Half – I would like one of those for me!
On a trip to Warrawong to get my car washed and pick up chicken from Lenards, I handed over the car keys and was told to return in 2 hours. We did some serious wandering around and in a shop called either Smart Dollar, Hot Dollar, or some other word I can’t recall in front of the Dollar, hats with sequins were discovered. For the low price of $5, I picked up this gorgeous purple number, and for the time being it resides on the skull of my excellent and quite silent friend Carter.
He was already wearing this purple tee, it is just coincidence that the hat matches it. I had considered a few other colours, silver and pink, and decided that purple would go with the most outfits of mine.
A profile view. Carter suggested keeping his beanie on, and the hat fits better that way. :)
Sunday Selections Week 35
It has been quite a rainy week here on the South Coast.
That was our rain total on Wednesday afternoon. Monday we had 107.2mm – Tuesday 254.5 – Wednesday 45mm. I suspect on Tuesday quite a lot of rain ended up not being counted because we had strong winds as well and several times I looked out there to see that it was raining sideways instead of down. Our rain gauge is not equipped for such shenanigans.
The stormwater drains were so full, the water was flowing out into the street rather than into the drains.
The front yard had a swimming pool next to the rubbish bins.
It is times like these I am really glad we put the chook coop and run up on stilts. We did that initially because of our drainage problem out there, but it has been a blessing in more ways than keeping their feet dry in wet weather.
The space underneath is on slightly higher ground and the chooks hang out down there in summer because it is super shady and cool. When it rains a little, it remains dry and they can dustbathe there. When it rains a lot like this, even that area gets soaked but it is from water running across not from being rained on. They still like to venture down there and chase bugs and worms swimming by and have another place to visit without getting rained on.
Their water bowls live under the coop partly to protect them from stuff being blown in when it is windy, partly to protect them from rain and also because they do spend so much time hanging out there, I really want their water to be where they are.
The grassy area is a swimming pool when it rains a lot here. I am writing this on Saturday and all of this area is starting to dry out. When I visited the chooks this morning, I saw they’ve already made themselves a new dustbathing area in the slightly higher ground in the garden bed you can see in the very top left of this photo.
I’m happy to say the concrete is doing very well and in particular the drain by the shed door did a lot of excellent work during these torrential rains. I’m very thankful we had it done before this happened because the driveway would be a soggy pothole covered mess by now.
We certainly did not have the same kind of issues that people in Sussex Inlet, St Georges Basin, Shoalhaven Heads, Callala Bay and around some of the other areas near waterways. There was a lot of very bad flooding in those areas. Here are some pictures taken from a helicopter.
Snoskred Is Superstitious
The whole time my Aunt and Uncle were visiting, our cars needed washing but I was all.. no, lets not do that because it will rain. So I got the car washed, and then we have these huge rains.
And then, I think I jinxed Mr Robot, because leading up to the finale being aired this week I was so excited and the day before I said to The Other Half “This time tomorrow we will know more”. And then they postponed it due to the shooting. On the one hand, good on them.
On The Other Hand –
If television episodes with shootings in them were postponed regularly in the USA whenever there is a shooting, those episodes would never, ever be aired. Seriously, the second amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791. I think perhaps, back in those days, there might have been good reasons to be carrying a gun, like wild animals roaming and in order to hunt.
Wonkette wrote this great piece – Here’s How The Second Amendment Has Prevented Tyranny Lately – remember they are a sarcastic satire site however that article says everything that needs to be said.
Well, almost everything. How about the fact that so far this year, on average 35 Americans every single day have been killed by gun violence.
There is even a site that keeps count – Gun Violence Archive. But hey, it doesn’t matter what I think – I’m not American and there is nothing I can do other than feel deep sadness from afar.
Weekly Wrap Up –
This week I did a lot of writing for the blog. Posts are pre-scheduled into October, at this stage. I also did a lot of drafts – eg I did all my Sunday Selections drafts with the dates and categories for the rest of 2015, all ready for me to put the photos into.
Bloglovin
This week I had set a goal of adding as many of the blogs on my blogroll into my Bloglovin’ as possible – most of them were already on there. If they were not already listed, I did not add them, though as a reader you always can do that. You can check out who I am following via this link or via my Blogroll page, plus new follows and blogs I am test driving get added at the end of each month in my new feeds post.
Have you claimed your blog over at Bloglovin’? I’m writing a post on how to do that, which I am hoping to schedule for Tuesday this week as all the other days are already taken.. :)
Rewatch Breaking Bad
Also this week, I wrote the final posts for Rewatch Breaking Bad. I’ve given one post to Sephyroth who of course picked the best episode ever – Ozymandias – and once that is loaded in, the blog will be complete.
I do not think I anticipated the huge amount of work involved in putting those posts together when I started out. I figured it would be copy and paste the text in, add some screenshots, add a couple of links. The truth of the matter – each show had to be watched and screenshots taken which was quite time consuming.
On average I took around 60 screenshots per episode though I did not use anywhere near that many. A 45 minute episode paused 60 times blows out to about an hour and a half. I know the commands to edit screenshots in Photoimpact off by heart now..
Then I would re-watch the episode to grab extra favourite lines. Then I would watch the episode with the commentary track if it had one, and listen to the podcast. Plus, Sephyroth was proof reading my work, so he’ll probably be glad to see an ending as well! ;)
Finishing that blog is a huge relief and there were times when I thought I would give up and quit. Today it is a year and one day since the first post was published there. This is a huge happy moment for me. :)
Mr Robot
For fans of Mr Robot, you might love this interview with hoodie tidbits and this interview. There is this SAG interview as well. And the people behind the Facebook page are *awesome*. You can get to know Rami Malek some more here, and did you know Rami has a twin brother?
If you can stand Chris Hardwick, there is the Nerdist podcast with Christian Slater and Rami Malek. The interview starts at 5:02 and the first five minutes was *more* annoying than I expected so trust me, skip ahead.
Apparently the finale will be 75 minutes long. It is important to keep watching till the end of the credits. I don’t know if it is apparent or noticeable :) but I am *obsessed* with this show. My apologies for writing about it so much! Never fear, one more episode and it is over for 2015.
Over To You –
Anything interesting happening in your world this week? Let me know in the comments!
Sunday Selections Week 33
Ilikai Hotel & Condos – where we stayed on our last visit to Oahu in 2013.
A beach photo from our last visit in 2013.
A rainbow over the same beach.
Would you like to join in? The rules are very simple:-
1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title
2. link back to River at Drifting Through Life, somewhere in your post
3. leave River a comment so that she knows you’ve joined in and can come over and see what you’ve posted.
Snoskred Returns Tomorrow
Snoskred returns from her holidays with a new post tomorrow. Comments are turned off for this post but tomorrow they will be back on and Snoskred will be keen to hear from you..
International Marketplace, Oahu, HI
There were a lot of jewellery stands and in general whatever gemstone you might be looking for, you could find it set in sterling silver, and sometimes in different levels of gold as well.
There were lots of nic-nacs. geegaws and souvenirs, many of which were made in China. But sometimes you could find the genuine Made in HI articles.
Remember, Snoskred is on holiday at the moment. Comments are turned off.
International Marketplace, Oahu, HI
There were quite a lot of art stands to be found within the International Marketplace.
There were also some little bridges though in general there was no water underneath them, at least, not that I ever saw. Mostly there was foliage underneath them. Some like the one above had concrete, others were wooden, like the one below.
Remember, Snoskred is on holiday at the moment. Comments are turned off.
International Marketplace, Oahu, HI
Looking up into the Banyan tree.
One of the jewellery stalls. It was at one of these stalls that I found my favourite triangular Mystic Topaz ring, plus some other versions of Mystic Topaz that I enjoy wearing.
Remember, Snoskred is on holiday at the moment. Comments are turned off.
Sunday Selections Week 32
This week in holiday photos, I’ll be taking you to visit the International Marketplace in Waikiki. This place is sadly now gone. Here is a nice article to read if you would like to know more about it. The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of Waikiki’s International Market Place.
In among the little stalls of jewellery goodness and much not made in Hawaii souvenirs as well as some true Made in Hawaii items, there was a lot of greenery thanks to the huge Banyan tree.
Would you like to join in? The rules are very simple:-
1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title
2. link back to River at Drifting Through Life, somewhere in your post
3. leave River a comment so that she knows you’ve joined in and can come over and see what you’ve posted.
Weekly Wrap Up –
I did a little bit of blog reading this week. Dawn at it just Dawned on me posted about the Tiny Kittens website, where you can watch kittens being born and mothered. Currently I have seen two live cams there – Tip and Sisko who is a feral cat and therefore won’t be bothered by humans eg cleaning the bedding etc..
Snoskred On Holidays
Just a reminder – Snoskred is taking a holiday from the blog. My Aunt and Uncle are here visiting, The Other Half has holidays booked, and my intention is to put the laptop away for most of, if not the entire, time.
You probably won’t see comments from me on your blogs while I’m on holidays. It is not you, it is me. ;) I just need a break.
I probably will not be keeping up with my reading, meaning I will return to a lot of posts to read. So you might get comments on older posts from me when I return.
I’ve got photo posts scheduled for the next two weeks, but I am giving you a holiday as well – I’ll be turning off the comments on my posts..
I’ll be back on Monday the 17th of August. :)
Remember, Snoskred is on holiday at the moment. Comments are turned off.
Magic Island, Oahu, Hawaii
Magic Island, Oahu, HI
Meanwhile, underwater at Magic Island –
Remember, Snoskred is on holiday at the moment. Comments are turned off.