Imaginary

At Te Papa, there is a small room where a collection of birds studied by Walter Buller are on display.

Among them are

403 Years Ago

On a january night in 1610, the moons of Jupiter were observed by human eyes for the first time. According to wikipedia, Galileo only discovered 3 moons initially (perhaps those in this picture?, with Io hidden behind Jupiter as above). Taken with a telephoto camera lens, a steady hand, and a car bonnet.

I wonder if we will ever travel there?

I want to watch this movie

Cloudburst

Observed yesterday from the library above the city, which often makes me feel like I am here:

The New Year

Sophia arrived in the evening of the eve of the New Year, and came to stay at my grandparents house for a few days. Exploring the local landscape together made me feel like I was on holiday in a foreign country, even though I had been coming to this place before I could even remember it.

It had been so long since I had last been here, so it was each of us who wondered what was down the dusty road on the left

or the path to the north

We made a landing on Observation Beach, named after the observatory set up there by Dumont D'Urville nearly 186 years ago to the day (16th January 1827), and I felt almost as if we were discovering this land for the first time.

When a storm blew through cutting the power, it provided a good excuse to play card games and scrabble in the candlelight.

And when the clear skies returned, the night shone brilliantly, filled with dust and light, meteors and satellites, whole worlds and us, just looking up

(from left: Matariki, Jupiter, Orion)

December 31

Fireworks at midnight down at the beach

Meanwhile in London, with my sister and Jeremy off to see Wicked the musical (aweesome), realised how strange it was to see the future on TV

Happy New Year!