I woke up this morning to an a capella group practising Christmas carols in the carpark across the road. Today is good.

My short poem "Ōtautahi in Spring" has been accepted by mitchell_hart for the guest-edited issue of inkscrawl, #5. It was written back in spring as a reflection for Christchurch; there are patupaiarehe ( Read more... )

So, as might be expected given my workplace, there was a live feed set up on a big screen for the MSL landing and we all came to watch, since it was the middle of the afternoon. And there was the worry, and heart-in-mouth tension, and hope, watching where all that can be hoped is that the right thing was done, by a lot of people trying to be very ( Read more... )

There are rosellas chuckling right outside my window, and the day is soft, grey and cool.

My poem 'Orpheus in Orbit', a homage to Cassini, has been accepted by Ideomancer. 55 flybys of Titan and counting; may there be many more yet. Have a photo from the protagonist. (and enjoyably readable journal ref to poem).


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Five whole days without internets; update later. I got past the backlog of email and -

Margaret Mahy has died.
Sally Ride has died.

The world is a little less full of wonder and joy and delight in exploration and creativity.

I never met Ride. She was one of the early generation of astronauts, and more recent people like Eileen Collins meant more to me ( Read more... )