Autumn Zebra

Some graffiti I saw a while back: Photo: Pink writing on concrete saying "What are the pirates doing here?" Indeed that is a worthwhile question, but my question is - why are the pirates affiliated with Cthulu? Photo: Pink skull and crossbones on concrete with tentacle mouth.

I found the guy who has been eating our mail: Photo: brown patterned snail shell

I grew these babies in the garden. Ok, I am kidding - they are not babies, they are broad beans. But I guess beans are baby bean plants. I'm pretty sure I planted these at the very wrong time according to the books, but the plants grew the best of anything. Broad beans seem to be one of the few vegetables that are not destroyed by insects in my garden. Photo: A colander with fat broad bean pods in it

Judging where it falls amongst my photos, I took this on boxing day. It's not a fantastic photo, but it is interesting how much wear-and-tear there is on the beetle's exo-skeleton. In fact, it looks kind of dead, but I'm sure it was alive. Oh, that's right, we found it on the pavement in the hot sun and it was barely moving so I moved it to the edge under a bush. Photo: blackish waisted beetle with a lot of whitish patches around the edge of it's body, like paint worn away.

I haven't written a blog post in a long time. During the holidays, I have been wearing mostly just tights with long t-shirts over them, which is very comfortable but not very practical for going places. I accidentally went to dinner at an Indian restaurant in green leggings, a "Lost World" t-shirt, an old loose cardigan and my Mum's too large ballet slipper-like shoes, but luckily it was in South Dunedin, where people regularly go to the supermarket in their pyjamas and being weird is normal, due to it's very low socio-economic status. Strangely, it's also pretty much the only area where you can get dinner or coffee after 9pm (and to a perfectly reasonable standard with good service and comfortable surroundings). So, anyway, I didn't have any sensible clothes, so just before the holidays are about to end, I made a long tunic top. It is made of 100% merino (10$/m, amazing!) and it is based on a Burda magazine pattern. I made the pattern bigger and lengthe...