iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Heather R

Beckie @fitkiwi.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Question for the single renters 🤔 What % of your weekly income are you paying in rent? My business has crashed badly in the current economy, so I'm paying 75% of my income as rent. I've cut as much as I possibly can, and am now down to 2 meals a day. I'm not looking for pity, just curious.

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Reposted by Heather R

Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Well done! Mine is that my brand new ebike took me from the ferry to Te Haruhi Bay campground (in Whangaparāoa) for four glorious nights camping. I hadn't expected to take it camping 6 days after buying it (!), but our lift fell through and I risked it and it was fine :-)

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Thank you so much for writing about your time here - I came across the thread this evening and found it an absolute delight :-)

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

It's funny - I love swimming and regularly swam in a river which had eels as a kid. I was always terrified of being bitten, especially when I dove down deep, but this is the first time I've ever been bitten, and it was in ankle-deep water...

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I got a massive fright a few months back, bathing in the shallows whilst camping (remote campsite, no clothes on) when the eel I knew was there but thought wouldn't go in such shallow water took a firm grip on my leg and gave me a good shake! Similar thoughts re infection, too, but no harm done!

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

That sounds fun! I do something similar with quinces, guavas (Kiwi strawberry guava, not the tropical one) and feijoas, but with lots of sugar and no gelatine. Keen to give yours a go some time :-)

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Well done Ash!! Mine is I got an ebike on Friday. My bike is my main transport and I'd like to keep it that way, but my health has been declining this year and I can no longer reliably get very far. I did my first real e-ride today and comfortably got to my favourite beach - a 15km round trip :-)

A selfie of a smiling woman with a beach and picnic table and pōhutukawa trees in the background.

A colourful bag and water bottle on a picnic table with a black bike to the side and sea in the background.

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

@birdandbeach.bsky.social Thank you so much for the lovely Frank the Rūrū tea towel I was given for my birthday today, and extra-special thanks for the card + coaster. Such a delight :-) I've long loved the portrait version (pictured on my bedroom ceiling some years' back) & will love these too :-)

A dark purplish-blue tea towel with a picture of a rūrū, and a matching card and coaster on top.

The same tea towel hanging on a rail next to a handtowel.

The coaster on an old-fashioned lace cloth, with a mug next to it.

Many pictures behind some A0 perspex, including one of the same morepork.

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Indeed - I'm a big fan of keeping old clothes (and other textiles) going, too. A year ago I came across a set of colourful spools of very fine wool at an op shop and I've been thoroughly enjoying learning to do 'visible' darns with them now :-)

A red fine knit longsleeve top with two square mends, both in contrasting dark blue and bright yellow.

An orange chair from the 1970s with a maroon patch across the front, stabilised with fawn sashiko flowers.

In-progress shot of patching a bedsock using a houndstooth weave in lime green and fawn.

I think my first 'visible' darn - on a towel an L-shaped patch in dark and light blue, green and yellow.

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Yay! I got Moonglow and Golden Grape from them years ago and they're still going strong - so yum :-) Every so often I get a golden grape/dark red hybrid tomato which is the golden grape shape but the dark red flavour and that always amuses me.

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Surgeons darn people!! I had no idea - that's so cool :-) Yet another reason for me to not be a surgeon, though. I used to really hate darning - and have only come around to it recently having learned to weave decorative patterns. Probably less desirable in a surgical mend!

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Reposted by Heather R

Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I didn't read the article, but I found your comment interesting. As someone who's lived with chronic illness for ages, I often think about how so many people think the world is divided into 'people who give help' and 'people who receive help'. In the disability community, mutual aid is...

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

....and I would have literally died without significant help with activities of daily living. I wonder if the thing you're noting with doctors is part of that bigger story. Doctors are *professionally* 'people who give help', so it's really violating that mental divide for them to also need it.

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

...changed for bed at night, to take me to the loo, to spoon feed me. But at the same time, I was a 'helper'. People came to me to talk stuff through because that helped them. I was doing the research that became justkai.org.nz. I was the coordinator that made our street's annual BBQ happen...

justkai.org.nz

Just Kai: Identifying Slave Free Supply Chains

Advice on how to find slave-free fish, cocoa, and sugar products in New Zealand

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

...such a big thing, but 'able' people don't seem to have that concept. And I think 'people who give help' fear becoming 'people who receive help' - perhaps, in part, as they expect to then cease being 'agents'. But that's so silly! I'm not so sick now, but for years I needed people to get me...

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

(we're not entirely car free, but we don't own one, which does make every use more conscious!)

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Indeed! For someone who drives heaps, it makes sense on so many levels. Although for urbanites I do encourage car-free as yet greener - my husband and I have had carbon footprints around the 4T/year mark for some years now, and that's been a key part of it.

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

That's just shy of 5 tonnes (!) - the Ministry for the Environment says burning diesel emits 2.72kg CO2e/L environment.govt.nz/assets/Publi...

environment.govt.nz

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Thank you for this. I live around the corner from that temple and know nothing about it (except that it's a beautiful building...), but have been very concerned about the Hindutva rhetoric I hear coming out of India. I had no idea they were connected.

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

My husband is very sad he has the flu and can't go today. I, on the other hand, am very looking forward to checking it out, but on a day with less crowds!

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I use them - but then I also get a bit sad that they look so used. But some last remarkably well! Last week I darned a tea towel a dear friend in Switzerland gave us for our wedding - this December we'll have been married 23 years, and it's been in use all that time, reminding me of her :-)

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

It took finding something he *really* wanted to read for him to be willing to put the (considerable!) work in to overcome the barriers his brain was giving him - all the 'structure' in the world wouldn't do that

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Absolutely! I know a young man who couldn't read AT ALL at age 9 (struggled to recognise his own name), but started to get the hang of reading when he got really into foreign movies with subtitles in his late teens, and now (mid 20s) reads Chinese scifi (in translation) for pleasure.

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

(those links should work without me sharing my actual dropbox with you - please let me know if they don't). I also realised the recipe names aren't showing - they're for a Greek style chickpea/tomato thing and an Indian chickpea/tomato thing.

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I would find this lentil ratatouille ideal in that situation: www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/48hrp... Other favourites from our house: - www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/48hrp... - www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/48hrp... - this dahl (but the cornbread recipe isn't vegan) www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/48hrp...

dropbox.com

Dropbox

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

An anti-everything-woke friend of mine on Facebook was sharing this far-less-appealing version, and the comments on the original were full of people taking it very seriously :-(

A red PakNSickle supermarket with lots of threatening signs like 'no choice only essentials', 'one item per comrade limited stock', 'queue in silence' etc.

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I loved all the layers of colours and shapes in the sunset tonight 🙂 - in Avondale, Tāmaki Makaurau.

A sky view with dark land underneath. The bottom layer is orange with streaky clouds heading up into the still-blue sky.

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Reposted by Heather R

JRho @jrho.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

The most absolutely massive flex from the state fair exhibit. This quilt is made of 40 years of prize ribbons from various categories at the New Mexico State Fair won by Carol St. Clair Johnson. She also won a prize for this quilt.

Massive quilt made of prize ribbons in blue, red, yellow, and white

Center square of quilt made of yellow and red ribbons and yellow rosettes

Block of quilt made of blue, yellow, red, and white ribbons. Ribbons state the year. Some have the prize winning object written on in marker

Carol St. Clair Johnson
born 1954; resides Albuquerque, NM

O Fair New Mexico-41 Fair Years
2023
satin ribbons

After unexpectedly winning her first blue ribbon for a sewn cape in 1981, Carol St. Clair Johnson developed an enduring love for the New Mexico State Fair. The quilt Fair New Mexico-41 Fair Years incorporates more than six hundred of the ribbons she won at the fair every subsequent year except 2020 (when the fair was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic). Johnson earned ribbons for needlework, knitting, crochet, pies, cookies, cakes, canning, jewelry, flowers, vegetables, and potted plants. The title of the quilt is a reference to the state song, and the design places the state's Zia sun symbol at the center. The quilt earned Johnson yet another ribbon: Best in Category (miscellaneous quilt) at the 2023 New Mexico State Fair.

Courtesy of Carol St. Clair Johnson

6861072008

Reposted by Heather R

Our World in Data @ourworldindata.org · 07/09/2026

📝 New article on Our World in Data: A never-ending childhood of malaria. Read accounts from those who have had a severe case of malaria, and many will describe it as one of the worst experiences of their life.

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

So awesome! I loved the books, but didn't know she was involved with the movie :-)

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

No way! I loved the books, and had no idea she was connected to the movie! In typical small NZ world fashion, my older brother is friends with her older sister :-)

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Lol! On the other hand, people do genuinely not-infrequently have trouble hearing me, even without the mask..

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

My church, unfortunately, has a lot of people who fit into the 'other person thinks is does' category :-( And yes, I have also done markets (on behalf on an NGO, not sales) and found a mask got in the way of people wanting to interact.

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Isn't it great not getting sick all the time? I stopped masking at church some years' back (for me, I felt the cost/benefit didn't work as it really was getting in the way of relating to people), but mask everywhere else remotely crowded and can't believe how rarely I get sick these days!

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

It's gorgeous! My husband just asked me if I'd like it for my birthday, and we've done an order :-) We already have your rūrū print - he's Frank the Rūrū in this house.

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

They had already worked together as co-deputy principals (something the Ministry had a category for) and then went on to share the principal role when the previous chap resigned. They were there from my 4th form year on.

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Examples of co-leadership? My high school (Selwyn College) had a male and female co-principal from 1991-ish for ~8 years - but hasn't since. It wasn't technically possible so one was legally principal and the other deputy (and they switched order each year), but they functioned as equals.

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Ooh! I did that years ago and still have the Moonglow and Golden grape tomatoes chugging along :-)

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Also happy to help - for Mt Roskill.

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Heather R @kiwienzian.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

That glass panel looks really effective.

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Reposted by Heather R

Our World in Data @ourworldindata.org · 19/08/2026

What is the best way to reduce our diet’s carbon footprint? Many argue that comparisons based on global averages overlook the large variation in the footprints of foods across the world.

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