Termites? There were mounds of them

 
On our recent trip to Darwin, we scooted out to Litchfield National Park for the day to have an explore.  Litchfield is known for its great swimming holes and waterfall, but it is also known for its termite mounds.  Magnetic termite mounds, contrary to popular belief, don't attract metal objects.  They are named magnetic because the termites build them all along the same axis.  Much more interesting though are the mounds of the Cathedral Termite.  For a creature that survives on grass, they have quite a lot of energy when it comes to building.  50 years old and 5 metres tall.  Quite fascinating.

the residents, at home...

This one has some growing to do!

Double the brass

It's no secret on this blog that there is a trumpeter in the family.  Claire has been playing the trumpet since joining the ACT Instrumental Music Program in Year 5 and three years later is now in the ACT Junior Concert Band.  This is a great program offered by the ACT Department of School Education (yet another reason to love Canberra???) where kids join a band for two years in primary school and learn to play an instrument.  It's a program you have to be selected for, and then further progression into the concert bands is by audition, so it means a bit to be involved.

However, we are now blessed with double brass.  The trumpeter has been joined by a euphoniumer (?)(euphoniumist?) euphonium player as Rosemary too has joined the program.  If you have no idea what a euphonium is, think small tuba.  Not quite as big as she is, but not far off.

Needless to say, the volume level in the house sometimes feels like it has been cranked up to 11.  I look forward to the day when they can play together without squabbling.

They make a practice of not giving siblings the same instruments (thank goodness).  So with Claire on trumpet and Rosemary on euphonium, that leaves trombone or tuba for Stephanie, unless she leans towards percussion...  Pass the ear plugs in a few years time!

Adventures in holiday house cooking

What is it about holiday houses?  Why do they never have vegetable peelers?  I understand them lacking other things I find essential, like coffee plungers (Darwin Beach House has one now) and decent knives.  But vegetable peelers? And how come no tongs?  Or a colander?

So, Easter in Darwin to meet up with the male part of the family.  Sunset over the ocean, termite mounds, crocodiles, swimming in waterfalls, all the things one would expect to do in the Top End.  And very nice it was too.  But this post is about the cooking of one particular meal.

The house came equipped with a big BBQ.  Half my bank account and a chat with the butcher later, (plus a foray into Woolies for vegetable peelers and a few other essentials), I had the fixings of a meal.

Want to see what $40 worth of steak looks like?

Two pieces of scotch fillet on the bone, a good five centimetres thick.

So, back to the kitchen.  To balance out the red meat there was some snapper to cook as well.  Fish needs foil on a BBQ, I think.  No foil to be had.  However the resourceful holiday house cook recalls that the quiche she made for lunch was sitting in an aluminium pie dish.  Flatten it out and there is the holiday house equivalent of foil, once you squash the little holes closed.

Cooking is thirsty work.  Important not to get dehydrated in the tropics.

On to the BBQ.  I bought four cents worth of ginger at Woolworths to go on the fish.  Woolies would have been better off if I stole it, I think it cost them more to pay the man to weigh it.

No tongs, as mentioned before.  Lucky the steak came with handles.  Pie plate cooking worked quite well on the fish.

Ta dah!!! Meal on the table!!!


And if you are wondering how to cook my steak when you invite me over to dinner, see below.  Pretty damned near perfect.

This place we call Canberra

There's been a bit in the press lately about Canberra, and particularly Canberra bashing. It's all neatly contained here on the one page, thanks Canberra Times http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/get-a-life-canberrans-told-20120412-1wwte.html if you want to waste your time reading it.

Even before this latest round started, I had been thinking about writing this post and putting down in words and pictures why I like Canberra, and why we should stop referring to decisions made by the Federal Government as being made by 'Canberra'.

So, here it is.  Say it loud, say it proud, I think Canberra is great, on a number of levels.  Here's just a few:

1. It's beautiful.
A couple of weekends ago, we went for a bike ride around half of Lake Burley Griffin (beautiful in itself). The water was like glass, the leaves were just starting to turn, there was a hot air balloon landing across from where we were riding at one point...  Yes, there are parts of Canberra that are not beautiful.  Just like Sydney has its pretty bits and ugly bits, as does Melbourne, London, Paris...  But I think Canberra's beauty is more accessible and easier to find, simply because the city is not so big and is surrounded by so much natural beauty.

2. National monuments
Canberra wouldn't be Canberra without the big ticket buildings.  National Gallery, National Museum, War Memorial, Questacon, Parliament House (more on that one later), Old Parliament House...

So what, every capital has big ticket buildings and monuments.  But here, you can get to them and do stuff at them, in them and around them.  My favourite day of the year, posted about here before, is Sculpture Garden Sunday, where you get to hang out in the garden at the Art Gallery and do craft stuff.  Sadly cancelled by very poor weather this year, but it still highlights what makes this place special.  Small city equals small population, equals nothing is too far away, and you can park nearby (which is just as well, because one thing Canberra is very bad at is public transport) and everyone who want to come can come and it is free.  And at the end of the day, home in less than 15 minutes.  Same with Enlighten Canberra, part of the recent Canberra festival.

There was music, food, entertainment and stunning light projections on our national buildings.  Close, accessible and free.

Look at these...

The National Library

Questacon

The National Portrait Gallery

And again, there were also lots of circus balances done against this wall

The National Gallery of Australia

Plus the balloon festival (giant inflatable kangaroo anyone?), Australia Day at the National Museum, and a hundred other things that happen in and around this great place.

3.  We've got great birds

 Saw a pair of wedge tailed eagles soaring in thermals the other day.  Gorgeous.

4.  And of course, the politics
Let's face it, that's why so many of us are here.  Without those folk in the big house on the hill (in the hill, given that it is actually and deliberately built into the hill, so the people can walk over the top) there would be no need for this city to be here in this form.  But that adds to the spice, as far as I am concerned.  We have far greater access to our parliament and our leaders in this country than in most of the rest of the world.  I love that you can take 140 people to Question Time and the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing will come down to the foyer to say hello.

 I'm lucky.  As part of my job, I get to organise events at Parliament House from time to time.  There is no other parliament building in the world where you are allowed to do the things we do here.  Hell, you can even have your wedding reception in the Great Hall if you've got enough cash...

Living in Canberra has made me more politically aware.  I think it works that way for most of us here.  But it's also made me realise that the people who run the country are just that.  People.  Some of them smart, some of them not, some of them who may be the offspring of an unfortunate match between a weasel and a scrubbing brush.  Some of them who you will see down at the shops on the weekend...

There's so much more about Canberra I could write.  No traffic, not much humidity (I'm looking at you Darwin), great farmers market, nice restaurants that you can get into...

If you don't like it, fine.  That's ok.  But don't dismiss Canberra if you haven't tried it.  If you haven't ever been, come and see.  If you haven't been for more than five years, come back for a visit.  We turn 100 next year, that will be a great time to stop in and say hi.  But don't feel you have to stay.... I like Canberra because it's not too big!

No, I'm not.

Not dead, not kidnapped by aliens, not trapped under something heavy.  Haven't given up the internet for Lent and forgotten to come back.  Haven't joined a cult where blogging is deemed an unacceptable waste of hours that could be spent productively doing something else.  If you've been worried about me out there in blog land, I'm sorry.  I do think of you, with progressively more and more guilty thoughts.  Which, let's face it, is no use to anyone.  So instead, I'll stop thinking guilty thoughts, sit down at the computer where I spend a lot of time sitting anyway, and write.

Normal service has hopefully resumed.