Dear Blog
I have a confession to make.
I have been unfaithful.
I wrote on another blog.
I hope you don't mind too much. Go here if you want to see - it's about baked beans...
http://blogs.nla.gov.au/paddys-kitchen/2012/09/21/baked-beans/
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Encounters with wildlife (2)
Oh blog, I did it again, didn't I? Blame Facebook. It has admirably embraced the role of snappy younger sister who comes muscling in to take over the good stuff. (note, this is not a comment on my family or relationships within my family.)
Anyway, driving down a street in my suburb yesterday, we came across a kangaroo blithely hopping through people's gardens and it reminded me that I haven't finished the wildlife stories.
Roll back the clock to an evening in June when I was out at a function and got a distress call from my sister's English housemate. "I think there's a bear in the garden'. It can't possibly be a bear, what does it look like? A process of elimination took place and we decided she was probably looking at a wombat.
Anyway, I ditched the function and headed over and sure enough, there in the the back garden was a very fat, contented looking wombat. We phoned the ranger to come and collect him, because nice as it is to have wildlife in your garden, wombats will destroy the foundations of your house. Not to mention being tormented by dogs etc.
It took a while for the ranger to come, so a degree of communing with the wombat went on between us and the neighbours. He really was very lovely.
However, trapping of said large, healthy, feisty wombat was not easy. The ranger said that it would look worse than it was. It looked pretty bad. He caught the wombat around the neck with a loop on a pole, but then had to try and get it into a cage.
Big wombat, small cage. Not easy. We all helped, but to no avail. As you can see from the photos, what the well dressed wombat wrangler wears this winter is a short skirt, stockings and heels. Not ideal.
It became apparent that the wombat and the cage were not going to happen, so our furry friend was released for another attempt another day. Needless to say, he took off at a rate of knots - wombats are actually quite fast. We've never seen him again, hopefully he didn't get too close to any main roads in his desire to escape.
Wildlife in the suburbs... it's an amazing place that we live in.
Anyway, driving down a street in my suburb yesterday, we came across a kangaroo blithely hopping through people's gardens and it reminded me that I haven't finished the wildlife stories.
Roll back the clock to an evening in June when I was out at a function and got a distress call from my sister's English housemate. "I think there's a bear in the garden'. It can't possibly be a bear, what does it look like? A process of elimination took place and we decided she was probably looking at a wombat.
Anyway, I ditched the function and headed over and sure enough, there in the the back garden was a very fat, contented looking wombat. We phoned the ranger to come and collect him, because nice as it is to have wildlife in your garden, wombats will destroy the foundations of your house. Not to mention being tormented by dogs etc.
However, trapping of said large, healthy, feisty wombat was not easy. The ranger said that it would look worse than it was. It looked pretty bad. He caught the wombat around the neck with a loop on a pole, but then had to try and get it into a cage.
Wildlife in the suburbs... it's an amazing place that we live in.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Encounters with wildlife (1)
I've done it again, haven't I? Sorry blog world, I will try to stop disappearing for weeks at a time. Anyway, what's been happening? As you can probably guess from the title of this post, I have been interacting with the world around me...
I was lucky enough to spend a week in New Zealand recently (more on this to come) courtesy of the New Zealand Conferences and Meetings industry. Oh well, someone has to go and stay in those hotels, drink the wine and eat the canapes at the parties. We only got a little taste of what Auckland has to offer, other than the insides of hotel rooms, function spaces and convention centres, but the taste we had was pretty fine. The Auckland Convention Bureau has embraced the theme 'From Mild to Wild' as a way of promoting Auckland as a business events destination, with the theory being that Auckland can offer everything you need. I took the opportunity to experience 'wild Auckland'. We kicked off our day with a ride on this baby.
Given that my sole experience with motorbikes was a dink up and down the driveway on Edward's scooter on my 40th birthday, I was a little nervous. But I was in safe hands with Kerry in charge. There were about 30 of us in the group, and riding in a pack was great fun. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, and I must say, it was a great way of clearing out the cobwebs that remained from a big night out the night before.
That's me, standing between the two bikes (although really, how would you know?).
Then there was some lunch, which is always nice, and then we hit the harbour for a sail on the Americas Cup yachts. It had been a bit of a miserable, drizzly day with some rain around, and there had been some discussion about whether or not we should bother to sail. I figured, we'd only get wet and cold, and both of those would be fixable later, so I was keen. We headed out on two yachts and worked the grinders to put up an enormous amount of mainsail. I now know why the crew had such well developed muscles. It is hard work. But we got our reward. Instead of spending an afternoon sailing (which I'm sure would have been lots of fun) we used the engine to head straight out into the harbour, because there had been orca (killer whales) sighted in the harbour.
It was the most magical afternoon. It took a little while to find them, with a few false alarms (waves can look a lot like whales), but we got there in the end. The skies cleared, there was late afternoon sun, the water was as still as glass and there were orca. A big male, plus a female and a calf. It was an incredible experience. I took some of these photos, not all. Thanks for sharing, whoever you are.
It was a wonderful thing to experience, and we felt very privileged. Not something I will forget in a hurry.
I was lucky enough to spend a week in New Zealand recently (more on this to come) courtesy of the New Zealand Conferences and Meetings industry. Oh well, someone has to go and stay in those hotels, drink the wine and eat the canapes at the parties. We only got a little taste of what Auckland has to offer, other than the insides of hotel rooms, function spaces and convention centres, but the taste we had was pretty fine. The Auckland Convention Bureau has embraced the theme 'From Mild to Wild' as a way of promoting Auckland as a business events destination, with the theory being that Auckland can offer everything you need. I took the opportunity to experience 'wild Auckland'. We kicked off our day with a ride on this baby.
Given that my sole experience with motorbikes was a dink up and down the driveway on Edward's scooter on my 40th birthday, I was a little nervous. But I was in safe hands with Kerry in charge. There were about 30 of us in the group, and riding in a pack was great fun. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, and I must say, it was a great way of clearing out the cobwebs that remained from a big night out the night before.
That's me, standing between the two bikes (although really, how would you know?).
It was the most magical afternoon. It took a little while to find them, with a few false alarms (waves can look a lot like whales), but we got there in the end. The skies cleared, there was late afternoon sun, the water was as still as glass and there were orca. A big male, plus a female and a calf. It was an incredible experience. I took some of these photos, not all. Thanks for sharing, whoever you are.
It was a wonderful thing to experience, and we felt very privileged. Not something I will forget in a hurry.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
What the internet is for
The internet is a strange and wonderful beast that has infiltrated so many parts of our lives. I use it every single day, for finding information, keeping in touch with people, learning things, wasting time, being entertained. Is my life richer, or better? Does it increase my quality of life or simply make me more time poor? Probably a little from Column A and a little from Column B. But it was highlighted to me recently why the internet is a good thing.
The cleverness of people in this world never ceases to amaze me. My case in point is the Doctor Who Fan Orchestra.
To quote from their blog...
"So what is the Doctor Who Fan Orchestra? Well, for one thing, it’s exactly what it says on the tin – we are all Doctor Who fans, and we have formed an orchestra. But more than that – we are all passionate about Murray Gold’s music and its role in the revived series. One gloomy evening in early 2011, in Surrey, England, I was tinkering away in Sibelius on an arrangement of “I Am The Doctor”, the Eleventh Doctor’s theme, when a particularly crazy idea struck me. I knew that Murray’s music meant an awful lot to an awful lot of people, and I reasoned that, probably, among those fans, a lot would be musicians themselves. And that they’d give anything to be able to play music from Doctor Who. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if we could somehow play the music all together?"
The cleverness of people in this world never ceases to amaze me. My case in point is the Doctor Who Fan Orchestra.
To quote from their blog...
"So what is the Doctor Who Fan Orchestra? Well, for one thing, it’s exactly what it says on the tin – we are all Doctor Who fans, and we have formed an orchestra. But more than that – we are all passionate about Murray Gold’s music and its role in the revived series. One gloomy evening in early 2011, in Surrey, England, I was tinkering away in Sibelius on an arrangement of “I Am The Doctor”, the Eleventh Doctor’s theme, when a particularly crazy idea struck me. I knew that Murray’s music meant an awful lot to an awful lot of people, and I reasoned that, probably, among those fans, a lot would be musicians themselves. And that they’d give anything to be able to play music from Doctor Who. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if we could somehow play the music all together?"
And so they did. They started with about 35 musicians and it grew from there. I heard about it earlier this year, had a look and thought 'wow'. Showed my trumpet playing, Doctor Who fan daughter who said 'Can I sign up for the next one??? Please?'. So she did, and I am proud to present the following: Dalek Suite, featuring 176 musicians from 20 countries around the world, including a trumpet player from right here on this blog. She appears at 4.26 and then again at 6.03 until the end.
And to me, that is why the internet is a very good thing.
(on a side note, when I showed this to the friend who helped us with the recording, he asked 'What's the collective noun for a group of nerds?' I think in this instance, it can only be: A galaxy of nerds.)
Loving the local
Readers of this blog know the firm commitment we have here to food. Good quality food in generous quantities. The more time I spend cooking and thinking about food, the more important things like provenance become to me.
We are blessed in Canberra with an outstanding Farmers Market. If you live in Canberra and haven't ever been, don't wait. I'll happily take you and show you around. There you will find everything you need to make a decent meal, all sourced within a few hours drive - certainly less than 10.
So one evening, when I found myself blessedly alone, in a quiet, tidy, empty house. I rejoiced. Dinner could be my choice, and I was fortunate to have a kitchen full of local ingredients to work with. A simple meal of mushrooms on toast but my goodness it was nice.
Mushrooms from Li-Sun exotic mushrooms. A mix of chestnuts, enoki and king browns. Grown by Noel Arrold in the railway tunnels near Mittagong. The garlic from some organic boy who's name I can't remember, but I bought it from the Southside markets one Sunday morning. The olive oil from under Mick's counter (Glendino's produce). A little slurp of Country Valley Cream that comes from Picton, the toast was from a loaf of Dom's bread from Queanbeyan, the thyme came from my garden and the wine was a local Canberra semillon sauvignon blanc. The one exception was some Victorian butter.
We are blessed in Canberra with an outstanding Farmers Market. If you live in Canberra and haven't ever been, don't wait. I'll happily take you and show you around. There you will find everything you need to make a decent meal, all sourced within a few hours drive - certainly less than 10.
So one evening, when I found myself blessedly alone, in a quiet, tidy, empty house. I rejoiced. Dinner could be my choice, and I was fortunate to have a kitchen full of local ingredients to work with. A simple meal of mushrooms on toast but my goodness it was nice.
Mushrooms from Li-Sun exotic mushrooms. A mix of chestnuts, enoki and king browns. Grown by Noel Arrold in the railway tunnels near Mittagong. The garlic from some organic boy who's name I can't remember, but I bought it from the Southside markets one Sunday morning. The olive oil from under Mick's counter (Glendino's produce). A little slurp of Country Valley Cream that comes from Picton, the toast was from a loaf of Dom's bread from Queanbeyan, the thyme came from my garden and the wine was a local Canberra semillon sauvignon blanc. The one exception was some Victorian butter.
Local produce, with pleasure in every mouthful. Plus Mad Men on DVD. What more could a girl want?
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Darwin
Darwin - April 2012
We had a family holiday in Darwin. The girls flew up from Canberra, I flew down from Dili. Darwin has become a modern, livable city with a eclectic, international feel to it.
With only three full days there it made us want to come back for more.
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| Green Tree Frog |
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| Aircraft Museum - gyrocopter |
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| Aircraft museum - B52 landing gear. |
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| Adelaide River - Hawk |
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| Adelaide River - Hawk |
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| Adelaide River - Crocodile feeding. |
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| Adelaide River - Jumping Crocodiles |
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| Lichfield National Park |
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| Lichfield National Park |
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| Water holes |
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| Lichfield National Park |
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| Termite mounds |
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| At our rented house. Not a teenager *yet* |
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| Photogenic cousin. My great grandparents are his great-great grandparents. |
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| Ditto. |
Friday, April 27, 2012
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...
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