Community

I like living in Canberra, in a community that I feel a part of. Here's why...

I dropped the kids to school this morning and went to work. About 9.30am got a call from the primary school to say that Suzi the dog was down there. This is not the first time this has happened. As Suzi gets older, she gets more spooked by thunder and there was a little rumble this morning not long after we left. She goes to school (I assume) because it is close, she knows the way and she knows there are friends there. Normally one of the kids or teachers identifies her and lets me know. The last time it happened near the end of the day and a friend brought her home. However today, it was one of the staff who doesn't know here who found her and brought her to the front office. Who was it who identified her this time? The Australia Post parcel guy, who delivers parcels to my door and happened to be delivering a package to the school. 'Sure I know her, that's the Irvine's dog'.

That's why I like living in Canberra.

She says I never post.

Tis true. Tis true.

But here are some of my snaps. Mostly taken with Fujichrome and my wonderful Nikon f1.4 prime lens.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24510581@N02/

Flavours

I like trying different food and different food combinations. I completely get the whole sweet/savoury thing, I don't mind watermelon and fetta, prunes in a lamb tagine (have one on the stove right now, yum), think a peanut butter and honey sandwich on fresh white bread is one of the greatest pleasures known to human kind and will even alternate a bite of chocolate with a potato chip for the ultimate in sweet and salty contrast (well I used to, but not anymore...).

However, when at a cafe with 2/3 children this morning (number three at a birthday party in the immediate vicinity) even I was gobsmacked to see what they put in front of Rosemary.

French toast with maple syrup and bacon - perfectly normal for us now we have been indoctrinated by the husband of Canadian origin. But look at what is in the bowl.

Yes my friends, that is icecream.

She tried it. It was weird. Enough said.

(In the interests of fairness, Claire had apple fritters with cream and icecream, which really is perfectly normal.)

I just wanted to say

The scenes out of Christchurch NZ today are horrifying. I love Christchurch and to see it turned to rubble is heartbreaking. The loss of life is terrible. Having met some great people from Christchurch in the last week, I am so sorry for you all. Stay safe NZ.

Tell me about the duck...

OK, I'll tell you about the duck. In an earlier post I referred to a delicious meal of sticky duck legs with plums that if I was less tired I would link to now...

Anyhow, I figured that Edward's last night at home for a while warranted a special meal, and since plums are well and truly in season, duck with plums it was. So after an overnight marinade in a bag with soy, star anise, five spice and cinnamon, it went into a slow oven with some plums and onion for a bit over two hours.

We washed it down with a very nice glass of rose from Purple Hen Wines that I picked up on my recent visit to Philip Island.

Looks pretty good, doesn't it?

And tastes delicious.

An afternoon at Quentin and Michael's place

Saturday afternoon marked one of my favourite days in the Canberra cultural calendar - the Canberra Proms Concert in the grounds of Government House. (For those who don't know, Her Excellency Quentin Bryce is the Governor General of Australia, our head of state - second in charge to the Queen. Michael Bryce is her husband. They live at Government House in Canberra.) This is usually a lovely early evening in the beautiful gardens at Government House, listening to wonderful music and eating a great picnic (hence the frittata and cheesecake).

On Saturday, it was windy. It was overcast. Then it was wet. Quite wet. However, the Proms go ahead, and because we are tough, we went anyway. In the 10 - 12 minutes it takes to drive there from our house (gotta love Canberra). it rained solidly for at least 8. But by the time we parked and walked down the long driveway, it had stopped. Probably only half the usual audience turned up. The theme of the evening was Hungarian Rhapsody and the music was beautiful. Edward was very taken with the Hungarian soprano.

There was one more little sprinkle of rain, and hundreds of umbrellas collectively went skywards, then it fined up and by the second half, was a beautiful evening.

As the Hungarian Ambassador said 'the music of Hungary is so beautiful it can make the sky weep and it can make the sky smile'. Couldn't have put it better myself.

(Plus there was knitting - what's not to like?)

Saturday kitchen

Saturday in my kitchen looked like this....

Having been away for a week, the urge for culinary creativity was strong. And messy.

This is the duck.

(My dismemberment skills leave a little to be desired.)

Duck is marinating in soy, star anise, five spice and cinnamon.

This is the jam

Peach with a dash of cointreau. Breakfast on Sunday morning looked like this...

Then there was they way I like my eggs

Frittata made with left over chorizo, pork and fennel sausage, potato and goat's cheese - perfect picnic food.

Then, the picnic dessert - mini raspberry swirl cheesecakes.

What was the picnic food for? How did the duck turn out?

Stay tuned.....

The view from above

I've never been a great fan of air travel. Planes are a convenient way of getting long distances in not too much time. Small planes are an evil best avoided. But as I have now discovered, helicopters are something else altogether.

Thanks to the Melbourne Convention and Visitors Bureau, I had a great weekend at Philip Island in Victoria. If you are ever there, Silverwater Resort is the place to stay (thanks Sarah).

And from a helicopter, Philip Island looks like this...

OK, so I haven't had a long trip. But as a way of seeing the world from above, the helicopter is definitely the way to go. It was FUN!!!!!

(But people who make sculptures out of chocolate.... maybe need to get out more?)

The Stars of Venezuela

Two days in Philip Island, three days in Melbourne and some great new friends.

For the purposes of ice breaking, team building and distraction on a two hour bus trip, 21 mostly strangers were divided into teams of four, each named after a different country.

Presenting Team Venezuela

No names to protect identity, but from left to right

Melbourne, Canberra, Mumbai and Tel Aviv.

After starting with some quizzes which we failed to take seriously, our competitive streak was roused when we found ourself one point off the lead. The final challenge - to present the most creative photo we could.

To highlight the highly successful bonding process that had occurred, we presented the following picture.

The Star of Venezuela

You can imagine how closely we were standing together to take that.

Second place?

We were robbed.

The Hallowed Turf

I didn't think I would be thrilled, but I was...

Me on the hallowed turf of the MCG. (More about Melbourne later - stay tuned) If you are into handknits, the wrap is Juno Regina which I love.

Produce

The first tomato from the garden.

It became a very nice tomato salad eaten with some grilled goat kebabs, home made tzatziki and flatbread. Yum.

And the good thing is, plenty more where that came from!

What I did on my holidays

School finally starts today for new students. For everyone else it is tomorrow. Hip hip hooray say all the parents, being thankful that we do not live in Tasmania where they don't go back for weeks.

So in true start of term style, here is the mandatory first week back exercise.

What I did on my holidays - a trip to the country

Mid January we were lucky enough to have a few days down south. Bronwen has friends with a house at Tilba Tilba who put it at our disposal. It's a lovely old timber cottage on some acres, with some cows, mountains to look at, lots of green, lots of frogs croaking at night, very quiet and peaceful.

A perfect verandah for eating, drinking and playing games, a great collection of books, with many old childhood favourites, a great big bath and a collection of games in the cupboard (Star Wars Monopoly anyone?)

We had a lovely time doing not much interspersed with trips to the beach.

We discovered sea anemones in the tide pools and bluebottles on the beach at Bermagui, had a lovely time at Mystery Bay in the big rockpools, which when the tide is in are deep and freezing but fantastic to swim in, built sandcastles, made origami frogs, had fish and chips at Tathra and Narooma and did a lot of kicking back and relaxing.

It was great.

One Fear Finally Faced

It's been a long time coming, but Claire finally conquered her fear and did the Freefall at Questacon. Needless to say, Iwasn't there to see the first time she went down, but when I turned up to collect them all, I was dragged inside to watch. Sorry, no pics.

Well done Claire!