All posts by Emma

Time to catch up…

It’s been a while and a lot had happened in that time.

Stuart has been into hospital to have an ankle fused. He’s well recovered now, but still has another to be done. His op was very hard on me with me having to take on everything whilst he was completely non-weightbearing for 8 weeks which turned into 10 weeks because on issues relating to covid-19 and getting medical appointments etc. And as my mother will testify to, both my parents ended up stranded in Australia… what should have been a 6 week holiday turned into a near 6 month stay and instead of/as well as an Australian summer, they had an Aussie autumn and 2 months of an Aussie winter. Not too be sneezed at when you’re this far south and in an area that routinely sees -10°C and snow at least once or twice each winter…

But it has also been an autumn/winter of rain, and fantastic sunsets and sunrises. Since the drought broke back in February with torrential rain, washing away our gravel road in many places (something repeated the day my parents left! ), I now have a new photographic point to capture sunsets reflected in the dam. It has lead to some amazing pictures.

Sunrise this morning.

Like many, 2020 has not been a great year, (drought, bush fires, smoke and worst air pollution in the world at one point, torrential rains (100mm of rain in less than an hour when the drought finally broke), the virus, parents stranded here in Australia, major surgery for Stuart, a shoulder injury, my surgery postponed etc… ) but it has also had some good points as well (plenty of time to spend with my parents, plenty of knitting done, some fantastic sunrises and sunsets – we don’t usually see sunsets here, and the drought finally breaking. In fact we are due rain again today, tomorrow and the next day!

Sunset, just last week

As you can see, there have been some great sunsets to say the least.

We’ve also discovered a new cafe in Braidwood that thanks to the owner and chef being vegan herself has a great range of vegan dishes and most dishes have either a dairy free version or a vegan version available on request leaving me a choice of 5 or 6 dishes to choose from. Sadly only the 1 desert and I don’t like it (a fruit cake slice that tries to be everything. Gluten free, refined sugar free, soy free, egg free, dairy free, vegan and so on…).

We’re just waiting for the new Spring menu to arrive.

Strike that. We’re just waiting for Spring to arrive!

January’s Been and Gone

Somehow all of January has been and gone. Stuart had his week away in Melbourne. I cleaned the house and watched another dust storm. Stuart got have safely and we had a nice pizza in Bungendore on the way home. The came a very hot weekend with jobs to be done around the house before Stuart’s last week at work pre his operation. The inspection came and went and was fine. I’d had a moan to them about the outstanding repairs, outstanding since the last inspection 6 months ago. That at least got some of them done.

At some point, we managed to have a meal out together. I forgot now which day but we did!

Then we had a night with the most stunning sunset. Usually we don’t see sunsets but this one was that good that it lit up the sky from horizon to horizon as far as you could see in any direction. I was meant to be locking up the chooks, but I couldn’t do anything except stop and watch it, and of course photograph it.

Since then, it has been in one word, hot.

We’ve recorded a new maximum here at home, 44.0°C. There’s been no more rain, though it is forecast for today in the form of thunderstorms, so I’m not holding out much hope. Currently I’m sitting on the old sofa on the veranda because for at least the first hour, it is cooler outside than in.

Yesterday was another of those “days”. Namely hot! We baled to the cinema along with many others. At least allowing a few hours respite from the heat. The chooks don’t get that but they were left with loads of water & food and frozen water bottles and damp patches of soil that in theory should be cooler but with so many of them in one space I fail to see how it can be cooler!

Coming have from the cinema, the dust was obvious in the sky. It had been quite wild whilst we had been watching the film “Midway”. Lots of new branches and several trees were down. A hazzard in the drought. Eucalyptus just randomly ditch branches to save on precious water.

Finally. we have 2 new favourite homemade vegan cheeses. One is made from almonds and lemon juice and then baked in an oven for an hour and is amazing. It resembles a feta cheese.

The other is a boursin replacement and is made from tofu, cashew nuts and coconut oil. You can’t tell and it tastes great! So good in fact, that Stuart has actually asked for both of them again!

Finally, and sadly, a large fire has broken out south of Canberra within the ACT territory. It crossed the main road south (to Cooma) yesterday and after only 3 days burning is already larger (50,000 hectares) than the Tallaganda NP fire (37,000 hectares) which is now officially out. some good news at least. ACT is though, officially in a state of emergency. If the wind changes direction it could and will, easily reach the southern suburbs.