Tag Archives: sunrises

Australia, Collector, NSW

Sunrise yesterday

Stuart and I both had to go into Canberra this morning, so we were car sharing again with Stuart getting the coach on the way home. It’s significantly cheaper than taking both vehicles into the city even taking the extra 20-25km I need to drive in the evening to pick him up from the Federal Highway. Plus my vehicle is off the road at the moment. One of those “oh shit” moments driving home on Wednesday when there was an almighty crash immediately above my head. The ear hurtingly loud type inside an enclosed vehicle. I didn’t stop because it was actually raining at the time (we had 4mm in the space of a few minutes, then it upped and went elsewhere again). I drove home very gingerly to find that the 4×4 wide double LED strip light was held on by just one nut. The one on the driver’s side having decided to leave the vehicle in favour of a muddy dirt road.

It’s not meant to look like that. Good thing that I drove the rest of the dirt road very gingerly.

It literally bit the outside of the roof immediately above my head. It’s also very heavy.

So the week has been busy again, very busy. Lunch out one day because we were caught in town together (shown above). It’s still plenty warm enough to sit outside during the day. So we did. It was a comfortable temperature.

My nachos from Sweet Bones.

Stuart’s Buddha bowl.

The same can’t be said about the temperature first thing in the morning and we have taken to having most of the windows and the front door closed during the night. A couple of times this week, I’ve managed to keep the windows open all day because it’s now cool enough to do so. Several overnight temperatures have been well into single figures this week, (below 6°C). Autumn has very definitely arrived.

I’ve also spent the week making things with figs. We’ve had a glut of ripe figs. Last week I was picking 3 or 4 kg a day of ripe figs so I’ve been playing and have made some fig compote and fig molasses amongst other things. I now have a 1/2 l container of very thick fig molasses that still has some fig pureé in it because the sieve used was too coarse and the pureé to thick. The second batch I made I used a lot more water initially and a much finer sieve. The result is 1L of thick, smooth, dark brown fig molasses. Both taste fantastic and I can see breakfast of tahini mixed with fig molasses (normally grape molasses) spread on bread. It brings back memories for Greece and Turkey.

Shrove Tuesday meant one thing and one thing only. Pancakes.

So what news on the grapes? We have 3 small bunches that are all ripe. We’ve left them on the vine until now because a few were not ripe and because of the dry weather (is currently raining outside unusually) the grapes are very small but absolutely delicious. We’ll pick them tomorrow morning just before we leave for a week’s holiday and Stuart’s birthday (it’s a big one this time but don’t let on that I said so).

I took these on Stuart’s mobile phone yesterday morning. They really don’t do the scene any justice at all. But I didn’t have any of the old cameras in the car. It’s too hot in the summer months to keep them in the dashboard because it gets too hot. Mobile phone, tablets and the likes will all turn themselves off complaining about the heat long before its anywhere near as hot as it’s going to get. I was cursing that I didn’t have a decent camera with me.

Well that’s pretty much it for this week. I need to do a quick check to see if I mentioned a visitor I spotted close to my foot the other night. It’s slippers only for the moment until we know we don’t have more of them. Nope, I haven’t mentioned it. We had a marbled scorpion in the house!

And finally something pink. Not for me and I found it quite difficult to knit actually because I don’t like the colours. Well I like the purple, just not the pink. It’s for a friend at rehab. We were on the ward together with inpatient rehab and are now together in outpatient rehab as well, so I’ve injured get a custom sized lap blanket designed to fit her wheelchair. I’ve just got to block it now and make a suitably bright bag to give it to her in.

Australia, Collector, NSW

Postcard Home (18th June)

Well it’s been a cold few days to say the least. We’ve had a storm come through over the weekend and not only was it cold, wet and windy, very windy but we even had a few flurries of snow.

I’ve managed to get the chicken coop better wind protected. Chooks can withstand the cold but not the wind and the cold and in order to stay warm they need a draft free coop. Our coop was anything other than draft free. The problem lay at the roof where the corrugated tin met the woodwork. There was not only a gap of several inches at the front but even when that was filled the were gaps with every up and down of the corrugations. As ever water pipe insulation came to the rescue. 2 inch sections stuffed into each and every up along the entire front of the chook house, plus several long pieces cut in half lengthways to fill the gaps down the sides. All of this has to be removable come the Spring when life starts to get warm again.

Sunrise earlier this week. It was actually raining when I took this photo, but the light was amazing because of it.

So what else is there to report?

At the beginning of the week we hosted a cycle tourer. The first we’ve had in Australia. He’s cycling around Australia for the next year but sadly isn’t quite ready for the cost weather. He asked me when it would start to get warmer around here. My reply of September or October came as a surprise to him, as did the concept that it hasn’t actually finished getting colder here yet! He’s now the other side of the Snowy mountains but he’ll be getting rather cold around there. He’s bikepacking which is basically ultra lightweight touring where everything you carry fits into the frame of your bike in bags specially designed for the triangle hole in the frame, plus what you can fit into handlebar bags or saddlebags.

This weekend Liz and Alec came down from Sydney to see us. They stayed at their neighbour’s apartment in Canberra which turned out to be only a few doors up the street from Stuart’s work place! On Saturday they came over for lunch and stayed for some of the afternoon but it was a cold wet afternoon so they didn’t get to see much. Luckily they left before the cloud descended, that meant we were a touch late meeting them in Canberra for an evening meal, but we made it eventually. They also called in on their way home to Sydney on Sunday. Liz has given me one of her spinning wheels which means one I have repaired and service hers, I can have one set up for spinning single ply on, and the other set up for plying. That will make life a little easier. It was great to see them again and I hope they had a safe journey home.

We also managed to make Skype contact with Stuart’s brother, Jon, on Sunday night but not his parents because they are away we think. I even managed to finish his Dad’s socks on Fathers’ Day as well. I’ve just got the ends to sew in and then block them and they are done. Made to size. Handspun, hand dyed from eucalyptus bark and then handmade/knitted. I do so hope they fit (if they don’t, they fit Stuart perfectly 😀 ).

Finally Stuart cooked a delicious Leek, mushroom and bread pudding for evening meal last night!