Crepe Myrtle

After a very dry January - we've only had 9 mm (or a little over a third of an inch) - much of the garden is looking a little sad. The grass is turning yellowish, some shrubs like the hydrangeas have flowers turning up their toes, and the roses are almost flowerless. However, one shrub, or rather mini-tree, seemingly enjoying the conditions is our crepe myrtle. Have a look at these pictures: the whole tree covered in a mass of delicate flowers shown in the second one.

The sky was a dark grey just before it started to rain and I noticed this morning that the overnight rain at dislodged quite a few of the flowers. Still, the rain is necessary - we can't have it both ways.

AS

La Boheme

Armidale's Opera New England, yes a little town of 25,000 people has an opera company, now has a season of Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme and we went to the gala opening last night, which was very enjoyable. Some of the audience dressed up in formal gear, but in 21st century style I wore my best jeans and t-shirt, which didn't it seems elicit any adverse reaction, rather than 19th century clobber designed solely to proclaim one's status. Nowadays such formal attire tends to proclaim insecurity or desire of second-rate ability to impress.

The mainly local orchestra was conducted by my some-time doctor, Bruce Menzies, but many of the lead singers were imported - mainly from conservatioriums or university music schools in Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne. Perhaps some of the singers were a little under-powered, though not the tragic Mimi. However, the setting and lighting were very good, and the producer even managed a snow-storm at the Barriere d'Enfer on the outskirts of Paris. However, the crowd scenes mainly comprised local singers of all ages.

I tried taking some pictures of the event, but I couldn't use flash - I'd have been ejected! The first picture shows the bohemians' garret in the Latin Quarter, which was used creatively for the performance and towards the end we saw rain falling on the glass roof.

And here we see the inside of the garret, with the near-destitute painter Marcello (standing) and poet Rodolfo, who becomes attached to Mimi, kneeling in front of a small trying to coax it to life.

And here's a street scene in the Quartier Latin, where Mimi meets Rodolfo's friends at the cafe Momus.

I won't go into the rest of the plot, which many of you possibly know anyway, but I came away reflecting how miserable opera libretti must be given the large number of deaths portrayed! In the case of La Boheme, Mimi dies with, if not from, a very bad cough, which was rather unsettling given my own chest infection and cough! Perhaps the reason for such sadness lies, as it does with murder mysteries, in people going away thinking how much better they are than a lot of other people!

Anyway, I wish the opera company well and await the next performance!

AS

Living in a Sauna

After days of hot but delightfully clear and tolerable weather because of low humidity, we've just flipped into subtropical summer. Yesterday and today it rained for the first time this month, but rather than falling the temperatures are rising to add to the discomfort. Yesterday's thermometer reached 32 C (88 F); today it managed 33 C (90 F) and tomorrow it's slated to be 34 C (93 F). And the humidity is getting unbearable with people migrating to shopping centres to cool off or, in my case, a quick trip to the air conditioned gym out at the university where I pounded a treadmill.

Even the birds are having it tough. My three bird feeders are besieged immediately I top them up every morning and that seems to be because the very dry weather has diminished natural seed stocks. We've had up to 15 Galahs plus rainbow lorikeets and crested pigeons on the ground under the feeders at any one time catching crumbs from the messy eaters above - mainly lorikeets who somehow have the Galahs spooked despite being a lot smaller. Because the ground is hard after little rain, even the local magpies (pied Currawongs) are attracted by the seed since they're unable to dig for worms. And yesterday I found them bathing under the sprinkler taking a cooling shower.

At 34 C Armidale is going to be warmer than Darwin, Broome, and Cairns, all in the tropical north! This is the longest hot spell I can recall here in Armidale - quite exceptional really.

The one plus I can think of was the gorgeous sunrise this morning as the grey clouds were penetrated by the rising sun and turned a shade somewhere between crimson and purple. This picture was taken hastily and captures the view imperfectly.

AS

Full Moon

We've been having some beautiful weather the last few days. Temperatures have hovered around 30 C; it has been endlessly sunny; humidity has been very low and therefore high temperatures are bearable; and the air is crystal clear - no pollution of any kind.

So when I peered out of my study window yesterday evening I saw a full moon rising above the horizon just as darkness enveloped the landscape and one could clearly see its cratered surface. I rushed outdoors with my camera to catch the bewitching brew. Alas this photo doesn't do justice to the occasion. We need the kind of feelies of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World; the gentle breeze, the aroma of the evening air, the silence of this neighbourhood, the feelings of immensity of landscape, and so on. The photo was taken looking north-east over our garden fence without flash.

AS

World's Worst Driver (?) Goes Solo

Max accompanied us to the local fun-fair this evening. It was the typical mix of wild rides and side-show alley. We had mixed fortunes in the side-show bit. Max lost $5 in double quick time trying to win some bottles of beer, but won the largest teddy bear he's ever had elsewhere. Alas, I don't see much of a future for the bear unless Max donates the creature to Ella or Flynn.

Much more successful were the 'rides'. In one he sat in a kind of space-pod which went round in circles while rising and falling sharply.

In another he went through a house which seemed to have rising and falling staircases and floors ending in a spiral slippery dip.

But the piece de resistance (excuse me the lack of French accents) were the dodgem cars. He had two long rides, the first with me as passenger and then a solo effort. All I can say is that he seemed hell-bent on giving me a rough ride as we collided heavily with just about everyone else.

Yes, that's me in the white singlet. It's warm down here, even at 8 pm in the evening!
The second effort was much more serene, though not completely void of collisions. Maybe he's learning well how to drive and his improvements, if continued, might see him driving California free-ways in a couple of years or so.

Altogether it was a successful and enjoyable evening.

AS

Butterfly House

Max, being an avid nature-lover, immediately announced his delight when when told we were going to visit a nearby butterfly farm ... or house. And he had heaps of fun identifying the various species flying around  and learning about their life-cycles, eating habits, pupa, caterpillar antecedents, and so on. He also admired their flying actions and colouring. He even tried to holding on to various butterflies, though not successfully. Here are some of the species on display.

Many of the butterflies were imports from other parts of Australia, but since Coffs Harbour has a climate akin to parts of the West Indies, it's easy to maintain them.

AS

Max Visits the Big Banana

Coffs Harbour, where we're briefly staying has, like many Australian country towns, a big something or other. Coffs, being a banana growing town ... as well as tourist resort with a lovely harbour and great beaches ..., naturally has a big banana and I suspect it's the first time that Max has seen this contraption. Here it is and with Max standing beneath it waiting for his picture to be taken.

AS

An Innovative Playground

Max loves to associate with kids his age and especially when it involves challenging equipment. Coffs Harbour has a lovely playground full of new and innovative equipment and he's spent a couple of hours roaming it and sampling the opportunities. I'm so impressed with the unusual offerings that I'm going to write to Armidale City Council suggesting they upgrade their playgrounds.

A complex climbing system with lots of ropes and polls.

Max the miner shifting sand from place A to place B with a mechanical digger.

A spinning frame which can rotate very rapidly.

A circular treadmill where one can run fast albeit standing still in the same position.

AS

Bouncing Max

We're in Coffs Harbour on holiday and we took Max today to the local shopping centre. It had an enticing device on which kids donned a harness and then bounced and, of course, Max volunteered for the experience. He had great, if a little scary, fun as the pictures show. However, he was reluctant to perform somersaults like some of the little girls around him.

AS

A Mention in The Adelaide Advertiser

My academic work sometimes features in the major media. I've been interviewed live on radio by shock jock Alan Jones, I've appeared on ABC TV, and have received mention in the likes of the Sydney Morning Herald as well as various regional media. Well, today it was the turn of the Adelaide Advertiser to document some of my work, in this case a joint project with my colleagues Dr Sonya Glavac (also UNE) and Ralph McLaughlin (San Jose State University). We examined the elasticities of supply of new housing in Adelaide using data Ralph accumulated when he was working in Adelaide up to 18 months ago.

The Advertiser was Rupert Murdoch's original newspaper before he constructed News Corporation by buying media assets all over the world.

If you want to see the article in question, please go to: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/adelaide-inner-growth-stifled-by-nimbys-report/story-fni6uo1m-1226794577026?sv=e0655e9123989cc15ec9d030602a332c

It's always nice to see one's work appreciated!

AS

Splataholic at the Pool

Max is staying with us for 2 weeks and the obvious place to take him in our current hot weather is the town's very good swimming complex. He's a good swimmer, too, being professionally coached in Canberra every week.

To his great delight yesterday he found that that the pool has an inflatable assault course which he rushed to embrace, albeit at the end of a long queue.

His first traverse was a success, though starting rather gingerly.

He encountered and circumnavigated to first obstactle:

Then he ducked through and arch before encountering another yellow blob.

Then came a much larger obstacle requiring a bit of scrambling and leaping to tame.

Then came another yellow protuberance before the final assault on the slide into the water (shown in the first picture).

Max's second attempt was much less successful and he joined a lot of older kids in an early dunking, though they were often sky-larking and attempting the course with no hands! First he navigates the first yellow protuberance. Alas, he loses his grip coming through the arch, tries to grab the next yellow hump and finds it unforgiving. The result is in the final slide, which shows an ignominious splash!

Still Max didn't mind. He's a splataholic. To make things more difficult, one of the 'lifesavers' in charge sprayed participants with a strong blast of cold water. That caused many of the early departures from the assault course.

AS

Unenviable (?) Record

I remember hearing from British colleagues that Nottingham once experienced heat-wave temperatures of 26 C which caused quite a few deaths among the elderly and made life miserable for nearly everyone. Well, that's the average summer maximum temperature here and we love it.

Alas, we endured record temperatures here today with the mercury climbing to 37 C - albeit brilliantly sunny and not too humid. That's about 98 F and the highest ever recorded here at 1000 m above sea level. Let's hope this doesn't last too long. Still it's better than the 49.1 C recorded westwards at the little town of Walgett. That's the highest recorded in NSW for over 50 years and just a little short of the all-time record. So, we're sweltering.

However, don't let this event scare you off from visiting us. Make your trip from September to November and you'll enjoy mostly delightful conditions!

AS