A Touch of Spring

I like this time of year, which is Spring in the southern hemisphere. It is a season of renewal and energy, especially in the realm of flora and fauna. Two events reminded me of this today - just an hour or so ago. I was coming out of the building at UNE housing my office when a colleague gesticulated wildly towards a tree in the car park. And there, perched delicately in a fork in the branches of a tree, was a magpie's nest with a bird in it presumably incubating some eggs. I wasn't game to climb the tree for closer inspection because (a) I cannot climb large trunks and (b) magpies have a reputation for attacking humans who invade their territory. At the moment when I ride my bike down a nearby road I am immediately swooped and harassed by the male of the species even though I think I'm a long way from the nest.

Anyway, the nest I saw this morning was in the middle of a car-park and just above several cars. And the birds seem to have made their peace with nearby humans as the female on the nest simply looked at me looking at it. And her partner was nowhere in sight. So here are a couple of pictures I took unmolested. Spot the nest in the tree above the 4WD.

And here is a closer view of the nest with the occupant just visible to those of you with good eyesight. Quite how the nest remained in position given today's strong wind I don't know.

And the Azalea in our garden is in full bloom -- a picture just taken after I collected Dot from the airport on her return from Canberra.

Nice, eh!?

AS

A Quick Trip to Albury

If you recall, the week before last I travelled some 1800 km by road to Toowoomba and Lightning Ridge. Last week I beat that by quite a wide margin, though this time by air. The trip there and back only took 3 days and the road distance covered was about 1960 km ... it might have been a little longer by air as that routed me via Sydney. Whereas the previous week was all recreation, this one was all business and what's more I didn't pay a cent. A regional development conference organisation picked up the tab for the airfare, hotel, taxis, and meals. Why was that? Well, I was invited to give a keynote speech to about 150 delegates from all over south-eastern Australia.

I will not bore you with the details of my speech but instead note that I hardly saw anything of the city I was staying in! So, I only have one picture over the city from my bedroom window! The little I saw suggested a very pleasant place indeed - though one I've visited on several other occasions. In fact, the only real excursion away from the conference orbit or too and from the airport was with a colleague from Toowoomba (again) seeking out a restaurant. That turned out to be a Japanese emporium and I had a rather nice sushi / sashimi meal. For the reader who knows little of Japanese cuisine, the sushi pieces are usually small  round collections of rice and other vegetable / animal (including fish) pieces bound in what looks like seaweed and served with gari (ginger) or wasabi (a kind of horseradish paste). The sashimi is made from raw fish and other seafood. I like it, but lots don't.

Anyway, forget the meal. Here's the view from my bedroom window. Not much of the town I'm afraid - only a couple of spires and hills in the State of Victoria across the Murray River taken in the evening light.

AS

Max in the Pool

Lightning Ridge has a wonderful swimming centre for such a small town: it has a large diving pool 5 meters (15 feet) deep with a 10, 5 m and lower diving boards; an Olympic sized pool; and a theme park with water slides,  wave-making machine, and so on. As it was hot while we were there - believe it or not it was 35 C (95 F) even in early Spring - Max wanted to head there. I donned my own swimmers just in case I felt like a dip, though the water was cold!

Anyway, Max enjoyed himself at each of the three above features.

Max is a very good swimmer, but has had lots of lessons in Canberra and can do many different strokes.

AS

Lightning Ridge and Back

Soon after Max's arrival we took off for a quick trip to Lightning Ridge and back. The total distance driven over three days was a little short of 1000 km! That's 625 miles for my Pommy readers. There were two reasons to go there: Max likes fossicking for gems and minerals; and Dot's friend, Cheronne, has a daughter married to a farmer who owns a property 20 km from the township. To reach Lightning Ridge (one of our major opal gem-fields) via the farm, we had to travel 120+ km on a gravel road across black soil country. After rain it is easy to get bogged, but the  region has been in drought for months and the road was navigable at speed - up to 100 km per hour (62 mph). Another hazard on such roads was the wild-life and there was abundant evidence of collisions between vehicles and kangaroos. We also saw emus (large flightless birds like ostriches), goannas (large lizards) and even snakes. Alas, we had a collision with a 'roo ... or rather the other way around. We were driving along normally and the animal decided to leap behind the car striking and removing the rear fender. The animal hopped away alone and unaided and presumably survived. We re-attached the fender and it survived hundreds of km intact!

These images of the farm show a dessicated landscape where the rain has stayed away for nearly two years. This field contains blackened wheat crop - useless even as cattle feed. Look at the size of the field - the far edge must be two km away!

Our 'camel' - a Rav-4.

Even the region's major river - the Barwon - was barely flowing and muddy.

Empty wheat silos stalked by an emu.

More emus. I don't know how they were surviving.

Me and Max in local dress!

Local art-work.

Mining machinery.

AS

A Romp in the Pine Forest

We hosted Max for a week or so until today. He was on school holidays which are coming to end and he a Dot flew back to Sydney and on to Canberra by bus this morning, leaving me time to post a few blog entries.

One of the first things we did after we arrived back from collecting Max from Toowoomba 400 km north of here - Canberra lies c. 800 km south, so how Max came to be there is another long story(!) - was to take a stroll in the local Pine Forest. Dot's friend Jane wanted to exercise her two dogs,  Dot felt like the walk, and Max saw an opportunity to pedal his BMX bike. So off we set on a lovely sunny afternoon and the pictures tell the story.

The forest is home to lots of termite mounds.

Members of our party down by the creek.

Pine forest landscape.

Max with BMX bike.

AS

September winds

I can remember from long ago a ditty my grandmother used to sing to me and it went something like "March winds do blow and there shall be snow". Well, that may well be true of the northern hemisphere, at least in Britain's highish latitudes. Down under, Spring comes in September and October and yesterday was the last day of September. And guess what! The September winds have blown for a good few days. But that's where any resemblance to the northern hemisphere expired. Rather than snow, we're in the middle of a heat wave which would cause many Britons to expire. Parts of Sydney managed 35 C yesterday and here, in Armidale, at 1000 m asl we reached 25 C. Imagine standing in a gale on the top of Snowdon in Wales at the end of March in that kind of temperature. Admit that it's unlikely!

Oh well, these conditions surely cannot last. Today for instance a cold front is moving through dropping the temperature precipitously to a freezing 23 C!!

AS

Clothing Exhibit

We went straight from the farmers markets to the National Trust property out a Saumarez near the airport. This large colonial home has nice gardens and a house open to public inspection - much like many National Trust buildings in the UK I have reported on from time to time. However, our purpose today was to see an exhibition of late 19th and early 20th century garments worn by the women of Saumarez house, the HQ of a large and prosperous pastoral property on the edge of town. This was in a corner of the main house and the exhibits we found all over the house after it passed into National Trust hands. This was incidentally the first time they had been brought together to give something of the flavour of life at the turn of the 20th century for a wealthy family. Here are some of the exhibits:

Each of the items was well-made - often exquisite - and dealt with different activities during the day - sporting apparel (tennis), evening gowns, outdoor clothing, sleepwear (not shown here) and so on. And the items came from some of the best suppliers of the day like David Jones, an up-market department store chain that's still going today.

I must admit that I didn't think I'd like the exhibition, but instead I found it extremely interesting. I came away thinking that we live in much better times. In those days people went to preposterous lengths to demonstrate their wealth and station in life. Fortunately, today's technocratic society has no need to waste such pointless time, expense and effort. These days people with $20 billion in the bank are quite happy to walk around in jeans and a t-shirt. In fact, when I see a bloke in a suit I assume that he's a crook, a used car salesman, a politician, or has some chronic psychological deficiency (such as craving attention or a lack of self-regard). Nowadays most people don't even dress up for a funeral ... and anyone wearing formal gear who turns up for my own will be barred from attending! I'm planning a rave-up instead.

AS

Armidale Farmers Market

Twice a month on Sundays the town holds a farmers market down on the creeklands. Dot and I sometimes attend, as was the case today despite the rather cold and blustery easterly wind. The markets sell mainly fresh produce, gourmet and ethnic foods, and home-made crafts. Today, for example, we bought some nice home-made pastries - one for each of us, Dot bought a jar of jam, and I bought four rather fragrant soaps and some fresh smoked trout for breakfast this coming week. The markets are also a good occasion to meet up with and chat to various friends. These pictures convey a good impression of the market stalls:

And this next guy really caught our attention! He's a cycling enthusiast involved in last week's campaign to get the community out of their cars and on their bikes when commuting to work or other social and sporting events. I participated myself and had to record all my journeys on the campaign web-site. In fact, here are my statistics! My 6 trips covered 71 km. I used an estimated 2161 calories in the process and saved 19 kg (42 lb) of CO2 emissions! These stats enabled me to come eighth of all the participants in the event. This said, the bloke on the bike here said that he'd made the contraption from spare parts he'd found and then he'd turned the bike into a device for making milk shakes. The faster he pedals, the faster he blends the contents of the glass container on the table in front of him. The audience was applauding, which explains his smile. He was really having fun!

AS

Road to Horezu

On the way back to Sibiu, we travelled along the southern foothills of the Carpathians towards Horezu, a village renowned for its production of pottery products. Two of its output are now sitting prominently in my kitchen.

We journeyed through typical Romanian countryside dotted with small farms and villages. The mode of transport, too, was quaint - a lot of it horse-powered as these pictures show. I guess small-holders cannot afford to own cars which might also be damaged by the often pot-holed roads.

Eventually we reached Horezu itself to be greeted by a constellation of small roadside businesses selling the local dishes and pots.

It all made for a colourful display and enticed most of our party to invest in competitively priced artefacts - me included. No wonder I could scarcely my luggage for the return journey!

AS

Homage to Brancusi

We stayed overnight in Targu Jiu during our trip towards western Romania, and it seemed a pleasant little town. The following morning we were invited to take a walk through a nearby park and I, for one, was astonished by what we saw. The town's central park was home to a series of impressive sculptures by one of the country's foremost artists, Brancusi (1876 to 1957). This post pays homage to the fascinating works commemorating Romania's involvement in the first world war and the death of many soldiers in the various campaigns.

The works lie in a more or less straight line through the city from the banks of the Jiu river. The town itself is, like many in Romania, situated on a Roman settlement and that in turn lies where a Dacian village used to stand. They were finished in about 1938 and survived both the second world war and later communist attempts to remove what was termed bourgeoise art. All of us rather liked what we saw and were glad they were saved. Have a look.

The Gate of Kiss.

The Alley of Stools.

The Table of Silence.

The Endless Column.

Perhaps you don't like modern art, but I found these sculptures rewarding.

AS