Port Fairy 1

We've been in Port Fairy for the past few days - arriving last Thursday via an overnight stay in Geelong. We've been here for the weekend Jazz Festival and the chance to catch up with some dear friends, including Fiona and James from Melbourne - wonderful people who we've missed out on seeing for four long years, for reasons we won't go into here!

We got here on Thursday in time for a slap up brunch at Bank St Cafe - our reward for an early start in Geelong and a smooth trip west along the A1 to Port Fairy.

We had some time to fill in before checking into 2A Wishart St (and our friends Judy and Jurgen were still on the road from Melbourne at this stage) so we set out walking along the riverfront of this beautiful little port town.

Our first sighting of the crayfish catch of the day (and there's more on the crayfish story to come later!)............

On Friday, with Judy and Jurgen, we drove NW from Port Fairy up to the World Heritage listed Budj Bim National Park to join a guided tour of the Tae Rak Aquaculture Centre - the site of extensive eel farming by the Gunditjmara people over many thousands of years, up until colonial times.

As part of the tour our Aboriginal guides took us on a drive south of the Aquaculture Centre to the Tyrendarra Indigenous Protected area to show us an extensive fish trap complex there. But we were initially distracted by the sight of this - in one the gum trees near where our van pulled up .......

 

The closest view I've ever got of a koala in the wild ......

As well as the intricate systems of stone weirs and channels forming the eel traps in this area we saw this reconstruction of a stone based hut, remnants of which are still visible in village type formations all over parts of the T.I.P.

The eel farming practised by the Gunditjmara people around Budj Bim forms the dramatic opening chapters of Bruce Pascoe's "Dark Emu" - so it was a great thrill for me to experience some of the landscape and stories he researched for such an important section of this controversial book.

Back at the Tae Rak Aquaculture Centre our guide taught us about the remarkable life cycle of the short fin eel (Kooyang) and how important they were as a food source for the Gunditjmara people in this part of Victoria for over six thousand years.

The Aquaculture Centre overlooks Tae Rak (known as Lake Condah by the colonists) which had largely disappeared by the 1950s due to much of this land being chanelled and drained over the years to meet the needs of settler farmers and pastoralists. The lake is gradually being returned to a resemblance of its former glory, thanks to its importance in the area's recent World Heritage listing.

Back in Port Fairy there has been so much going on .... as well as the Jazz Festival we've had the Commonwealth Championship Sheep Dog Trials to entertain us ...... we've spent hours being spellbound by the skill and the charisma of these amazing dogs (and their handlers).

It was an added thrill to see so many beautiful Border Collies and Kelpies in action - especially as we've learnt so much about them and their trainers from the wonderful Muster Dog series on the ABC. The breeder of the Border Collies in the current season was a big presence at this championship - his dog Rabbit took out the top prize in the event.

And of course there was the Jazz too - the main reason we'd come to Port Fairy ..... so many wonderful performances, such talent, so much to choose from. We're definitely coming back next year to do it all over again!

As well as all this a big part of the weekend was the time we were able to share with great friends - but I'll leave some of that joy to the next post!

The end of January

January is just about over - its back to school next week and the excitement of a new year is about to get underway in earnest. Ella and Abi both start new schools and new stages of their learning from next Tuesday and the full routine of after school activities, homework and regular dates with friends is about to get underway again.

Our January seems to have flown by. We had 5 days in Coogee, three birthdays to celebrate (Rob's Tania's and Joshy's), lots of catch ups with friends and good times with Ella and Abi in between their two Coogee stays.

We see plenty of Abi driving to or from Redlands, but for a complete change of pace she spent the day with us last week - just doing regular Thursday stuff with us ......

..... and making a beautiful batch of cupcakes (mostly unassisted) using whatever ingredients we had on hand, in the afternoon.

Abi is such a sassy, confident and capable  person these days - she is more than ready to take on the joys of high school- singlehanded!

This January has been relatively mild in Canberra with lots of rain and many cloudy days. Despite the weather we're fully back into our regular walking schedule as my feet continue to recover their equilibrium. Early in the month we had a very eventful walk up on Mt Ainslie - thereby meeting Australia's most renowned cellist, as we assisted him in a medical event. We've had quite a dialogue since and even met up for breakfast once (he's fully recovered!) - only in Canberra do you get opportunities like that!! 

Sonoma in Lonsdale St is a pretty regular coffee break for us on our morning walks too and it's been exciting this week to see our iconic Braddon rainbow roundabout has had a beautiful makeover to start the year right!

Rob even managed to finish his new Christmas jigsaw before the month was done and I've squeezed in quite a few sewing sessions in amongst our social engagements.

January ends with a long weekend and the uncomfortable holiday that is Australia Day. We didn't do the Invasion Day march this year - but wore our Yes T shirts with pride as we walked the lake in the early morning, to the accompaniment of a 21 gun salute and the sight of a helicopter flying the Australian flag over the lake for the annual Citizenship Ceremony at Rond Terrace. 

All good things - but just on the wrong date!

Friday night we were invited to our friend Julie's new apartment further down Constitution Avenue - to admire the view and enjoy some lovely company and good food and wine. Our visit coincided with the most dramatic amazing sunset we've seen in Canberra in many a long year!

We got these shots from Julie's balcony on the 8th floor as the sun was setting.

We were in a wonderful position then to admire the special long weekend holiday drone show over the lake - 3 performances from 8.30pm - 10.30pm. 600 drones all especially programmed to create moving pictures in each 10 minute show. It was actually much more amazing than I expected.

Julie's partner Eric created this montage of the 10.30pm drone show - all with an Australiana theme (of course)

Its been a good January and we're all feeling ready to get this year underway now - bring it on! .......

 

Back together again

My good friend Jane stayed with us in Coogee over the weekend. We were celebrating Tania's milestone birthday, so it was a perfect opportunity to get the band back together again and enjoy some of the delights Sydney has to offer since Jane's last visit in October 2022.

We drove up on Thursday and managed to fit in a meal out at Ho Jiak in Haymarket with our Canberra friends Fiona and Graham as a tasty (and very convivial) prelude to Jane's arrival on Friday.

 

Jane duly arrived Friday - no delays, no baggage lost, no mishaps at all - so lots to catch up on and lots to celebrate (which we did in style that afternoon with a glass of bubbles at Coogee's Crown Plaza).

Saturday morning we set out early to Rose Bay and the start of the iconic Hermitage Foreshore Walk. ... which we extended, eventually walking all the way to Watson's Bay.

This is one of Sydney's most stunning harbour walks .........

We crossed beautiful Parsley Bay - quite crowded on this sunny humid Sydney morning......

... and made it to Watson's Bay after about an hour and a half of walking along this beautiful harbourside track and the opulent streets of Vaucluse.

We enjoyed an early lunch at the old Watsons Bay Hotel before catching a ferry back to Circular Quay and the light rail from there back to Coogee. In all Jane's visits to Sydney this was the first time she'd been to Watsons Bay!!

Saturday night was the big birthday party so that took up the rest of Saturday. We started slowly on Sunday morning, making our way eventually via Light Rail (again) to Nicki's place in Lilyfield, in time for brunch together at her cute little parkside local cafe in Orange Grove.

There was a really heavy shower of rain at the end of our visit so we caught an Uber into the Art Gallery of NSW for the afternoon. We were all keen to see the Louise Bourgeois exhibition at the fabulous new extension to the Gallery (the North Building) and the Kandinsky exhibition from the Guggenheim at the original AGNSW (the South Building). They were both stunning exhibitions and Jane was suitably impressed with the new North Building and its amazing underground Tank Gallery

We spent a lot of time on Monday morning too-ing and fro-ing over the weather and how it might affect our plans for the day (it was very windy and showery). In the end we made a move and caught the Light Rail into Surry Hills. Coffee and a pastry at the Bourke St Bakery was the first thing on the agenda.

Unfortunately, the Brett Whiteley Studio in Raper Street was closed on a Monday (!!!!) so this will have to be saved for Jane's next visit to Sydney!

We enjoyed strolling the character filled streets of Surry Hills with its beautifully detailed Victorian terraces, shady tree lines streets and its many cafes, designer shops, galleries and vintage treats. We even found a lovely little bistro called "Jane".

We eventually made our way to the Australian Museum and joined the queues to see the stunning Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs exhibition of over 180 ancient treasures from museums and historical sites in Egypt, on loan from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities ...... including the most amazing cedar coffin of Ramses 11 himself (around 3,000 years old).

It was a truly amazing exhibition - but very crowded - it took us around two hours to make our way through the crowded rooms displaying the most amazing objects and audio-visual installations.

Jane flew back to the Sunny Coast today but not before heading to our fave Pool Cafe at Maroubra for brunch - on the way to the airport ......

..... and a final birthday weekend catch up with Tania and daughter Morgan - who made the trek from the North Shore all the way south to the wilds of Maroubra  Beach to join us at the Pool Cafe.

Rob was so patient, taking quite a few pics of us until we were happy with this historic recording of our happy reunion - especially with Morgan joining us - for far reaching conversations about every subject under the sun, ranging from cake making dramas, data science and world geo-politics - and everything in between!!!

It was so sad to say goodbye but what a wonderful weekend it has been - love these women!

Tania's birthday

January is a big birthday month for us. Rob's is on the 11th, Joshy's is on the 24th - and this year our dear friend Tania celebrated a big milestone birthday over the weekend in Sydney. Quite a bit of planning went into how we would mark the occasion. The party's theme was black with "a splash of surrealism". My clever friend Jane designed and created this amazing birthday card for Tania .......   

and we all did our best to dress the part ......

Rob's outfit had quite a bit of input (and borrowed fish shoes) from Ella......

Tania broke the black code - but that's allowed because it was HER BIRTHDAY and HER party!

Jane, Tania and Judy - the band is back together again (complete with all our surreal accessories)!

Jane, Tania's daughter Aine and Tania .......

Our friend Nicki (we go back a long way too) was there on the night - looking healthy and looking forward to the new year after a tough few months of cancer treatment.

Jane and Graeme, Tania's daughter Morgan, and Nicki ......

Jane and Rose, Rob and Nicki ......

I said a few words to mark the occasion ...... trying my best to sum up the nearly four decades I have known and loved this amazing woman ........

Tania's cake was the HUGE hit of the evening. ...... evoking Salvador Dali's famous Mae West inspired lips sofa ... it was a sight to behold ....

Morgan and Aine created this masterpiece themselves - under the guidance of Rhonda the cake whisperer - but taking many, many, many hours, much butter, much red food colouring - and eventually breaking the fuse of Tania's oven (so stressful!!)

So many layers - of red velvet cake, vanilla cake, rich dark chocolate, butter cream and carefully laid rolls of fondant - and it actually tasted as good as it looked!

A typical Tania moment ......

There were around 60 people celebrating with Tania this night - so much love and affection, fun and laughter, dancing, and the most beautiful food and good wine. A night to remember.