Weekend in Merimbula
< Alex on the beach
We (David, his brother Christopher, sister-in-law Sharon, their son Alex, and I) spent the weekend at David's house in Merimbula. Merimbula is on the 'Sapphire Coast' of New South Wales, and has a salt water lake is famous for its oyster beds. You can see them in one of the photos in the new gallery.
That's Alex in the photo on the left, drawing the first bar of Haydn's cello concerto in the sand of the beach (a first ever?), where we decided to work off our Saturday feast of fish & chips made with flathead caught by local fishermen. The beach sand is clean, creamy white in color when dry, and squeaks when you walk on it. There is a shore break good for swimming and easy body surfing, and a sandbar break good for board surfing. We watched a kite surfer taking advantage of the strong, cross-shore wind.
The boardwalk that meanders along the lake into town helped us work off another fish dinner. 
The house has a balcony wrapped halfway around it offering stunning views of the garden, Merimbula Lake, and the Pacific Ocean.
Heaven.
A Room with a View
< The view from my office
D: Well, I've started on the next adventure - the doctorate at Mount Stromlo (RSAA). So far, all I've been doing is the usual bureaucratic stuff like forms, keys, telephone numbers, email addresses, etc. And an office. With quite a remarkable view. I shall have to resist the temptation to gaze out at the mountains all day!
Royal Melbourne Scones - Makes 16
< Royal Melbourne Scones
I baked some scones to go with tea this morning. They turned out well, so I'm posting the recipe here. (See photo of some we haven't eaten yet).
Plain flour for dusting
3 cups unbleached, self rising flour
3 ounces (80g) cold butter, cut into cubes
1/8 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups whole milk
pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 390F (200C).
Lightly dust a cookie sheet with plain flour. Sift self-rising flour, salt, and sugar into a large bowl. Add butter cubes and cut in with pastry blender (or two knives) until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the milk. Stir with a flat-bladed knife until mixture forms a soft dough. Turn out onto lightly floured work surface and knead gently until smooth. (Don't knead too much or the scones will be tough.)
Pat dough into a 3/4 inch thick circle. Using a 2 inch diameter round cutter, cut dough into 12 rounds. Place rounds onto flour dusted cookie sheet. Press remaining dough together and cut out four more rounds. Place on cookie sheet with others.
Sprinkle tops with a little plain flour, or for a sweeter variety, brush tops with milk and sprinkle with a bit of sugar.
Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until golden and well risen. Transfer to wire rack.
Serve warm with Jam and clotted cream (or butter).
Note: for a special treat, add a third cup of currants or chopped dates to the recipe.
Finally, for the pedants: in the US they're pronounced to rhyme with "hones", whereas in Oz the word rhymes with "Fonz".
Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, Orchids, Christmas presents, PhD's, and it's official!
A trip to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve
< Pelican and Australian Ibis at Tidbinbilla
Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve is a 40 minute drive from the center of Canberra city center. It covers an area of about 55 square km and consists of a large valley floor, the Tidbinbilla Mountain and the Gibraltar range. The scenic drive through the reserve includes a lookout with panoramic views of the Tidbinbilla Valley. A hike along a Bush trail led to a small lake where David took the picture of the Pelican and Australian Ibis on the left. We also had a close encounter with a Red-bellied Black Snake (Linda was not happy), and saw two platypuses swimming (Linda was happy).
Black Mountain Reserve and orchids
< Sun Orchid on Black Mountain
The Black Mountain Reserve is nearly impossible to get into, now that the ACT Government has built the world's stupidest road interchange around it (it almost rivals Auckland's bridge for user-unfriendliness). However, we spent a couple of hours there on 25 October, a nice sunny spring day. The first thing we noticed was a group of orchid enthusiasts crouching over some small ground orchids, photographing them. So David photographed a couple too – see illustration at left of (probably) a Spotted Sun Orchid (Thelymitra species). Over 57 species of ground Orchids grow in the reserve. It's an orchid-spotter's heaven.
Christmas Goodies
Christmas baskets full of Australian goodies like TimTams, Venetians, Violet Crumble bars, Beerenberg blackberry jam, Christmas crackers, and tiny plush koalas are winging their way toward South Carolina. Christmas crackers are a party favor rather than a nosh. They look like a cylinder of wrapping paper tied at both ends. One person grabs one end. A second person grabs the other end. At the count of three, both pull hard. The cylinder breaks emitting a loud cracking noise. The person who ends up with the longer end has to wear the silly hat contained therein to the dinner table. A physicist has come up with a formula for the perfect way to pull a Christmas cracker.
http://www.physorg.com/news9192.html
David's doing a PhD
David has been just been accepted (today) into the PhD program at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at ANU/Mt. Stromlo. Wahooo!!!!
The Cosmic Smiley
< The Cosmic Smiley
On the 1st of December David also managed to snap a photo of the "cosmic smiley" - a rare conjunction of the crescent Moon, Venus and Jupiter (left).
A bigger image is available here.
And guess what...
Yeeeehaaaawwwww!!!!!, David proposed to me at dinner on November 13, and I accepted.
