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.