Christmas 2020

A rather subdued celebration this year but far better than 2019 when fires were raging around us.
Christmas Eve we listened to Elvis sing Christmas songs (he never died in this household) and then it was our seafood feast for the season accompanied by home made focaccia.

Oysters, tiger prawns and mussels with a great Pikes savagnin followed by fresh berries and ice cream.
Then it was a cheesy Hallmark movie to close out the day. It had everything. The cute couple ‘dancing around’ each other, one or two dead parents, the misunderstanding, the interrupted first kiss, the Christmas festival and tree lighting ceremony and of course the final locked lips scene. I think they must have a computer that spits out the multiple similar scripts. But who cares.....
Christmas Day dawned wet and cloudy. That hardly ever happens. Normally it’s hot and sunny.
We started with our traditional pancake breakfast and then later in the day, after a few phone calls to family and friends, the ‘main event’ began.

Preparation was accompanied by some lovely Italian Prosecco and Pikes Merle Riesling. Then it was barbqued wagyu sirloin and mini dauphine potato stacks washed down with an old Pikes Premio (Sangiovese) I’d had in the secret stash for many years. Wonderful!

We did our usual cracker ‘battle’ with the co driver winning most. This year we had bought the premium pack and some of the prizes were quite useful. The jokes were suitably corny and there was a quiz and charades too.

The co driver had arranged for a VERY expensive plum pudding which needed to be boiled in its muslin jacket for an hour. But boy, was it worth it! The best I’ve had in a long time, especially with vanilla bean custard and ice cream.

The co driver’s conversion to Australian hasn’t progressed yet to plum pudding 

(or fruit cake for that matter) so she had made herself a yummy mini cheese cake.

So that was it.

We were not  nearly as ‘stuffed‘ as previous years which was good.

Even had room for some left over prawns and more pudding for dinner.

Then another Hallmark! We are really suckers for punishment.

A very merry and safe Christmas to all my readers.

Covid-19 Is Back / With Updates - Latest: 31st December

In the space of 36 hours, New South Wales has gone from a 12-day period free from local transmission to the sudden emergence of 38 of cases centred on the northern beaches area of Sydney and is known as the Avalon cluster.
The area is home to around 270,000 people.
At 5pm Saturday (today) the northern beaches will enter a lockdown similar to that imposed on all New South Wales residents in March.

This means residents will be required to stay home and only go out for essential purposes such as shopping, exercise and medical care until 11.59pm Wednesday.

Preliminary genome sequencing has confirmed the coronavirus strain circulating on the northern beaches came from the United States.
The strain was a close match to the virus sample taken from a woman who had flown into Sydney on December 1. However she is still in quarantine so health authorities still don't know how the virus was introduced to the northern beaches.
They have not ruled out that Australian aircrews returning from abroad may be linked to the Avalon cluster, though it does not appear to be a focus of their investigation.

A deserted northern beach centre of Manly last night

Several flight staff live on Sydney’s northern beaches and the NSW government has faced criticism for its flexible quarantine arrangements for aircrews, which effectively let them self-isolate at home with minimal monitoring. It has also become known that aircrews have been breaching quarantine requirements and going out to Sydney venues, instead of staying in their hotel or home.

All in all a disappointing development and one which will disrupt Christmas for a huge number of people.

Update: 20th December

NSW has recorded 30 new locally acquired coronavirus cases in the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday.
Twenty-eight have been directly linked to the Avalon cluster, including the case believed to be the origin of the outbreak.
The two cases which have not yet been linked to the Avalon cluster are people who live in the northern beaches.

New restrictions will now apply across the greater Sydney region until midnight on Wednesday 23rd December in addition to the northern beaches lockdown.
The state of Victoria is reinstating it’s ‘hard’ border with NSW for those who have travelled from the greater Sydney area.

Update: 21st December

New South Wales has recorded 15 new cases of Covid-19 since 8pm last night – all are linked to the existing northern beaches cluster.

Update: 22nd December

From 44,000 tests in NSW yesterday, only 8 additional cases were found.

However NSW Health has identified more cafes, shopping centres and gyms across Sydney's CBD and north that have been visited by confirmed COVID-19 cases.
We are not out of the woods yet.

Locally, some ‘clown‘ from the Northern Beaches signed into our Recreational Centre when he should have been at home in Sydney or at least self isolating here and was ‘sprung’ by staff. Police were called. 

$1000 fine for this person. Expensive trip to the gym!

Some people are plainly stupid.

Update: 23rd December

Another 8 cases reported in NSW. Seven linked to the Avalon cluster.

Discussions underway whether to cancel the Sydney New Years Eve fireworks.

Update: 24th December

7 new cases all related to the Avalon cluster from 60,000 tests.

There are relaxed restrictions in place for the Christmas period. Hopefully this somewhat generous but fraught with danger move by the NSW government will not prove a disaster.

Already people are taking advantage of the situation and have been caught. It would be naive to think many others haven’t.

Update: 25th December

Seven new cases all in the northern beaches from just under seventy thousand tests.

Concern there is a cluster in the CBD (downtown).

Update: 26th December

Around 40,000 tests were carried out on Christmas Day with 9 cases of community transmission detected.

People have been asked to stay away from Boxing Day sales today, particularly in the CBD (downtown) and they are. Normally it’s one of the biggest sale days of the year in line with the USA’s  Black Friday. 

Update:28th December

12 more cases over the last two days, all related to the Avalon cluster.

Restrictions have been tightened for New Years Eve despite the Sydney Harbour fireworks at midnight going ahead.

Under the new restrictions, residents in the northern zone of the northern beaches will adhere to the current strict lockdown measures until January 9. Their southern zone counterparts may face an easing of restrictions as early as January 2.

Meanwhile, people are urged to stay away from the CBD unless they have a permit to be there.

Update: 30th December

Three new cases related to the Avalon cluster reported yesterday

However cases in Greater Sydney, outside the northern beaches (Avalon cluster), detected between December 16 and 27 now number 43 and are scattered across more than 25 suburbs.

And now in the city of Wollongong, south of Sydney and 2 hours drive to the north of us.

Residents are lining up for testing today.
This is concerning.

Update: 31st December 

NSW recorded 18 cases of local transmissions to 8pm on Tuesday from 17,267 tests, taking the total number of cases in the state from zero to 160 in two weeks.
Melbourne recorded three new infections, ending Victoria's two-month run of zero local cases. They are believed to be linked to the NSW outbreak via close contacts.
The situation becomes more serious as the days go on. 

New Years Eve events are being touted as super spreaders and people are being asked to avoid them.

As though that is going to happen.

Floods and More Covid

This time last year, a lot of the east coast was on fire.

This year much is flooded.

Torrential rain in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland has caused rivers to rise and towns to flood.

In fact there has been substantial rainfall over a great deal of the country.

Accompanying wind storms have caused big surf and devastating beach erosion.

We missed out on the nasty weather getting around only 30mm of welcome rain.

In other disappointing news Covid has raised its ugly head once more after many days of zero cases with a cluster emerging in northern Sydney. Seventeen cases have been diagnosed in the last 24 hours. 

Immediately other states have invoked quarantine measures on New South Wales. People in that area have been asked to stay home.

With the Christmas holiday season just upon us and city residents heading for their vacations in our region over the next six weeks, this is concerning.

As a safety measure the co driver and I will begin self isolating once more.

The last few weeks of relative ‘freedom’ were nice but we both had the feeling that another outbreak was inevitable. Covid fragments had been showing up in sewerage systems across Sydney and even Batemans Bay, twenty five minutes drive to our south.

Australian National Anthem Sung in Aboriginal Language

Our Indigenous population's fight for reconciliation took another very small step forward on Saturday night when the Australian national anthem was sung by a Wiradjuri woman, Olivia Fox, in the aboriginal language of the Eora Nation when the Australian Wallabies Rugby Union team played the Argentine Pumas.

The Eora group of Indigenous people are from the Sydney metropolitan area, where the game took place, 

This was a first for an international sporting event.

There are around 290 to 360 different Australian Aboriginal languages spoken around the country and its islands.

Other nations have Indigenous languages as part of their national anthems eg. New Zealand's anthem is sung in both Maori and English.

Some weren't happy as many consider the national anthem's words to be racist. For instance there has been controversy over the phrase "for we are young and free “ given that Australia is home to one of the world's oldest known civilisations. 

But it was quickly pointed out that the Eora version was not a direct translation

Considering the words were written in 1878 there are obvious outdated references. There have been a number of changes since it finally replaced ‘God Save the Queen’ in 1984. 

The above words will be changed hopefully to “for we are one and free”.

There is entrenched discrimination against Australia's Indigenous population.

While the country's Indigenous population makes up just 3.3% of its 25 million people, they account for more than 25% of its prisoners. 

Indigenous Australians are also almost twice as likely to die by suicide, have a life expectancy that is almost nine years lower, and have higher infant mortality rates than non-Indigenous Australians.

Hibiscus

Our hibiscus are thriving with the return of warmer weather.

Some are warm temperate species which were already in the garden when I moved in and the tropical ones I brought down from my old home in Queensland. The latter do struggle a bit in our cooler climate here but every now and again they burst into multiple flowers. I made sure they were planted in the warmest and sunniest  parts of the garden.

Eucalyptus (Gumtrees) Shedding Bark

There are more than 700 species of eucalypts in Australia with their bark types falling into roughly two categories – the persistent rough type of stringybarks, boxes, peppermints and ironbarks and shedding smooth type like brittle gums and scribbly gums.
They are commonly called gum trees but the botanical term eucalypt means well (eu) covered (calyptos)

They are the dominant tree type growing all over the country and are evergreens only dropping some of their leaves when under stress.The growing season for most eucalyptus is summer. When the trees grow, they put on new sap wood on the outside and expand. As a result most smooth bark eucalypts shed a lot of their bark in the summer months.

This bark shedding is called “decorticating” and is a normal thing to see, especially with smooth barked gum trees. 

In smooth bark types, the bark comes off in flakes curls or long strips. In rough bark eucalyptus, the bark doesn’t fall off as easily, but accumulates in entwined, stringy masses of the tree.As the bark dries and peels, it often forms colourful patches and interesting patterns on the trunk of the tree. Some trees have striking patterns of stripes and flakes, and the peeling bark may expose bright yellow or orange colours of the new bark forming underneath.

Shedding eucalyptus tree bark may help keep the tree healthy. As the tree sheds its bark, it also sheds any mosses, lichens, fungi and parasites that may live on the bark. Some peeling bark can perform photosynthesis, contributing to the rapid growth and overall health of the tree.

Unfortunately the mass of fallen bark on forest floors contributes to the potential bushfire fuel during the season.

COVID-19 / Australia / 27th November Update

As of today, big fat zeros across the entire country as far as community transmissions are concerned.

Apart from a quarantined cluster in South Australia, the country is virtually Covid free.

Unless something drastic happens, there may be no need for any more Covid updates.

Well done us!

All other states and territories have been Covid free for months.

COVID-19 / Australia / 19th & 20th November Updates

Just when you think it’s safe to go back in the water, the state of South Australia, after 3 months of no community Covid transmission, has seen the virus ‘escape’ from a quarantine hotel via a cleaner who had had no contact with the ‘guests’.
They assume she must have got it off a contaminated surface somewhere. The virus strain was traced to a ‘guest’ who had arrived from overseas on November 2nd and went directly to quarantine.
So far, 22 cases have been detected.
Their government has enacted an immediate “circuit breaker” which includes a six-day lock down and a further eight days of lesser restrictions in the state.
The rules are listed below. Compare these to what is in place in other countries around the world. Victoria took similar action but not as quickly and for much longer. So far that state has had nearly three weeks of zero transmissions.
Lock downs, while tough for the population and business, work!

All South Australians will have to stay put in their house for six days. Wherever they were at midnight this Wednesday (yesterday) that’s where they have to remain.
All schools will be shut except for children of essential workers and vulnerable children;
Childcare will be open only to essential workers, and shut to everyone else;
People will not be permitted to leave their home to exercise.
Takeaway food will be shut;
Universities will be closed;
Pubs, cafe’s, food courts and other food venues will be closed;
Elective surgery will be closed, except for urgent operations;
Cancer treatment will be closed;
Real estate inspections will be closed;
All outdoor sport and physical activity will not be permitted.
Regional travel is not approved. Holiday houses are closed. Schoolies, which police commissioner Grant Stevens said yesterday was still on, is now off;
Aged care and residential disability care is in lock down;
Factories other than for food and medical products are closed, apart from essential maintenance;
The construction industry is closed;
Weddings and funerals will be banned for six days;
Face masks are required when outside the home, although it’s just encouraged not mandatory as many in SA do not yet have masks;
Families with joint custody arrangements have been asked to find an arrangement that works for the next six days, without moving between houses.

Remaining open:
Supermarkets will remain open for one visit from one person per household per day;
Critical infrastructure — power, telecommunications — will remain open;
Medical services including mental health services will remain open;
Public transport will remain open;

Airport and freight services will remain open;
Petrol stations will remain open;
Banks and financial institutions will remain open;
Post offices will remain open;
Mining, smelting, and large factories will be allowed to continue to operate at a level required to ensure continuity of service delivery or to prevent damage, but not for anything else;
Veterinary surgeons will remain open;
Agriculture workers will be able to move around to ensure the safety, welfare and processing of animals and animal products, like dairy.

Update: No new SA cases reported today, Thursday. In fact there were zero new cases Australia wide.

Update: 20th November: Apparently the decision to lock down was based on information given to contact tracers by an infected person. It has now been established that this contact had lied and the situation, while still serious, was not critical.

So the SA government has revised their strategy and restrictions have been substantially reduced.

As of 12pm today, Friday 20 November 2020 exercise outside of your home with members of your household is permitted.
Masks are not mandatory but are encouraged.
Schools will re-open on Monday 23 November 2020.
As of 12:01 am on Sunday 22 November (Midnight Saturday) we will revert to similar restrictions that were in place on Monday 16 November 2020.
This includes:
1 person per 4 square meters will apply.
All food and beverages will need to be consumed while seated.
No dancing
Updated gathering provision numbers being:
Onsite purchase and consumption of food and beverages- 100 people maximum and no more than 10 people at each table.
Funerals- 50 people maximum
Weddings- 150 people maximum and registration of all guests with SA Health
Religious ceremonies (not including a wedding or funeral)- 100 people maximum
Private gatherings- 50 people maximum
Private residence- 10 people per house (unless more than 10 people permanently reside at the residence)
Personal care workers will need to wear masks.
Gyms are permitted to reopen.

A Day Trip South

After five days of hard work fencing, Stirls and I decided to have a day off and drove with the co-driver down to Moruya which is about 90 minutes south on a nice river and did some touristy things. Lovely old buildings have been preserved there although their functions are different now eg. a solid granite bank building is now a cafe, the old post office is now a B&B.

There was a gold rush in the area in the mid 1800s so there was plenty of money about in those days.
It’s also the place that they mined the huge granite blocks for the pylons of the Sydney Harbour bridge.
We had coffee at a cafe and it was the first time I had sat in an enclosed commercial place for 7 months. Felt a bit strange at first. But they had the Covid rules in place ie. sign in with phone number and tables spaced well apart, so it was comfortable

Then we headed for Broulee on the coast and dropped the co-driver off at the newly relocated quilt store, Stephs. 

I knew this area from my surfing days in the 1960s and holidays in the 80s but Stirls had never been there so I gave him a bit of a guided tour of the beaches. It was a lovely day and the water was very blue and clear. Not much surf around however which must have frustrated about 10 guys sitting out at one of the points waiting for waves that hardly ever came.

We picked up the co-driver loaded down, not surprisingly, with parcels and drove the coastal road to Batemans Bay for lunch. This area was hit badly by the fires with people having to evacuate to the beaches. It hasn’t recovered as well as our area so far.
Lunch was fish and chips at our favourite, Innes Boatshed, on the balcony that sits over the water.

This is an institution in the Bay and is very popular. Best fresh fried fish, chips and potato scallops ever. Our fish was flake (shark), which used to be the normal fish and chips fare way back when, but you hardly see it anymore so we grabbed it. Delicious!
They are building a huge new bridge across the Clyde River there. The old one is a lift bridge which causes all sorts of traffic delays when it opens and especially when it gets stuck, which was happening more and more. 

It’s on the second main route from Melbourne to Sydney so they had to do something. I was first at the Bay in 1956, when the family moved from Melbourne to Brisbane and we drove pulling a caravan for four weeks holiday on the way. There was no bridge then, just a punt you drove onto. So I have seen a few changes in this area over the decades.
So that was our day.
Very laidback and relaxing.

COVID-19 / Australia / 13th November Update

Figures for the country are still looking good.

For instance, Victoria has now gone 14 days without a locally acquired case

All states and territories have agreed to a plan to reopen Australia's internal borders by Christmas, with the exception of Western Australia.
The Federal Health Minister said all COVID vaccines being developed around the world appeared not only to be safe and effective, but were ahead of schedule.
The government has secured agreements for four different vaccines, with a total of 134.8 million doses acquired.
The entire purchasing arrangement will cost the government $3.2 billion.
Any COVID-19 vaccine will be free for all Australians or medicare-eligible visa holders.

The National Cabinet has also agreed to a national COVID vaccination policy, which will prioritise the elderly and people particularly vulnerable to the virus.

So there does seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel for us.

Sadly the same can’t be said for many other countries around the world.

Covid-19 / Australia / Doughnut (Donut) Day

Yesterday Australia recorded its first no community Covid transmissions in 5 months.
Because of the “zero” this is now known colloquially as doughnut day.
Granted this is only a one day snapshot.
But today there are zero cases in Victoria (until recently experiencing a second wave) and one with a known source in New South Wales. All other states and territories are clear.
This is a trend that is encouraging.
The population has been through a lot of pain to achieve this goal what with lockdowns, business and school closures, social distancing, state and international border closures and increasing unemployment just to name a few.

There have been some rumblings about ‘over reaction’ and loss of ‘freedom’, mainly from the conservative side of politics, but support for Covid suppression measures runs high.
In the Queensland state election on Saturday, where restrictions have been quite severe, the incumbent left wing government was returned with an increased majority.
Many of the restrictions stay in place as a safety measure, some more stringent than others depending on the state, but increasingly they are all being relaxed.
It certainly isn’t all over yet. 

All governments are stressing the danger of complacency.
Life definitely has not returned to normal but you get the feeling the country is a little more relaxed.

COVID-19 / Australia / 25th October Update

For the first time in months, our major state newspaper today has not led with a Covid story.

That is not to say it has gone away, but things seem to be under control especially in New South Wales with 6 locally acquired (but not mystery) cases this week and none in Queensland.

Meanwhile Victoria had seen a jump in new coronavirus cases with seven being recorded yesterday. This is due to a cluster in northern Melbourne which led to the closure of two schools.
However the number of active coronavirus cases across Victoria has fallen to just 98, the first time that figure has been below 100 since June 19.
The state’s much maligned tough restrictions have definitely had positive results.
So we remain on the alert but a little more comfortable with the situation. 

Life has definitely not returned to normal.
All governments are concerned that complacency might set in with the lifting of many restrictions so the message is still out there: wear a mask, socially distance and wash your hands.

Locally, the first two now seem to be ignored which is a worry with the Christmas tourist invasion just around the corner. 

We are seeing in other parts of the world, especially the USA, the results of dismissing basic preventative measures.

Some Non Covid News

So what’s happening around our place as summer approaches?

Fence repairs and upgrades continue.

Thanks to Stirls for coming down and helping with some major projects especially the remainder of the southern boundary fence.

We replaced the mid western strainer with a more substantial one and increased the stay length to keep it out of a permanent wet zone that contributed to rotting the base of the old one. A more substantial stay was placed at the eastern end strainer and all the unstable and burnt/scorched wooden posts were replaced with steel pickets. Then the wires were re-strained and tied. It was a full two day job but quite enjoyable working in the bush in pleasantly cool sunny weather. 

It is quite noticeable that, along with the tree regrowth, the bird and wildlife are finally returning. We disturbed a number of wallabies each morning and diverse birdsong was with us most of the day. Even the dreaded Koel has returned.

The fires have also created an environment for many new and interesting plants, apart from the flush of weeds, to grow. Some I have never seen before around here. They have probably lain dormant for decades.

We also made a start on revamping the east and northern house paddock fences damaged by the tree removal by replacing strainers and posts.

The only major project left now is replacing the southern house paddock fence.

The new grass out front is thriving after the occasional day of light rain supplementing the hand watering. Almost time to give it its first mow. The backyard grassing project is still in progress.

The shed rebuild continues. It’s going to be a little bit more fancy than first envisaged due to the builder and the co-driver getting their heads together. I may have to have an eight digit key pad lock installed to keep the fabric overflow from the little house (studio) finding its way over there. It will be nice to get all the stuff currently stored in the carport over there both for aesthetic and security reasons.

The pasture is taking a bit of time to get into its spring flush despite the ground moisture level being quite high. I guess we need some more warmer days to kick things off.

So am still buying hay to supplement the cattle diet. Thankfully it’s recently fallen in price.

Cattle prices are very high at the moment as good rain out west has encouraged restocking after the long drought caused an epic sell down of Australia's cattle herd. Farmers, feedlots and abattoirs are all competing for the smallest cattle herd in 30 years. Australia is now home to some of the world's most expensive cattle.

Not that ours are for sale of course.

So that’s about all our news for now.

Making Bread

This is my 100th post for the year, already over double the normal annual number.

Amazing what a bush fire emergency and a pandemic, forcing one into self isolation, will produce. 

The New York based daughter is making her own bread. They find the normal supermarket offerings there  a bit sweet (I can relate) and artisan breads a little expensive.

So she found a recipe for a no knead bread which she has been encouraging me to try. She has modified it a little by adding oats, flax seeds and pepita (pumpkin) kernels.

So I got all the fixins’ and got my lesson over two days via Skype.

Mixing the dry ingredients with water was very easy. Then it was covered up with GladWrap for 24 hours to let the yeast do its thing.

It tripled in size and was very bubbly.

The next step wasn’t so easy.

I got my instructions and a practical demonstration via Skype ie. “Baking with Kate”, Series 1, Episode 2.

But I think my mixture was too wet and folding it into a ball and wrapping it in baking paper and a tea towel was a real challenge.

But eventually there it sat like a neat parcel for two hours to double in size, which it did, while the oven and the pan heated up to 220℃(425℉) during the last 30 mins.

So then it was a matter of getting it off the baking paper, folding it into a ball again and putting it in the hot pan.

Boy, this was a real struggle. 

It didn't want to cooperate at all, sticking to the paper which began to tear and spreading out all over the place. I fought with it for 5 minutes getting nearly all the dough off and then dumped it unceremoniously into the hot pan and into the oven. No chance of ball folding.

Forty minutes later, off with the lid for another 15 minutes to brown and then out onto a cooling rack.

Actually it didn’t look too bad. 

But in comparison to the daughters (see pic below), not so good.

The big test was next! 

Taste and texture.

After a few hours we cut it in half.

Nice crispy crust, nutty taste but a bit doughy and there were pockets of dry flour.

Oh well, it was a first try.

Next time I will be more careful with the water addition and try to make the dough drier.

But it was really fun to do, especially with the ‘live’ lessons from New York City.