Supertree Grove, Singapore

RTW 2013 / Sydney to Vienna via Singapore.

Day one of the 'Big Trip' found us leaving Stirls (where we leave our car) around 6am arriving well in time for our flight despite a bit of a traffic jam just before airport.
Being early saw a fast check in, in fact, we were the only ones at the counter. At emigration my passport wouldn't 'read'. This was fixed after visiting with a few officials up the line.
The A380 boarded quickly for such a big plane. Obviously Singapore Airlines have done their homework here. The co driver had a spare seat beside her.
ggggrrrrrrr!
Serves me right for swapping seats at the last moment!
SQ 232 was thirty minutes early due to favorable winds. The 7.5 hours passed quickly with 700 selections of movies, TV, music and audio books on the IFE. The co driver watched 18 episodes of Big Bang Theory in a row.
SIN is such an efficient airport. No queue at immigration (and no passport 'reading' problems...phew), bags already waiting at the carousal and an immediate taxi into town.
The Fairmont was a nice hotel apart from the exorbitant daily internet connection charge (the only one of the whole trip).
Raffles City shopping centre is underneath with multiple stories of shops and restaurants plus the City Hall MTR station.
We headed for dumplings and beer at Din Tai Fung for dinner.
And it was as good as anticipated.

We were up early next morning because of the 2 hours time difference.
Had breakfast at, of all things, a German restaurant called Brotzeit. Singapore life starts later in the morning compared with Australia so not much was open.
We spent a pleasant morning at the hotel pool, partook of an excellent Japanese 'fast food' lunch and did a little shopping. It became obvious that Singapore is no longer the bargain shopping destination it used to be.
Huge thunderstorms came in just after lunch and lasted all afternoon.
At dusk, with the storms abating, we took the train to Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Casino.
Getting off at the wrong station (yes, my fault) created a bit of a long walk but we got the bonus of a wonderful view of part of the Singapore skyline

The hotel and adjoining shopping complex is huge and is worth exploring. It really is a tourist attraction on its own.
However our main goal was to see the Gardens by the Bay and in particular the Supertree Grove.

The gardens are an amazing complex of outdoor and indoor horticultural environments. The Grove was very unusual and as darkness fell the 'trees' lit up in the most wonderful way.
An attraction that lived up to the hype.

After walking for what seemed miles around the huge shopping complex, it was back to our part of town by train (from the right station this time) and another Japanese meal for dinner with plenty of Tiger beer......for rehydration purposes of course.
Singapore is always hot and humid!
We found an excellent place for breakfast pizza just down the road next morning and, at last, a decent cup of coffee.
Then it was another sit around the pool before the co driver went for a pedicure and I sat and people watched.
A pet store nearby was selling strollers for pets.....pretty bizarre.
We had another dumpling extravaganza for lunch and then retired to our room for a rest in preparation for the next leg of our journey.

Then it was a quick taxi ride to airport. Lufthansa was overbooked and offered us substantial compensation to delay our flight for one day.
Sorry, not this time.
It was a long 12 hour flight on an extremely full A380 to Frankfurt for our connection to Vienna.

New South Wales Bushfires

We have just returned home to Australia to be confronted with disastrous bush fires around and to the north of Sydney.

More information and details here and here.
So far our area has been spared although there is a big fire to the west of us in mountainous and inaccessible country.
We are hoping the unseasonal hot dry and windy weather will soon pass and the fires can be brought under control.
But what we really need is rain, a rare commodity so far this spring apparently.
Our hearts go out to those affected over the last two days.

Exhausted firefighters take a short break

UPDATE: 1st November 2013.
The fire is now under control but has burnt out nearly 7000 ha.

RTW 2013

By the time you all read this we will have almost completed our seven week 'Round the World' trip.
This time, when visiting the USA to catch up with family, we decided that instead of the normal return across the Pacific, we would do a complete circuit and go see a few places on our bucket list as well as return to a few favorites.
The planned route is from Sydney to Singapore for a couple of nights stopover.
This will be a good break after an 8 hour flight to enjoy a few days relaxing by the hotel pool, eat some good Asian food, do a little shopping (only window variety, hopefully) and explore more of this exciting city. 
Then it will be onto Vienna via Frankfurt for a few weeks to visit parts of Austria.
This transit day, well night really, will be a long one with two flights, the first one twelve hours, the other only one but with a 3 hour layover in between. We haven't been to Frankfurt in quite a while but I can think of worse airports to hang about in for a few hours. Maybe time for eine Wurst und ein (oder zwei) Bier even though it will be 6am (but not to us).

The plan is to spend a week in Vienna then travel by train down to Salzburg for a few days. From there to the small Wachau town of Duernstein by train and bus to enjoy a few days in the Danube Valley wine area.
From Vienna we fly to Zurich, change planes for a flight to LAX, finally ending up in Las Vegas that night. Another long day! Hopefully the flight transfer gods are with us.
After a few days there we head via Denver to Sioux Falls and environs for a four week stay with family and friends. In addition, Des Moines, Iowa and Hudson, Wisconsin are also on our visit list.
The route home to Sydney will be via Denver and LAX.
Hopefully we will have lots of pictures and a few stories to pass on in the coming weeks.

September Book Review # 3

I have always been a fan of Hollywood autobiographies and biographies especially of the older stars ie. The Golden Years.
Debbie is just on the cusp of that era having seen out the old studio system 

Unsinkable is quite an entertaining (and light) read with all the details of her three failed marriages (Eddie Fisher...the rat!) and the trauma of her gone wrong business deals with her LasVegas hotel and attempts to set up a Hollywood memorabilia museum for her extensive collection.
The last part of the book details all her movies with some amusing anecdotes and a smattering of 'dirt' on some of her co stars as well as directors.
Her children are especially important to her and she dedicates some time discussing the problems her daughter, Carrie Fisher, has with her fight with a bi polar condition.
All in all an interesting read but by far not the best of that genre.
Sam and Ben live the ideal suburban life in Canberra (Australia's capital city) when one day, by chance, Sam finds out Ben has been cheating on her.
She kicks him out and falls initially into depression before the anger surfaces.
She then heads off into the country (Eden-Monaro region south of Canberra) to confront Rachael, the other woman.

On arriving at the old sheep farm, she finds out that the husband, Tim, knows about the affair and has sent Rachael packing.
They obviously have a lot in common.
Sam decides to stay (as you would always do under the circumstances).
Both Rachael and Ben realize they may have made a mistake and want to make amends.
Will they or will they not be forgiven?
There is a lot of dialogue in this book. The author sure does have a handle on the emotional swings that a person cheated on goes through.
And the descriptions of life on a farm in rural Australia for a townie also ring true and are often quite amusing.
Grey Jack Road can be a little bit tedious in parts but is worth the perseverance.
WARNING: Lots of strong language which may border on the gratuitous for some.
Back in 1989, Peter Mayle wrote A Year in Provence. This was probably the first of a new sub genre of travel books that was concerned with people giving up their current lives and moving to a new country almost always with a new language and a completely different culture. The stories normally include renovations of a run down house while dealing with local tradesmen and the red tape associated with government building authorities, strange and eccentric characters living in the neighbouring area, mistakes with a new language and the struggle fitting into a new way of life. And, yes, also visits from friends and family who never really understand the madness that caused this sea change to happen.
One of the most famous was Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes and more recently Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Happier Than A Billionaire and Happier Than A Billionaire: The Sequel are two books written by Nadine Hays Pisani about a couple escaping the rigours of living in NewYork and taking up residency in Costa Rica.
Lots of the common cliches of the genre are applied here but, despite that, the story is well and humorously told with a cast of characters that continually having you chuckling out loud.
While the countryside sounds stunning, life is Costa Rica sounds a little daunting but in the end you begin to feel the positives could outweigh the negatives.

I read the sequel before the first book.
Didn’t matter.
Both are recommended.
The author also has a blog. 
The Book of the Bush Containing Many Truthful Sketches Of The Early Colonial Life Of Squatters, Whalers, Convicts, Diggers, And Others Who Left Their Native Land And Never Returned by George Dunderdale was written in the late 19th century about colonial life in Australia in the mid 1800s.
It covers convict life in Van Diemans Land (Tasmania), life on the Victorian gold fields and the exploration and settling of the Western District and Gippsland in Victoria.  

Despite some quaint descriptive Victorian English, this is a fascinating collection of stories of the life of the times including the eccentric characters, interaction with the Aboriginal population and a good insight into how tough things were in those days.
There is a little history of New Zealand and a little of the authors life as a teacher in the mid west of the USA thrown in for good measure.
A free Kindle book and one for the Australian history buff I think.
I'll Try the Possum is the autobiography of a mid west American guy who grew up in the 60s in a large loving family. He covers his education through from kindergarten to college where he just scraped through with a journalism degree, his trials and tribulations with sport during that period, an eye opening student exchange trip to Thailand as well as coming to terms with his homosexuality.
For a time his post college life comprised of living off food stamps, dealing in in prescription drugs and hanging out in gay bars in Atlanta. Finally realizing he needed a purpose in  life (and probably to stay out of jail), he found work in the Hilton Hotel chain (where he met lots of celebs who were not all nice) and eventually found his niche as a flight attendant for a major airline.

'

This story is both funny and sad but always entertaining. Patrick never takes himself very seriously and is always a 'glass half full' person. The characters are very real. His conservative but understanding parents are a product of their time and his friends can be quite outrageous.
Never a dull moment in this book and plenty of laugh out loud plus a few cringing moments.
Highly recommended.
Cooking Up Trouble is a fast moving story set in outback Australia.
Lots of larconic characters, food, mystery, missing gemstones and a little bit of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll.

An easy read once you get the number of characters and their relationships sorted out.
It seems there is a plethora of these types of novels on the Kindle site. 
Amazon keeps sending me 'recommendations' based on my past purchases.
Reading the synopsis of each suggests a 'sameness' of plot and characterization.
Maybe it's time, now, to head back to the non fiction history category.

September Book Review # 2

Life in colonial Victoria, Australia was always going to be tough for Ned Kelly.
Born to Irish Catholic parents, his father an ex transported convict, the family were second class citizens in a English Protestant dominated society.
Scratching to make a living on 80 poor acres near Greta in rural Victoria after his father's death, Ned resorted to a little horse and cattle stealing to make ends meet. He had been in trouble with the law from the age of fourteen and was to spend some time in gaol for his sins. His continued criminal activity brought him under the watchful eye of the local constabulary. In fact it's safe to say they were out too get him.
Ned (falsely?) accused of attempted murder of a policeman eventually went into hiding with his brother Dan where they were later joined by friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart and would be forever known as "The Kelly Gang".

While on the run they shot and killed three policemen, committed two major bank hold ups and murdered a police informant.

After the latter event, the gang rode openly through Beechworth to the small railway town of Glenrowan to wreck a special police train that had been sent up from Melbourne with a force thought to be large enough to finally capture them. .
It was here the classic siege with multiple inhabitants taken hostage and a long drawn out shoot out with police took place. And it was here that the gang wore their famous armour.
Ned was the only member of the gang to survive and was captured.
He was hanged on 11th November 1880 at Melbourne Gaol.
Ned Kelly is Australia's most famous bushranger (outlaw).
He is considered by some to be merely a cold-blooded killer, while others consider him to be a folk hero and symbol of Irish Australian resistance against the Anglo-Australian ruling class.
The expression 'as game as Ned Kelly' is a ingrained in the Australian language.

Glenrowan is a detailed account of Ned's life, the siege and his ultimate demise. There are also details of the bizarre aftermath. Suffice to say his remains (minus his skull) were finally laid to rest on 20th January 2013.
It has been meticulously researched and despite the huge amount of factual content is entertainingly written. The personal portraits of all the major players are particularly insightful.
Australians learn about Ned from an early age. Most of us think we know it all. But reading this it's obvious we don't. Highly recommended for those interested in this facet of Australian history or for those who appreciate a good rollicking tale, the Australian version of 'a western'.
For those who want an abridged version, you can read that here.

Not another Civil War book I hear you cry!
Well, it IS the most written about event in world history.
1861 The Civil War Awakening was published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the war and covers a relatively short period leading up to and including the first few months of the conflict.
And for me it introduced a whole new cast of little-known Civil War heroes—among them an acrobatic militia colonel, an explorer’s wife, an idealistic band of German immigrants, a regiment of New York City firemen, a community of Virginia slaves, and a young college professor who would one day become president. 
As examples, Major Robert Anderson, a southerner who remained loyal to the Union and moved his small garrison without orders from the indefensible Fort Moultrie in Charlestown Harbor to the more secure Fort Sumpter and managed to hold out for two days under withering bombardment before honorably surrendering.....with no loss of life (on either side).
Elmer Ellsworth, a showman, friend of Lincoln and former of the first Zouave union army unit to see combat where he was killed removing a confederate flag from a hotel in Alexandria.
Major General Butler who accepted the escaped slaves from the Confederate side into Fort Monroe with know intention of returning them to their 'owners' (much against Lincoln's policy at the time), designating them as contraband.
Goodheart shifts focus away from the power centers of Washington and Charleston to look at the actions and reactions of citizens from Boston to New York City, from Hampton Roads to St. Louis and San Francisco, emphasizing the cultural rather than military clash between those wanting the country to move forward and those clinging to the old ways.
One of the best books on this subject for me so far.
And was this my last 'real' book?

Space Chronicles was my first Kindle book which I can read on my iPad mini too. It's all a bit weird at first but you soon get used to it.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of my favorite 'scientists'. His official title is astrophysicist and science communicator.
Funny, educational and the ability to write about complicated issues with such simplicity makes his books a joy to read. I reviewed his book on Pluto (the now dwarf planet, not the puppy) some time ago.
His interviews on the 'Daily Show' are always entertaining and when reading him you can almost hear him talking to you.
This book contains everything you ever wanted to know about space and space exploration, scientifically, and politically; past, present and future.
It can be a bit rambling and repetitive at times (did the the credited editor go MIA occasionally?) but de Grasse Tyson's enthusiasm for the subject shines through and you can easily forgive the transgressions.
Sometimes I get the feeling that I don't read enough Australian books.
The selection for this category on Amazon for Kindle is fairly limited but a plough through the listings one night highlighted a local author I had never heard of, Drew Lindsay.
He writes detective novels and the first of his Ben Hood Series was a free download.
Despite not being into that genre, some of the reviews convinced me I should give it a go.

Coral Sea Affair turned out to good easy read with familiar settings in Sydney and Far North Queensland. Dialogue was typically Australian, the characters real enough, the plot was a bit far fetched but, hey, it doesn't hurt to suspend reality occasionally.
The author is an ex cop, security officer and insurance fraud investigator as well as a diver and pilot.
All these life's experiences are well utilized.
There are apparently nine more books in the Ben Hood Series.
We shall see!
Samantha arrives in a small country town to start a new life. She has emotional baggage.
The first person she meets is Ethan the town vet. He also has a lot of baggage.
But the sparks fly. They circle each other.
WiIl they or won't they?
Will the mountain of baggage get in the way?

The House on Burra Burra Lane has a plot ripe for a Universal (Hallmark) Channel movie adaptation except it's set in the foothills of Australia's Snowy Mountains not Smalltown, USA.
A lightweight read with little character development, a simple plot despite the small twist and a very predictable ending.
One to wizz through while taking a breather from more serious material.

September Book Review # 1

One Day started out as an amusing read centered around two characters, from different sides of the tracks, who met and made a connection during their university years in the late 1980s.
Despite a mutual attraction their lives take different courses and while the occasional meeting fires up the repressed emotions, destiny and other relationships kept them apart.

This was all very intriguing for the first two thirds of the book.
Then I got the feeling 'what is up with these two twits...they don't seem to own a brain between them.'
I never did find out what happened to either Emma or Dexter.
Got sick of them both and didn't finish the book.
In 2010, the novel was named Popular Fiction Book of the Year at the UK's annual Galaxy National Book Awards ceremony, and was later granted the accolade of Galaxy Book of the Year.
They have subsequently made a film of the book so many others must have thought it was OK.
If you like Nicholas Spark type books, I am sure you will love One Day.
Tried by War was written by James M McPherson, the author of my Civil War 'bible', Battle Cry of Freedom. This is the story of how Lincoln, with almost no previous military experience before entering the White House, assumed the powers associated with the role of commander in chief and through his strategic insight and will to fight changed the course of the war and saved the Union.

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The Confederate States of America had already been formed by the time Lincoln was inaugurated.
and he was faced with dealing with  'war powers" that were quite vague under the Constitution.
This was indeed a steep learning curve to develop a strategy to preserve the United States, all the time hindered by the fact that he could not find, initially, a military commander who could win victories on the battlefield.
When it became clear that the South with slavery in tact would not be brought back into the fold and the war was dragging on, Lincoln emancipated the slaves as a military measure, adding black freedom to the Union cause.
Under constant criticism for his failures Lincoln finally found Ulysses S. Grant, William T Sherman and Philip A. Sheridan to bring him success on the battlefield and consequent re election with a large majority.
The rest, as they say, is history.
I found the story of Lincoln's troubled relationship with his generals particularly enlightening.
Probably a book for the Civil War affectionado but it is definitely not a dry read for those who are interested in delving deeper into the life of a man who shaped the future of an entire nation....and probably the world.
Many people think Australia was 'discovered' by the British in 1770.
In fact Europeans became aware of the great south land much earlier with the Dutch navigator Willem Janzsoon's landing on Cape York in 1606.
The Dutch, a little later, became well aware of the west coast of the continent and used it as a 'navigation aid' for their newly found faster trade route from Holland via the southern Indian Ocean to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), better known then as the Spice Islands.
In 1629, the pride of the Dutch East India Company, 'Batavia', set out on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave Holland.
The ship is already seething with a mutinous plot that is just about to break when, just off the coast of what is now Western Australia, it strikes an already chartered but unseen reef in the middle of the night.
Commandeur Francisco Pelsaert decides to take the long-boat across 2000 miles of open sea for help, and his second-in-command Jeronimus Cornelisz takes over.
Cornelisz quickly decides that 250 people on a small island is unwieldy for the small number of supplies they have.

He puts forward a plan to the 40 odd mutineers how they could save themselves by killing most of the rest and sparing only a half-dozen or so women to service their 'needs'.
A reign of terror begins, countered only by an anonymous soldier Wiebbe Hayes, who begins to gather to him those who are prepared to do what it takes to survive.
Will their Commandeur come back for them with the rescue ship before it is all too late?
Peter FitzSimons has long maintained that this is "far and away the greatest story in Australia's history, if not the world's."
His unique writing style has made him one of Australia's best-selling non-fiction writer over the last ten years and he makes this bloody, chilling and stunning tale come alive.
Batavia is a great read and a  'can't put it down' book.
We usually buy DK Eyewitness Guides to research our travel. They are full of information on where to go, what to do and where to stay and eat as well as a full history of the destination.
And beautiful pictures too.
The Vienna Guide was no exception.

And as an addition, we downloaded a Kindle version of another guide, Maximilian Just's Vienna Under the Surface.
Although not as comprehensive as the DK it was chocked full of useful information, historical facts and detailed information on the historical Viennese buildings and their contents.

Not that we traipse around places, guide book in hand, but it's always nice to have a reference just in case.
Hopefully both these books will make our upcoming trip to Austria more enjoyable.

Date Day / Didn't Go As Planned

The electricity supply company is replacing all the wooden transmission poles in our area with bushfire proof ones. This means we will be without power for the whole day for a few days over the coming weeks.
For the first powerless day we planned a date day in Batemans Bay, about 30 minutes drive to the south, including a lunch of fish and chips (and potato scallops) at Innes Boatshed which, according to us and a few of our visitors, are the best in the world.

We set off early for a sit in the sun and a read at South Durras in the Murramarang National Park.
This is a lovely area with a small village, beautiful beaches and plenty of wildlife.
Lots of winter wildflowers were in bloom and we had company also enjoying the sunshine on a warm 21 degree day.

Then at midday it was onto 'the Bay'.
We made it only as far as the north side of the Clyde River.
The major highway (Highway 1 which circumnavigates the entire Australian continent) crosses the Clyde into Batemans Bay via a lift bridge. It opens twice a day to let bigger boats through. Today it had opened on time, then stuck in the open position.

Technicians were working feverishly to get it fixed while traffic banked up on both sides of the river.
We sat for a while but it was obvious that no one knew how long it was going to take.
So we turned around and headed back to our local area, had a nice lunch at Annabell's Cafe' in Milton (a usual haunt) and another sit in the sun and read at Mollymook Beach.

We will try again for 'the Bay' another day.
"The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray".
Thank you, Mr. Burns (the Scottish  poet, not The Simpsons character)

In Building Mode

The stables have a tack room attached to them. I hadn't been inside since the daughter's horse, Tayah, died over 8 years ago. But I was looking for something in there and found more than I bargained for.
Termites had invaded and built a huge nest from the floor to the ceiling.
I could  poke my finger through the wooden interior wall lining.
Neighbour Bob is an all round handy man and was looking for a job so he volunteered to help me do some remedial work.
We stripped all the corrugated iron outer wall off the frame and were met with the sight of a huge infestation and what appeared to be lots of damage.

So off came the affected wall lining and up came the suspended floor boards.
One hardwood corner post had been completely eaten out and a number of rails too.
The termites had tried in a number of other areas which had proven too tough so it was not a complete disaster.
The main nest was under the floor. It was a huge ball of chewed and 'glued" wood about 1m into the ground.

We had built a fire to burn the damaged timber so the nest, complete with inhabitants, was carefully removed to prevent any disturbance and committed to the flames.
We didn't need another tack room so the space was repaired as a storage unit for hay.
New posts, rails and recycled timber for the floor were put together and the corrugated iron reattached. All that is missing now is a wire gate for the front which is being custom made.
As work continued, Bob began referring to the project as the 'stable complex'. In the end it had become the 'Equine Centre'. But no equines around here, however, only bovines.
Termites (white ants) are a real problem in Australia. We get a house inspection done every few years and the beginnings of an invasion were discovered a little time back and quickly dealt with.
Thankfully we don't have the problem with them on the coast as they have in the outback. Nests can grow to an amazing size and height.

It was obviously a working with timber week. The road into our valley is a private one and is unsealed. The residents maintain it. This is a matter of filling in potholes, grading with a tractor and making sure the drainage system is kept clear and working.
A lot of wet weather can cause a fair amount of damage.
There is also the bridge across the creek. Ours is a classic wooden beam bridge design with four huge logs covered by planks spanning the water way. The timber planks tend to rot out over time and need to be replaced. These are large and heavy hardwood, usually iron bark. The old ones have to be lifted out and the new ones inserted.

Luckily we have a few tractors around with front end loaders to help with this.
But a fair amount of manual labour is always required. Everyone pitches in and it takes a few hours to get things done. This time we only had 11 to do.
The old timbers are cut up and used for firewood.
Now the bridge is OK for a few more years.

Rabbits

I noticed, while in the supermarket the other day, they were selling wild rabbits (meat) for around $20.
Neighbour Gail, up the back, breeds rabbits for meat and sells them at a good price too.
As one who grew up learning about the rabbit scourge and then having to deal with them on the farm, I was quite amazed at this development.
From hated pest to gourmet food?
Rabbit was a common food way back when, both in the country where they were plentiful (actually in plague proportions) and in the cities in the less affluent parts. Rabbitos used to hawk around the streets with them.
But we never had them at home when I was a kid.. My mother would disdainfully say "Depression food!"  and that was that.
Rabbits are not native to Australia.
They were introduced to the country in the 18th century by the first settlers as a food source.
Some were even imported from the UK as wild food for another perennial imported pest, the fox, so the gentlemen of the day could pursue their 'sport' of hunting.
Thomas Austin is credited with releasing 24 wild rabbits at his Barwon Park property near Geelong in Victoria in 1859. This small population exploded to cover Victoria and New South Wales by 1886. By 1900, rabbits had reached the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Rabbits cause millions of dollars of damage to agricultural crops, pastureland and the bushland, reducing regeneration of vulnerable native plant species which encourages erosion and changes the landscape forever.
They actively compete with domestic livestock and can alter pasture composition by selectively grazing on more palatable and nutritious plants. Seven to ten rabbits eat the equivalent of one adult sheep.
Their presence has also led to the demise of many native marsupial species such as the bilby and the bandicoot as their feed sources were consumed by marauding rabbits.
They can also cause structural damage to buildings, fences, roads and railway lines by undermining them with their burrows.
Various control methods are available to landholders which includes shooting, trapping, poisoning, fumigation and warren destruction techniques such as ripping and using explosives.
In 1907 a rabbit proof fence was built in Western Australia in an attempt to contain the rabbits.
There are three fences in Western Australia. The original No. 1 Fence crosses the state from north to south, the No. 2 Fence which is smaller and further west, and the smaller east-west running No. 3 fence. The fences took six years to build. When completed all three fences stretched 3,253 km (2,021 miles) across the state.

Biological controls, such as the rabbit calici virus and myxomatosis, have been released into the population to help keep it in check.
We had a rabbit problem when I first moved onto our property. By law the land owner has to keep the population under control by warren and burrow destruction. The Rural Lands Protection Board had the right to inspect properties and fines were imposed for non compliance.
We were limited to the fumigation method where all but one entrance to burrows were blocked up and a gas pellet put down the remaining one which was then sealed. A lot of hard work that never seemed to have much affect.
Every now and then, myxomatosis would come through the area and pretty much decimate the population but resistance to this virus was building and its affect began to diminish.
Then the CSIRO found that the calici virus might be a solution. In Europe this has a lethal affect on the wild and pet rabbit population and animals need to be vaccinated against it.
Long term tests to ascertain the affect of this virus on native wild life were carried out on a remote island off South Australia. Reports were that it had no affect on local animals but having had biological controls "go wrong" before eg. the cane toad, the government was very conservative in their approach.
But some people would not wait. Mysteriously the virus was released onto the mainland.
The affect was immediate. Rabbits began dying in their millions.
It took around 3 years for the virus to reach us and within a year the rabbits were gone.
The countryside began to change. Native plants thought to be extinct began to reappear.
The rabbit shortage became so acute that the famous Australian felt hat maker, Akrubra, had to start importing rabbit fur from overseas.
While we seldom see a rabbit these days it has become apparent in other parts of the country that resistance to the calici virus is now building and rabbit populations are again on the increase.
Research for a permanent solution continues.

Horse Chores

Neighbour Norma, the valley matriarch, owns a lot of horses.
She is into harness racing ie. trotters/pacers*.
When they are in training they go up north but come home to spell and recuperate on a rotational basis.
They have very special diets and need to be fed twice a day.
Neighbour Bob usually does this job but he has gone to Wellington, New Zealand for a week to take part in pre wedding plans for his youngest daughter's upcoming nuptials. He was there just in time to experience some strong earthquakes that are so common in that country.
We have taken over the responsibility of feeding Norma's and Bob's horses plus Ranni, the farm cat and mouser extraordinaire .
So we up early (for me) for the first feed of the day. A specific mixture of oaten chaff, lucerne (alfalfa) chaff, oats, black sunflower seeds, soya meal plus a mystery powder ingredient is bagged up and then distributed around the horses.
Being thoroughbreds on hard feed they are pretty fired up so you have to watch them a little carefully. And the paddocks are separated by electric fences so you need to be also aware of not getting zapped.
The co driver is a little apprehensive about horses but after a week or so I think she is a little more comfortable dealing with them.

The late afternoon feed is complemented with a leaf of lucerne and cut up apples and carrots (as treats prepared by their owner).
It's funny to watch the horses pick the latter out of the chaff and grain to eat first.
Bob's horses get a similar but not the same mix (his mystery powder is different) but only in the afternoon.
All in all we have eleven equine and one feline mouth to feed.
Norma gives us the race times so more often than not we are able to watch them 'go around' on the racing channel on TV. She has had some good results mixed in with not so good ones.

*A trotter moves its legs forward in diagonal pairs (right front and left hind, then left front and right hind striking the ground simultaneously).
A pacer moves its legs laterally (right front and right hind together, then left front and left hind.
But that doesn't really matter you can still lose your money betting on either gait.

Banksias

I know I probably post about this every winter but Banksias are one of my favorite Australian native flowers and the ones that bloom this time of year are pretty spectacular.
While they obviously grow wild in the bush, they have also been cultivated (and hybridized) for the nursery trade.
This one is in a private garden near 'our' beach and is used as a screening/boundary plant.
This particular variety naturally grows in the sandstone coastal heath environment and is very salt and wind hardy.

The 76 species of Banksias are named after Sir Joseph Banks an English botanist who accompanied Captain James Cook on what turned out a voyage of discovery of the east coast of Australia in 1770.
The voyage of HMS Endeavour from 1768 to 1771 went to South America, Tahiti (for the transit of Venus), New Zealand and Australia.
They made landfall at Botany Bay (just south of where Sydney is today) and at the Endeavour River (now Cooktown) in North Queensland where they spent seven weeks repairing their ship after it was holed when running aground on the Great Barrier Reef.

While they were in Australia, Banks, the Swedish botanist Daniel Solander and the Finnish botanist Dr. Herman Spoering made the first major collection of Australian flora, describing many species new to science.
According to the State Library of South Australia's web site:
"Banks' Florilegium is a monumental work which records the botanical collections made by Sir Joseph Banks and his team of naturalists aboard James Cook's Endeavour , 1768-1770. It includes drawings of plant specimens from South America, the Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia.
The drawings were prepared by Sydney Parkinson during the voyage from specimens collected and preserved. In England, following Parkinson's death, Banks then had the drawings engraved on copper plates for printing. This did not proceed because of the enormous cost involved. The plates were subsequently transferred to the British Museum after Banks' death, and remained unpublished until the early twentieth century, when James Britten arranged to publish a selection. In the Alecto edition, the method used for the colour printing is known as la poupée (rag-doll style). It is meticulous and slow, but produces very distinct colours. Only 100 copies of this edition were published.

It was not until the 1980s that the Museum, in association with the publisher Editions Alecto, decided to renovate the copper printing plates which were still in safe storage and then to print from them, for the first time in colour, the complete set of images. A limited edition of 100 sets, under the title of Banks' Florilegium, would be produced. Over ten years the project came to completion, which is an interesting comparison with the eleven years it took Banks to arrange for the engravings to be completed in the 18th century. This brought to a close what must be one of the most lengthy printing projects ever and was a fitting tribute to the daring and foresight of Banks, Cook and their brave crews"

A Civil War Quilt

As regular readers would know, I am a bit of an American Civil War 'nut'.
So when the co driver asked whether I would like my very own Civil War quilt I had no hesitation in accepting the offer.
Leading up to the Civil War, quilts were made as fund raisers in support of the abolitionist movement. During the war, quilts were made on both sides to raise funds for the war effort and for the comfort of the soldiers.
Due to heavy use and the fact many soldiers were buried in them, very few of this era's quilts have survived to this day.

The co driver used Civil War reproduction fabrics and followed a pattern by Barbara Brackman. While the blocks commemorate the suffragette movement of the early twentieth century there is little doubt many of them would have had Civil War roots.
Having spent many hours waiting inside or sitting outside quilt shops all around the world (not to mention having the house invaded by quilters a number of times a year), I have become au fait with the mechanics of quilting. Talk to me about bolts (never rolls) of fabric, fat quarters, piecing, tops, batting, backs, long arm machines, FMQing or binding any time and you will get an almost informed discussion going.

So when I was asked what sort of backing I wanted I suggested one with Union and Confederate flags would be perfect. The co driver gave me that look which usually means "in your dreams" and referred me to some web sites to look through.
And what do you know? There it was!
So out it came all the way from Kentucky.
So now I am now waiting for the quilt to be pinned basted and then FMQ'd.
I am sure looking forward to wrapping myself up in it to watch a five match Test Cricket series (MCC v Australia) on TV from England late into the night over the next couple of months.

Anzac Biscuits

The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was formed in 1915 during the First World War and operated during the ill fated Battle of Gallipoli in Turkey.
An Anzac biscuit is a sweet biscuit made from rolled oats, flour, desiccated coconut, sugar, butter, baking soda and water. It is claimed that the biscuits were sent  by the families of soldiers serving overseas during the Great War as the ingredients don't spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during the long sea voyages.

The commercial production of the biscuits is strictly controlled by law and must be made according to the original recipe.
Home made are of course the best and the co driver has perfected a recipe she found in the decades old Women's Weekly Cook Book. 
It's hard not to scoff them all down in one sitting.

Ingredients:
1 cup (90g) rolled oats
1 cup (150g) plain (all-purpose) flour
1 cup (220g) firmly packed light brown sugar
½ cup (40g) desiccated coconut
125g (4 ounces) butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 tablespoon water
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of (baking) soda

Method:

• Preheat oven to 160°C/325°F. Grease oven trays; line with baking paper.
• Combine oats, sifted flour, sugar and coconut in large bowl. Combine butter, syrup and the water in small saucepan, stir over low heat until smooth; stir in soda. Stir into dry ingredients.
• Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls; place about 5cm (2 inches) apart on trays, flatten slightly. Bake about 20 minutes; cool on trays.

Post 400

Wow, who would have ever 'thunk' it?
This little project started back in May of 2004 mainly as a record of my and the co driver's life on 'the farm' as a way to keep family and friends up to date with our doings.
It seems to have developed a bit of a life of its own.
I have nothing profound for #400 so will use it as a general update.
We have had some pretty awful weather in the last few weeks.
Lots of rain and a few nasty storms.
Our bottom paddocks were flooded when our creek broke its banks.
It is pretty soggy down there at the moment and limits our winter work.
Despite this, Stirls came down for a few days and we managed to fix some fencing and burn off a few tonnes of fallen timber.
Luckily we now have some quite strong drying westerly winds so hopefully it will soon be time to continue the weed spraying program. We are on top of it but it would be nice to get 100% done this year.

We have started pruning the vines to get them ready for next season.
The 2013 wine in the tank is looking good so far. We have done one racking and it is spending it's time on some old French oak.
All the necessary acid adjustments have been made and we are protecting it with minimum additions of sulphur (30ppm) at the appropriate times.
The co-driver is recovering from surgery and is doing well albeit taking things quietly.
I spent a night in Sydney with the daughter at her new abode while the co driver was in hospital up there.
We had a great Indonesian meal at Ubud in Kingsford. The chicken satay and beef rendang were to die for.
This area used to be my stomping ground when I first moved to Sydney from Brisbane in 1968. Things have certainly changed since then.
So now we are enjoying some winter sunshine and getting prepared for our upcoming holiday.