Swansea Christmas Parade

Swansea Christmas Parade Web Album

Swansea held its annual Christmas Parade on the Friday before Christmas. Community members and service organisations gathered to march along the main street of Swansea. There were lots of adorable and fairies and elves, and some other interesting costumes... I was asked to just days before to contribute to the event by playing my pipes, and was happy to lead the parade, and provide the music for the occasion. The parade finished with a BBQ at the sports oval, put on by the Lions Club.

Although it was a small parade [even with the new addition of a musician], it was a very good turnout for a small town of only 600 people. Changing weather conditions even gave the fire fighters and emergency service volunteers a chance to attend.

Jodie got some great photos, despite the overcast and windy conditions. You can check them out in the web album above.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Cameron, Jodie, Irving Norman, George Henry and Schouten House would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

We have started the day with icecream and jelly. The icecream was home made in our new icecream machine, with a recipe that included a real vanilla pod.

We had presents under the tree in the 'big house', and are now enjoying them! We have three rooms of guests tonight, some from overseas, which will be very interesting. All of them are staying over boxing day too, and we have a full house from then until early January.

We are missing all our family and friends, even if don't usually get to see them at Christmas. The photo below was taken in 2003 at Christmas dinner with the Mudges'.

jBErg vs. Storage Crisis

We have faced a storage crisis since arriving. Dry goods and kitchen equipment were difficult to store, let alone the wine!



The first issue was the shelving in the kitchen, which when pulled down, took some of the soft brick work with it. I set to work washing the walls, and Jodie got the plaster out to patch up the holes!



We opted for a standalone steel shelving unit, which sits high enough to clean underneath, and doesn't impact on the building. The construction was a little fiddly for the first couple of layers, due to the confined space. But we did it.



As you can see, the top two shelves are off limits for Jodie!



All finished, and the first phase is complete. Plenty of room for our growing collection of 7L glass storage jars. All told, 2150mm x 1500mm x 600 mm. Not an inch [or millimetre] to spare.



Where did the wine go? It wasn't going in all that mess! Project two was to construct wine racks for both our personal [smaller] collection and our wine list stock to be safely stored. Project one was responible for some of this stuff moving.



Jodie is putting together the frame, while I'm cutting the metal part of the frame to size. You'll see how close a fit it was in a minute.



We had to retire the meat tenderiser after using it as a mallet to put the wine rack together. That part sure was fun!



All finished, and project two complete. Storage crisis averted. Stage three is pending. We are aware of what we hope is a significant void behind our pantry. So we are planning to knock a hole in the back to have a peek, with a view to creating a walk in pantry with twice the storage space. That should be fun too.

The one last piece of handy work you can see in the photo below is the little kitty door to the spare bathroom downstairs, just for the boys. We've got them very well toilet trained. Full credit for the swinging door goes to Jodie and her jigsaw.

Cameron vs. Great Oyster Bay

I have been determined to swim in Great Oyster Bay, and after seeing the windsurfer cope quite happily with the water temperature last week [with a wetsuit] I decided the time had come.



Only 60 metres away from Schouten House, I got to plunge into the bay. The water was surprisingly warm, but the temperature quickly dropped as I swam further out. It should be some of the warmest water in Tasmania, since the bay is very shallow and protected and the East Coast itself has warmer water than the rest of Tassie. I'll be getting a wet suit before I learn to swim though.

The water is extremely clear, and Jodie was able to take some great photos from quite a distance with the telephoto lens...



Splashing about in the sea. This actually takes me back to Christmas at Dee Why... except without the waves. I'll be checking out wet suits and surf beaches soon. Well... after peak season is over... and the surf is better in winter too.



Jodie's favourite photo below. Enough said.



I was very pleased with the experience. I was absolutely exhausted... I haven't been swimming in a long time. I'd better get out again soon.

Fires, Smoke and Windsurfing

Yesterday, our first lens arrived for our new Nikon DSLR camera, and despite the smoke we were in for a treat this morning. We looked out of our balcony, and saw a windsurfer who looked like he might jump from the water right into our back yard.



We quickly made our way down to the beach to get some more shots, and were very impressed the action.

Below is some photos stitched together to give an impression of the level of smoke. It has actually cleared up today from the last couple of days. Today we have a total fire ban, and hopefully the remaining fires will be brought under control soon.

Birthday Girl

Here is a recent picture of the birthday girl down at Schouten Beach.

Jodie started her day with coffee in bed, followed by scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. Then unfortunately we couldn't escape from a few chores... but in the afternoon, we went to Kabuki by the Sea and had a drink and enjoyed the view with Terry. For dinner, we started with Champagne and oysters...



The oysters were all gone before we knew it!



Next up, we had Yellowfin Tuna Steaks, which were awesome! Very thick, only quickly seared, with a pepper crust, and a wonderful salad.





We were helped by one of our new favourite wines... A 2005 Spring Vale Vineyards Pinot Noir.



The dessert was spectacular. Jodie and I [well... I helped] made the two best mousses I have every tasted. The chocolate one had a hint of some special cognac. The white chocolate mousse was made with real vanilla bean, and was perfectly balanced.



All in all a wonderful day! I might have to get Jodie to add something to the post, because as per usual, I seems a little food oriented! [Update: Jodie has commented on the post]

Blogger Beta

You may have noticed a slight change in look and feel of the blog in the last couple of weeks... I have migrated to blogger beta - perhaps somewhat prematurely.

The photos from the last post are actually hosted at the Schouten House web server, since I'm having trouble loading photos to blogger.

The big orange icon on the right hand side of the blog is for an atom feed so you all can subscribe to the blog... A subscription of this kind means that you can get all [not just my blog] your web updates in the one place, without having to go check the site every day / week / hour... I use google's reader, which I highly recommend, as you can incorporate it into your personalised google page...

If you want to read about my love for google products [despite my problems with blogger beta], you can do so here... Oh... and writely has now been replaced with Google Documents and Spreadsheets...

Birds

Jodie and I have been out on Schouten Beach, or around the corner at Waterloo Point with a camera a fair bit recently. We both have a keen interest in photography, and in the bird life that Tasmania has to offer. I was very keen to get some photos of the dive-bombing Australasian Gannet feeding, but alas, they have disappeared.

According to Dave Watts 'Field Guide to Tasmanian Birds'... we think the first and last [top and bottom of these photos] are the Great-Winged Petrel [it's a surprisingly large bird when it passes overhead].

The one below, we think is a common Silver Gull... but we do have a variety of gulls around here.







We also enjoy watching the Masked Lapwing plod around our garden and they still surprise us when they call at night.