Planter Box and Herb Garden

Above is yet another [there's plenty more to post] example of Jodie's exemplary Handy-Woman skills. The planter box measures a massive 2500 x 630 x 530[depth] mm which can contain up to 800L of soil. That's a lot. It was a lot of bags of soil and compost, plus some stuff we pulled up from the front garden.


The first thing I wanted to do once we had the box set up, was transplant my sage plant, which was a gift from Lisa from my recent stint with Tassy DHHS. I had quickly moved the sage into a pot which I though was overkill, but the sage had grown into it very nicely. Jodie also has helped me look after it, which was a little traumatic. When we moved into Schouten House, Jodie attacked the plant with a pair of shears, an act she described as pruning. As you can see from the picture above, it was a very good idea.


At the moment, we are using the planter box for herbs, but we have deliberately made it deep enough for more substantial plants later on. Pictured above are seedlings of rocket and red mustard, which have grown very well from seeds. We also planted, corriander, american cress, plus seedlings of oregano, lemon balm and thyme. Pictured below, are the most important Chives! Since we use only fresh chives in our scrambled eggs and for garnish on most breakfast dishes, it's very important that we are self sufficient. I feel like we are now independently chively.


The box is against a warm north facing wall, so we hope it will do well in winter. Jodie is far more optimistic about this than I am, and describes winter in Swansea as mild. I am probably going to describe it as freezing, with a touch of brass monkey syndrome. I don't even know how there will be enough daylight to grow things. Maybe we'll errect a giant UV lamp! Jodie tells me there are some plants that like to grown in winter. I don't listen any more, since she didn't tell me that the basil we bought as annual. That means it's going to die... do not get attached to that plant. Too late. Anyway, I've got lots more to learn about gardening, and Joide is now aware of my sensitivities.

Muffins!

After much trial and error with the ovens, and a long search - we've found our perfect breakfast muffin. It's a delicious nutmeg muffin!

We had an open house for several large groups from the heritage council, and the smells from the muffins through the house were wonderful.

Jodie has also managed to produce several pecan pies [with me supervising which whiskey is used] and what we've been told are 'the best scones ever'. I continue to keep a regular supply of shortbread, so we are starting to make some inroads with baking. We still need to get the ovens serviced and possibly repaired before we get too carried away. It's been a frustrating time for Jodie, who hasn't been game to try anything more spectacular or fussy about temperature.

If anyone has any recipes that they would like to share, please send them in, and we'll credit you on our menu.

World of Warcraft begins...

Inspired by Andrew and Melissa's enjoyment of the game, I recently embarked upon World of Warcraft, a MMORPG [Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game]. Follow the links if you'd like to learn more. If you don't know what this means, and you don't follow the links... well... maybe this post isn't for you [and you could possibly freak out at the description: Dungeons and Dragons using a computer, playing with friends from the internet].

The photo above is pre WoW excitement... somewhat mixed feelings after installing the 4GB game, only to install another 1GB of patches and updates. The silver lining here is that internode is a very gamer friendly ISP [internet service provider] and hosts the files for quick and free download [free as in doesn't come of my bandwidth quota [please tell me I don't have to explain bandwidth at this point]].

Here are some examples of things that intrigued me about the game:

• people pay hard cash for money, items and even characters in the game
  
• some people are so successful at selling these items, they can get deported from Japan back to China for making at least USD$50K and a suspected USD$1.3M while on a student visa [apologies - I've been unable to find the original article]
• people get addicted to the game, and internet addiction is steadily rising in credibility towards that of alcohol and other drugs - for an interesting account from an addict how quit... read here.
  
• the gross national product of the WoW universe - not money that the game makers make... but the amount of money that changes hands over in game assets - is HUGE, and has been getting lots of press. The taxation of income from in game assets is also fascinating. I did manage to find a concise article that explains it really well!

Anyway... Jodie just reminded me that I've been at this post for a while. When I said that I had to research the post - she gave me one of those smiles, that if put in to words... Oh, Cameron *sigh*. I'll be done soon... I'll get to bed, and cook pancakes for our guests tomorrow. I really will.

I was surprised how much fun it was meeting up with people in the game, and getting help with quests, and even some presents to help me on my way... Thanks Andrew, Mel and Matt. It reminded me about the time that Andrew W connected to my Quake 2 server from the UK, and I fragged him to kingdom come, since being on the other side of the world, connected to hardware [a dedicated server no less] on my LAN, he had a 1 second delay in game.

So it's off to bed for me. I'll leave you with a picture of my character. A Human Warrior - Borgthor. I just can't wait to try out that two handed axe!

P.S. Just in case you don't get my position on this... Video games are just another valid form of entertainment. Just like movies, music, books and other wholesome activities. If that doesn't make sense, then you'll have to get in line behind the book burners, movie censors and those that claim rock is the devil's music.

Family Visit: Spikey Bridge and Spikey Beach

20070129 Spikey Bridge and Beach

While Dad, Nonie and Arvid were with us, we decided to see some of the local attractions, just minutes away from Swansea. Before getting into our adventures, I should link to Dad's blog which has some of his pictures from their trip [using web albums, I might add].

First up, was Kate's Berry Farm, where we get her very popular mingled berry jam, which we serve at breakfast and with scones (raspberry, blackberry and strawberry). We had a fantastic morning tea, and everyone tried something different from the menu.

Next stop was Spiky Bridge, built in the early 1840s around the same time as Schouten House. The origin of the bridge is described as:

It is popularly thought that this bridge was built after Edward Shaw (of 'Redbanks') gave Major de Gillern Superintendent of Rocky Hills station, a ride home one night after a game of piquet. Shaw drove is gig through the gully at full gallop so as to impress upon the Major the need for more road works. Needless to say, the ride was very unpleasant and the bridge was erected shortly afterwards.

Nobody knows why the spikes were incorporated into the design by the convict labourers.

From there, we crossed the road to Spiky Beach one of a number of small named beaches south of town, each with their own unique features and personalities. Spiky Beach is actually two small coves, the first sandy and open. The second (where the bulk of the photos come from) is very private, sheltered and littered with beautiful shells and rock pools. We spent over an hour there, exploring, talking and relaxing.

Scorpion

Today, I got a little surprise in my cleaning caddy... a scorpion, as pictured above, no bigger than a one dollar coin. It's adding to the long list of reasons why it's good to wear gloves while cleaning.

George Henry is facinated with insects, and finds them fascinating game, so we need to keep these kinds of critters outside our house. Both for their safety, and George's.

Jodie let the scorpion go in the garden, and it looked as though a snail was going to be a friendly bunk-mate.

Breakfast Record

Jodie broke her own cooked breafast record the other day with 11 servings. The record is dependant on two variables, the number of people in the house, and the number of those that would like something cooked. We had a full house of 12 people [we've had 15 before], and only one person opted not to have a cooked breakfast.

Not sure if you'll be able to read the orders... but it was certainly a diverse breakfast... eggs poached and scrambled, some sausages and even our famous pancakes [with maple syrup [the real stuff] and either bacon or cream].

Due to our freshly baked bread, fresh fruit salad, honey, yoghurt, cereals, jams and marmalade... we often find people are too full to partake in a cooked breakfast. It's going to be a tough record to break. For example... it's my turn to cook tomorrow. We have a full house, but only 8 guests total [and it doesn't count if I consume 4 breakfasts myself].

It's also a wonder that Jodie is still smiling in the photo with that many serves of poached eggs. Until recently we were excited to have found the best eggs for poaching... but lately they have been much harder to manage.

This much coveted record may stand for some time to come.

Superbowl

Earlier this month, without digital TV available in Swansea, not having Austar [pay TV] installed and reception issues... I managed to watch the Superbowl, an annual tradition for me - even when I haven't been able to follow the season.

Drew Bledsloe was in attendance in his Patriots uniform from back in 2001. I gave up the early morning beer in favour of a coffee and one [and then several more] of Jodie's blueberry muffins. As official taster of Jodie's baking, I have my work cut out for me losing any weight.

I've dropped well behind with my blogging recently, due to a few events that have kept us busy, and finally getting to enjoy one of my much anticipated Christmas presents from Jodie: World of Warcraft. I've already played today... so after this post... I'm going to bed... really.

Frances and Catriona

Last Wednesday I left Jodie at home to look after guests, while I hooned into Hobart to pick up our [Jodie's] new laptop [more later]. On the way home, I picked up my cousins Frances and Catriona from the airport who have come all the way from Scotland, with stops in Singapore and Sydney.

It was wonderful to have them visit, and it seems that Frances and I are trading trips back and forth between Scotland and Australia. So it'll be my turn next, and of course, I'll be taking Jodie with me!

We had a couple of big days after they arrived. One to Port Arthur, which involved lots of driving... and one up to Wineglass Bay, which involved lots of walking. We continued the walk from the lookout, down to Wineglass Bay, across the isthmus to Hazards Beach and then back up to the peninsula to finish. I'll post web albums and descriptions for each of those trips... and try and maybe even find another photo where either Catriona or Frances are cooperating with the camera.

The next couple of days were more relaxed, with a few more guests to attend to, we didn't stray too far from home. We did manage to make sure that Catriona got to watch her next episode of prison break!

They headed to Melbourne yesterday to see Colin and continue their Australian adventure. The photo above is a rare posed [cooperative] shot at the Wineglass Bay lookout.