Last Christmas I got what has proven to be the best of gifts – a bread maker. Before this, I had never made bread before – working with yeast and dough seemed so daunting, and time consuming. Now I can make loaves like this. Well, the machine does.
My bread maker has rarely gone into a cupboard since I got it because I’m addicted to the smell and taste of freshly baked bread. Who wants to eat store bought bread after this?
The beagle was a bit fed up of the cold and rainy weather of recent weeks.
She was much more chirpy when the sun stuck around.
I’ve disappeared from the radar for awhile because my photography has been taking a back seat to watching the Tour de France. It’s been 3 weeks of 2am bed-times, and although this wasn’t the first time I stayed up late over a period of weeks for a sporting event, this time it was completely worth it.
Why? Because for once the experience has been a remarkably positive. Not just because an Australian finally won the race, but because this year’s tour has been an event devoid of violence, cheating, and overt chest thumping – elements that are unfortunately all too common in big sports events.
It didn’t mean that it was without spectacle – how can it be with 21 days of hard riding over wind-blown coasts to snow capped peaks? There were sprints, break-aways, chases, perilous descents, exhausting ascents, and in the first week, lots of horrendous crashes. But what impressed me was that the spectacle didn’t rely on the negative – even drug busts were generally absent. Most commentators agree that it might be the ‘cleanest’ tour in a long time). And watching the final stage into Paris, it was obvious that the riders not only respected each other, but were even friends.
So many congratulations to Cadel Evans and his BMC team for quietly, determinedly, and most efficiently going about their business every day. His (and their) reward was being crowned winner on the Champs-Élysées.
Oh, and I didn’t even realise until later that it was Tina Arena belting out the national anthem, but it was a nice way to celebrate a momentous event.
This was a good find for me – sponge thingies, and two brachiopods – marine creatures with shell coverings.
Tools of the trade – a mallet, a chisel, plenty of newspaper (or toilet paper) to wrap the fossils in for transportation, gloves, and a bucket to carry all and sundry.
Fossils weren’t very hard to find at the quarry. I found some by just looking under my feet.
These were a type of ancient sponge from the Permian age, about 250 million years ago. There weren’t any dinosaurs back then, only bacteria, sponges and a variety of marine invertebrates.
And now for something completely different.
A few weeks ago, I tagged along when BB was a guest at the UNSW Geosoc excursion to Mulbring Quarry. The quarry is a little outside the small Hunter Valley town of Mulbring.
It’s a disused quarry that contains some interesting remnants. You can see here the students hard at work finding them.
My orange tree is a twiggy, little thing, so I was quite content with this modest crop. The oranges were sweet enough to be enjoyed, and provided a week’s worth of oranges.
We’ll end this series with a banner that was in the prayer room.
Quite apt for a retreat day – or frankly, for life in general.
The field looks chilly but very green on this winter afternoon. One could almost imagine that this was somewhere in the northern hemisphere, if it wasn’t for the southern hemisphere species of trees.
Static and Silence 