The Wolf out of the Window

The view from Katy's window has bothered me ever since the reno's were finished. Her old window faced west towards the neighbours, but the view was of the wall of their house with some foliage into between. Katy's current window still faces west, overlooks the back of their wall water feature (very little foliage) and straight onto their back deck as seen in this poorly taken photo.

Now I've been pondering what to do about it. The difficulties faced include distance to the fence being only 1.5m, a very shady spot, on the possums main thoroughfare and the only direct sunlight occurs for a short portion of the afternoon.

One minute I'm thinking of a vertical wall garden, the next a deciduous tree, followed by some sort of screening or perhaps garden art. Of course I've ummed and ahhed for a fair while now (the reno's finished over a year ago!)

Finally I made a decision based on a fair amount of plant research. The plant of choice was the -

Syringa Wolfii - commonly known as Wolf's Lilac

A deciduous shrub which grows to 2m. Has clusters of mauve flowers that have a beautiful fragrance.  Currently our little shrub looks like this....

Hopefully it will fill the void, without blocking too much sun eventually looking something like this....only time will tell...

Japanese Inspirations

With our future overseas travels getting closer by the day, we were inspired to spend the afternoon/evening at the Canberra Nara Candle Festival held at the Nara Peace Park. Arriving in the sunshine, the girls made their own lantern before we headed off in search of food hoping to be ahead of the long lines. We tried gyoza (Japanese dumplings), okonomiyaki (savoury pancake) and nikuman (pork bun).

Our post dinner activities included visiting the Japanese Embassy tent. Origami, calligraphy were on offer as was yo-yo balloon fishing game. We watched a little sumo wrestling and kendo. These were all fun however, the highlight for the girls was dressing up in a yukata (a cotton version of a kimono).

It was great entertainment while we waited for the sun to dip below the horizon. The official delegates lit the two lanterns - Kasuga and Yukimi as the crowds began to gather around the dry stream bed where all 2000 candles were beginning to shimmer in the darkness. It was a little chaotic and at one point I lost the others while trying to take photos. Eventually I found them - the girls were viewing the candles from the branches of a tree after bumping into friends! Such a lovely festival to attend.

Full of beans

It was suggested to me to plant broadband instead of green manure in the veggie garden over winter. The beans soon sprouted, and grew and grew quickly filling up the veggie patch. Beautiful flowers bloomed and then it was ages before the beans emerged. By that time (several weeks ago) I was ready to start planting summer veggies however there was no room! The only solution was to pull out a few plants which I did.

Eventually the day came to harvest a few of these beans. Having never grown or cooked with broad beans before, I needed to do a little research. It seems that there is lots of info on the net about removing their waxy covering. Turns out it wasn't necessary as the beans I'd picked were very young.

As for the dinner, we cooked Ricotta gnocchi with broad beans and bacon which was given the thumbs up (from us adults).

Since then I've harvested the next batch and am now on the lookout for another recipe perhaps we will try a salad....

What's Next Cath?

No better excuse to do a mountain bike race ride by convincing a great mate into joining you. I'd flagged the Kowalski Classic with Cath as a potential event while she was overseas running mountain marathons. Yep she sounded keen. Fast forward a month or so and we still hadn't got around to entering. Add on another month and the closing date was looming...could we still be bothered?

Cath took the plunge first and I soon followed. Initially we were thinking of the Half Kowalski (50km) but severe lack of any physical activity on my behalf reduced that quickly to the Quarter Kowalski (25km).

Funnily enough with all this rain, I'd joked that it would probably be cancelled due to wet weather and umm yep that's exactly what happened. Luckily the organisers rescheduled it for a month later. We could both still make it plus we had the bonus of another month of training (or lack of!)

Andy was roped into the race at the last minute to replace an injured Patrick who had torn his ACL playing soccer! Poor Patrick had not long had the cast off his broken hand - he really is having an unlucky year. Andy's role was to shadow Josh around the Quarter. Andy is in the red and Josh in the blue.

Twas cold waiting in the wind for the start. Once we got going though the conditions were really lovely for riding. Not the best beginning for me as up the first climb on the fire trail, I managed to loose chain and jam it nicely. Poor Cath was waiting at the top wondering what was happening. Eventually I appeared, bike in order with greasy hands!

Onto the single track we went. There was lots of passing and being passed as we all sorted ourselves out. The tracks themselves were nice to ride. Nothing super technical thankfully but we both commented on sour ore hands after a short while!

Before we knew it we were making our way through the tunnel under the Kings Highway into Sparrow Hill. Loads of great downhills. Although the fun turned into hard work slogging back up to the top and the km's were ticking slowly away.

Through the next few sections we merged with the longer courses. At one point worried about holding up the faster riders, I lost concentration around a bend. My front wheel dug into a muddy corner. I overbalanced, couldn't unclip my foot and rolled over with my bike onto the nice soft bed of pine needles. Got a few comments from the riders behind about how graceful it all looked. My only stack for the day and I was just glad I didn't injure myself.

Back on the bike, I was beginning to look forward to the finish line but we still had another 7kms to go! Cath was going strong and when she was leading I'd quickly fall off her wheel. She resigned herself to the back though after nearly crashing citing that her eyesight was a problem. I did point out that I didn't have the greatest eye sight either only to be told that I'd had poor sight for ages so I was used to it while hers was a new thing which she hadn't really adjusted to yet. Ah the joys of getting old!

Thankfully the Kings Highway tunnel appeared again and we knew it wasn't too far to the finishing line. The next section of uphill single track seemed to go on forever pushing me well into oxygen debt and close to cramping up my hamstrings. Several 50km riders passed us here, all giving lots of encouragement. One guy informed us there was only one more downhill single track section before the fire trail took us home. I was really looking forward to the finish. Finally we made it onto the fire trail only to be faced with a very steep hill which I resorted to walking the top half.

Caught up to Cath who managed to ride up the hill and very nicely waited for me at the top. We rode the last section across the field to the finish line completing our first Quarter Kowalski in 1:52:06. Andy and Josh were already back. They beat us by 8minutes. A coffee from the 2b410 van and hot chips were much appreciated while soaking up the sun.

I really enjoyed the trails and event all made better by the company - thanks Cath! Now I'm wondering what our next adventure will be??

Post race we joined up with the non-riders - Eoin, Aoife, Nadine, Lily, Grandad, Ella and Katy for a relaxing late lunch at Riccardos.

Another Grandad Installment

Grandad arrived a week later than expected, so unfortunately missed the tail end of the school holidays. Nevertheless it was the usual 24/7 action station here when Grandad arrives. Katy was pumped to have Grandad staying in her room. She loves waking up before the sun, climbing into Grandad's bed for a snuggle and chat. Some morning they count the possums on the fence before they both drift off again for a second sleep! Reading is also a favourite pastime too!

It was school routine as normal although the girls skipped afters on Thursday afternoon opting to spend an afternoon with Grandad which almost always includes an ice cream!

Little Aths season began and Grandad watched the girls complete their various events. We had a minor panic as we discovered Katy had put her last season aths top on! A quick ride home while they were doing the warm up fixed that small problem!! Here are some action shots taken by the club photographer who does a great job each week snapping the athletes in action!

 

Saturday night the girls had invited all the grandies for a dinner and movie night. The girls recently purchased Alice Through the Looking Glass and were eager to watch it. The movie was great although it didn't follow much of the original storyline.









The following week the early mornings were taking a toll on everyone. Grandad fell ill with a tummy bug on Tuesday. Thankfully it was only a 24hour thing and he was back to normal by Wednesday.

We visited the library to stock up on books. With an unlimited borrowing rights, a month's return date and a love of reading, the girls tend to choose lots of books. They of course love scanning their own books. After the library on Friday afternoon we made a last minute dash to check out Weber barbecues. Our trusty 4 burner barbecue, has seen better days, especially the hot plate which was loosing it's coating.

And 40 minutes later, we walked out of the shop with a Family Weber Q! Thanks to Grandad and Nana for the birthday/christmas present :) Back home and the boys went straight to work building it. Goodbye old barbecue, you've had a good innings.

Unfortunately Grandad flew out the next afternoon and was unable to sample Andy's roast chicken birthday dinner which not only looked awesome but tasted divine. No matter I'm sure there will be plenty more opportunities in the new year.

Happy Birthday Andy!

It wasn't the greatest start to the morning for Andy on his birthday as the girls decided to have a large argument over who knows what! Luckily they sorted themselves out by the time he returned from a short run.

So we started the morning again...Ella cooking eggs and bacon. Meanwhile Katy (with a little help from Ella) had made a treasure hunt for Andy to find his birthday present. His first clue just happened to be located under his plate. From there the route took Andy all over the inside and outside of the house.

Finally he located his present in the garage - a new water jerry can for camping!

The final surprise was to do with the girls newest extra curricular activity - piano lessons. We've been wanting them to play a musical instrument. The lessons offered at school (in the afternoons) were too hard to get into. So thanks to a patient recommendation, we enquired at Canberra Music Tuition, had a trial lesson and began this term.

Anyhow, Ella secretly taught herself how to play Happy Birthday...just for Andy!

A celebration dinner, a roast chicken cooked in our new Weber, with Andy's mum completed the day.