Poor eating experience

We went out for dinner in Newcastle on Wednesday. I may have had my first taste of Global Financial Crisis expressed locally. Or maybe it was just a very off night in one of our regular venues. Not one of the best of Darby Street's eating houses, but usually pleasant enough, fast enough (if we're on our way to a show or concert) and not too expensive.

It was unusually quiet at 7.15 when we rocked up - just a another two or three tables well into their meals. Initially I thought maybe the weather had kept people at home, although other restaurants in the street had customers. But what should have really alerted us to a potential problem was the lack of table settings. Bare tables. No cutlery, no condiments, nothing. Literally bare boards - rough and unpolished. I couldn't remember them looking so bare before. But we were with other people, and we had already walked up and down the street looking for an acceptable venue and we were talking, and not really noticing and then sitting down and at that point it is hard to say "uh oh, this doesn't feel right."

Second pause was when they couldn't do one of the dishes on the menu: they were waiting on a delivery. Our friend asked for an alternative and third pause was when the waitress said "Oh I think there's one of those left". Fourth pause came when they didn't have the wine we wanted. The food arrived, it was adequate, no more nor less than usual.

We chatted away, having a pleasant evening, once we got them to turn the music down so that we could hear each other. What is it about so many restaurants that they have to play loud percussive music? The d-d-d-d-d beat makes it impossible to relax, and those of us over thirty are already beginning the journey into the world of the aurally challenged - we don't need additional noise over which to strain our ears and raise our voices. I think the staff choose the music for their benefit, not their customers.

One of our dinner companions, when we had been perusing the street and making our choice of eatery, always read the dessert options first. And when we came into this restaurant, she had looked at the menu, seen the dessert listing and said "oh they all sound good". So after we'd finished our mains I asked the waitress for the dessert menu. She went off to get them. Our friend said "Actually I don't want any dessert," which was just as well because the waitress came back and told us there were no desserts available: nothing had been delivered.

Maybe there's a few bills not been paid somewhere?

We had coffees and when we went, left no tip.

I'm not in any hurry to go back to this particular restaurant, but I wonder if it will still be operating when I next visit Darby Street?

Salad Patch

After a concentrated effort yesterday there's now three - no four - types of lettuces, 3 types of capsicum, oodles of sweet basil, some fresh coriander and a few strawberry plants all planted up in pots and the vegie patch. Now it's just a matter of waiting to see which ones take, which ones survive the snail onslaught, and which ones survive my erratic watering regime. Most of the plantlings look pretty good this morning: a few of the baby rocket are not at all happy in their new bed, but there were so many of them that I think I'll have enough to eat until mid-summer.

There's still a bit of space in the vegie patch so I shall consider what else to plant. The garden centre was offering beetroot which didn't inspire me - I like beetroot but it is so messy to handle - all that red bleed.

I think I'll try some aubergines (eggplant). Then I can be self-sufficient in ratatouille for a few weeks!

Was alerted just now by the dogs barking - their distinctive "There's something really interesting in the garden" bark - usually a snake or a lizard. This time it was a blue tongue lizard - furtunately it was on the other side of the fence else Bozo would have tried to play with it. And his idea of play involves biting and eating so that is not good news for any accidental playmate. Penny, my other cavalier, will also bark at the wildlife, but she doesn't try to get physical with them.

Here's the lizard, safe under the neighbours steps.

Sunshine

Hurray! The sun is shining and the sky is blue. Shame I have so much work to do.....but there will be time to get a few seeds and seedlings planted out into the veggie bed.

I brought some cuttings and seeds back from Boyne Island - some from plants I gave to my friends up there before I moved down here. I wonder how they will take to the change of climate. I've now got another zygo-cactus (Christmas cactus) and Walking Iris potted up, and seeds from Desert Rose, Pregnant Onion (yes, pregnant onion) and a new lily to plant. I may become a gardener yet.

Found a few more snails out and about on the terrace last night, it's no wonder my other seedlings haven't thrived (sigh).

Rainbow and spiders

Between yesterday's showers there was a lovely rainbow over the creek.

The grey weather continues today, although I did manage a good long walk in the chilly windy sunshine at Rathmines this morning before the clouds returned. Then home to clear the leaves out of the pool, the pool filter, the pool's creepy-crawly, and the pool's gutters. There was a small spider spreadeagled on the pool surface, her back covered in her babies, so I swept her out gently and deposited her in the garden. I've just done a quick bit of checking on the 'net, and she was probably a Garden Wolf Spider (Lycosa godeffroyi ) Check out the Australian Museum Online . It's not the first time that I've found these in the pool, although I haven't seen one with spiderlings before.

I once found a funnelweb. It was curled up on the bottom of the pool, apparently dead. I put it in a container and a little while later noticed it moving. I've heard that funnelwebs can survive a little while underwater and this one obviously had! I must confess I didn't let that spider live.

Tropical meanderings and dog walking

Well I'm back from my little tropical sojourn. Back from 27 degrees to 17. Back from blue skies and sunshine to cloud and rain. Approaching Newcastle on Monday night the plane skirted thunderstorms. It is strange and beautiful and slightly unnerving to be looking down to lightening flashes.

Going back to old haunts is a good opportunity to re-appraise both the old and the new. I was surprised to notice the variety of architecture on Boyne Island - there are some really interesting properties there. There are also some uninteresting ones, too many of the modern Australian suburban "McMansion" style of "pile 'em high, fill the block, no verandahs, rely on air-con for cooling" type of housing. So horribly unsuitable for those subtropical conditions.

One of the things I had really enjoyed during my time living on Boyne and got to appreciate again on this visit was the dog-friendly beach. Great stretches of off-leash dog walking areas. Miles and miles of it. There are so few easily accessible areas around here where I can walk my dogs off-leash, where they can have a really good run and romp and we all get good exercise. I do use the waterfront reserve here at Dora Creek, a lovely walk, and also the beatiful park at Rathmines. Myuna Bay is another good place, so long as one avoids the boggy bits where the swamp is forever draining across the path. But all of these are on-leash areas. The local off-leash (but only at certain times) space is a pretty scrappy bit of a ground - not at all inviting, and it certainly doesn't encourage me to get out and stretch my legs in its dust.

With so many dogs and dog owners in this community there really should be more spaces for us to walk both on and off-leash. More paths, more parks. We'd all be healthier.

Airports

I love the idea of travel. I love the idea of new places, new cultures, new foods.

I hate the practicalities of travel.

I'm on my way to Gladstone for the weekend. Why Gladstone, you may ask - well, it's a friends birthday. 'Nuff said.

Now one of the good thinks about living in or near a regional centre, as opposed to a capital is the regional airport. Small, friendly, manageable. Even if they don't have the range of flights in and out to all the places you might want to go, at all the times you might want to travel. Even if getting to them means you have to drive because there are no trains and few buses. Parking is not usually a problem, nor as expensive as a major airport.

I think all airports should be about the same size as Newcastle, Gladstone, or at a push, Brisbane. Any bigger and they are getting too big, too unwieldy, too crowded and less friendly.

Birds and fern

Although it is a beautiful day a sad note comes in the form of a lorikeet, found lying on the road this morning. Rather than leave it there to be run over my friend picked it up and brought it here. It has no obvious injury (not that I am an expert) and may just be stunned, so I have put it out of the way of dogs and cat and will see how it goes.

I have seen a surprising number of dead birds on the roads recently - all different sorts. Most surprising was a dead kookaburra. I think I saw more dead birds last month that I have done in the previous year - mostly on the road between here and Toronto. Birds are usually so good at getting out of the way, but I guess if they are swooping across low after insects they just get flattened along with the bug they are chasing. I was told recently that one reason for keeping the grass cut low by the road side is to minimise bird kill - I always thought it was to minimise fire risk from those smokers who toss their lit butts out the window.

My tree fern is uncurling yet another leaf today - I love the way they look when they are like this - all delicate and tender like a baby.

UPDATE: The lorikeet, after about an hour of not doing very much and looking somewhat subdued and pathetic, stood up properly inside the box where I had placed it for safe keeping, hopped up to the edge, sat there for a few moments, looked at me with his red-violet eye and then flew off.

Climate Change

A few weeks ago I went to a Climate Change workshop run by a local Community group (The Dora Creek Catchment Group) and our local council (Lake Macquarie City Council). All local residents were invited and I suppose about 50-80 people came. We were seated in groups according to our streets and after some interesting presentations from environmental scientists and local council officers were asked to think specifically about how we might be affected.

One of the more interesting little snippets was that if the sea level (and thus the Lake) rises by 91 cm by 2100 (council's current working hypothesis) then the tidal range on the Western side of Lake Macquarie could increase from it's current 9-10 cm to closer to 1m (or greater), because the channel from the Lake to the sea would become so much wider and the volume of water able to move in and out would increase. That's a 1m tidal range on top of nearly 1m rise in Lake height.

My own jetty would be under water most of the time, and my garden - and house - would be flooded more often that once every 30 years. And while that would be a devastating effect for me personally, it's really small beer compared to the greater effects on the wider community. Both the built environment of roads and bridges and treatment works and civic buildings, and the natural environment of wetlands and watercourses will be affected. How are governments and communities going to plan for and cope with such massive changes?

The Dora Creek workshop was too brief to let us go into depth on the issues, our table was only just beginning to identify and think about the practical consequences of Climate Change for out street. But co-incidentally ("randomly selected" according to the invitiation), I've also been asked to take part in another workshop, the "Central Coast Climate Consensus Workshops". This appears to be organised by both state and local government groups, and is a bit more substantial than the Dora Creek event, taking place over 3 days. I'm looking forward to it.

Sticking with my own parochial concerns for a moment, I wonder who is going to want to buy a place where they might get wet feet? Coupling this with the current downturn in the housing market makes me wonder whether I'll ever get my money back on this place. Not that I am in any hurry to leave, I'd just like be confident that I would be able to afford to move somewhere else if I need to.

And just so you can see that this is not purely fatalistic fantasy, here's a couple of pictures - one taken last year after the June 07 floods, and one this afternoon.

Snail escape

Went out with a torch last night and found a whole army of snails marching up the path towards my new seedlings. No wonder the blue tongue lizards are so active and large just now: there's plenty of food for them. I think they eat snails. Anyway, the snails were dispatched to snail heaven, and the seedlings are doing just fine!


I am delighted by the number of different blossoms in and around my garden: not many natives, I realise, but that may change.


I am particularly pleased with the pansies, since I planted them myself. Now that may not seem like much to you, but until 18 months ago I did not do gardening. I've always liked having fresh herbs to hand, but my attempts at growing them have been pretty half-hearted. But now I'm trying to grow things a little more seriously. There is even a bare patch of garden waiting to be planted with lettuces and vegetables - including the zuchini seedlings rescued from the snails. I have to confess that I wouldn't have got even this far on my own - I have had a lot of help. A lot.

So why now? Well, partly because this is a new home, my home, and there is a little bit of a garden here but not so much that I feel overwhelmed by it, and partly because I like the idea of having fresh produce, and partly because it costs so much to buy it from the supermarket or greengrocer. Although I suspect that this final point, except for the herbs, is not a major one because I can only grow what is seasonal, and when I can grow it, so can the commercial growers, and a lot more cheaply than me. So let's say that I like the idea of fresh and homegrown produce and leave it at that.


Over the next couple of days, the veggie patch might get its first plantings!

A bit of rain

Today is grey and damp but it is still beautiful looking out over the creek. A minor has stopped by hoping for a bit of a feed. Earlier, as the rain started, the air was full of the sounds of bird calls: lorikeets, magpies and currawongs the most familiar, but lots of other small sounds and chirrups and twitterings up and down the creek banks. On other days I have heard sulphur crested cockatoos' harsh "aarcghkk aarcghkk" and masked plovers who always sound as if they are in fright with their quick little shrieks.

Beginnings

Dora Creek runs into Lake Macquarie on the east coast of Australia. I live about 2 km upstream, on the bend past the railway bridge. On a quiet night I can hear the coal trains rattling across that bridge. On a cool and quiet morning, like yesterday, the mist rising off the water blocks the view across the creek so that we appear to be floating in white space, and the train engines sound muffled through the ether.

Most morning though, there's no mist, just a real still quiet surface reflecting the trees growing the other side, a reflection so clear and still you think you can see individual leaves. Sooner or later - sometimes sooner, sometimes later - the morning breeze kicks in, the water ruffles and the images fracture and disappear.