The Plunge Down Under

Summer Loves

It all comes to an end tomorrow.  The uniforms are pressed and hanging neatly in the wardrobes.  The alarms have been set, the mobile phones charged, and names have been written in dozens of textbooks and folders. The boys head back to school at 9am on Thursday, and the girls follow them on Friday.  

There are mixed feelings in this household.  Predictably the girls are excited, although there's a bit of apprehension swirling around with the anticipation of seeing friends again and learning new things.  As for the boys, they would rather hang on to the summer holidays for another few weeks, or maybe even forever.  I am not sure how I feel.  It has been so nice to be free from the school routine, and to just let each day unfold slowly.  On the other hand, four children underfoot make for a very messy, very noisy household.

I thought this would be a good time to share some of our summer memories that haven't made it on to the pages of this blog.  I am going to do that through a list I made while watching the kids swim at the pool this afternoon.  I have titled it "Summer Loves."  Summer isn't really over yet, of course, but with the kids going back to school it feels that way.  This list will be a way to hang on to it all just a bit longer. The items appear in no particular order, some illustrated and some not.

 1.  Spontaneous trips to the beach, like the one we took two weeks ago to Cape Woolamai on Phillip Island.

 

2.  Plenty of Playtime for S and J.  They are quite the pair, those two.  S has just the right touch (most of the time) with her younger brother, and together they inhabit imaginary worlds by the hour.  They have also begun a training regime that involves S running around the block three or four times while J goes back and forth between our neighbors' respective driveways.

3.  Sleeping in until 8am, or even 8:30.  This item should require no further elaboration.

4.  Impromptu breakfasts with friends.  R's specialty egg sandwich is the big draw, but on one occasion we also had delicious strawberry smoothies made by Harriet.

5.  The lovely golden sunshine during the long summer twilight.  Sitting around the fire on a dark, cold winter's evening just can't quite compare.

6.  Card games with the older two.  Inspired by my mom's seemingly endless capacity to play table games with her grandchildren, I have enjoyed playing various card games with K and C, and listening to them play with their friends long into the evening hours.

7.  Eating good food, both indoors and out.

Al fresco nibbles:

Curry prepared by an expert:

Roasted pumpkin salad, an Aussie favorite:

Both panettone and pavlova on one plate---it doesn't get much better than that!

8.  Extra time to read with S and J.  I spent hours upon hours reading to K and C when they were younger, but their siblings have missed out somewhat in the past two or three years.  Determined to make up for lost time, I have lately read two of the Magic Faraway Tree books to J, who finally has realized what a pleasure it can be to have someone read to you.  S needed no convincing.  We loved Anne of Green Gables, tolerated Anne of Avonlea, and gave up on Anne of the Island.  But the book that had her begging and begging me to keep reading this summer was Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry.  

9.  Breezes flowing through the house with all of the doors and windows open.

10.  Visits from familiar faces, thus far a staple of our Australian summers.

 

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Summer's Swan Song

Cousins Come to Town

When it comes to overnight guests, they don't come any better than my cousins Paul and Linda. We should know with all of the opportunitites we have had to play the role of hosts and tour guides during the past two and a half years.  Enthusiasm, gratitude, a sense of humor, and the curiosity to learn about a new culture and country are just a few of the qualities that we have come to appreciate in our guests, and Paul and Linda displayed all of them in abundance.

After for traveling close to thirty hours in cramped conditions, they could have been forgiven for wanting to rest in seclusion shortly after their arrival but instead Linda jumped into lunch preparations and Paul made quick work of becoming acquainted with the children.  He won them all over in short order what with his willingness to listen to a long exposition of cricket and his enthusiasm for constructing various shapes from magnets with the youngest member of the family.

The afternoon was a hot one, and there were no complaints over the plans to sit by the neighbors' pool and watch the kids swim. 

All that swimming made for hungry children.  I had the feeling that Paul and Linda would have been just as happy to sit around talking over crackers, cheese, and fruit rather than have me figure out how to get everyone fed.  We had lots of catching up to do as I was only five when Linda got married and moved out to Iowa.  However we agreed that the kids needed something more substantial, and so we headed to a local Greek restaurant for their specialty,  lamb and chicken off the spit.  It went down very well.

I thought for sure Paul and Linda would crash after dinner, but instead our they were up for a walk to one of our favorite places, Trampoline.  I am pretty sure we have taken all of our overseas visitors there for gelato on their first day down under.  I don't have photos of this particular trip for ice cream, but you can see some from our very first visit here,  On the way we strolled past our local lawn bowls club.  I have always thought lawn bowling was little more than an excuse to socialize over drinks and some food, but this particular round seemed to be fairly intense.  Linda paused to take a photo or two.

Friday morning started the way every morning should start:  with a cup of good strong joe.  I remarked to Paul that my memories of Iowa coffee are of a light brown liquid that carries with it the faintest aroma of coffee.  Paul assented to the validity of this memory, but fortunately he and Linda like it strong so we got along just fine.  

Paul had plans to meet up with a colleague in the city for lunch, so after breakfast we hopped on a tram. The remaining photos in this post come courtesy of Linda's camera. 

We walked around Federation Square and the Flinders St. Railway Station before heading across the Yarra River to Freshwater Place.  Fortunately Paul's colleague works in the building next to Ross's building so I had no trouble finding the spot.

Once we had Paul dropped off, Linda, Sophie, James and I headed back across the Yarra to wander around Melbourne's popular laneways and shopping arcades.  We finished our exploration with an al fresco lunch on Degraves St.  

The sun made its appearance during lunch, but unfortunately it disappeared again as we made our way to the Eureka Tower.  Named in honor of the Victorian Gold Rush, the Eureka Tower is currently Melbourne's tallest building, and a popular tourist attraction.  I do believe James already considered Paul one of his best buddies, but a trip up the Eureka Tower cemented the deal.  This was something James had been waiting many long months to do.  His siblings all ascended more than a year ago.  It can be very hard at times to be the youngest in the family, and this is something Paul understands all too well.

We payed particular attention to the blue areas shown below as they were the site of the Australian Open that was in progress at the time.

I really like the following shot of the Flinders St. Railway Station:

By the time we finished at the Eureka Tower, it was late afternoon, but Paul had one more place he wanted to see, Melbourne's tall ship.  He and I both discovered that we shared an interest in ships from the 19th Century, and Linda, Sophie, James were happy to accompany us.  It was just as well that James did not realize how much walking would be involved.  For a boy that complains at times over walking a few blocks to school, he did pretty well considering that we ended up logging about seven miles that day all told.  There were times, however, when he sat down on the pavement and refused to go further, and he made sure that we all knew the exact level of his discomfort at any given time.

We were all assigned roles before we boarded the ship, from the ship's cat to the captain's wife.  Our tour guide was quite talented, and soon had the full attention of our group.  He had James fooled several times in fact, and by the end James was worried that he had actually been enlisted and would be required to show up the next morning at 5am as ship's boy, a role he had learned by then was not all that desirable.

Our tour ended with some of the adults being required to run back and forth across the ship to make it rock.  Linda was a good sport and did her part.  I was exempt as I had been given the prize role of captain's wife, so I took the camera.  After the ship was successfully rocking, the children had to scrub the deck clean, a job some took more seriously than others.

We decided to take the train back, arriving home about dinnertime.  Somewhat to my shame, I confess to serving leftovers from the night before, but what can you do when your guests insist.  Our day was not quite done as we still had to pick Cameron up from his cricket match.  We made it for the last ten or fifteen minutes, and I did my best to explain what I could to my fellow Americans about what was happening out on the field.   Cameron was happy to see us, and his coach came over to assure us that he had done well bowling earlier in the evening.  Since our team's best two bowlers were away, Cameron had the opportunity to play more than he usually does, making for a nice ending to our day.

Stay tuned for more about Paul and Linda's first few days down under!

In Which I Feed Two Cricket Teams

For this most recent development in our lives down under, I have none other to thank than our son, who insisted on playing cricket for a third season.  I have written before about how much C loves cricket, but even so I had told him last year about this time that there would be no more Friday night cricket for our family.  It all got to be too much in our schedule.  A personal invitation from his coach (named Ross) to join a newly-formed team of boys all very keen about the sport was enough to make me cave, however.   Ross the coach promised to make sure Cameron always had a ride to the Friday night matches, and Ross the father promised to come home earlier on Fridays to help make it all work.

For the most part the "Ross promises" have been fulfilled, and while C has struggled with his own frustration over his still-developing cricket skills, he has enjoyed being part of a committed team that actually wins from time to time.  This has been a big improvement over the past two years.  For my part, I have facilitated his ability to play cricket by getting him back and forth to training, attempting to keep his all-white uniform white, dropping him off at his Friday night games, and occasionally watching for a few minutes from time to time.  I knew I had one other big role to fill, and that was to provide the tea for one of the home matches, something I had been dreading.

Food is an important part of cricket culture.  About two years ago I described helping to prepare fairy bread for the tea which is served about the midway point in the match.  Last year I got out of my turn entirely due to a rain cancellation, so this is the first year I have been required to prepare and serve it all myself.  The boys start warming up around 4:30pm and don't finish playing until about 8:30, so they need something substantial to eat.  I determined to follow the tried-and-true formula developed by our team manager:  two sausages per boy served on slices of white bread with ketchup, platters of fresh fruit, and something sweet.

Earlier in the day last Friday I barbequed fifty five sausages, and then popped them into the oven to keep them warm.  I cut up three huge sections of watermelon, and picked up donuts at the local supermarket. This I drove over to the cricket field about forty-five minutes after the game had started.  Since I still struggle to follow the progress of the game, I had the assistant coach keep me informed as to when he thought the break would come for tea.  Once it did, I knew I had better be ready as 25 hungry boys descend on the table needing to be fed in about fifteen minutes.

All went to plan.  With the help of one of the cricket dads I managed to quickly serve out the sausages to the two appreciative teams of boys.  As they drifted off from the table, the adults started to congregate looking for leftover food, and the remaining sausages and watermelon were consumed in short order.

As I recuperated on the sidelines later, I was given some grief from Ross the coach for not watching "the tennis." He joked that my failure to follow the excitement currently taking place in Melbourne was very un-Australian of me.  I don't know about that.  I am not sure that this transplanted American can get any more Australian than serving tea to two cricket teams.  I may even have to watch a round or two of tennis tomorrow.  

Day Out in the Dandenongs

I had a pretty good idea of what my mom would want to do on her last full day in Melbourne, and as it happened, for once I was not wrong.  She and my dad chose a drive up into the Dandenong Ranges for a tour of the National Rhododendron Gardens followed by afternoon tea at our new favorite cafe in Kallista.  The Dandenongs are a magnet for tourists, or for anyone hoping to escape the heat in Melbourne, and they rarely disappoint.  Each little town has an assortment of cafes and shops designed to extract tourist dollars.

In the past we have driven through the touristy towns with their antique shops and quiet tea rooms, and headed straight for the Puffing Billy, or for another similar destination more suitable for the gaggle of children that usually accompany us.  One time last spring, however, Ross and I went for a drive by ourselves, and happened upon a cafe that was built more than fifty years ago.  Not only were the homemade scones, clotted cream, and jam fantastic, we noticed they had a children's corner with toys and coloring books.  I made a mental note of it, and it has turned out to be a big hit with our guests and our children alike.

The wonderful thing about the Dandenong Ranges, at least from my perspective, is that they are only about forty minutes from our house.  The minute we turn off of Burwood Highway onto the Mount Dandenong Tourist Road, it seems as if we have entered another world altogether.  The fern tree gullies are lush and the Mountain Ash are magnificent.  The transition from city to rainforest happens so suddenly that it always takes us a bit by surprise.

On this particular day, the weather was just about perfect, sunny and clear with a light breeze.  There were no blooming rhododendrons at the National Rhododendron Gardens, of course, but the hydrangeas were beautiful, and I enjoyed photographing them against the Mountain Ash.

The Mountain Ash is one of my favorite trees in Australia.  Looking at a forest full of them is an amazing experience.  They are the tallest of all flowering plants, and are among the tallest trees in the world (up to 374 feet).

Officially called the Eucalyptus regnans, the Mountain Ash  is also known as a Stringybark.  In fact, it has several names, including Tasmanian Oak, Victorian Ash, swamp gum, or stringy gum. Take your pick.  Whatever the name, it is majestic, and has been an important source of building material in southern Australia.  One other great thing about the Mountain Ash is that it provides critical habitat for one of Australia's best known birds, the Lyrebird.  I mention this last fact because I want to include an exciting event that occurred on this visit to the Rhododendron Gardens.

I had pretty much given up on ever spotting the elusive lyrebird after having looked in vain on numerous occasions.  Thanks to my mom, however, I can now say that I have seen one.  She pointed one out as we walked back to our car. She first heard the loud scolding of another bird, and that alerted her to the presence of a possible predatory bird nearby.  Then she got a brief glimpse of it running away down the hill through the underbrush.  I followed it for a while, crashing through the noisy underbrush caused by all of the bits of stringybark falling to the ground, but was unable to get a photo of my own.  Here are a couple from Wikipedia.

The one we saw looked like the bird in the first photo, a female.  The males are the showoffs.  Lyrebirds are famous for being able to mimic other birds, and for this reason, among many others, they can be hard to find as their sound changes constantly. 

Here we are, just before spotting the lyrebird, followed by a few more photos of the gardens included especially for my horticulturalist friend Carol:

The second part of our trip was the one the kids had been anticipating: a visit to the Kallista Tearooms.  Somewhat against my better judgment, I had agreed that they could order "spiders," essentially a root beer float but with another soda substituted for the root beer.  They had settled on Coke, and James especially was excited at the prospect. The waitress was clearly unsure about serving full-strength coke to the younger two, but she eventually brought them out, much to their delight.

Just three days after our cool day out in the Dandenongs, the temperatures soared to well over 100 degrees F, causing the Rhododendron Gardens to be closed due to the threat of fire.  Bushfires are something we have heard much about, particularly as we approach the three year anniversary of Black Sunday, a day on which over 170 people were killed not far from Melbourne.  Thankfully this year there has been very little loss of life so far.

Jelly Crystal Biscuits

One of the first things my mom wanted to do when she arrived at our house was to bake Christmas cookies with her grandkids.  Sophie was only too happy to comply with her grandmother's wishes.  She had singlehandedly baked all of the shortbread we gave out as gifts before Christmas, but still our third child had not exhausted her enthusiasm for baking. Off to the computer she rushed to look for a new recipe, and I was pleasantly surprised with what she produced.  It turned out to be shortbread with a twist:  the addition of jelly crystals (jello powder would be the North American term) to add both color and flavor. 

It was not long before the two cooks got busy.  After stirring together a basic shortbread recipe, they divided the dough into four parts, and worked in a different flavor of jelly crystals into each one.  They ended up using some food coloring as well to make the colors a bit more vivid.  Pieces of the dough were then rolled into balls and given an additional coating of crystals before baking.

The cookies, or biscuits, were declared by all in the house, from the youngest to the oldest, to be a complete success.  As proof, they were devoured long before they had a chance to turn stale, in spite of the fact that the recipe produced several dozen.  I'll include a link to the recipe used, with the caveat that it has a couple of errors.  The prep time and bake time are reversed, for example, but the directions are clear, the pictures included to illustrate the instructions are appealing, and both my daughter and my mother plan to make them again very soon.  I will be only too happy to help them consume another batch.

 

Happy New Year

January has gotten off to a relaxing start for our family with lots of low key days enjoying the visit of my parents. Since this is their fifth trip to Australia, the focus this time has been being together rather than rushing around madly checking off items on a sightseeing list.  I have savored the opportunity to sleep in, slowly think about breakfast, and then maybe plan one or two things to do.  That is the beauty of summer holidays.   The weather has been nearly perfect, with the exception of one incredibly hot day, Friday last week. That was the day of the worst bushfires of the summer to date, some of which you may have heard about on the news.

One thing we have done a couple of times is visit St. Kilda, a famous community in Melbourne that is located right on Phillip Bay.  We have admired the strength and agility of the kite surfers as they rip through the water and fly into the air, and we have also enjoyed the spectacle of a gorgeous sunset while looking for baby penguins hidden in the rocks at the end of the pier.

On New Year's Day, Katie and Cameron returned from camp and greeted their grandparents.  There was plenty of excitement in the air as it meant we could finally open the gifts that traveled all of the way from Ohio.  

Katie has joined the Fitbit club:

Sweet Frog t-shirts and paraphanelia were a big hit with the kids (thanks Uncle Andy and Aunt Linsey!) and brought back good memories of our trip there last July.  The cash and gift cards have provided quite a bit of joy as well, and I have enjoyed seeing the kids' personalities emerge as they each handle their spending opportunities a bit differently.  

 

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Port Fairy and One More Trip on Wilkin Way

In retrospect I should have known better than to give my mom the driving map on our last day in the Grampians.  She has a far better head for directions than I do, however, and so when she is with us she is our official map reader.  Normally, this suits me just fine, but on this particular day what I had assumed would be a three-and-one-half hour trip back to Melbourne turned into a twelve hour journey along the Great Ocean Road.  This happened because 1) My mom looked at the map and realized that Grampians were fairly close to the far end of the Great Ocean Road; 2) For some reason I had told my mother that we did not need to rush home; 3) The weather was perfect in every way; and 4) Ross loves the Great Ocean Road.

This is how James felt about the decision:

That's right.  He was not consulted, much to his annoyance. Therefore he decided to sabotage every photo that I attempted to take with him in it.  This particular shot I had set up with great care, setting the timer, placing everyone carefully, and then dashing to get in it myself.  He was very smug afterward, and I should have guessed the reason right off the bat.  The only other pictures you will see of James in this post will be of his back.

This is what we had been looking at from the viewing platform pictured above.  I have never seen more brilliant colors anywhere in the world than we saw along the Great Ocean Road on this day.  

Our first stop was the picturesque fishing village of Port Fairy.  After purchasing yet one more hat for James, and eating lunch in one of the cafes on the main street, we decided to hike around Griffith Island.  We spotted a wallaby at the very start.

Just after I took this photo, the wallaby took off down the path, passing a surfer that was the spitting image of what I thought an Australian looked like before we moved here:  long hair in a loose ponytail, surf board under his arm, barefoot---the type that is very friendly and says G'day mate to everyone that he meets.  He was in fact very friendly, and he wanted to make sure we saw the wallaby before he resumed his walk. I whipped out my camera again as the wallaby bounced behind him, but unfortunately it was on the wrong setting and ended up overexposed.

We spent some time resting and admiring the lighthouse.  Ross claims the entire day was worth the effort because he snapped a good photo of this scene for the background on his blackberry.

James perked up a bit when he realized there was a sand dune to climb.  Tired legs that simply could not walk another step back by the lighthouse now ran up and down the hill several times as a wallaby looked on.

From Port Fairy we drove through Warnambool and then on to Port Campbell, stopping at nearly every scenic overlook to admire the unique coastline and limestone structures carved out by thousands of years of rough seas and winds.

One bonus of this unplanned trip on the Great Ocean Road is that we finally got to see London Bridge. Originally the two structures in the photo below were connected, but the bridge part collapsed in 1990, stranding two people for hours until they could be rescued by helicoptor.  Fortunately no one was injured.

We consumed a simple supper of fish and chips while overlooking the scenic harbor in Port Campbell, and then as the sun was setting, put the car on autopilot and headed toward home along the hairpin curves.  James grew increasingly distraught, and we eventually allowed a long-suffering Sophie to escape from the backseat she was sharing with her brother to sit in the middle seat of the car.  With no one to torment, he settled down and mercifully fell asleep.  We all survived to live another day, and I am truly glad that my mom got to enjoy one more trip on what just might be her favorite road.