A lack of simple brewed coffee

Of all things that are impossible to find in Australia, just regular plain brewed coffee on the menus at hotels, restaurants, cafes and coffeeshops.  When we go out my drink of choice is a flat white (similar or perhaps identical to a café au lait) and Reid's is a long black (probably most similar to an Americano, in contrast to a short black, which is just a single shot of espresso).  If you want drip- or french pressed-coffee, you have to make it yourself.  It seems kind of funny to me, but even at the gas station the attendant has to make you an espresso.

The first couple weeks were difficult when we were still getting used to it.  I could never remember what it was that I was supposed to ask for.  Now, I have my go-to, and it is perhaps just a little annoyance; sometimes you just want a cup of coffee and don't want to pay four or five dollars for the Australian version.  Needless to say, we make our own coffee at home.  (And drink a lot of tea.)

I googled "flat white" and "long black" to write this, and turns out there is a wikipedia page for both of them.  (If you want to know the ins and outs of flat whites and long blacks, here are the links.  There is quite the history on flat whites, much more than is necessary.)

We also encountered an ehow website on this topic, which simply states "Australians do not drink brewed coffee".  We'll let you know if we ever find evidence to the contrary.

This instant coffee brand pronunciation tickled me.
(Inside joke for Tasha, maybe)

Castledoyle Bike Ride

Now that we both have bicycles (it was a couple weeks ago when we serendipitously got another bike at the Tip Shop when someone else was unloading it; all parts working and everything for that magic price of $20), and no other plans on a sunny Sunday afternoon, we took a ride east of town on Castledoyle Road.  If we'd gone far enough we would have ended up at Oxley Wild Rivers National Park and the Gara Gorge trailhead.  Of all the biking we've done around the area, Castledoyle Road is my favorite: it's relatively quiet and low traffic, in the country, and most importantly: sealed/paved.  Not many of the country roads are.

The road is moderately hilly but not terribly steep in any particular areas.  It goes through grazing land--predominantly cattle, though there was a field of sheep (and a couple of horses with their winter blankets on).  And as it is outside town, the trees are primarily eucalyptus except around the houses where you see rows of poplars and other strange leafless trees from the Northern continents.

It was a pretty beautiful day, considering that it is now officially winter.  It's hard to imagine being able to take a bike ride like this in December in Michigan!  When the sun was out it was pretty warm.  Saw some kangaroos on our way out; I have no excuse for not taking a picture because they were still there when we came back.  They were pretty adorable.

Not on our ride but outside our front door. I thought these
clouds were dramatic enough to warrant a picture.

First day of winter; partly cloudy with occasional rain.

It's been a pretty cold week here in Armidale! Perhaps only fitting for the winter solstice. July on average is just a little bit colder than June, so we're not in the clear yet--but at least the days will start getting longer again, and we'll be getting more sun on the clothesline in the backyard.  It's really, really nice that we can still line-dry our clothes in the middle of winter.. some days, at least.  Not today: it's another rainy Saturday; cloudy now, but according to the forecast it won't last long and we're due for some more showers.  It seems like since mid-May, every Saturday has been a combination of rainy, cloudy and damp cold.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

It's kind of funny, who would have thought that we'd move to Australia and find our house colder in the morning than it was in Idaho. There is no insulation in the house so when we get up on zero-degree mornings (Celsius (of course, it doesn't get that cold)), it seems to be around 5° in here (41° F).  Though it's hard to tell... our thermometer broke and we haven't bought a replacement.  Missing our kotatsu; wearing layers of coats and hats as usual.  Some things never change.

The zero insulation is turning into a little bit of a problem, though; the main room ceiling is dripping from the condensation in the colder mornings and the mold is beginning to escalate out of control. We'll see if the realtors take care of it for us, otherwise we'll have to buy a ladder.

Courtesy of Weatherzone

Despite being the shortest day of the year, it's really not that bad: as you can see, sunrise is at 6:50am and sunset at 5:00pm.  Latitude-wise, we're the same distance from the equator as Houston, Texas.  Longitude-wise, we're the same distance from the Prime meridian as the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska.  (No one ever says that, do they.)

Anyway, enjoy your summer, you Northern Hemispherers.  We'll think of you during our Christmas in July festivities and our tropical winter vacation in August.

Also, this is completely unrelated, but on Tuesday someone said to me genuinely "Good on you, kid", except of course it sounded more like "G'danya, ked", which I found tremendously endearing.

Chia and Rice Bubbles

One thing that really struck us is the abundance of chia products in Australia.  I know it's catching on in the US in the hipster and health-food scene, but it seems to me to be much more prevalent here.  And what do you know, it's grown commercially here, one of the world's largest producers.

Chia pudding

Just a smattering of the chia products available.

And while we're at it, I suppose I'll post the other picture I took at the supermarket.  Cereal aisle: why else?  Rice Bubbles.  Also, I did not know this, but General Mills is Uncle Toby's in Australia, thanks to a joint venture in 1990 with Nestlé.  Thank you, global food marketing.

Also, Weet-Bix, owned by my favorite Seventh-day Adventist Australian food company.  Wikipedia: "Weet-Bix is seen in both Australia and New Zealand as an iconic national foodstuff. An online poll of 16,000 people in 2006 identified it as Australia's favourite trademark. The product has been marketed in Australia since 1985 with the catchphrase "Aussie Kids are Weet-Bix kids"."

So maybe instead of vegemite, we should try some Weet-Bix Bites sometime, and we can become true Aussie kids as well.

Rice Bubbles and Weet-Bix

Burger Rings at the Asian market, just because.

Burger Rings, another snack from down under.  When you're looking for that Burger Taste without a burger.  The best packages (New Zealand marketing) have a penguin on them, because, you know, penguins and burgers go together like butter and jam.

Lucky day, or, impeccable timing.

Today was a notably unusual Friday the 13th.  The lawn maintenance guys came when there is no grass to mow.  I decided to ride my bike to Uralla and encountered a police chase.  I had afternoon tea with two strangers.  Reid was on TV. We went out to eat at a hotel where they were doing a raffle for meat plates.  For dinner I had vegie lasagne on top of chips, which I imagine is as close to poutine as I am going to get.  The only thing that was not unusual was that Brazil beat Croatia 3-1 in the opening world cup game, and, not surprisingly, I was rooting for the underdog.

Saumarez Bike Ride

Friday (June 6th) and again on Monday (June 9th) I rode my bicycle out to the Saumarez Homestead where I've done a little volunteering.  I was a little nervous; it's embarrassing but I don't remember how long ago it was that I biked 8.9 kilometers (5.5 miles) and my $20 tip shop bike is a little dubious. Anyway, thank goodness for infallible optimism (and a combination of no other options and that lovely feeling of obligation).  That hill on the way out of the town is killer, but once you get past the airport and off the sealed road, it's really beautiful.. even if the bumpy gravel road bruised my palms a little bit.

Friday, my first trip, was a terrifically foggy morning even at 9am.  I had my lights on for the ride (and of course completely forgot they were on when I got there.)  It was a little surreal, I really couldn't see anything of the countryside once I turned onto Saumarez road so coming back was a little surprising--all these hills and trees I hadn't seen on the way there.  Herded some cattle on the way there; didn't see any wallabies, though.

Some of the cattle ran away, some just watched me nervously.

Note the lack of fences along the road.  That's just the way these roads always are.

The Saumarez Homestead is out in the middle of cattle grazing fields, like anything else in the country in this part of Australia.  The property (buildings and grounds) are a part of the National Trust of Australia.  I didn't take any pictures of the house (some other time), but "homestead" has a bit of a quaint feel--let's call it instead the Edwardian mansion that it is.  It's really fantastic--the house was built in the mid-1800s and renovated in the early 1900s, and everything inside the house is from the family's occupancy until the last daughter moved into an assisted living centre in the 1950s or so (as my memory serves).  We took a tour through the mansion on Saturday, it's really quite fantastic.  Cold, though... I don't recommend taking a tour in early winter if you can avoid it.  An hour of just standing around in an old chilly house, even as fascinating as it is, is too much for me.  (But I'm a wimp.)

But this is a bit off-topic, as today all I have are pictures from the road.  More beautiful autumn Australian New England Tablelands trees and hills.  The fog had lifted on my way home and the clouds were really gorgeous.  By the time I approached the airport it had cleared up even more, with a mountain of clouds retreating into the distance.

It's kind of funny to look at these pictures; it's just such a different feel to the trees we see on our street in town.  You don't have to go very far outside the city to see a shift in the flora.  Here, which would be just a 10 minutes drive and all you see are just a couple different kinds of eucalypts.  The deciduous imports that make up most of the trees in town have lost all their leaves, but the only bare trees I saw on my way to Saumarez were some old giant eucalyptus skeletons.

If I didn't know better I might think it was summertime.

The Armidale airport runway.   I watched a little two-seater take off and disappear above the clouds.

Anyway, this dude and I are off to the Saumarez Homestead again tomorrow, and then I'm going to take the plunge for the remaining 20km and go down to Uralla (and catch a ride back with Reid up to Armidale).  Twelve miles, that's nothing, right?  For a person who dislikes cycling, I think that's pretty good.

Mi bicicleta y yo // 私の自転車と私

Little Corellas

Pretty much every day I see, but usually hear, the migration of the flock of corellas from the south side of town to the north and back again.  I either hear them passing overhead in the morning, but more often I catch them in the afternoon.  (If you hear the noisy corellas at the corner of Taylor and Mossman, you know it's between 3:30 and 4pm).  Today was no exception; they were right on time.  I was taking in the laundry when I heard them come in and roost in a neighbor's tree, so I ran in to get the camera.  Too late when I returned--but they had just relocated down the street so I set off with the zoom lens for some good photo opportunities.

They are so incredibly noisy.  It's kind of a rather (quite) unpleasant sound, but I love seeing the flock in the sky, every time.  They settled between some poplars and the big gum tree on the corner of Taylor and Kentucky, bringing the seedpods (gumballs?) from the gum tree with them and tearing them apart to eat.  (It's a little disconcerting to be standing below a tall tall poplar and being able to hear the birds nibbling far far above you.)  I took some pictures before they took off again in a ruckus, and headed home.

These guys were so cute I couldn't resist.

Dinnertime.

Yum.

Time to go...

...and off they went.

Feeling satisfied with finally getting some pictures of these guys, and listening to some good music... all of a sudden I feel like today was a pretty good day.

Edit 07-07-14 -- I had erroneously mislabeled these guys the first time around as sulphur-crested cockatoos, because that was the only white cockatoo I could find in any of the bird Australia information at the time (either Eastern Australia or New South Wales.)  Had to go to Tamworth and see one labeled in a cage to figure it out. Turns out they aren't really found in Eastern AU or NSW, just in a pocket around Sydney, which, apparently, we fall into.  Three-month mystery solved.

Eastern Rosellas

No post today... just a couple pictures of some eastern rosellas in our backyard.

Pictures from the Mount Mutton Expedition

Just to be clear, the climb up Mount Mutton makes it clear it is not much more than a hill.

Interesting tree bark in Alma Park, where the trail begins

Wavy telephone pole along Thunderbolts Way.  This ain't your mama's broken pencil trick.

The path to Mount Mutton.  A "gentle incline" might be an overestimation.

Looking west from Mount Mutton trail

Still only a slight slope upwards (or downwards)

This tree stump seemed to be missing something... there it is.

Sunny shadows along the service road

View from the top of Mount Mutton, looking southeast

Looking across the top of the mount

Reid is patient with the dillydallying (dillydawdling?) of his woman

Crimson rosellas' favorite past time, hanging out at a tree.