New birds!

The first day of the holidays kicked off to a pretty good start with new birds first thing in the morning! We had a visit from musk lorikeets to our plum trees, parrots in our yard I've never seen in New England before (although it took a while to identify them since my internet wasn't working for most of the day.) Needless to say it was cause for great excitement! I'm always up for new bird sightings.

When I first saw the small green birds in the tree I thought they were budgies
(since we very occasionally see budgies around here) but I was excited to see
it was a new parrot I didn't recognize instead.

Classic parrot move, nibbling upside down.

They watched me carefully as I stood on the stoop, but weren't too shy and
were content to go about their breakfast with me watching (as long as I
didn't get too close.) 

Walking around the tree

It's a good day to be a bird. (and it's a good place to be a bird watcher.)

Too close! They flew away after this photo.

January Blackberry Picking

Yesterday we went to a nearby farm to pick some blackberries! It was a warm sunny day with a hot sun and blue skies, perfect to get out of the house for a bit.  Since it was a rare free Sunday (that is, no market that morning), we wanted to go out and do something, but we didn't really feel up to a bushwalk or want to drive very far.  A 'u-pick' berry farm outside of Arding seemed like a nice compromise: not a lot of hassle to get there and back, plus we'd get to bring home the fruits of our labours.

I had never been to Arding before (and to be fair, I still haven't.) Arding is a tiny rural community west of the New England Highway between Armidale and Uralla.  The berry farm is on the far side of the crossroads of the "town" and to get there we drove south almost all the way to Uralla on the highway before turning westward onto a winding road and then heading north.

The only straight stretch of the road as it meets the New England Hwy

It's a pleasant drive, typical of the fields and forests of this part of New England. Not all of the roads out to these rural communities are sealed, but this particular one is. Also typical of this area, the road is quite narrow and winding. The posted speed limit is 100km/h but it's hard to imagine that with the 50km/h turns.

Berry Good: probably the world's number one
berry-related business/branding name.

We couldn't help but remember all our u-pick in Michigan
which were always crowded and swamped with people.
To contrast, we saw about ten other people here.

It has actually been quite cool since just before Christmas and hasn't felt much like summer, but this week will be warm again. Starting yesterday and today we're back to 28C (82F) and by Thursday the forecast rises to 34C (93F). It'll be hot!  The blackberries were just starting to ripen and the pickings were pretty slim, but we figured we could drop in again later in the week when all those berries are ripe.

For ever five unripe berries there was one ready to go.

Despite the 'slim pickins' we got ourselves quite a treat

Just over a kilo of berries (more than two pounds)

The farm is not small by any means, but not huge, either--but there was plenty of room for everyone there to pick plenty of ripe berries. There weren't more than ten people under the nets at any one time: there were two families leaving when we arrived, and another group came while we were there. It was pretty hot under the sun: the bird netting didn't provide any shade, of course! We wore our hats and long-sleeves, but we picked our tubs full pretty quickly anyway and wouldn't have had to worry about sunburn.

Bird protection

It was hard not to think about Michigan and remember the u-pick strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries we enjoyed while we lived in Ann Arbor. It's very different here of course, with so few people: in Michigan you absolutely had to be there first or nothing would be left (for strawberries) or it would be crowded and noisy with all the people and families (everything else.) Here, it's a much more laid-back experience.

But: just so we don't forget we're in Australia, we saw a triple-decker sheep trailer on our way back into Armidale. (That's something we never saw in Michigan.)

The three levels of sheep: baa - ram - ewe?

And: to finish our perfect berry adventure, Reid made a blackberry crumble!  It's been a long time since we've had blackberries, and even longer since we've had a crumble. Next weekend is likely to be very busy with the market prep (or maybe not - it's cold weather forecast which means no drinks which means much less prep to do) but if we get some more berries maybe we'll treat ourselves to a blackberry cobbler or coffeecake. Yum!

 Before (before baking)

After (before eating)

Dumaresq Dam

This was a fun game of count the kangaroos: "Oh, there's a kangaroo over there.
Oh, there's another one.  Wait -- there's another.  Okay, one more ..."

January 4, 2015

Between Gloucester and Walcha, NSW

The drive up Thunderbolt's Way from Gloucester toward Walcha is really beautiful.  (To be honest, I think the roads around Walcha are all really beautiful.)  The highway passes between several State Forests and around many National Parks and Nature Reserves. I could not believe how green it was... so very, very green.

A lookout over the valley

Contemplating the end of our travels... maybe.

Sydney: Opera House, Ferry to Manly, Harbour Bridge

Not too many people at the Opera House on a cloudy Sunday morning

We arrived in Sydney on Sunday morning and went straight to the CBD and Opera House.  Did the obligatory photos with it, took a path along the water, walked around the Royal Botanic Gardens, and went to the Gallery of NSW.  By Sunday afternoon, heading back to the Opera House to fetch the Berlingo to drive to the hostel, the Opera House was much busier than that morning.  (We'd taken our bicycles with us, which turned out to work pretty well except around the Botanic Gardens, where there is no cycling allowed on the multi-use paths and there are very few roads.)

This is it (supposedly.)

Lady Macquarie's chair

Sunday afternoon.

We did the rest of our tourist activities on Monday: started off the day by going back to the Opera House and Circular Quay.  We walked around a bit in The Rocks, the old neighborhood, and caught the 10am ferry to Manly.  It's a popular tourist thing to do, it's a good way to see the Harbour and it's a half an hour ride, so not a big time commitment.

Sydney Harbour Ferries- symmetrical so they never have
to turn around.

After the ferry ride we booked it to Mamak, a famous Malaysian restaurant.  (We'd swung by the day before at noon, just half an hour after they open for lunch, to find a queue that stretched past the shop front and in front of the neighbors.)  Getting there right at 11:30 was key: we were seated immediately and ordered our roti and curries.  (I have never had roti before and it was sooo delicious.)

Next was The Rocks Museum, followed by walking the Harbour Bridge.  We finished earlier than we thought so we went to the Contemporary Art Museum before heading back to the hostel.

Sydney Opera House from Harbour Bridge

Decorated palm trees

An enormous cruise ship docked in the harbor

No photos, unfortunately, form the highlight of our trip: seeing flying foxes in the evening.  When we first saw them Sunday night we could hardly believe it.  Monday night, on our way back from dinner, we took a walk through the park next to the hostel.  It was really spectacular.  Bonus: we also saw two possums.  (And Australian possums are a thousand times cuter than North American possums.)

Also no pictures from our departure through the suburbs Tuesday morning, including our venture to Tokyomart in Northbridge to pick up all our favorites: kanpyo, houjicha, and awamori to name a few.  It was a little bit of a hectic drive out of the city.  Also a surprising thing happened on our way out of town: there was a police checkpoint stopping cars to give breathalyzer tests (it was the day before New Years Eve.)  It was also 10am... a little unexpected.