Sal and Nic in Oz

Posted by: Nic

After flying half way round the planet we arrived in Sydney and were greeted by Sal's excited folks at the airport. They put us up in a hotel literally at the the base of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, you don't get any more Aussie cliched than that eh! We spent a week doing family and touristy stuff in Sydney before flying down to Melbourne for a week so I could go to the Australian Bioenergy Conference. There aren't any pics of any of this because we lost our camera.

After finally arriving in Perth my mum gave us a camera, so here is what we've be up to. Of course, family and friends who haven't seen us for nearly three years have dragged us out for food and drinks.

An xmas party with friends and lunch with my brothers.

Xmas party, I had way too much Tequila, does it show?

After a week we finally got through all the obligatory friend and family stuff. We then escaped down south and spent a few days relaxing at Sal's parents farm.

"The Farm"

Lunch at Gnarabup beach (after kayaking - awesome)

We spent a day clearing weeds from trees we planted. And avoiding flies...

Wildlife near the farm, some local emus.

And finally, just for the sake of it, here is some other stuff...

An Australian rain barrel (Sal's folks new 90,000 liter rainwater tank).

A rack of $2000 didgeridoos, I REALLY want one!

We're off to see the wizard...

Nic and I are nervous travelers. It gets worse the more we do it, as if repeated exposure to airport lounges and bored security guards only fuels our imaginations of endless variations on potential travel disasters. Having our flights booked on Thanksgiving has not improved the situation, as the prospect of finding a new seat is near impossible if delay or mishap results in a missed connection. Consequently, we both awoke at 5am, were fully packed, the house cleaned, notes written for house sitters, breakfast demolished, and now we are sitting around in agitation with 35 minutes before we get picked up.

Its a beautiful morning. Outside the front windows the grass is silvery with frost. The winter garden - what is left of a bountiful and exuberant summer - is limp and bent like a Russian peasant against the cold. But the sky is very clear and blue, the early morning light full of pinks and golds, and squirrels and cardinals are hanging out on the front lawn as if it were a midwinters ball - the male cardinals in their bright red suits, the women in drab brown and both sporting their black face patch like a Venetian domino. They flap and flutter between the ground the bare branches of the pomegranate bush with no obvious purpose that I can discern.

The squirrels are too intent on nut retrieval and burial operations for any of this frivolity. They are looking fat and glossy (although they are positively slender compared to their obese relatives that I just saw in Montreal, squirrels so padded against the winter cold that they were the size of a rabbit, and even their arms had obvious fat rolls). This year has been a corker for pecans in North Carolina. Our neighbour's trees have lost their leaves and a crown of spiky black nut cases now makes a pretty silhouette. The ground is rough with the fallen nuts - I can find them by walking and catching them beneath my feet - or by spotting the prettily striated black and brown nut lying smooth and inconspicuous under the leaves.
The squirrels are world class nut finders. Without hesitation they scamper to the neighbour's lawn, pick a nut and race back to our lawn, where the freshly weeded veggie beds offer the perfect combination of loose soil and surreptitious brilliance that a squirrel looks for in a nut-hiding-spot. With powerful little arms and a facial expression somewhere between mania and utter unctuousness they dig out a hole, drop the nut and then smooth the earth back over it, before glancing around a few times (to ensure their secret remains safe) and dashing back to Alice's lawn for the next treasure to bury. When another squirrel comes too close dramatic chase and fight scenes ensue. The bushes, the telephone wires and house roofs are all employed as a fighting arena. Its like a kung fu movie - they race up a telephone pole, circling it in spirals and boxing at each other when the spirals intersect. Then they zoom across a telephone wire, leap onto the next roof, and sort each other out. Eventually the victor returns, no time to look pleased, nuts to be buried!

In the mountains last summer we observed one of these ravenous scallywags trying to get into a bird feeder. It seems like a never ending battle is waged in the US by bird lovers determined to feed the winged things while keeping the squirrels out of the grain. You can buy any number of ingenious squirrel proofed bird feeders. None of them work. The contraption in the mountains consisted of a regular feeder - but suspended over a 10m drop by a 2m wire. This wasn't enough to stop the squirrels from trying, although it did make things susbtantially harder for them. First they would approach from the top and abseil down the wire to perch precariously on the feeder. But the food was at the bottom - another foot of slippery, hard to negotiate plastic away. And below them, the drop.
Watching a squirrel negotiate this last obstacle was nail biting. Their claws didn't grip the plastic well so they would slide helterskelter down the tube, trying to grab at the bird perch right at the bottom. Regularly they'd miss with their front paws and only save themselves by a quick "back paw arrest". And, finally, one fell.
I gasped. I may have screamed a little. Nic and I watched open mouthed. "Should we resuscitate it? Will there be anything to resuscitate?" we wondered. But, unperturbed, the little guy picked himself off the bricks that he'd just slammed into (and lets be honest, this fall would have shattered all of my bones, let alone a little furry guy's) and scooted back up the verandah to take 2.

Well, now there are only 15 minutes until we scoot to the airport. Take care one and all and hope to see you soon...!

XOXO

Sal

Sal finally got her holiday

Posted by: Sal and Nic, in a totally egalitarian collaboration

We were invited back down to Pawley's Island in South Carolina by our lovely friend Mary and her lovely parents Bill and Sara. We accepted with alacrity. Its about a 4 hour drive down there, to a house called: "D'spot".

D'spot - the gorgeous beach house. We stayed in the room at the top right.

Bill, Sara, Sal and Mary. We were enjoying a delicious home-style meal at the Brown Pelican Inn. The building is from 1890. The food is yum.

We did a whole lot of nothing for 4 days. Well, Sal did a whole lot of nothing, Nic supplemented his nothing by working industriously on his papers. But we paddled in the creek, swam in the sea, introduced Emma to the ocean, and took a lovely ride out in the tidal swamp at high tide on a little motor boat.

The view looking back down the creek at sunset.

Nic steers the boat with Mary keeping a "close" eye on him

Emma was in disgrace for much of the trip. Just about everything that she could do wrong, she did. You don't need details. But she had a lot of fun playing chicken with the waves.

And now we're back... and the garden is scarily dry. But the tomatoes are ripe, the okra have matured, and here are some photos...

Bumblebee on hyacinth bean... just showing off the new camera's magic powers.

Okra! Its related to hibiscus and the flowers are really pretty - yellow with a purple centre. Unfortunately they were all closed when I took the camera out.

Nic built a BBQ out of cinder blocks and a very fat metal slab he got from somewhere agricultural. It worked good!

Nic does the "agronomist's squat". I don't know what that means either.

Speaking of things that Nic does well, he maintains that growing plants is one of them. We visited the field station on the way home from the beach and took photos of Nic standing amidst tall and happy plants that he claims he grew.

Nic stands in the Erianthus and looks proud. See that pride? See it?

Summer lovin'

Posted by: Sal, with Nic looking over her shoulder.

So it is summer time. Things are kind of sleepy here in the Bull City during the summer. There are consolations. Outdoor bluegrass concerts (although all the ones we've tried to get to this year have been rained out so far). Fireflies. Veggie gardens. Warm evenings.

So we've been doing domestic, summery sorts of things. Like picking blackberries and making jam. Unlike home, blackberry plants here typically aren't sprayed with poison, so any wild bank is fair game. We picked a bunch between a main road and the railway, and made jam which, for the first time in my adult life, has actually set. Its a miracle!

Picking blackberries and making jam. If my pants are looking a bit high-waisted, I had everything tucked in tightly to prevent chiggers - nasty small mites with a very itchy bite - from getting to me. They're rumoured to be regular inhabitants of blackberry patches.

Nic has been up to lots of useful domestic activities too. Lots of gardening, lots of building. He made three desks for us, a new bbq (which we need to try out... but it looks impressive). He's been startled by zucchinis, rigged up an Aussie flag for the pole outside the house, and, in one of his less well known habits, has been caging babies.

Nic marvels at the sheer size of it, raises a flag which says "we love our country... a bit", and lets Ishan try out the dog's crate. Ishan couldn't have been less concerned about his accomodations.

Another common summer time activity in Durham is sitting anxiously in your house as thunder and lightning crash around you, wondering if a pine tree is going to fall on your head. The 4th of July was supposed to be celebrated in Durham with the 20th anniversary of the Minor League Baseball cult classic movie "Bull Durham". Kevin Costner was in this movie, and he was invited back to Durham to play in his band at the baseball park before a firework extravaganza. Instead, we got gale force winds, massive tree damage across the city and especially in our neighbourhood, power outs and chaos. Perhaps this is what the Gods to do any town where Kevin comes? C'mon people, you've all seen Waterworld, you know I'm right.

Storm damage after "Hurricane Costner". The house on the right copped two fallen oaks - a huge one split on top of a little blue car, which miraculously seems to still be in one, albiet dented, piece; and a smaller one which took out the eaves on one side, but thankfully not the chicken coop which it fell directly over.

A blog post wouldn't be complete without some Emma pictures, and I know you've all been anxious to see how she's growing (of course you have... go along with me on this). We'll she's doing GREAT. Calming down a bit, better behaved, cuddly and cute still. Loves playing with other dogs - she had a great run with three others that were out on a walk a few evenings ago. And still enjoys a cuddle with her Dad.

Still getting bigger... still stripey... calmer now... super cute... ok, enough guff. I'm a bit enraptured with the dog at the moment. That'll last until the next time she eats a bottle of shampoo, and blows bubbles out of both ends...

And we also made a phalenopsis flower. I know you can buy them at the shop, but this is a home grown flower. I'm proud, dammit. Also, a home grown puppy (Emma), frolicking with a Wiemerrana and two new friends.

The final, and most important thing that happens in summer here, is Nic has a birthday. And his lovely Mum sent over Tim Tams, and, importantly vegemite. But this was vegemite with a difference! Vegemite in a tube...

Nic wasn't 100% sure what to do with it... but he was game to try the same thing he normally does with stuff that comes in tubes...

Comic genius.

The bounty of summer

This is a really quick post to gloat about the wonderful, affordable, delicious berries and peaches we found at the farmers market last weekend. The peaches turned into a sweet peach sauce and a peach iced tea, while the berries were delicious with passionfruit sorbet. YUM. I'm normally horribly jealous for Aussie summer fruit, but right now all I can say is... hope you're enjoying winter : P

New house! Nic's Mum! Meningitis! Oh my!

For all those who had been wondering, Nic is
a) not dead
b) better
c) up and running
d) rude and irreverant

His Mum wasn't convinced of it all either, so she came over to look after him and give him a big hug. Here is the ocular proof!


Of course, the best thing for a person recovering from meningitis to do is to move house about 2 weeks after they get out of hospital. Although we'd originally planned for Nic to pick up the massive doghouse with his little finger (Nic being a handsome, muscular adonis prior to the meningitis, as he keeps maintaining), he was reduced to but a shadow of his former self, so we enlisted a large team of men to help out. Or maybe a team of large men. Anyway, there were six of them.



The new house is lovely. It is all of 2 blocks from the old one, but on a much quieter street. The street is pretty and full of trees and cute cottages. The house is probably from the 1940s, wooden floors, lots of windows... and lovely Jo bought us new couches for our gorgeous new lounge room.

Nic has been very busy doing useful things in the backyard. So far they are all dog related. We are putting in a fence to keep her in her place, and Nic has been finishing the siding on the doghouse.
We have been keeping Jo entertained as best we can : ) We took a lovely trip up to Asheville and enjoyed the mountains in Spring.



Nic also took Jo to a lacrosse game. I spent the afternoon helping another friend move house, using my wonderful experience gained when moving our house ...

And, finally, me modelling my exciting new Funkadelic t-shirt after Nic and I went to George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic.

"The most unbelievably funky thing I've ever seen" -- Nic George

Unfortunately he was referring to George Clinton, not to me in my t-shirt.

How much can this post revolve around our dog?

Posted by: Nic and Sal

Zee frozen wastes of the north destroyed our digital camera, which is why there have been no posts since then. We finally borrowed a camera from our lovely Mexican neighbours, and of course all the pictures seem to involve our dog... Oh well, here they are.

Emma is making us go walking a whole lot more. Here we are strolling in the woods behind our place. No, it isn't sunny, Nic went to the optometrist and had stuff in his eyes - his pupils were crazily dilated and he was squinting in the gloomy overcast afternoon!

It may not be sunny but it is gradually starting to warm up so we have started to get our garden in order. We plan to move out of this house in another three months but we hope to get another crop in before them.

To enjoy some of the warmer weather we had dinner with our friends, Lucas and Jamie, at their house in the woods in north Durham. Our buddy Aaron (the dude in green) also stopped by... with homebrew.

Lucas and Jamie have a two year old dog, Naja, who has appeared on this blog before. Naja proceeded to kick the crap out of Emma, which is a good thing. Their neighbour's dog wandered over to join in as well.

And in further dog news, I am building Emma a dog house.

Do we have any non-dog related news you ask? Erm... Nic went to California and got the flu... Sal is going to New Orleans in May...and, um, we got a dog?

Zee frozen wastelands of the north...

Posted by: Sal with help from Grace.

Posted by: Sal

As Australians, we don't really understand the cold too well. Particularly how to deal with all the crazy stuff that happens when the water turns hard and the rain becomes white and fluffy, and invisible patches of slipperiness suddenly start appearing on the footpath, causing you to perform a remarkable simulacrum of Charlie Chaplin confronted by a banana skin.

To address this gap in our climatological education, clan George-Thompson (aka Sal, Nic and Gracie) headed northwards over the yule period, to Chicago and to Minnesota (fondly known as "Minne-snow-ta" to locals, according to the Lonely Planet). And cold indeed we found.

Us experiencing REAL cold.

We went to Chicago on the 22nd and were met by our lovely friend Stefan and his gorgeous Mum Martine, and were deposited downtown where we met Aussie friend Ciaran and headed to some iconic burger bars and blues clubs. Eventually we got back to Stefan's gorgeous family home and settled in very comfortably indeed. The next few days were full of architecture (various buildings downtown and a Christmas-Day tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright houses in the Oak Park neighbourhood), science (the Field Museum and the endless nerdy conversations between the four academic types), delicious food (something about staying in a family with a French Mum just set us up for that) and Christmassy activities (Midnight Mass, lighting "luminaria", Christmas itself). We really enjoyed being spoiled and mothered and looked after - it was a wonderful time.

The Chicago skyline.

The old Chicago public library.

The "Chicago Bucket Boys."

On Boxing Day we bade Ciaran, Stefan and co farewell and jumped on a train for Minneapolis. It was a 8 hour train ride, which sounded a bit daunting, but it went much faster than an 8 hour flight, and we had fun learning about dining carts and watching the landscape get progressively whiter. We pulled into St. Paul at 10.30pm and were met by Lori and her sister, fed sugar cookies and dropped at a very comfortable hotel.

The next day we spent the morning at the Art Institute (where Nic enthused about suits of armour, while Gracie and I ticked off Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, Degas, Dali, Cezanne, Bonnard... and more) and then in the afternoon set off for Lori's family's lake house about 2 hours drive north of Minneapolis. Snow had fallen and the world was rendered in a palette of whites, greys and browns, with the occasional dark green pine tree thrown in for relief. We didn't arrive until the evening, so we didn't realise how pretty it was until the next day. The house was only 20m or so from the lakeshore. We were into snow pants in a jiffy and making snow angels before you knew it. We picked up some cross country skis that afternoon and spent a few hours getting over the extreme uncoordination associated with their use (we're great at it now, of course). We took them out again the next morning - it was a lot of fun. After freezing our butts off skiing, we wanted pizza. In the pub we met a bloke who turned out to be an old family friend of Lori's and who decided that the Aussies had to have a go at snowmobiling! Accordingly we all showed up the next day and nervously listened as he told us how much damage ($2000 worth) his son's friend had done to the machines - just that morning! Apparently not learning that letting complete strangers operate your expensive snow toys is a silly idea, he then set us onto the machines, and without so much as a "now this is the accelerator and this is the brake" roared off on the ice! We spent about 15 minutes getting a taste of this noisy, smelly, but fun winter sport - and I for one was quite happy with limiting our period of liability to that short a time.

We arrived in Duluth (another couple of hours further north again!) on the 30th and had a lovely but odd dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant. The food was 5 star, but the waitress was classic diner. We knew about her opinions on Australia, her "kid", her job and her college ambitions before a) she knew we were Australian or b) we had worked out why she was talking to us. Wierd - but the food was ace.

We spent most of NYE driving north of Duluth on the shore of Lake Superior. It was stunningly beautiful. I'll let the photos say the rest. We spent NYE itself in a pub back in Duluth, marvelling at the various interpretations of the "semi-formal" dress code by the local population. NY day saw us limp back to Minneapolis, and we spent our last day there (the 2nd) at the Science Museum (a travelling exhibit from Pompei was the main attraction) and shopping on St Paul's "Grand Avenue".

Sal and Gracie with our lovely host, Lori.

The frozen shore of Lake Superior.

The city of Duluth. It looks soviet but is really nice.


All of us skiing.

A frozen house in Minneapolis.

And now we're back home! Its great to be back in the house and especially to have Emma the puppy back in our lives (we took her to the farmers market this morning where she behaved very beautifully to all the big dogs and people who wanted to fuss over her), but getting back to work is going to be a struggle. A struggle which, personally, I am deferring until Monday morning after Gracie's departure for Perth.

In conclusion: snow is fun, cold is manageable with sufficient clothing, Minnesota is beautiful and Chicago is a lot of fun!