Another Country Diary
After about a week of these diary entries,
they go to the
archive.
|
|
Sunday 8 May '05 |
 There
had to be some outside time today, cleaning up the fallen leaves, a trip
to the tip. And lunch in the sun.
Jan has a big bowl of these daisies growing on the well and there was an
attentive butterfly or two that I hadn't seen before.
I've been shuttling all day from work to outside, noticing how warm it is
and how cold in my room with the
computer. It's time to drag the vertical heaters in from the shed.
Our electricity
 bill triples in winter in Bungendore, (and
then there's the gas, the firewood).
In summer however we live more lightly on the planet, there's no air
conditioning in this old house (or room for it under the old timber
floors). Windows are opened at night to bring the cool air in, we close
the blinds against the sun in the morning and the thick brick walls stay
cool through days of heat. Not that we've had much this past summer.
|
|
Saturday 7 May '05
|
 We
took the dogs for a walk in the autumn afternoon light. I took the
camera and felt guilty that it was the first time I've been down to the
town with it for weeks. The dogs don't mind but I know there are people
who read this who have noticed the sudden silence in entries. (I can
be shamed into updates Marjorie.)
 There's
a new sign up on the main road through town. Not very pretty, and damned
hard to read, but I guess the message will get through that we've got
our own 'cheesecake shop' in town. Ye Old? Maybe it's time for that
signage bylaw to be introduced.
 By
comparison, this sign (and there's a rash of them around) has the
brevity to be read at 50kmph, has a price point offer and works a treat. Marketing
101.
 While
on the subject of visual clutter and signage pollution, I've been
meaning to take a photograph of the LJ Hooker house/office in town as another
example of the usual LJ Hooker bad taste. The Raine and Horne office in Queanbeyan is a
particularly ugly example. These garish offices cover the country.
In the evening light, it somehow looked
 subdued
but in daylight it's ugly. There's not much hope for having a tasteful
attractive town when the real estate agents themselves don't have any of
those qualities. I know it's branding but it's a turnoff rather than
appealing or professional.
It's a lot neater however than the derelict state that house had slid into over
the years. Every main street seems to have one of those, the rental is
low because no-one wants to live there, so they attract the people with
the old car with flat tires, dead bikes in the yard, maybe a skinny dog
too scared to bark at people going past.
Then it's deserted for a while, the grass and weeds grow over the
kid's broken toys. Everyone walks past saying, 'somebody should mow
that'. Yet the land is valuable and the house eventual gets done up.
Next it will be pulled down and we'll have another shop front. I'll
continue the chronicle I'm sure. |
|
Friday 6 May '05 |
 Autumn
composition #2345. Kings Highway Bungendore. Taken while heading to the post
office with an Express post bag. What did we do running businesses in
small towns before Express Post? |
|
Thursday 5 May '05 |
 The
last of the banana capsicums have been picked. They grow much better
than the red or green capsicums in our garden, they taste a little
bitter but we've made a few meals with them as per the recipe I found
ages ago. It's a good one for vegetarians, and all our family like it
Is the plural of pasta, pastas? |
I've been photographing a lot of fruit and vegetables lately for the
Regional Food website. It's
been fun. See the Season's Best section.
Have you ever tried a dragon fruit?
 Dragon fruit are
actually a cactus fruit, and are also called Pitaya, Pitahaya or apparently, Strawberry
Pear.
With a soft fleshy pulp inside that tastes scented and only slightly sweet.
It's a hard fruit to compare to another, the strawberry pear is a lead the
flesh is slightly crisp like a pear and full of small soft black seeds like
a strawberry. It's not a strong flavour (there are better tasting varieties
but these white fleshed ones are so dramatic in appearance they're the most
seen variety).
 Vietnam grow a lot and export here, and they're well established in
China but are almost certainly South American in origin. One of the Chinese
legends about it's name says that after a dragon has breathed fire, it
ejects one of these fruit. Eating one gave you the strength of the dragon in
battle. The do have have healthy fibre and Vitamin C.
We are growing Pitaya in Australia. A 'cluster' of growers in Tropical North
Queensland, around Cairns, called
Australian
Tropical Foods produce red fleshed and white fleshed varieties.
 There's a quirky
webpage
for the China High Quality Farm Produce Network with some mythology and
lines like "When it is booming, it producs sweet fragrance and called as
"lucky fruit".
The website of Pine Island Nursery in Miami has the best page of
photographs of the plant and the varieties.
|
|
Sunday 1 May '05 |
Yep, it was the collector Pumpkin Festival again. I was so impressed
last year that I joined the committee this time. I helped this year with
their website and worked with Romily Madew on some of the marketing.
(Called in favours and did a few small ads and flyers.)
Here the pumpkins await the crowd in the hall.
And what a crowd. Over 5,500 this year and it really pushed the event
into a big time success.
There will be more photos and reports up on the website
www.pumpkinfestival.com.au
|
|
Friday 29 April '05 |
 It's
been a while since I've been to a country ball. On the Friday night, was
the Bushranger Hotel Pumpkin Festival Ball. And it was a big success.
 Jan
comes along with me even when she knows that I'll have to jump up and
photograph events and people all night long. It must be love.
She seems to be enjoying herself here though.
 Kate
McKay and Romily Madew, both committee members and a big part of the
festival's success. |
|
Fred
Harden
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home |
Archive Menu
|
|