Another Country Diary
After a while these diary entries, go to the
archive.
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1 November '05 |
 The
Banksia Rose at the front gate blossoms a bit later than the one
at the side of the house that screens us from our neighbour Val. It is
just outside the kitchen window, one end is pale yellow, the other white.
The yellow is first to bloom, then there's a cross-over with a mix of the two. It
blooms for weeks and looks beautiful if it doesn't rain. Of course it has, a lot, and they
are becoming beaten around and bruised. There's confetti petals over
everything. |
 The
bush at the gate hides the old tree stump that broke off in a wind
storm. It had a wild bee- hive inside which didn't make the bees happy
or make it easy to cut up and remove. I have to hack this rose back heavily each year
or it would take over the drive. |
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31 October '05 |
 We
got off the plane from Adelaide and drove straight to
Flavours in the Fyshwick
Markets for an event sponsored by Nicholas Foods featuring local produce
and cooked by Jan Gundlach. (That's pronounced as the German 'Yarn' not
Jan.)
It featured local and interstate small producers such as
 Lynwood
Preserves, who all talked about their products to an audience of
Canberra chef's and food retailers.
Each of their products was served up cooked by Jan and his team, served
with local wines. So there was lots of tasty bits spread over the night.
I made some good contacts, filed away some stories for later. |
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28 -30 October '05 |
 The
Adelaide Food, Beer & Wine Writers Festival is the free public sessions
of Tasting
Australia. Held every two years it attracts a lot of our 'celebrity'
chefs, food writers (all chefs have a cookbook or two nowdays) and
people like us in the food publishing industry. We made a last minute
decision and jumped on a plane, me in the morning Jan after some
meetings late in the day. I arrived for a few Friday morning sessions,
we spent all day Saturday there, managed to score some free tickets to
the
World Food Media awards and after-party (fun). |
 There
are some sessions that you pay for (run by Gourmet Traveller) with celebrity
chefs, or as Antonio Carluccio prefers to call himself - a cook. I left
after 20 mins or so, not because I don't like the man, I do and use his
Italian cookbooks often. It was hot and the format predictable. I took
my photographs and left. |
 The
Writer's sessions are not boring. Panels of interesting people with
similar themes or topics, all held together by an industry figure who
prompts and keeps to the schedule, (this time it was Joanna Savill who
was terrific). The standard of people talking is great, it's all just
too short. The French panel (at left) Shannon
Bennett, Joanna Savill, Damien Pignolet and Serge Dansereau. Can
you imagine them describing their best French meal? I was
immediately hungry. |
 We
took the tram to Glenelg on Sunday, it was hot clear spring day. There were cicadas and
the smell of peppercorn trees. As we got to Jetty Road, the end of the
line, I was taking pictures framed
by the narrow tram
 windows. Having a couple of them open in Photoshop,
I figured they'd make a panel. Click
here for a larger version (opens in new
window).
I'd never been to this old beachside suburb of Adelaide, the old buildings and the big new hotels
and apartments that have kept a deco style impressed me. The beach was
pretty grotty but it didn't seem to stop a herd of people enjoying the
sunshine. Or swimming. I like Adelaide.
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20 October '05 |
 Driving
the region I've been aware of the roadside
blossoms on the hawthorns and wild fruit trees. Driving past them the rest of the year they're
anonymous and you never notice or remember to check them for fruit. |
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19 October '05 |
 The
old railway shed is home for the few pigeons that live in Bungendore. I
hardly ever hear them near the house but I was awake early one morning
and with the window open, in a half sleep I had a strong recollection of
the times we visited my grand parents in Melbourne. Pigeons 'rackata-cooing'
and far off trams rattling meant city to me. |
 I'd
stopped to photograph some roadside trees as the school bus dropped off these
kids, and they walked up the long driveway. It made me remember the
country school bus that my brother and I traveled on for five years. An
hour journey each way, pretty much what all the kids who go to school in
Canberra have to do if they live in Bungendore. |
 Forster
and Ellendon Street corner. |
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 The
elms are turning pale yellow, covered in seed pods.These by the
roadside near Sonza looked particularly striking and I kicked myself
that I didn't stop to photograph them. A few days later when they'd
started to turn a dirty brown I did. |
 The
elms around the town (this is the gate near the CoE church) are
surrounded by small snowballs of seeds. Overhead the parrots, galahs and
cockatoos are having a ball chewing of bunches of the seeds and they then let them
drop. |
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14 October '05 |
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I went with Mark to the
Rural Press Awards. Very strange, newspapers from around the country
with names like The Dunoon Upper Reaches Free Chronicle and Community
Advocate. Or something like
that. |
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13 October '05 |
I was dragging some of the weed from the pond that threatens to choke
it, hauling heavy muddy clumps up the bank with a rake. Then I noticed
these striped leeches. I flicked a few into the grass so I could see
them better. They knew which direction the pond was and wriggled madly to get back.
 I
put one in a glass of water to get a better look, it flattened itself
out as it swam. The colour changed to a real copper. On a white
background they looked dark. |
 They
have a distinctive sucker on both ends and that helps it loop along in
the grass. |
 It
was remarkably strong, and quickly climbed out of the glass. I put it
back a few times.
I decided not to return it to the pond, and squashed it. They apparently
have a useful job of cleaning up the dead fish but they can also attack
live ones, and they get eaten in turn by fish bigger than them. I've
been in the pond a few times cutting reeds, and I've had small black
leeches on my exposed skin when I've come out. They're easy to scrape
off. Now I know that these guys are in there it's a bit of a deterrent
to wade in. |
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9 October '05 |
 The
wild spring rain and wind has meant the clouds have been wonderful.
High storm clouds and patches of brilliant blue sky coming through. I tried some
black and white images, red filtered, very dramatic. Driving around, the patches of fast
moving light and shade have brought me to many a stop. |
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Fred
Harden
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