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Wilson’s Prom: Day 3
I woke up feeling pretty tired from the previous days hiking, but we had another two hikes planned for today. The first was the Lilly Pilly Circuit. You can start this walk from a dedicated carpark, but we hiked from our accommodation. We crossed the Tidal River again, but this time headed inland. The walk traverses several different types of environments, including a stand of grass trees covering one hillside bordered by an area of scrubby She-Oak and Banksia recovering from fire. We then crossed the road and the entered the rainforest. There were a variety of fungi through this area, and so we all got into the act of…
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Wilson’s Promontory: Day 2
We woke up to the sound of kookaburras outside our cabin, and over breakfast, we enjoyed the antics of this Swamp Wallaby outside our window. We had two walks planned for today. We met at 9 am for the walk to Squeaky Beach via Pillar Point. (10km approx.) Crossing the footbridge across Tidal River you begin walking up and over the headland. We had awesome views looking back down Tidal River. There were heaps of birds in this section of the track. There are a lot of banksia and tea trees, providing nectar and seeds to a variety of birds. Towards the top of the headland there is a turn-off…
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An extended weekend at Wilson’s Promontory and our Anniversary
We took Thursday and Friday off work last week and headed down to Wilson’s Promontory with friends. But first, we celebrated our 26th anniversary on Wednesday. I’ve been keen to try Gimlet since we got out of lockdown, but scoring a table is hard. I booked for Wednesday in mid-January, and we had a choice of 5:45 pm or 8:15 pm… I chose 5:45 pm. We decided to catch the train, which saved driving and parking stress. We arrived 15 minutes early, but our table was ready, so we settled into the dark leather banquette seating at our corner table. I chose the restaurant’s namesake cocktail, a Gimlet, to begin…
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Victorian National Parks
At the start of the year, I made a goal to visit all 45 of Victoria’s National Parks, plus the Castlemaine National Heritage Park. I have already seen some of them in the past, but I’m keen to go back and see those again. I ticked off the Mornington Peninsula National Park while doing the Two Bays Trail Run, but I’ll go back to enjoy it more leisurely at some stage. Today we head off to Wilson’s Promontory National Park for three nights. We’re going with friends and plan to do multiple half-day walks, and for Hubby and I, maybe some trail running. This will be my master list. I’ll…
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Tenderheart Cook #7 and #8
Cooking my way through the Tenderheart Cookbook. Kale, ginger and green onion noodles I picked this because these were the veggies I had floating around in my fridge at the end of the week. The Quick Lowdown: Tomato and Coconut-braised Cabbage and Lentils I had some cabbage and needed to use it. The Quick Lowdown:
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Friday Thoughts #9
We had a long weekend last week and escaped the city to my parent’s place at Point Lonsdale. Most of the extended family crew were going down at some stage over the weekend. I had plans … for some runs, photography, and celebrating my niece’s third birthday. Unfortunately, I began to feel unwell at about 8 pm on Friday. I’d had my Shingles and COVID vaccines earlier in the day, and they laid me low with what was undoubtedly the worst reaction I’d had to a vaccine. I spent most of Saturday morning in bed, then lazed around. I decided I needed to go for a walk on Saturday afternoon,…
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Settling Well
A few years ago, I finally completed my M. Div. It’s 18 units, and I did one each semester, so nine years of studying, which I loved. My degree culminated in a year-long thesis on Revelation and how it might shape our response to the massive ecological damage humans inflict on the planet. Suppose you have heard anything about the book of Revelation. In that case, you probably know it goes to some pretty weird places, and it felt particularly appropriate (worrying?) to be spending so much time there once the pandemic hit nine months into my thesis. It was a year of sitting with Revelation, reading the text, looking…
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My Butterfly Dilemma
When I was thinking about what I wanted from our garden before we moved in, one thing that I listed was to include plantings that would support or enhance the biodiversity in our area … well, the critters have moved in. I’m pretty sure these are the caterpillars of the Dainty Swallowtail Butterfly. They are certainly having a good feed on our mandarin tree. Happily, they are primarily confined to this one set of new leaves, and this particular tree has what I hope are enough other healthy leaves to compensate. For now, I’ve decided to let the caterpillars feed and keep an eye on things. This one is on…