Friday, August 12, 2011
Sunday, August 07, 2011
Saturday, August 06, 2011
Sunset through lace
See more at RedBubble.
At sunset the other night, I decided to take photos through some of the clothes hanging on the clothesline. This was through a lace top. It turned out in an interesting kind of way (or I thought it did at least), and I like how golden it is.
Coal loader
Last Sunday, we went to Catherine Hill Bay.
It's changed a lot since we were there last at Easter. The wild weather in recent weeks has eaten away a lot of the sand and the rocks are exposed again near the coal loader. I don't think I'd ever seen them so exposed, and it was really interesting to explore them, find little caves, see what was living in the rockpools, etc. There were also a lot of chains and posts and other things that had been revealed, too.
But it was still really pretty.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
The growing carnivorous plant family
Went to the nursery that sells some carnivorous plants today. Because visiting there a couple weeks ago just wasn't enough, obviously. Ended up buying more nepenthes and some other things, including one of the red venus fly traps I'd admired last time I went there. The two nepenthes I bought are nepenthes ventricosa x carunculata var Robusta, and nepenthes "lantern." The "lantern" thing I think is the name for nepenthes Rebecca Soper, but I'm not totally sure. Whatever it is, the colour is great.
Also bought a drosera adelae, which I think I'll have to re-think the potting options of, if the leaves do grow up to a foot long. It's not as attractive as other droseras, but it is interesting. There were also a couple of sarracenias that I picked up.
It's fun to have a place that stocks these kinds of plants in the local(ish) area. The lady at the counter was saying that local public schools buy a lot of the stock because kids find it a fun and interesting educational tool. Which is pretty awesome, when you think about it.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Thursday, July 07, 2011
No, the gateau is for misplacing his helmet last week...
I'm not very good at farewells.
I tend to get all awkward and be like, "Well, see ya!" *scuffs floor with shoe while trying to not say twee farewell-type things or get all emotional*
So I often bake things instead. Baking being the international language of hello/happy birthday/farewell/I'm sorry/love you/pretty much anything else you can think of having an international language for that revolves around baked goods. Last night, I made a Black Forest Cake and chocolate trees to accompany it to farewell one of my bosses (who was also my favourite boss, but shhhh, don't tell anyone!). She's moving on to another job, and some of the other people in the office and I had been talking about what we could do as a farewell.
Going out to lunch was one thing.
Cake also seemed like a good plan.
Cake is almost always a good plan. Unless it leads to peasants deciding to cut your head off when you say things like, "Let them eat cake." But thankfully, that sort of thing is rare in Australia.
After making dinner last night, I set about baking the cake. Nothing too strenuous, just chocolate cake. Mix, bake, cool, cut, fill with cherries and jam, ice and apply trees. The trees are deceptively simple to make. Just melt the chocolate and then drizzle the chocolate around until it looks tree-shaped. It was a crazy amount of fun, and I love how each one is really, really different. And you get chocolate all over the place, but that's fun too.
Took the cake to work without the trees applied to it this morning (and only approached one corner like a rally driver until I remembered, "ICED CAKE IN A COOL BAG ON THE BACK SEAT! ARRRGHHH!" and drove really sedately after that). After lunch, T and I sorted out the cake and took it into the office of the boss who's leaving.
It was pretty well received. But cake usually is! :D
Still doesn't make farewells any easier though. I know she'll still be working in the area and we can catch up, but I will miss her being at work. She was loads of fun to work with, and I learnt a huge amount from her.
Sunday, July 03, 2011
Nepenthes addiction
So I have this thing for nepenthes.
Well, carnivorous plants in general.
I'm willing to admit it - there is a bit of an addiction there. But I thought I had it under control (there's a 12 step program for nepenthes dependency, right? Right??). It was working well until today - I only had one greenhouse for them, there were two plants, they were happy, I was happy.
And then this afternoon, when I was heading out to do some shopping for things I forgot to get on Friday, I thought, "Hey, while I'm heading out, and since it's such a nice day, why not go to that nursery and see if they have any more pitcher plants? They probably won't, but it'll be fun to check it out."
Drove down there, went in not expecting there to be anything much, maybe just some alatas/ventratas. Same old same old.
Oh...
They had a lot of different nepenthes! Nepenthes heaven! <3 They were all hybrids, but I couldn't care less. They were interesting and cute and I... Well... I bought some. And a sarracenia. And a sarracenia purpurea. You know, as you do whenever you go to a nursery and leave with a load of carnivorous plants and nothing else. The venus fly traps also looked tempting - they were different to the ones usually available in nurseries, but I figured I'd show some restraint. There's always next time!
Anyway, when I got home, I spent about an hour repotting them, talking encouragingly to the little plant that doesn't look all that well (I actually bought it because it looked so sad...) and putting them in the greenhouses. Hopefully they'll do well. The two larger plants should be fine, although I am planning to buy some bigger pots for them soon and repot them - I think they're in a mix of coir and soil and peat moss. I think I'll probably keep a bit of that, but mostly use sphagnum moss in repotting. The baby nepenthes are all in larger pots with sphagnum moss now too. Just not sure how the baby nepenthes tobaica x ampullaria will do.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
My favourite shoes
Since starting a new job this year, I've been looking out for more work-ified clothes that are comfortable, look good and aren't too crazy-expensive. Yes, I hang my head in shame to admit that I'd been mostly happy with workwear from ye olde chain stores in basically every shopping centre, with the occasional Jacqui E piece thrown into the mix. But I guess I got to a stage where I realised that things should be more Jacqui E, less Target all the time for work.
While looking around in David Jones one day, I found Sportscraft items. Even though the brand has been around since 1914 (first called Sportsleigh apparently), I had no idea they existed. Blissful ignorance for my bank balance. Anyway, I didn't like all of their stuff - most of it is probably more for people in their 30s/40s - but there have been a load of pieces that have stood out.
And then there are these shoes... Mmm. Leopard-print. Furry. Leather on the inside. Soft. So comfortable that I walked around a whole lot of Sydney in them the other weekend and didn't have sore feet at all, even though they're actually ballet flats. When I got home, I ordered another pair. See, that's the problem with sales. They're tempting! They enable things like that! Two pairs of leopard-print shoes!
I love them ^_^
More Morticia
This morning, I bought a larger pot and some sphagnum moss to repot the larger of the two nepenthes I own (not the one pictured above). That's all done now, and hopefully it'll settle in and not be too traumatised by the experience. I think the larger plant might be a nepenthes ventrata, even though the label from the nursery said it was an alata. It now has a name - Gomez II. The first Gomez was a sarracenia hybrid, and he didn't like winter last year.
Still haven't worked out what nepenthes Morticia might be, though. When I bought her, she was just a small plant with no pitchers in a tube stock kind of pot. Ignoring all advice about nepenthes, I planted her in orchid potting mix. She grew huge, green, glossy leaves but didn't really produce any pitchers (apart from some tiny ones that died). Since putting her into sphagnum moss and moving her into the greenhouse, her leaves have turned sort of reddish/speckled like the pitchers. Seeing as she continues to grow and pitchers are forming on each new leaf, I'd say she's happy enough.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Morticia the pitcher plant
I have a thing for nepenthes/sarracenias/pitcher plants and droseras. Or carnivorous plants in general, actually. For some reason, I keep managing to kill my forked droseras, which is unfortunate because they're so pretty. I've not had much luck with venus fly traps either. But the other droseras I have are doing well at the moment. The pitcher plants are also doing really well, even though it's winter. They're putting on lots of new growth and seem pretty happy in their greenhouse. A few months ago, I bought a larger pitcher plant and it's had some other, different pitchers grow up inside of the pot it came in. These have what can be best described as hairy lids. No idea what they are, but they're cute.
I'm not entirely sure how to coax the rest of the pitcher plants to grow more jumbo pitchers, but the size they're currently producing is pretty decent. And the ants go nuts for them, so that keeps them fed. There are also these worm/maggot sort of things in the compost bin that seem to make the plants happy about when they're fed them. A bit gross to catch, but still... It's worth it!
Friday, June 10, 2011
Sydney city lights (and some thoughts on Baal)
So...
Last Friday night, we went to see the Sydney Theatre Company's production of Bertolt Brecht's Baal at Wharf 1 (first pic). It was awfully good. I loved the minimalism, the way the wall came down, the rain, the intensity with which the actors played their parts. It was kept to a tidy one hour and 10 minutes, although that was too long apparently for the people behind us - they walked out part-way through after the guy kept getting elbowed by his wife for gasping such things as, "Oh my!" and, "Oh dear!" Which was rather amusing in itself.
It was interesting to see the play placed in a new context outside of the Weimar Republic or Hanns Johst's Der Einsame. Baal certainly is an anti-hero, and rejects what society has to offer him - particularly bourgeois society, with all of its conventions, mores and belief systems. But it's still rooted in Sturm und Drang - celebrating the "genius" who lives outside of the conventions set by society, only to be destroyed by this.
And yet... With the STC's production of Baal with it's bogan aesthetic (hoodies, bourbon and coke, etc), I couldn't help but think of some of the deeply antisocial bogans out there who aren't Baalian geniuses, but who still drink too much, punch on, try it on with any female they meet, etc. It amused me somewhat from that perspective. Still, what's to say that their brand of "genius" might not appeal to the bourgeois set who want to transform it, commodify it, constrain it to their own way of thinking and behaving? What might be a refreshing perspective for some in the art world is dull and stultifying to others who experience it on a daily basis. Who wants to constantly deal with someone who may be hailed as a genius, but acts like a three year old?
Anyway, there are some sort of consequences for Baal, even though he's allowed to indulge himself totally. People wonder how this can happen, but honestly, we see these sort of things happening every day in the real world. People often excuse a lot of bad behaviour if someone has a certain talent or skill they appreciate (like being good at football...). Baal leeches off of everyone else, and then finally runs out of sympathy, excuses and connections to die alone in a forest hut.
Ultimately, I thought it was a good production. I know there are others who disagree, but everyone has different perspectives on everything! And after such bleakness, it was refreshing to wander around the harbour area in Sydney, looking at all of the beautiful light displays, etc. Much as I don't have a load of love for Sydney, it is beautiful at night in the harbour area.
Food, drinks, things
There will never be anything as amazing as one of the Lindt Cafe's Excellence 70% Cocoa Chocolate macarons from their Delice Collection. It was like tasting the face of God, if there is a taste to something like that. So incredibly delicious. The passionfruit and pistachio ones were tasty, too, but not quite as amazing. And there are plenty more to try... So I might have to go back to Sydney sometime again and explore this.
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