When I was little I used to love spiders - yes, love. I remember being so excited going to the local wildlife park as you got to hold a tarantula. Here in Australia, my love for the eight-legged creatures has turned into one of fear; not quite sure which are harmless, and which can give you a nasty bite. I don't know whether it's spider season, but there seems to be quite a few just hanging around...
Sunday mornings in our household mostly go like this: 6.10am: Alarm goes off T wide awake, by the prospect of surf; me, not so much awake. 6.15am: Kettle on, as is the scramble to get surf gear/water/picnic etc. 6.30am: Out of the house. Arrive at Freshwater beach. T surfs for around 90 minutes. I walk - usually to Manly and then make it up as I go along depending on how busy it is at the front in Manly, or wether I feel like walking up steep hills, or not. But this Sunday was different.
We awoke at 6am, for a start - yes, that whole 10 minutes earlier does make a difference! It was the same routine after that, although we were slightly slower getting out of bed as it was dark when the alarm went off, and somehow the sun streaming in through the blinds makes for a jumping out of bed, whatever the time, whereas darkness does not. We were out of the house by 6.20am, and heading slightly further away (only another 10 minutes) to Dee Why beach. (The guys T usually surfs with had suggested to go there for a change instead of Freshwater aka, 'Freshie'). The ants have gone! What a great thing it is to be able to open cupboards and for there to be nothing moving about inside... Where has this week gone?! I am giving up on the tomato plants. They are struggling along, looking as if they are pretty dead, just when we have given up on them a tomato appears, so we let them hang on a little longer. But all the fruit we have picked off the plants has been mush so enough is enough. I seem to be able to grow herbs, so will use the container for some more herbs - you can never have enough herbs, right? I remembered to do this little bit of gardening before varnishing the table this time.
We have spent so much time walking on the beautiful north shore, it was time time to explore the south shore.
We caught the ferry to Cirqular Quay, and then from there, another ferry out to Watsons Bay. There was slight confusion with the ferry times, and we thought we were going to begin at Watsons Bay and then get a bus back from Rose Bay, but to our surprise when we got on the ferry we found it was indeed stopping at Rose Bay. We walked down to Darling Harbour - city-side of the bridge - and back on Saturday. It was 24 km in total: about 20 km longer than my legs really wanted to walk. Along the way we uncovered some hidden gems to be explored in greater detail another day.
I have only just discovered the wonders of black rice. Dark and nutty, chewy, delicious hot or cold, so far in our short relationship I have tended to use it in a rice salad, as in this recipe.
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December 2015
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