Summer Rain and the Fringe

Classic Australia Landscape

I woke to an unusual sound of rain, not the typical opossum or seed pods plunking on the tin roof. It misted and soaked the plants but without leaving puddles. During recess an unknown 10 year old, or so, tapped me on the shoulder and pointed all around whispering, "foggy, very foggy!" I believe it was his new word of the morning and he certainly enjoyed sharing it with me. Then during line-up time the children pointed out the rainbow lorikeets not feeding on nectar like usual but trying to stay dry. Like stopping everything for the first flakes of snow at home we gathered under the tree and felt mystified by the noisy parrots.

During my evening walk, the fog had settled just above the trees and skimmed the Worrabinda pond. It captured the essence of smells. The air was like opening unlabeled aromatherapy bottles to strange unfamiliar scents.

The rain did not last for long, (but just read my friend Debbie's blog from Sydney and they are having the wettest summer in 25 years) and on Saturday Kate, Del and I traveled the coast to Goolwa for the wooden boat festival. I thought of you, Andy and Lynn and your canoe building. There was a great variety of boats- from kayaks to paddle steamers.

 

Warrawong has been a sanctuary in the hills close to my home with SA wildlife including woliyes, bandicoots, and perhaps the only wild platypus in the state. It closed down days ago and went back to the Aboriginal Ngarrindjeri. The sanctuary had succeeded in boosting some endangered species and actually saved some animals from extinction. The area didn't meet fire standards, nor did they have the money to do so. I went on the very last tour, and our guide had a good sob following our nocturnal/ close-to full moon walk.

There is a platypus there somewhere

 The information the young biologist shared was great. I have a ton of new knowledge about animal adaptations. Koalas have a dip in the back of the head so that when they sleep in the tree, their heads are cradled in a branch to prevent them from falling. A potaroo, a rodent looking marsupial, has its pouch on its back so that when it is digging the pouch does not get full of dirt. Some ants separate light from dark grains of soil depending on the season. They make a mound of white sand above the tunnels to keep cool, and in the winter or when hatching eggs and want to keep them warm they pile the darker grains. The platypus and a few other Monotremes, and dolphins of course, are the only mammals known to have a sense of electroreception. They locate prey in part by detecting electric fields generated by muscular contractions. They can't see in their waters which are filled with tannins to create excellent camouflage.

On the weekend, a group from Seaford High School and some of us exchange teachers took a trip cycling around McLaren Vale. It was all about stopping to taste wines at celler doors, cycling a bit, stopping to taste varieties of almonds on the Almond Train where I learned all about Dukkah originally from the Mid East and made with hazelnuts. Someone in the valley discovered that Dukkah was tasty using local almonds, and it has since become a staple for dipping. Saturating a local bread in a local extra virgin olive oil needing to be pressed within 48 hours of picking, then breading in the Dukkah is wonderful. I purchased the traditional Dukkah with almonds, Sesame Seeds, Herbs and Coconut. 

Then we cycled a bit more, but of course stopped by another winery for more tasting. Then there was the local lolly shop where you could purchase any lolly and the candy makers would run the candy through the conveyer to cover your choice in their homemade chocolate. I have become rather selective with my lollies, my favorite being honeycomb covered in chocolate. Actually it is my second favorite next to Sees' Candy. Thank you mom for sending me a box around Valentine's Day.

 Then we cycled a bit more in time to stop by for more wine tasting and to have a local platter for three.

I started with the fig and walnut patty. Later we picked figs.

After trying every type of olive possible, we cycled a bit more than had to stop for coffee. I don't intend on calculating the input and output of calories. I already know the answer. But, I loved going out cycling and really want to get my hands on a bike for the year! The cycle tracks all over the area are the best that I have ever seen in any area- perhaps there are more than in Holland. Is that possible?

On the way home we stopped at the mouth of the Onkaparinga River National Park area (above): 

And when I get tired of driving the highway home, I go through the Belair National Forest
through the windy hills

And here I sit just before dark at the Organic Cafe since my dongle seems to have quit again. I am getting eaten by the mossies, but don't want to winge, so I had better head home before I am too tired tomorrow for work and feel gob-smacked.

Glossary:

dongle: USB
Mossies: Mosquitoes
Winge: whine 
gob-smacked: overwhelmed
dobbing: tattling

cocky: cowlick

rashee: swim shirt
making: doing crafts

Happy Spring, almost. Here Autumn officially started on the 1st of March. 

 Up next: Kangaroo Island and the  Fringe, Adelaide Festival, Barrio, Pop Ups

Long walks viewing Store fronts, house fronts, cityscapes

There are so many amazing events
and already such full days!

I joined Helen, drama and media teacher, Christine, art teacher and
Ginny, my supervisor at the museum- AMAZING teachers. . .
and new friends

Turner from the Tate is in town, and a special night for teachers with the curator touring, was a treasured beginning to the week. His paintings are all about light- the most dramatic light imagined and in his late life masterpieces became frowned upon the more dramatic they became.  His scenes had a great clarity and lightness, rather like Australia in general.

The need for sunnies is real. No wonder it is the welcome gift to many newly arrived to the country. A Colorado sunset can be like Gardner- you blink and miss it, but here they seem to linger for hours, as if the shutter on the camera is stuck. Back to Turner- great exhibit and tons of Culture fills this city. Those who imagine AU to be a cultural backwash, think again.

Heather and I have begun a weekly ocean swim evening, Thursdays for now.  Heather doesn't much fancy the thought of sharks, but helicopters patrol and boaters tend to steer them back out to deep waters. While swimming on Thursday, a helicopter circled and hovered. Kate was pretty sure that there must have been a shark siting. Bob, Kate's dog, and Kate also joined us. Bob got a good swim in, but I am not sure that he is truly keen. Kate and I will again take Bob swimming tomorrow when we stop to boogie board on some beach in route to the Wooden Ship festival near Victor Harbor. We don't want Kate to hear it, but sharks prefer dogs over humans.

Here is my highly organized class (not) waiting for the bus after swimming.

My class is a little UN: These four, really keep me on my toes,
are from Portugal, Mexico, Thailand and the Philippines.

While rambling about swimming stories this was "Swim Week." During this month all students in Australian public schools take a week's worth of lessons. The busses run from school to swimming park about five times a day taking several classes at a time. Getting bags packed, applying sunscreen, counting children and recounting children, gathering lost goggles, snacks, and undies is all part of the action. My career of teaching remains unblemished- I have yet to lose a child.

It was amazing how the kids progressed throughout the week in skill levels. On Monday one little guy  stood on the second step shivering with blue lips was playing a game of splash and even smiling by Friday. The more advanced students were swimming laps and diving for toy fish and shells in a "corral reef" creatively made by the instructors.

City center and Victoria Square

 I have been doing some city walking. The Central market is opened late on Fridays. I leisurely walk around the city after food shopping. Photos of these long AU twilight nights give the city such a wholesome feel.

It is nice to see the whole sky. In the hills you look up
usually to a canopy of trees

iron aprons on  hotel pubs and
historic homes

The free tram takes you to Glenelg Beach

Hahndorf was settled by Prussian refugees in the 1830's. Next time I go I want to stop at the strawberry farm and the former home of artist Hans Heysen, a well respected Australian landscape artist. After a lazy day, I walked around Hahndorf, one of the hill villages and the oldest German settlement in Australia. Ironically, it was filled with Chinese and Indian eateries. Must give them credit for having the best claimed bakery and beer gardens.

The hill area in which I live is an interesting mix of bushland and European-style farmlands. The area is pretty known for the gourmet inclinations. The cellar doors are wineries that have tastings. I think that just in the Adelaide Hills you could go to one daily and not complete your visits in a year. Close by there are cheese centers, chocolate factories and flour mills featuring mouth watering baked goods.

February is known to be the hottest month of the year, but I am tolerating it pretty well. Perhaps better than the koalas:

Top of Mabel Street

And although it is in the high 30c and low 40c there are already signs of fall.  

At the round-about a block or two from the school 2 meter letters read "Forest of the Dreams".
I'll have to find out why. 

Sweet dreams- Hope that everyone at home is staying warm. 

Next week I hope to have some little penguin and wooden ship photos from Victor Harbor- Stay tuned. 

Ninna Marni "Hello, how are you?" Kaurma language

Fire Lighting Paitya (Brown Snake)

Generous Kate, my team teaching partner, put together the school assembly combining our classes because she knows that it is best to produce at the onset of the year. It was a silly script based on organization, or the lack of it. My lively student, Syreet, played the part of the child who always bounced on the schoolbus seat, forgot her playground hat (oh, a serious matter here in AU) and ran in the wrong direction when supposed to be the tail of the New Year Dragon! She and the other kids were great fun, and it was excellent pantomiming. Syreet accepted the part with gusto, but she make sure everyone understood that she was just acting!

At the beginning of the school assemblies the children and staff acknowledge the Kaurma people: 

Ninna Marni 

(A Kaurna word for “Hello, how are you?”) 

. 

“We would like to acknowledge this land that we meet on today is the 

traditional lands for the Kaurna people and that we respect their spiritual 

relationship with their country.  We also acknowledge the Kaurna people 

as the custodians of the Adelaide region and that their cultural and 

heritage beliefs are still as important to the living Kaurna people today.” 

I have since learned that It is recommended that the Statement of Acknowledgement be read out at the 

commencement of gatherings held within the Adelaide area. I have begun learning it this week when it was recited four times not counting the times it was practiced by the children. It was said at the onset of the fifth year anniversary of the Apology to the Stolen Generations with Kevin Rudd in attendance, at the Spirit Festival, at the onset of the Fringe Parade, and at school. During the anniversary Kaurna people told their family stories, and there were not many dry eyes in the crowd of 600.  It was a bit like when Patricia Polacco speaks at CCIRA. 

one of the many fringe lightshows

The Fringe Festival has begun- It is a month long parklands gala including Cabaret, Circus, Comedy, Dance, Film, Music, Theatre, and Physical Theatre- also know as the reckless pursuit of entertainment. I think it lands somewhere between the Mardi Gras, Burning Man, and Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens. The grounds where the venues take place is called The Garden of Unearthly Delights.

Before the Garden of Un. . .  many exchange teachers met at the Spirit Festival where the Indigenous
 Peoples of the area gathered to Share "Welcome to Country" providing insight into the living local culture of the first nations peoples of the Adelaide plains. Joining the Kaurna people were Narungga, Ngarrindjeri, Ngadjuri, and Wirangu. They all have family ties to the Kaurna. The dances were not too different from the Pueblo Animal and Earthly elemental powwows of the four corners. They brought fire, symbolized the animals of the desert and seemed to have initiated young children. It was a fortunate event to witness. The crowd was friendly and the children happy, even though it was late.

After the dancers finished crowds of kids took to the sand pile when the dances concluded;

People waited and shouted for Jessica Mauboy from the KuKu Yalanji people. She became a huge success as a musician and actress when her journey began with Australian Idol. She is a key role model and is the star in the Movie The Sapphires. I hope that everyone gets a chance to see the newish movie.  www.youtube.com/user/JessicaMauboy