My week in pictures: Reigning Kittens

My kittens mark out poses on the duvet cover, as if they're playing Twister.

Kitten Twister

As I walk down to the local shops, I see the new mural is really taking shape and putting down roots (do you see what I did there?) - the artist, Faith Kerehona, seems to keep popping up into my consciousness.

It feels like it wouldn't be date night without a picture of some food, so here are the cheesy meatballs with liquid cheese from To All My Friends.

It's been kind of stormy weather around here for this past week; the dark clouds were certainly gathering on my morning run up Mt Painter. I arrived home just as the rain began to bucket down, but between the front and back door it began to lash down so hard that I decided not to get the washing off the line.

On Friday night we went around to friends' Gindelle and The Minister for a blind gin tasting. There were seventeen to taste and we took notes and decided which one(s) we liked best. It was a great night of fun, gin, food and laughter. I'm not sure why the first photo of the evening is the most blurred when the bottles weren't even moving. Perhaps it was the excitement of the anticipation.

As you can imagine, the notes got a little more rough and less coherent as the evening wore on, but I did capture my impressions of my favourite two: Sundown Gin featuring Strawberry Gum ('mint aroma - eucalyptus? - slightly sweet fruity flavour, warm smooth finish') and Audemus Pink Pepper Gin ('peppercorns; fennel; cardamom; star anise? Definitely Indian spices but also slightly creamy notes like honey or vanilla').

My runner-up gin of the evening

My favourite

And in a glass, with strawberries

I kicked off the weekend with a yomp round Red Hill Nature Reserve with the walking crew. In a change from our usual routine, we stopped half-way round for breakfast instead of waiting until the end.

Signs at the lookout suggested that the surrounding natural temperate grassland has become one of Australia's most vulnerable ecosystems - I reckon there's plenty to choose from. Apparently these grasslands provide the habitat for several threatened species, including the Grassland Earless Dragon, the Striped Legless Lizard, the Golden Sun Moth and the Perunga Grasshopper.

Now, I don't wish to sound judgmental, but this sounds like a dragon that can't hear, a lizard that can't run (and is possibly pissed), a moth that likes bright lights and a grasshopper that can't fly. It does sound a little like the home for the differently-abled reptiles and insects. I always thought Canberra was a little odd, but I wasn't aware that it was science fiction.

Due to tree growth, it is now quite difficult to see the lay-out of the city below from the lookout. However, another helpful sign provides the following information:

Intended to create healthy modern environments for urban dwellers, British 'Garden City' principles inspired the residential planning of Canberra from the 1920s.
John Sulman, a leading architect and planner of the time, had a major influence in making our capital a garden city. His early suburb designs included Ainslie, Braddon and Kingston. Modest but well-designed single-storey houses were built on large allotments in generous garden settings, with wide verges and large shady street trees. Today, parts of these suburbs are heritage listed.
Homes in early Canberra were prohibited from having front fences, so hedges became the preferred alternative. The 145km of suburban hedges were pruned courtesy of the government until 1954.
Charles Weston, Superintendent of Parks and Gardens from 1913 to 1926, oversaw the planting of two million trees and shrubs throughout Canberra. Influenced by 'Garden City' thinking, Weston created tree-lined streetscapes, which provide the striking seasonal colours we still enjoy today.

The information panels didn't mention anything about these beasties that we encountered towards the end of our walk. My Aussie friends told me that the cluster of caterpillars on a tree trunk were spitfire larvae and that when disturbed they spat out a stinging substance (the larvae; not my friends). I thought they were having a lend <cough> drop bears <cough>, but it turns out to be true! Later research (I looked it up on a computer) revealed that they actually dribble rather than spit (again, the larvae; not my friends) and the substance isn't harmful, which sounds a little less impressive, but it does seem that most Australian flora and fauna is indeed trying to kill us. Maybe the Dr Who tardis isn't so out of place after all...

I arrived home to find that Calamity Sue had been to visit with a present for the kittens that she found in a second-hand shop. I installed it in the house and they soon had great fun climbing up and down it and hiding within.