Home to cats

The best thing about coming home is to see these little furry faces. I miss them. They just want to be fed and indulged (luckily, I can do that).

It has been pointed out to me (by Him Outdoors, of course), that if I continue for another 7.2km at the end of The Bloody Long Walk, I will have walked a marathon. I'm not sure whether I will be up to that, but I practiced at the end of my Sunday walk with the Walking Crew by continuing on through the rain showers for the requisite number of kilometres, through Kingston and along the Dairy Flat Road, and guess where I finished up? 

Kingston Foreshore

Allotments

It's not about the race...

...but the reward

Burgers, chips and beer at Capital Brewing Company

In preparation for the newest James Bond film, which I am seeing next week, I am watching all of the Daniel Craig Bonds in order (with appropriate accompaniment, of course). It's hard to believe that Casino Royale came out fifteen years ago!

Out of Place

Out walking, I became fascinated by the patterns on the trunk of this tree. I feel they should form the basis of some artistic endeavour.

I admit, I did find these images amusing, but in my defence, it was my brother who sent them to me, and he lives in Scotland - so please direct all your complaints thataway.

Sometimes, when you've not planned a meal in advance, you just have to take a chance on what you find in the pantry. 

They may not be the most helpful when it comes to culinary activities, but when I'm curled up with a winter beverage and trying to finish the book club book for the end of the month, the cats are great company.

And they are firm believers in the idiom, 'Neither use nor ornament'. I'm guessing the latter...

Park run and ride

At the beginning of the year, we start as we mean to go on.

Run around Lake Ginninderra

Book and booze combo - All in the Timing by David Ives paired with Moon Dog's Bad Boy Bubbly

Start of the Park Run

After a bike ride at Capital Brewing

Filtered through Prisma

The Poggle & Bucket

My friend and I dream of having our own pub. This location varies (generally speaking it's wherever we are), but the name remains the same - it will be called The Poggle & Bucket (derived from our childhood nicknames) and its mascot will be a puggle (a baby echidna). After seeing these fabulous images from the book by Renee Treml, I think we may also need a wombat mascot.

Our latest place in which we are living is a short walk through the golf course to the club house. At said watering hole, they serve BentSpoke and Capital beer. We could be happy here. 

After having recently seen The Happy Prince (film) and The Judas Kiss (play), I have dug out my copy of Oscar Wilde's fairy-tales, given to me by my parents many years ago. I had forgotten how achingly sad and disturbingly cynical they are (the stories; my parents are delightfully pleasant people).

And I found this four-leaf clover pressed between the pages. Of all the books I could have chosen to preserve it in, I am pleased that my young self had enough dramatic flair to choose this one. 

A fire is burning out of control at Stromlo. The sky is full of smoke - it smells and, combined with an approaching storm, produces mammtus clouds, which are formed due to a rapid change in temperature change in the air. The clouds, hanging above the Canberra buildings, give a foreboding sense of doom.

DIY Weekend

There's a thing doing the rounds on Facebook at the moment, where each day for ten days you post a picture of the cover of one of your favourite albums ('Albums that really made an impact and are still on your playlists, even if only now and then. Post the cover, no need to explain') and nominate someone else to do the same. I was nominated, but rather than do ten different posts, I just did one of all ten and didn't nominate anyone else. If you would like to play along, feel free to post in the comments.

On Saturday it was International Homebrew Day and the good folk at Capital Brewery were celebrating, hosting the Canberra Brewers to show the public how it's done. There were two recipes to choose from (a honey lager and an Irish stout) and they were brewed on different set-ups in the beer garden. I have had a stinking cold all week, but it was sunny down there so I went along for a couple of hours to catch up with some friends and to soak up some Vitamin D. Also, hops are medicinal, right?

Canberra Brewers Past and Present (if not necessarily correct)

As their beer obviously won't be ready for some time, I had a pint of one that had been prepared earlier. The Royal Brew NEIPA is the one made with Royal Blood for Groovin the Moo and drunk from a shoe by Mike Kerr, as in my previous post. There is lots of juicy orange hop flavours and very little bitterness in this concoction of hazy goodness - surely plenty of Vitamin C as well as D? 

Royal Brew by Capital Brewing Co

I do like the idea of using the empty cans as planters (particularly for herbs), even if some of them are more successful than others, and some look a lot like Beaker from The Muppets.

For our Sunday Night Film we had the Lovely Bonkers round to watch The Greatest Showman, and I photographed the various viewers' reactions: as expected Him Outdoors was less than impressed, and Chester has begun doing facial feline reviews. I think he thought there was far too much caterwauling.

Calamity Sue (she has bubbles so all is well)

Deep concentration from General Philosopher

'Nuff said