Art and sculpture

I quite enjoy these garish sculptures of fat sheep and their rather incompetent-seeming sheepdog in the Dickson shopping precinct.

Another new person started at work today so I am no longer the newest kid on the block. Apparently new staff = cake, which is fine by me. 

Salted caramel popcorn cheesecake

Look what I found on my phone when I was clearing out photos. This bemused Burmese can still make me smile. 

Chester selfie

A trip to the National Library of Australia reminded me how great are these artworks hanging in the foyer. There are three stunning tapestries, made from merino wool, which were conceived to harmonise with Leonard French's stained-glass windows, and designed to be best viewed from the mezzanine level. Mathieu Matégot, Professor of Art at the prestigious École des Beaux Arts in Nancy, France, began working on the tapestries in 1966 and they were installed in 1968.

The first tapestry depicts the radio telescope at Woomera, South Australia, representing the technological times in which the library was built. Woomera was NASA's first deep-space station located outside of the United States, and it participated in a number of early important space missions. 

One of Mathieu Matégot's Three Tapestries

And this T-shirt is finally consigned to the bin after nearly twenty years of service and very happy memories. 

T-shirt cullery

Dealing with Sadness

We miss him more than I can say

The passing of our darling cat has left a big hole in our lives. Some things still make us smile and of course the pain will lessen in time. Here are some positives this week. 

Positive art works

Roseberry Topping by Joe Cornish - this month's image on the calendar from Scarey Sis

Celebrating citizenship with bubbles

Shiny new toy for Him Outdoors

Cheers to Chester

It is with deepest sadness that I have to share the news that this week we were absolutely devastated to say goodbye to our beloved, bonkers Burmese. Two days ago he sat purring on my lap while I watched television.

It all happened so suddenly but we were able to hold him and stroke him as he was put to sleep. He didn't feel any pain and knew he was loved until the very last. There will never be another Chester Le Cat. Farewell my furry friend. 

We toasted his life with the best beer we had in the house. Cheers to Chester: Goodnight sweet prince.

R.I.P. my beautiful boy

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

Easter and Post-Easter break (Part One: Merimbula and Pambula)

Easter Sunday was remarkably misty when I headed to church, and after the service the sun had come out and everything was symbolically bright and full of hope. He is risen; He is risen, indeed. Hallelujah.

Friends came round in the evening for roast lamb and daft games. General Philosopher likes cats, but Calamity Sue doesn't, and General Philosopher likes Calamity Sue more than he likes cats, so he is welcome to come round and cuddle Chester, who tolerates it. 

On another walk to another new place, I marched up Mt Painter for the first time with Him Outdoors. The views from the top are pure bush capital.

To reward ourselves we popped into Bentspoke for a pint of Big Nut, as you do.

Sharing a weekend off is a luxury, especially when it is still warm and sunny outdoors, so we took off to see the sea, and drove to Merimbula for a couple of days. Walking beside the tidal Back Lake in the early morning was a sheer and simple pleasure.

We followed it up with healthy breakfast at The Waterfront Cafe. 

Seahorse Statue by Michael Meszaros

Toasted seed and nut granola muelsi with acai and blueberry sorbet, yoghurt pannacotta, strawberry coulis and banana

Chilli scrambled eggs with pickled Queensland spanner crab, green papaya, sriracha chilli sauce and toasted cashews 

Thus fortified, we set out to walk the 10km along the beach to Pambula. lining the seafront at Merimbula are these fabulous metal sculptures of pelicans made by Richard Moffat from discarded bits of rusting metal and placed atop poles driven into the water's edge. Richard Moffat is the sculptor of Nest III perched on Dairy Farmer's Hill at the National Arboretum, which I have always admired, so I enjoyed encountering some more of his work.

I had forgotten to bring the suncream but it was very overcast and so I (foolishly) didn't bother to buy and apply any. That was a mistake, but the walk along the squeaky sand beach was beautiful and the water lapping over my feet was most invigorating.

Pambula Beach

We turned inland through the coastal forest until we hit Pambula...

Ben Boyd National Park

Eagle sculpture by Richard Moffat

...and Longstocking Nano Brewery.

It really is a small operation, but it does fine ales and oysters. They make 50,000 litres of beer a year and all of it on site. As they were very busy, there were no tasting paddles available, so we got settled in and drank our way through (most of) the range anyway.

Longstocking Fatty Arbuckle and Calypso Orange Weisse

A dozen Broadwater Oysters

Enjoying oysters with Longstocking Pale Ale and Bohemian Lager

Him Outdoors tried the oysters, but he didn't really like them (hurrah; more for me!) and had a cheese platter instead - which I shared, obviously.

The complex, Oaklands Barn, also has a cafe, an art gallery and a couple of other shops such as a gift shop, a pantry and a garden centre. The brewery deck overlooks the barn where there are a couple of animals, who we went to visit.

Him Outdoors can't resist a horse collar

We took the short route home (along the road) but still ended up walking about 26km. We were exhausted when we got back to the motel, so had a quick shower and went out for dinner and drinks - as you do.

Dulcie's Cottage is a beautiful building with a boring beer menu, but they were holding a mini hops festival in the beer garden, so we partook of some beers made with the latest batch of Ryefield Hops from Bemboka. This is a very new outfit and we appear to have stumbled across their first harvest event. Wet hopped beers can only be made at harvest time (February/ March) as the fresh hops should be brewed within 48 hours of picking. Several breweries have made wet hop ales with them, including Bentspoke, Modus and The Club (collaborating with Rogue Wave).