Stay or Go?

Winter is coming, so, as you see, Chester is all curled up in his box, preparing himself for the cold.

We've got some bottles of Cantillon in the shop. This is rare and wonderful, so I have bought a set to enjoy at my leisure...

I know a lady who decorates cakes for a living and teaches others how to do likewise. This is a prototype of one she made earlier.

We're heading off to Melbourne for Good Beer Week, so we made it halfway (to Beechworth) and went to Bridge Road, to start as we intend to continue.

We stayed at the George Kerferd Hotel. This beautiful building used to be an asylum until 1995. It is surrounded by trees and with acres of land for the inmates to cultivate their own vegetables and produce, with the idea that the institution would be self-sufficient. 

The information booklet explains that "restraint practices - applied either through the wearing of straight jackets or placement into isolation cages - were the main form of rehabilitation provided". Two signatures were required to commit a person, but eight to release them, so most people who went in never came out. Despite the extremely large and comfy king-sized bed, I felt a little anxious, but relieved when we hit the road again the next morning.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, anyone?

Laughing Kookaburra

Someone can fly away... 

Burnley are Back!

Burnley are back! Top of the Championship and promoted to the Premier League. Him Outdoors is naturally extremely happy and celebrated with a glass (or two) of bubbles - classy!

Award-winning beer

I have been cleared to jog for short intervals, so I ran around the park, happy to be able to do so without pain.

Kippax District Playing Fields

 

 

After the evening's BJCP session, I came home to enjoy a couple of fantastic Russian Imperial Stouts with Him Outdoors from Moo Brew, Sierra Nevada and (of course) Boris from Feral.

 

Him Outdoors won a gold medal for his English Bitter and a silver for his English Mild in the Canberra Brewers' Homebrew Competition. We toasted his success with his own beer, obviously. 

Hearty congratulations!

Spectacularly busy social life

Still not yet permitted to run due to probable torn meniscus, but I can still ride, and so I do.

Black Mountain

Aranda Bushland

 

Graffito at Aranda Playing Fields

Meeting friends for lunch is still one of life's great pleasures - especially when it's Calamity Sue at Rocksalt with bacon chocolate stout cheesecake (topped with candied bacon caramel) on the menu.

Calamity Sue poised to attack dessert

The emergence of a new brewery is always exciting news. We went along to the launch of Capital Brewing Company, which is a collaboration between the founders of Batlow Cider Co. and the owners of Honky Tonks and Hippo Co. bars. So far their beers are a version of a California Common (Coast Ale), a Pale Ale (Trail), and a Red IPA (Evil-Eyed Red). They're all pretty good (the Red IPA was my favourite), and they plan to use the locally-grown hops at Batlow, previously famed for its apples, so that's another industry we can all support.

On our long weekend, the boys experimented with brewing in the garage.

Him Outdoors and General Philosopher working hard...

...apparently.

Meanwhile, the girls went to the National Gallery of Australia, where we experienced, art, culture, conversation and lunch - what a great day!

Patience Itself, Design Diva, and Calamity Sue at the NGA

And then we reconvened to enjoy a well-deserved high tea at The Poggle & Bucket.

Bike rides, beer and Chester

Tony Turner (front row; fourth from the right) has been tutoring students in voice workshops for several weeks. For their final exercise, they presented excerpts from T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral on the Canberra REP stage at Theatre 3. The voices blended in perfect harmony when required, with discordance when necessary, and with solo performances for variety and punctuation. The whole class has worked wonders and the results were fantastic.

Another random photo of Chester, because I can never take too many pictures of my cat.

Chester

I am taking the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) - whether or not I eventually become a certified beer judge is questionable at this point, but after all the tastings and tutorials, I should at least know my Celtic reds from my German bocks. We had our first session this week, with style guides and serious work commencing.

And we finish with another bike ride through the hills.

Beer and Sculptures

More bike rides around the place: trees; sky; bike trails; water; urban graffiti - that sort of thing...

I was taking a picture of some artwork, and Chester decided I didn't need any more cats in my life.

Rachel Hirabayashi's Cats

Him Outdoors and I went to a beer and food matching event at The Durham, where there were five courses accompanied by various beers from Woolshed Brewery. The menu was somewhat the worse for wear by then end of the evening.

Mixed breads matched with Utopia hard lemonade

Roasted potato skins, beer-battered onion rings and mushroom arancini matched with Amazon Ale (Australian Pale Ale)

Judas the Dark Ale

Espresso mud cake matched with Cherax Destructor IPA

We went on a breakfast bike ride to Strathnairn, which constitutes a cafe and an arts association. Artists work in the studios in a variety of media (the current artist in residence is ceramics specialist, Sally Spencer), and many of their sculptures dot the gardens.

The daughter of friends had a seventeenth birthday; she was thrilled that she could now be the Dancing Queen - young and sweet; only seventeen. The song was played all night at increasingly short intervals, or that's how it felt. I took a rare selfie in honour of the auspicious occasion.

Dancing Queen and me