Shopping excitement at Manuka

How thrilling!! We purchased a travel guide in preparation for our next holiday, and made a discovery that Fruitacious at Manuka sells Willie's chocolate. We love Willie. Willie is the star of a great doco series - Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory - documenting him following his dream of making and selling chocolate. We started watching when we were starting to shake up our lives and planning to escape Brisbane, so we could really relate. Ever since seeing that series I've wanted to try Willie's. 

snow...no

As yet we can't see any snow on the hills, although Selwyns and beyond have been getting good falls.  We set off mid morning in search of snow - but without wanting to drive too far. A short drive into the hills didn't yield any flakes, but it was lovely countryside. 

Beware the giant wombats of Brindabella

views from Mt Franklin road - currently closed to traffic 

Bendora Dam 

A remnant from the 2003 bushfires

Tuesday night's pastie

Ten out of ten on the food-o-meter.

... two croquettes, a plain cheeseburger, three slices of cucumber and a lollipop.

I don't read a lot of blogs - I'm a luddite that still likes to read books - and so usually once I hear about something fun in blog land it's already in the news and everyone else has heard about it too.  


But I love the story about the 9 year old food critic and her blog with pics of school lunches, so just in case you missed it - check out the SMH story here and the blog here. The council got upset and banned her from taking her camera to lunch - until they realised that actually that was going to create a lot of bad publicity. 

mirror mirror on the wall

I love going away, not only to enjoy new experiences but also for the enjoyment of discovering bad holiday house art. At St Georges Basin, the place we stayed had some brilliant examples of a sub-genre of bhha - the novelty mirror.  

Horse harness

Shell encrusted - take one

Ye olde dunny seat

Shell encrusted - take 2

Shell encrusted - detail

off to the lake

The long weekend - a week ago now - was a good excuse for another trip to the coast. This time M found a good spot on the shores of St Georges Basin. Jervis Bay is such a beautiful and diverse area. There are great beaches and the lake was pretty cool too. 

St Georges Basin by day

St Georges Basin by night 

Dolphins off Plantation Point

Oyster catcher

We had a long bike ride, but didn't enjoy any water sports - there was too much water coming from the sky on Sunday and Monday. 

We also took a trip to Nowra to check out the HopDog Beerworks. The brewery is tucked behind shops in an industrial estate - not very appealing on the outside, but lovely beer and beermakers within. We received a very warm welcome and a taste and description of each of the beers.  

HopDog Beerworks

Rather progressively, you can also buy beer by the 'growler' - which they will then refill for half the price. Way to go for the environment!

On the way back we had a tasty lunch in Bungendore at Thymes Thirty Three (behind the Bendigo Bank, if you're looking for it), thanks to a kind recommendation from The Royal Hotel. 

the rose garden in winter

It really feels like winter now. But I'm amazed that there are still decent roses in the Old Parliament House rose garden. How are they surviving the chill? 

a luddite speaks

Just because I write a blog, doesn't mean I'm not a luddite. But even though I am, I think everyone should check out this idea - assorted cleverclogs IT people getting together to make something interesting out of government data - an event called govhack. 


My personal fav was what team double rainbows did with the National Archives photo data - http://photosearch.us.to/?

Putting in a search word brings up a wall of photos, rather than just one shot at a time. 

squelch

Yesterday it was a wet, cold, stay-at-home-and-hibernate kind of day. Which basically we did. Rain had been forecast for Sunday, but by midday there was blue sky, so we decided to go for a walk. 


We ended up calling into the Botanic Gardens and walking around for about an hour - there's still plenty of colour, even though it's now winter. 

banksia 

Ummm, I forget

grevillea

telopea

hakea

We also did some bike accessories shopping and I now have an underseat pannier so I don't have to use a backpack to lug all my gear to work. Hopefully I'll get to try it out this week.