Weekend around here.
Friday we got off the ferry around 6:00am. Because the ferry only recently began arriving at geelong instead of Melbourne i don't think the Cafe ecosystem has adjusted yet, whereas there's several cafes advertising their open status when you get off the early morning ferry in Tassie there was no such thing in G Town. Fortunately there's a 24 hour diner i know of so we went there (doesn't have the iconic American diner charm though. Is just like a barely passable Australian cafe. I think five years ago they served me nescafe (note to Aussies: this is essentially an insult to Americans) but now they at least have an espresso machine). Then we still had a fair bit of time before the rental car place opened (recall, because my parents rental car wasn't allowed to go to Tassie they returned it, borrowed a friend's car, and now we needed another rental car)
Drove home in two cars. Despite being by now 10am there was very thick fog on the way home and it was quite rather cold. Got home and had lunch and then sky cleared and it became warm and sunny. Welcome to Victoria!
Then i drove to work because el bossman can't go to the bees while I'm not there and i knew he'd be itching to do so. So while many have questioned why I'd return to work for just literally the last three hours of the work week it seemed to me worth doing and i think he appreciated it.
Saturday afternoon was the local beekeeping group meeting. Our format has morphed around a fair bit in the last year or two but our latest thing which i think has been very successful is we meet at a members house on a Saturday afternoon, look at some hives and then have a bbq. I had always intended to avoid the club being a "one expert beekeeper lecturing everyone else" kind of event but both this and the previous meeting, the two that have been this format, was pretty much i get handed a hive tool and everyone watches what i do and i narrate. But whatever they want hey. But next time will be a Sunday specifically so my boss can come and then he can be the one wielding the hive tool.
The bbq portion is at least as much fun. It brings together a group of people with common interests in hobby farming and serious gardening in general and new members and old alike always get along swimmingly. I think my parents enjoyed meeting everyone very much as well.
After that my parents and i went on a nearby rail trail hike and found an enormous sausage sized caterpillar:
I think we've identified it as a helena gum moth caterpillar.
And we saw a wallaby
Sunday (today) we poked around the local market here in my village. Which conveniently takes place about 100 meters from my front door. Mom commented on the number of people selling knit goods. There was a dog jumping competition at noon but it appeared to be starting late and we had to go before it started.
In the afternoon we drove to the town of Camperdown about an hour west of here. A quantify it as "a cute country town" ... a contrast and rebuke to the nearer town of Colac which i think is generally agreed to be a country town that isn't cute. In Camperdoozel my friend, fellow beekeeper (and editor of the Australian Bee Journal) and retired botany professor showed us around the local botanical garden (mom's really into plants) and then we went back to her place for "afternoon tea." Which when she had first proposed it i had had to admit my ignorance of the subtle nuances of Australian tea related phraseology -- "tea" is sometimes a whole meal, what is "afternoon tea?" She had a laugh, admitted it can be confusing, and clarified that it's "literal tea and bikkies." Anyway we ended up chatting for quite awhile. She has a great view from her dining room down into a volcanic crater and there were about 15 kangaroos slowly bouncing around down there.
And now we've come home and mom is making "curry goo" which smells delicious!
Tomorrow i go to work but we're plotting a Thursday to Sunday expedition to the far east end of the state.
Parents leave in nine days (Tuesday the following week, the 21st), my how time flies!
Drove home in two cars. Despite being by now 10am there was very thick fog on the way home and it was quite rather cold. Got home and had lunch and then sky cleared and it became warm and sunny. Welcome to Victoria!
Then i drove to work because el bossman can't go to the bees while I'm not there and i knew he'd be itching to do so. So while many have questioned why I'd return to work for just literally the last three hours of the work week it seemed to me worth doing and i think he appreciated it.
Saturday afternoon was the local beekeeping group meeting. Our format has morphed around a fair bit in the last year or two but our latest thing which i think has been very successful is we meet at a members house on a Saturday afternoon, look at some hives and then have a bbq. I had always intended to avoid the club being a "one expert beekeeper lecturing everyone else" kind of event but both this and the previous meeting, the two that have been this format, was pretty much i get handed a hive tool and everyone watches what i do and i narrate. But whatever they want hey. But next time will be a Sunday specifically so my boss can come and then he can be the one wielding the hive tool.
The bbq portion is at least as much fun. It brings together a group of people with common interests in hobby farming and serious gardening in general and new members and old alike always get along swimmingly. I think my parents enjoyed meeting everyone very much as well.
After that my parents and i went on a nearby rail trail hike and found an enormous sausage sized caterpillar:
I think we've identified it as a helena gum moth caterpillar.
And we saw a wallaby
Sunday (today) we poked around the local market here in my village. Which conveniently takes place about 100 meters from my front door. Mom commented on the number of people selling knit goods. There was a dog jumping competition at noon but it appeared to be starting late and we had to go before it started.
In the afternoon we drove to the town of Camperdown about an hour west of here. A quantify it as "a cute country town" ... a contrast and rebuke to the nearer town of Colac which i think is generally agreed to be a country town that isn't cute. In Camperdoozel my friend, fellow beekeeper (and editor of the Australian Bee Journal) and retired botany professor showed us around the local botanical garden (mom's really into plants) and then we went back to her place for "afternoon tea." Which when she had first proposed it i had had to admit my ignorance of the subtle nuances of Australian tea related phraseology -- "tea" is sometimes a whole meal, what is "afternoon tea?" She had a laugh, admitted it can be confusing, and clarified that it's "literal tea and bikkies." Anyway we ended up chatting for quite awhile. She has a great view from her dining room down into a volcanic crater and there were about 15 kangaroos slowly bouncing around down there.
And now we've come home and mom is making "curry goo" which smells delicious!
Tomorrow i go to work but we're plotting a Thursday to Sunday expedition to the far east end of the state.
Parents leave in nine days (Tuesday the following week, the 21st), my how time flies!