I Have Two Things to Say. . .

Back to Melbourne

When she was little, B would start a sentence by saying that she had 2 (or 3) things to say; because she knew that if she didn't preface her comments as such, we'd go on talking after Thing 1. She was a smart planner, that one.

So!



Thing One: This was the view of Melbourne as we were coming in from the Great Barrier Reef trip. Pretty amazing, isn't it? As dry as it has been, it still looks a little tropical.

Last Thrown Mug

Thing 2: I have met with some success in the pottery studio here,  as well as a great many failures. I'm still not crazy about the brush on glazes, but this is a very usable and well-sized mug. White stoneware, embellished with slip, Jade glaze, fired at cone 10, oxidation. I glazed my last 3 pieces today (all hand built, and all of which I'm pleased with at the bisque stage of firing). I'll pick them up next week, and close down my account at Northcote Pottery. I'm so grateful to have had this place to work.

Jungle Hike in Queensland

Jungle Canopy

James Cook College lies between the city of Cairns and the town of Palm Bay, which I was remiss in saying is in the very large Australian state of Queensland.  There are a series of trails close to the College where John went mountain biking early in the vacation. He liked the trails so much that we went back on our last full day to hike around a bit.

You may have noticed that we have been a bit reticent about hiking in the jungle. One reason is that places to hike are not at all obvious. The tour guides don't talk about them, and our reception desk at the apartments didn't seem to have a clue. I suspect that there is not as much hiking done because it is such a humid climate? Hot as well, in the summer, but of course this is the Southern Hemisphere's fall, so it's cooler. Only 85-90F or so. Or maybe they just try to keep the tourists at bay. Can't blame them.

Stinging tree runners

So! It was really delightful to find these trails. Unfortunately, the photographs don't do the area justice. It is so lush and dense. There are signs such as "Beware of Snakes", and of all things "Beware of Stinging Trees": a new on on us! Stinging trees look like some sort of a palm tree. The ones we saw were as tall as 25', but no taller. But they have these long trailing shoots that are loaded with re-curved thorns (similar to those of roses). But these thorns also have a toxin in them, so one is highly inspired to avoid them.

Sorry that the closeup of the thorns, below, isn't in focus. Obviously my wonderful IPhone camera thought that the background was the interesting part.

Stinging tree runner: bad close-up

John in the Jungle

We hiked for a couple of hours, only getting lost one time. The air within the jungle was cooler than the outside are, but the humidity was still such that we were drenched with sweat by the time we went back to our apartment.

The Trail Ahead

It really was a wonderful way to put a cap on this week of vacation. Once we get back, we'll be seriously leaning toward preparing to leave for Auckland. 

The Great Barrier Reef Snorkel: Epilogue

We got back into port at Cairns at 5:30p or so. We were pretty exhausted, but stopped for gelato and then headed back to Palm Cove. This was the sunset. . .the first we had seen that rivals those in Boise.

Snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR)

I have snorkeled before, though it's been a long time. But I do remember the wonder of that window into another world. That experience so many years ago in the Caribbean, though, did not prepare me for this.The photo to the left is not mine, but one I could have taken if I was sufficiently skilled. I made a decision not to rent a water proof camera for a couple of reasons. 1. Taking pictures takes you out of "now" and into the future, and 2. I don't have the filters, or frankly the skill to capture the GBR. This image, though, starts to capture the amazing density of it all. Density of species: There were literally dozens of different corals of varying sizes, shapes and colors. There were likewise dozens. . .maybe hundreds. . . of different fishes of varying sizes, shapes and colors.I saw two sharks. I saw schools and schools. Individuals. One large (14"?) Parrot Fish that turned on his side as I floated over him to get a better look at me.

Second snorkeling stop.

 The coral itself forms mounds, or little mountains for lack of a better description. Some are a few feet below the surface, but some of them were so close to the surface that I was afraid that my flippers might graze them as I swam over them.

Another big difference in this experience vs the Caribbean is that the water is choppy. It takes some effort both to propel yourself, and to keep steady amid the choppiness of the water. It also takes a couple of hours to get out to the reef; also through rough-ish water, so small boats can't get out to where we went. Our boat was run by a local outfit called Passions of Paradise (you can't make this stuff up. . .), and carried 80 or so passengers.

Prow of the Passions of Paradise III enroute

It's harder to see in the above photograph than it was in real life; but the place where we put in for the second snorkeling session is that mottled looking water toward the horizon. The white spots in the sea beyond it are water breaking over the shallowest part of the reef. There's no land in view in any direction at this point.

To the left is the prow of the boat as we were going out. As you can surmise, most of the passengers were on the younger-than-us side. And it continues to stun me how many folks continue to lay out in the sun. What are they thinking? Would I have done this if I had known about premature aging skin and skin cancer? Maybe. Youth is a funny thing, isn't it? Even bright people do stupid things.

On our last snorkeling adventure, we were with a Caribbean guy who had a catamaran and took a dozen folks out to the reef at a time. It was more personal, of course, but as I said: That trip wouldn't have been possible to this part of the reef.

Storm brewing to the Southeast

On the way back into Cairns, there was a storm that came up suddenly. We had a lot of wind, but the rain didn't hit us, and by the time we got into Cairns, it was clear.

Mast and Sky

Coming back to Port

A word about Cairns

Public swimming pool close to the shore in Cairns

When you fly up to  see The Great Barrier Reef, most often you fly to Cairns; pronounced without the "r". . . sort of like Cans, but with a more complex "a". Anyway, this is not the place I remember from 25 years ago at all. It makes me wonder if I really came here at all. It's now has 250,000 citizens, and is a major tourist destination. The airport is fairly big. . . close to the size of Boise's. The aboriginal population is also more visible. . .10% of the population is of aboriginal descent.

Mud flats at low tide in Cairns

Mud Crabs. Yum.

The town and port is full of tourista stuff. Not my favorite. But like many places in Australia, I am struck. . .even amazed. . .at the city's investment in it's people. This isn't the greatest view, but it's the very end of a HUGE public swimming area. No fee. You just walk through a heavily tree'd park with your suit, towel, picnic basket, and go swimming. It's on the beach, but separate from the sea, so you don't have to worry about any pesky jelly fish; called "stingers" here.

And speaking of critters, there was a large mud-flat area when we were walking along the seaside boardwalk at low tide. The place was covered with these medium-sized crabs, and "mud crabs" appeared on a lot of local menus. I love crab meat, but wasn't up to doing the picking, so I passed. John, of course, is allergic to shellfish, so he wasn't so bold either.

We were actually surprise that the local gulls weren't picking these guys off. There were so many crabs. .  . the flats were covered with them scooting about. We figure the gulls must have had easier and/or tastier prey.

Our snorkeling trip to the Great Barrier Reef left from the terminal in Cairns. So did a ton of other ones (most much larger vessels, and more people than ours); and Cairns is also a stop for cruise ships. Oh the Humanity. So many people.
More on the trip to the Great Barrier Reef in the next post. . . .

Kuranda bound. . .riding the Historical Rail

Hanging over the jungle. . the rest of the train in view

Ok. So you know. John and I did two totally Tourista things while in Palm Cove. The first was to ride this historic train from Freshwater (a small town about 15 minutes from Palm Cove) to Kuranda. Kuranda was of course, an indigenous place before it was a gold rush town, but the gold rush bit is when the railroad was built to transport the goods from the inland jungle to the port city of Cairns. The rail line was hand hewn in the late 1800's, and it's hard not to be impressed.  Not only does it wind through dense jungles, but it goes over rivers, through gorges and  at one point, around a sharp bend that is built onto tressels. On one side, you can see the rest of the train, on the other, the cascading waterfalls. This is Australian jungle countryside at its most dramatic.

John and I sort of accidentally ended up in first class. They had sold out of regular tickets (called "Heritage" class. Isn't that priceless?), and we decided to bite the bullet and pay for the more expensive tickets. Good decision, it turned out. We went on a Saturday, which our guy at the reception desk assured us didn't make a difference in terms of crowds, but we ended up being very glad indeed for the comfy seats, the sparse population, and the first class service. Translation: coffee, tea or champagne? Anzac biscuits (more on that later), savories. Space. The final frontier. I'm appreciating the phrase from Star Trek more and more.

Waterfalls on the other side

Champagne on the train. Yay.

Ok. So John thought of taking the champagne-in- the-cabin shot. I hate to be such a snob, but it really was kind of nice.

John in deepest darkest touristic Australia

And in typical form, the first thing we did when we got to the village (after an 1.5 hour train trip) was go for a jungle hike. We've been a little leery of going off on our own on hikes, as we would do in a heartbeat in the states, because of so many signs of "Beware of Snakes". . .and even more "Beware of Stinging Trees" (. . who knew?), but this was pretty well trodden, along the river. No wandering into the river to check for which insects live under the stones, though. This is, after all, prime croc territory, even in a tourista place.

The unexpected local at the skyrail change station

We had a great time exploring the trails and markets. We didn't get to do the "eco" park, but that's ok. There's a limit to our touristic consumption. But! We took something called the SkyRail back to Freshwater to pick up our car. It's like a REALLY high ski lift, but with 6-seater gondolas and tall enough to be over the treetops of the jungle. It was great. We had to change lines in the middle, and look who we found: A Very Large Spider. I know you can't appreciate how big she is; but her leg span was at least 6 inches. She was shiny black, but all of her joints, and a bit of her belly, were highlighted in yellow. A couple we were riding with in the gondola told us that she is completely harmless, which is not a phrase you hear often with regard to Australian wildlife, especially the spider-and-snake sort.  No venom. But clearly Not Shy.

Palm Bay and the Jungles of the Northeast

Sorry to be so late in posting. We've been busy relaxing, etc. etc. Between getting to know the little town, walking about, listening to the live music in the evenings, swimming in the resort pool, and generally exhausting ourselves, we just haven't had that much time.

So. Palm Cove. There's a reason why this place is called Palm Cove. Lots. Lots. Lots of palms of many varieties. . .some which are a little dangerous. But I'll get into that later. Dangerous Palms. John likes to say "that's a great name for a rock band. . ".  It's true.

Anyway, it is truly idyllic in that way that tourist towns in tropical climates can be. Even the RV Park; called a Camper Park here. It's got to be the prettiest I've ever seen.

Likewise, the wide sandy beaches. We've sort of come to expect this in coastal areas in Australia. Just unspeakably beautiful wide long sandy beaches. Palm Cove is not populated with the tour-buses-of-tourists who have the capacity to spoil the experience, so it's been great. We did run into some of that in a trip to Cairns the other day. Still. The hoards were avoidable, and we had a lovely all Fresca meal.

Sorry to line the images up along the right. I'm having trouble with blogger.com again. Small sigh.

Anyway! Back to the Palm Cove experience. A picture is worth. . . . right?

"Downtown" Palm Cove at night.

We saw bats flying in the night sky below; John got the image of the bats, I got the one of the sickle moon. Here's  not-so-great thing about taking pictures with the IPhone. It seems to compress the middle ground of any image. The moon really was just a sickle the night I took this photo, and yet it looks about half full. Not sure what the mechanics of this are, but I've noticed it in other  images as well. Oh. Well. Nothing's perfect, is it?

Romantic dinner in Palm Cove. Check out that Eucalypt!

 So! Final images are below. Tomorrow we go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR?) And! I still need to tell you about Stinger trees, the Historical Jungle Rail trip to the village of Kuranda, and the Fort Douglas markets. It feels like a serial with cliff hangers!

The Camper Park in Palm Cove

Of travels and backyard life. . .

I can hardly believe we're leaving for our trip to the Great Barrier Reef tomorrow. We flying in to Cairns (pronounced without the "r"), and then renting a car and driving up to Palm Cove, which is supposed to be a cool tropical resort. The last time we stayed in a tropical resort was years ago when Beth was 12 and Sarah was 3. They're older than that now. . .                                                                                                                                              There is nothing like air travel in Australia to impress you with how very big the continent/country is. The distance on the map takes 4 hours to traverse. In a plane. That's like flying from New York to LA. Is that right? Check me on that. Anyway, we'll be re-entering warm weather, and hope to snorkel on the reef. The OTHER thing, though, is that The Great Barrier Reef really isn't an exaggeration. It. Is. Huge. We will only see a very small part, which is probably better for the health of the reef, anyway.

I also wanted to finish up my thoughts on our back patio and our urban fauna. The very evening of the day that I wrote about bats in Royal Park, we saw tons of bats flying over our little tiny piece of sky over our patio. That's never happened before. Who knew bats could read? Unfortunately, in all the excitement and darkness (it was late dusk) I couldn't get the phone's flash to turn off, so I didn't get any images of the bats. But here are a couple images of our piece of sky. Both taken with my IPhone 6-point-something. My Dad, who was a serious photographer, would have been even more amazed by these little phones than I am. And then there's the software. All three of these images looked pretty black until I photoshop'd them. Unbelievable. The camera sees what the eye can't. 

That night with the bats in our patio sky was apparently a one-off, as they like to say here. We haven't seen them again, which is a little sad. I'm thinking it must have just been the press I gave them.

The guy who I did get an image of was the possum, below, on our fence. Not the best shot. Sorry about that. It's true that the little guy looks pretty rat-like in this image, but they really are more squirrel-like than this image suggests. Blame it on the photographer. And by the way, that guy is pretty big. . . .2 feet long with the tail, and he's considered a small one.  No rabies to worry about here, though!

Locals and Pottery

Even though we don't have a lot of human company, locals abound. There will be more on the bats, but this is a resident who welcomed us the first day we got here, and continues to be a bit of a nuisance. . . I mean sweetheart. Both, really. Because of John's rather intense allergy to cats, there's no way this guy can come in, but I gave him some serious pets on our first day here. When I turned away, he grabbed my leg and clawed me pretty deeply. It WAS NOT time to stop, apparently. Since then, we've had a bit of a truce. He rubs up to us, and tries to dart into the apartment, but lets me pick him up and escort him outside with no further violence.He's quite a beauty, I think.  The owners told us he's an "outdoor" cat. He has, apparently missed that announcement.

We also have been able to do a bit of Possum spotting in the yard. Australian possums, while considered as much of a nuisance as their American counterparts, are considerably more attractive. Dare I say it? Cuter?

John and I came home one evening to hear a scrambling above our garage door, and when we looked up, all we could see was a long furry tail hanging down alongside the rolling door.

The Australian Bush-tailed Possum

And check out that tail! Makes all the difference doesn't it? I had a friend in Grad School who had written a song about squirrels. She ended it by saying something like "without your tail, you'd just be another rat. . .". Smile. So. Here's a fun fact. Our not-so-attractive possum in the U.S. is "The unsung hero in the fight against lyme disease." This was concluded by The Cary Institute (http://www.caryinstitute.org/discover-ecology/podcasts/why-you-should-brake-opossums) who have found that because possums are
a) magnets for ticks, and b) incredibly excellent groomers, they single handedly (pawedly?) take a large number of potential human lyme disease vectors out of the equation. What a terrible sentence! But then again, Who knew?

Our guy: The Virginia Possum

Now. Here's the next topic. Pottery. Totally unrelated, I know, but I wanted to talk a little bit about my pottery experience here. It has been a good thing for me to do, if for no other reason to appreciate all that I have in Boise. And of course, I've met some nice folks.

Northcote Pottery, Weston Street, Brunswick

Prey No More

Dog Hunting

The place where I've been working is The Northcote Pottery Studio: Small things. It's about a 15-20 minute bicycle ride away, which is usually not a problem. The weather, after the initial heat, has been lovely, and I am truly grateful for the ride. On most days. The exception is when I need to transport greenware (dried, unfired clay objects). What a nightmare. So I have made, and likely will contribute to the landfill,  two animal head sculptures in the "broken ear" series.  These heads, by the way, were made using a process that Lisa Naples has made available to potters everywhere via the Ceramics Daily.com. Because the rabbit had so much attitude in his face ("Do NOT mess with me"), I had decided to call the piece "Prey no more". Ha. But then, as I transported him to Northcote for bisque firing, his ear broke off. Now he's really got attitude, right? I decided to go ahead and fire and glaze-fire the whole mess, just for the experience. I found out that I a) really don't like "brush-on" glazes; and b) really didn't like the way this Celadon cone 10 glaze looks in an oxidative (electric) firing. Too much information for many of you, but necessary for the potters, I think. THEN, exactly the same thing happened with my Dog Head. Broken ear during transport.  And believe it or bot, that white on him is the same green glaze as on Prey No More. Oy. Two things I dislike. One is the shiny shiny (my fault, since I wanted a transparent glaze over the black underglaze, and didn't want to buy a third jar of glaze. In hindsight, I should have just gotten a matt white and glazed everything in that.

Fallen handle teapot

A couple of things worked better, though nothing I've ever made is without flaw. The body of this teapot was first thrown on the wheel, and then altered to an oval. Embellished, bottom, spout and lid made and top cut out. Handle attached. And ouch. The handle fell over in the final firing, glazing it to the top. If I had my studio at home, I could fix this pretty easily, but I don't have a flex-shaft or a kiln for refiring after I zip off that handle. I expect this will go into the landfill, too, though I DO like the glazing better. It's a mix of that celadon, red underglaze, and a matt glaze (on the inside and on the spout) called "jade". Not a bad effect.

The last show-and-tell's for this post are 3 mugs. All ok. None great. I like the handbuilt one in the back best, and am drinking tea from it as I type. The other two were thrown, and as usual, looked HUGE when I threw them, and eventually ended up being just a little smaller and a little heavier in the bottom (aren't we all) than I had intended.

Bat Spotting

The time change (Fall Back) here has changed our nightly walking view in The Royal Park. Earlier in the season, it was all about the birds. . lorakeets and galahs and Ibis. Now, we routinely see bats (called Flying Foxes here) on our evening walks, which we take between dusk and sunset.

This isn't a photo I took, but very much what it looks like. These are large fruit bats (wingspan 2-3'), which are apparently endangered. I can't tell you how my heart leaps in my chest when we see one. . . or two or three. Sometimes they're flying quite high, and John has to be the primary spotter; but usually if we're patient, some will come quite a bit lower, especially as the evening progresses.

Of course, I wanted to know more about these guys before I wrote, and look what I found! Check out the video link below. Sure to bring wonder and a smile!

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/orphaned-baby-fruit-bats-find-motherly-love.php

This reminds me of the lady in Meridian who was nursing hurt and orphaned baby squirrels back to health in her garage. It's not the logic of it. . .it's the love.

You will find mixed opinions here about the bats. People have to cover their fruit trees here religiously and completely, or the bats will eat them. They are also voracious nectar eaters, and hence pollinators of many native species of plant here. Apparently there's a place here where the bats come out by the hundreds at dusk. . I need to find out where that is. It could be an Austin-like bat experience, but with much bigger (and likely fewer) bats.

The time change has brought about some inconveniences. We now have 2 more hours more separating us for talking to the daughters and John's students back home. It's not something we had thought about, and certainly not thought through.

Another fun fact: Orion (the constellation) is seen in the summer and is upside down here. It's funny that one doesn't initially notice it. We key on those three stars-in-a-row, right? But if you look carefully, you'll see that Orion's legs are upward, and he's clubbing his prey upside down! Look for Canis Major and Canis Minor, and it's the same deal. This is not to cast judgement, of course. Smile.

We've been asked if the toilets go round the other way (anti-clockwise?) and here's the truth: The toilets flush straight down and very quickly with great force! Ha. It's a completely different mechanisms than the one we use, so it's impossible to tell.

Finally, I thought I'd confess a few things for the record.  I miss things from home. I miss being able to buy a bottle of Ibuprofen (it's all sold in blister packs here; and is relatively expensive). I miss Chex Mix (how goofy is that?). I miss real corn chips. I miss pickle relish (goofier yet, but I make my own by chopping up pickles). I miss quiet dark nights. I miss not smelling cigarette smoke. I miss our friends, one and all. And of course, I miss our small sweet family.

This and That. . .

I've been feeling betwixt and between these days.

While the weather is getting more beautiful every day, and we had a lovely meal at The Phoenix on Sydney Street last night, I'm unsettled. We're more than halfway through our time in Australia, and I'm feeling a little lost. We have four weeks left here in Melbourne, one in Palm Bay (close to Cairns, where we'll visit the Great Barrier Reef), and then on to Auckland, NZ for a month, and our last stop will be the South Island of NZ.

By the way, the little guy in the image is a local: The Superb Fairy Wren. That's versus the iridescent blue Splendid Fairy Wren that I showed you previously. Aren't those great names? It seems that many official Australian names include superlatives. . .The Great Ocean Road, The Great Barrier Reef, blahblahblah. These guys are tiny. . about sparrow sized, but less plump, and they're abundant in the Royal Park. They are unbelievably pert and unafraid. Nice not to have predators, though there ARE snakes. All poisonous, I'm told. Language difference abound, and sometimes leave us helpless with laughter. I mentioned the "no promenading" sign, but a large set of restrooms in St. Kilda has the words "Public Conveniences" etched in stone over them. "Give Way" is yield. And sometimes the newscasters will say something that leaves us looking at each other in confusion, especially when talking about "sport". The "s"s are dropped from many words, and added to others. . . . there are no "sports", only "sport". There is no "math", only "maths". Interesting, isn't it? And I suspect mostly British. And for the censors, I'm in no way suggesting that American English is in any way Superior. Just different enough to let us know that we are, indeed, in someone else's country. Sometimes The States feel that way too, when we see the news. .  .

Her Majesty and Samson inside on a rainy day

Anyway. I would probably be dying to get home right now if we had a house to go to, so I'm oddly grateful that we don't. I want to be Here/Now. But undoubtedly, some of the novelty has worn off. And John and I have undeniably come to the conclusion that We Are Not City Mice. Too much noise, not enough dark, too many people in close quarters. Suddenly, I'm realizing that White Flight in the '50's wasn't just about getting away from black people. It was a movement toward more space. . . for the individual as well as the family, and less noise noise noise noise noise. I know it's unpopular and ultimately impractical for everyone to have their 1/4 acre of space, but I'm having a hard time believing that we evolved for the density we're now experiencing. Or maybe it's just me.

The clay work is necessarily winding down: Firing schedules are such that I need to be thinking way ahead on that. And while I love riding Her Majesty everywhere for oh-so-many reasons, not having a car is a major hassle when one is transporting numerous clay objects as various stages of fragility. Broken Rabbit Ears. That's all I'm sayin'.  .

The view outside our door

This space we've rented is lovely, but it has had it's challenges, including a lack of what I consider fundamental kitchen tools, and a bathroom a very tall floor away from the bedroom. It's so ironic, isn't it? We had just finished a major remodel to fix that problem on Harmony Street. Also ironic is the fact that our neighbor/landlord's trampoline is pushed up against our back fence by our tiny patio. It hasn't been an issue, because the kids are teens now, but is a reminder of the one that overlooked our pool and partially inspired us to leave Harmony.

I thought I'd share some photos of our space. I want to do a local photo shoot before we leave as well, to record (and so you all can see) the architecture and surrounds here. It really is a lovely and complex place. . . youthful and full of life, if a tad worn.

 By the way, though the temperatures are great. . . .high 40's low 50's at night/ high 60's-low 80's during the day. . .we haven't had any rain yet. I need to check to see if that's usual.

The Rest of the (Easter weekend) Story

Little Odessa, Fitzroy. Easter Dinner

Galah Parrots

 I have to confess. On Easter Sunday, I was feeling a little bereft. How could we possibly hope to have an Easter that was wonderful and full of hope? The daughters were on the other side of the world; it was Fall, not Spring, and we had no idea what the dinner would be like, since I found the place via internet.

Easter Hikes have always been a holiday (Holy Day?) ritual for us, so we took a long walk around Royal Park. Always fun, and we saw a new kind of bird. It's called a Galah, and is "the most common Australian Parrot". They are really big. . . 14" or so in length, and their wingspan is impressive. We had never seen them before, though we've seen lots of other parrots, and here they were flocking on Easter in The Royal Park. Huh.  Must be Fall.

At 6p or so, we uber'd over to Fitzroy (a neighborhood in East Melbourne), and ate at Little Odessa. Honestly, I chose it because a) they were open on Easter, and b) they had just opened in February, and had the sweetest U-Tube on line about their opening (. https://www.facebook.com/odessafitzroy/videos/218265845413849/).

Sunday evening in Fitzroy, AU

It was what a colleague of mine used to call a hall-of-fame-er meal. The wine, a Pinot Noir that the owner/server had recommended was local. Exactly the right color, but with a lot more fruit and complexity than most Pinot's I've been able to afford. The food was Eastern European, but not heavy. And the dessert, Chocolate filled with plum jelly and vodka (with a spun sugar topping) was small, unbelievably rich, and a complete surprise. After this long wine soaked meal, we walked out into the night to a remarkably busy and vibrant Fitzroy. We had intended to walk a bit and then call another Uber, but instead, we ended up walking all the way home. . .catching sight of a flying fox (translation: large fruit bat) as we headed across the Park to our flat.

Lesson? I need to find a way to NOT despair. Joy still lives in this world. It's just harder to find without your kids and dogs.

 The next day, Easter Monday, John and I had decided to take a long bicycle ride to Brighton Beach. There are famous Beach Boxes right on the beach that have made appearances on the Miss Fisher Mystery series, and we decided it would be great to see them. It was a long, but not difficult ride; almost 30 miles there and back.

And while the shacks are very cool (see http://www.visitvictoria.com/regions/Melbourne/Things-to-do/History-and-heritage/Heritage-buildings/Brighton-Bathing-Boxes.aspx) the place was overrun with tour buses. I'm happy and unhappy to report that busloads of Chinese tourists rival the Americans in noise and obliviousness. John was reminded of a wonderfully pertinent Yogi Berra quote: "No one goes there nowadays, it's too crowded."

Finally, as we were reminded that this is our first Easter without Lacey, I came across this cartoon. NOW I understand. . . .