The London to Cape Town ERA Rally

I really meant to post about this quite a few days ago, since there is only two days of the rally left I best do it now!

My uncle and cousin are just about at the end of a 29 day or 14,400 km mad dash from London to Cape Town in their 1923 Vauxhall OD 23/60, known as Penny. Penny (and my uncle) is quite the adventurer having completed the ERA Peking to Paris rally in 2010 and coming 2nd in the pioneer class.  The original plan some time ago was to do London to Cape Town in their “everyday” 4wd but look at the picture below and I think you can understand why Penny is doing London to Cape Town and not the Landcruiser…

This is them a few days ago barrelling down a road between Moyale and Marsabit in Kenya. The photo is by Gerard Brown who is the rally photographer.

 

They are currently placed at 31 in what is now a field of 41 cars, pretty darn impressive for a car which is the oldest in the rally by 41 years … The second oldest car is a 1964 Volvo PV 544 C. The rally was designed for “classic rally cars”, those rally cars of the 60s-80s, that are the type of cars you think of when you think major long distance rally. They’ve done really well climbing up from 40th which at the pointy end of the rally I would really say comes down to how well they prepped Penny to start off with.

One of the coolest features available to us rally watchers is the yellowbrick car tracking, at any time of the day you are able to see where all the cars are located and what speed they are travelling at etc. If you’ve got some time to spend I highly recommend having a poke round the rally website but also looking at the various participant blogs etc

I leave you with this photo also by  Gerard Brown. This is what happens when you run out of petrol 500m from the petrol station. I’m betting that is one tale those locals will be talking about for some time to come.

Gerard Brown

 

The Tawny Frogmouths return so I blog again

The birds reappeared in the Silky Oak this morning. I woke up, looked out the window and there they were; preening their feathers in the early morning light. As per usual it has been about a week since they were last in the garden.

What else have I been up to since then?

Making use of one of my Christmas presents – a jam funnel, thanks Mum!

Using the above leads to this. Mulberry Jam, yummo.

Stocking up on mangoes, then slicing and freezing so there will be golden mango goodness way past the mango season. A whole tray of mangoes for $8 <– that’s my kind of bargain.

Look at all those bags of goodness.

After a few years of umming and ahhing over different digital radios, I finally picked one up. A Pure Elan II, whilst I dearly loved the Orla Kieley and the look of the other Mio radios they didn’t offer a pause feature. If I was getting a new kitchen radio I wanted to be able to press pause and come back to the radio when I’m off the phone/finished shooing away the sales person/bible promoter at the door etc.

I’m loving it, it’s great having ABC Jazz in the kitchen without either having to have the TV on or having my laptop on the kitchen table.

The house currently looks like a cross between a bomb site and a warehouse as Mum packs up as the ticker counts downs the days till she departs, we are almost in the single digits!

I leave you with this.

That’s my attempt at making a Mango Juice Bali style -> mango, ice, sugar syrup. Blend it together and drink up the sweetness.

Well it seems that I can speak to the trees

Guess who was back in the yard today?

Yep, it seems my request to the trees for the Tawny Frogmouths to return worked. I went out to garden this morning before work and did my usual scan of the trees and there they were. Perched in the Silky Oak, just hanging out. Even better, they were still there when I got home, there is hope it seems that they will hang out in the back yard for some time to come.

The birds in our yard

We have many birds in our yard but on Christmas day there were two special birds in the yard.  This feather tells all. Do you know what bird this feather comes from?

 

It’s not from these birds (Trichoglossus haematodus or Rainbow Lorikeet)

and it’s not from these birds either ( Cacatua roseicapilla or Galah)

nor is it from this bird (Egretta novaehollandiae or White-faced Heron)

It’s not from my magpies either (Gymnorhina tibicen), the magpies (and the butcher birds) are something I’m going to dearly miss with my upcoming move from the balcony suite to the master wing, no more will the magpies on the washing line be the first thing I see and hear in the morning.

It’s not from the crested pigeons (Ocyphaps lophotes) either

 

nor is it the Pale-headed Rosella (Platycercus adscitus) who sometimes comes to visit and it is most definitely not from the Blue-faced Honeyeater (Entomyzon cyanotis), it is also most definitely not from the  Noisy Miners (Manorina melanocephala) who think they rule the roost in the front yard.

The feather comes from the birds known as Podargus strigoides, which bird is that you ask? Why it is this delightful creature.

Yes, that is a Tawny Frogmouth, well not just one but two! The above photo was taken on Christmas Day, we were patching some holes in the tent before my departure for Woodford the following morning when I looked up and saw these fellas in the tree. The one at the front of the above photo is a juvenile whilst the mature one is in the background. Mother and I were quite tickled pink at seeing these birds in our yard, if Pabbi was still alive he would have been tickled pink to see these as well, he adored taking photos of the birds in the back yard. On that note I’m sure Grandad would have been chuffed as well knowing we had Tawny Frogmouths in the the yard as well.

The parent bird is watching us.

 

We weren’t sure how long they would stay in the yard so imagine my delight when I came home from Woodford and saw this face in the Silky Oak. It’s the juvenile! Hello you Tawny Frogmouth.

Oh hello Tawny Frogmouth!

 

Sadly though, I’ve not seen them in our yard in the last week, each day I scour the trees hoping that at least one of them has returned. I do so hope they make an appearance when my brother Karl and his partner Kata come to visit in February. I am so dearly looking forward to not only finally meeting Kata (she was unfortunately in Russia when we were in Iceland last year in 2010, we met one of her sisters though!) but also to having Karl “home” for a little while. Whilst Kata is going to see sooo many things on their seven week jaunt to Australia as Karl shows they lady who has his heart Australia the country in which he was raised it would just be quite something special if there was Tawny Frogmouths in the backyard when they arrived. I’ll just have to talk to the trees and see what they can arrange.

I remember the first time I saw a Tawny Frogmouth, were were on a pre-school excursion to Coochiemudlo Island and there was one perched in the rafters of one of the toilet blocks. We were ushered in ever so quietly by our teacher to look at it.

Well that is the story of some of the birds who like to hang out in the back yard. Their stories are not quite as adventuerous or humerous as the blue tounge lizard clan that resides over at MMMC but I wouldn’t trade my birds for all the world.

The day after the Twelfth Day or Epiphany or Three Kings Day

or whatever you wish to call January 6. Le Sigh. Yesterday was all of those so the house was de-Christmased. The living room looks quite bare now.

This little chap has been packed away for another Christmas. Yep we run an Icelandic Christmas straight out of the late 70s here.  Love his little elfish face.

As have these trees (the one on the left was made by Grandmum and the one on the right was made by me with  assistance from Grandmum, it’s made of polystyrene meat trays!) The photo of Grandad stays of course, as does the duck (also made by  my Grandmum.

This tree is packed up as well, oh well only something like 350 days till it can be put up again …

The reverse Advent calendar was packed up as well. I picked it up from a Danish seller on the most glorious marketplace of all. Each day, an ornament was added, Some days though “Santa/Christmas Angel/Christmas someone” would beat me to it and there would be angel hanging on the calendar (see days 15 and 21).

The Royal Doulton Countess has been packed away, waiting for another special meal (If you ever come across Royal Doulton Countess in the green pattern, let me know quick smart, I’m always on the look out for more pieces).

We had a new candle set this year, I picked up the Advent candle holder from a Swede on the above mentioned glorious marketplace. I filled it with spruce twigs, added some walnuts that I painted gold, drop in four candles and hey presto!

Yes, those are peas in a sweets dish. They may look pretty but are a pain to serve from … peas like to escape…

The other way to know that Christmas is over is by this. Yep, holly wreath not so green any more.

The lights are no longer up either, the house looks decidingly less bright.

And that is Christmas 2011/2012. I hope it was well to you all.