A Walk in the Park

For the last few weeks we been able to drive Jo and Jac's car (Petey), since they have had the use of another one (thanks, Matt). This has allowed us to extend our range just a little, to places where we can walk with Rooey and not be assailed by passing traffic.

Salado Creek Greenway
The path is 3-4 km each way.

The easiest local spot in the Salado Creek Greenway, one of a network of paths that San Antonio is developing along waterways to encourage walking and cycling through their vast city. The Salado Creek path runs along one of the ephemeral gullies that run everywhere through this limestone country and occasionally carry huge floods when there is heavy rainfall.

Limestone cliffs and dry creek bed
The litter stuck in the trees shows how high the water comes.

The path is all paved and virtually flat, so very popular with walkers, cyclists and joggers. And easy to negotiate for grandparents with a small boy in the Baby Bjorn front pack. It would be perfect, except that part of it lies under electricity pylons, and all of it lies under the landing flight path to San Antonio airport; but it's still a huge improvement on the shopping malls.

The pylons make good roosting spots for vultures
And you have to imagine a 737 every ten minutes or so.

Salado Creek path
Regularly washed and leaf-blown by park staff.

Expeditioners
Marty likes the front-facing position. The baseball cap is very cute.

America seems to deliver a huge amount of information to its citizens, mostly of a warning nature. There are quite lot of things that you mustn't do in the park, but the warnings about flash flooding and water crossing are real.

Just DON'T!

Signage
Does that seem wrong to anyone else? Don't leave the water?

We found this one mildly confusing too.

But there is a real risk
This section was under water the first time we came.

At the far end of the path we can actually get off the concrete and walk through oak woodlands that could be somewhere in the English West Country (if you ignore the aloes and occasional cactus). There and back takes us between one and two hours, depending on the dawdling. Rooey tends to sleep for at least half that time, and we usually sustain him with a bottle of milk at some stage. We see lots of squirrels, often deer (the bucks more interested in does than people at this time of year), many birds (always vultures overhead) and more flowers than I expected in autumn.

Oak woodland.
They don't lose all their leaves in the fall.

Flowers.
Autumn rains have rejuvenated the vegetation.

These are called Turks Caps

Salado Creek squirrel
This is the uncommon black form of the ubiquitous red-brown fox squirrel

With the very pleasant weather we have been enjoying (low to mids 20s and a gentle breeze) it makes an ideal morning excursion and we can get there and back without having to tackle any seriously busy roads.

Dead End of the Week?

The weather here has been just right for sitting out and enjoying a beer after work, and that was what we did this Friday, at La Tuna, a great little bar on the edge of downtown San Antonio. Its buildings are made of corrugated iron and the outside area is mulched with bottlecaps (literally), but the atmosphere is fine.

La Tuna!

But we weren't there just to drink beer (who me?) and eat jalapeno poppers. The First Friday of each month sees an art exhibition at the art cooperative just down the street, and since this was the week after the Dias de los Muertos, it was a special event for the Day of the Dead.

OK, so you thought the Day of the Dead was creepy, superstitious nonsense? Well, so did I, but on closer inspection it has a couple of great strengths: it provides a memorial for loved ones who have died, and it is a very clear-eyed statement about the inevitability of death, something that western society needs reminding about, IMHO. But it's a lot of fun as well.

Many of the memorials are personal
This accordion player left us in 1963

More general art work

Remember Granpa and his stick?

Several personal memorials of this type
Video and audio material about the departed

In the gallery there were displays of work by young, and very talented, artists, while outside there was a stage for dancing and singing, again involving youngsters. And then came the parade. But this was not the typical American razzmatazz parade, this was the Dias de los Muertos procession with white painted faces, muffled drums and a piper.

The Day of the Dead Procession
Several pics follow: well, it was a procession!

All this on a balmy evening with the buildings silhouetted against the sunset and the grackles streaming in to roost on the wires.

What's that you say? Marty Roo? Oh he enjoyed it greatly; he loves An Event, and dressed in his skeleton suit he was the centre of attention.

All Hallows Eve

I'd heard about Halloween in America, but now I've seen it for myself and I'm still boggling a bit. It's a big deal here, to the the extent that a special Halloween shop opened in our local mall and many local businesses sprouted a cover of cobwebs. House (and apartment) decorations are common, some hugely elaborate.

Apartment doorway in our complex
Enter if you dare!

The finest were in the up-market estate that Jac's boss John lives in, but I'm afraid we didn't get pictures of them. Think skeletons emerging from graves on the front lawn and giant rats crawling along the front fence. And pumpkins everywhere.

We went to to John and Joanne's for the evening. They supplied some dressing up material so that we could go out with our Jo, Marty Roo and a little Indian girl, daughter of one of the foundation's researchers.

Roo's first costume: a chilli
But he had a costume malfunction: every time he kicked his legs it burst open!

Glowbug: eventual costume for the night

Any costume will do
Kids in the street immediately identified me as....The Burger King!

Prof McGonigle
And her birthday flowers from John and Joanne

Most houses had their porch lights on, and when we knocked on the door the owners appeared, all smiles, and doled out candy in large quantities. Joanne had prepared 100 bags to give away to the trick-or-treaters coming to their house and most of those went during the evening.

Bags of candy for the Trick or Treaters

And here they come!

A modest haul of Halloween loot
Our little Indian friend is new to the US and more familiar with the Diwali festival

Most of the visitors were little tots with non-gruesome costumes, and parents not too far away, but there were gory adults too, and one party going on down the street with recorded groans and screams being broadcast to passers by.

It was something of a contrast the following day (Sunday) to go to church for a Day of the Dead service (Dia de Los Muertos). The congregation was encouraged to bring photos or cards of loved ones who had died, and they were all placed on a table at the front as an act of remembrance.

Remembrance cards at the Spirit of Peace Dia de Los Muertos service

More Dia de Los Muertos later this week when we go to a festival in town. Watch this space.

Aloha, and pardon my hula

In Texas it's grey and raining, temperature 14C. Such a contrast to our last week when we were luxuriating in the balmy airs of Hawai'i, where it's low 30s every day and high 20s every night. And that's every day and every night.

When we arrived in Honolulu thirty-odd years ago, the first thing Jo did was to vomit on the sidewalk. We did it better style this time, since the best way to get into Waikiki was in a stretch limousine; same price as a cab, and it swallowed all of us, Roo in his car seat, and Jac's colleague Mel, with room to spare. So we cruised into the Hilton Hawaiian Village, with everyone looking to see who the celebrities were.

The only way to travel in Hawai'i!

Nothing in the mini-bar, fortunately

The Village is best thought of as a beached cruise ship: it aims to provide its guests with the complete, "authentic" Hawaiian experience without having to leave the complex. There are four or five 30+ floored towers and a multitude of shops and restaurants, several swimming pools and an artificial lagoon, all set in beautiful gardens with pools, waterfalls and exotic birds (even flamingos), none of which are actually Hawaiian at all. But I must say that the gardens and the plantings were delightful, no doubt all tended by an invisible legion of gardeners.

View from our lanai, over the Ala Moana boat harbour

And the other way, classic Diamond Head

The Rainbow Tower.
We were 17 floors up.

Hilton Hawaiian Village.
View from the lobby.

In the "village"
(Not too many natives)

Frangipani.
Signature scent of Hawaii.

Heliconia?
So many exotics.

Unlike the cruise ship, there's nothing free in the Hilton after you've paid for your room, so we had to go out to forage. Breakfast was easy in Wailano diner just across the street where we ate quick, cheap and sometimes very large meals, cheerfully served. Jac quickly sniffed out a cheap Vietnamese pho restaurant for our evening meal, and later a rather good Japanese place which was a bit hidden off the main streets.

But we didn't have to pay to swim in the pools, the sea or the lagoon (the latter two are public and well frequented by the locals). It was lovely to get in the water, and even Jeannie swam a bit.

One of the Village pools.

Waikiki Beach
No one has heard of skin cancer, apparently.

Our range was a bit limited by The Boy's sleeping patterns and Jac's conference responsibilities, but we explored a few old haunts around Waikiki, including our apartment block in Tusitala Street, looking a bit faded now. Jean and I went to the Hawaiian Academy of Arts, which is notable as much for its lovely building as for its collections. And we all went down town to the Foster Botanical Gardens with it huge old trees and exotic flowers, and back through Chinatown where Jac walked wide-eyed through the food markets.

What I did on my holiday.

Foster Botanic Gardens.

We have pictures of Jo at this spot at age 3 and 14.

Honolulu Academy of Arts.
One of the beautiful courtyards.

Our only major excursion was a birdwatching tour around the eastern end of the island with a guy called Mike, who showed us most of the introduced small birds in the gardens and parks, but also several native sea birds and water birds. Our only native bush bird, an amakihi, we found up one of the valleys, but even here the bush is all introduced plants, mostly eucalypts!

The steep "pali"on the windward side.

Obligatory shot.
Sorry I can't pass on the temperature.

All in all it was a great week.

Last Post from SA for a While

We are chasing around getting stuff into the suitcase in preparation for the trip to Hawaii tomorrow. It's a one hour flight up to Dallas and then eight straight to Honolulu. The Big Question, of course, is how young Marty will take to it, but I must say that having seen how well-behaved he was when we went out for Jeannie's birthday dinner last night I'm more hopeful that he will cope with it.

It almost seems a pity to leave San Antonio today since the temperature has dropped to a very pleasant 24C and the sky is blue, but I daresay Hawaii will be bearable (!)

A few photos follow for the Roo-watchers!

This motorized swing is an important playing place
(Didn't do a very good job with the red eye, did I?)

And it often has this desired effect.

He has a HUGE wardrobe.
This was today's gear, for a slightly cooler day.

Halloween is approaching fast.
No doubt what Marty will be wearing.

And you thought he was perfect, didn't you?

Of course he is when his Papa looks after him.....

......or Granma.
All lies of course. Jac and Jo get him when we have failed!

Mostly for Roo-watchers

Week one is will be complete in a few hours! It doesn't seem that long yet.

We are settling into a routine, and it's pretty simple. We see the girls off at 9-ish and go out for a walk pretty much straight away, touring the local shopping malls and the quieter streets (not many of those!). Since this area is a mosaic of apartment complexes, which are all fenced and gated, and shopping malls, there are few places to walk. But the malls are pleasant enough and when we are a bit more confident of Marty's sleeping patterns there are several coffee places to settle in, or outside of, for a while.

Inside, it's sleep-play-feed on a fairly short cycle until the girls get home between 5.00 and 6.00. Rather like his mother and grandfather, Marty does not waken smoothly from daytime sleeps, so we are now prepared for a short period of grizzles when he gets up.

A few pictures of daily activities follow.

Meeting Myla
Marty's downstairs neighbour, a real cutie. They smiled at each other.

Games with Papa.
Hard on the neck! (Mine, I mean)

Granma is better at calming him down.

Bathtime is always a hit.

Shampoo and set.

Thanks, Mum.

And finally.....
There's a lot of stereotyping about blokes and nappies, sorry, diapers. Anyone can do it.

Only in America........

......are people so kind and hospitable?

This morning (Primary Carer Day 2) there was a knock at the door (cue Men at Work). And there was a delivery man with a huge thing, for us!

What can it be?
Not quite flowers.

Closer inspection revealed an "Edible Arrangement", a welcoming gift from Lorena, one of Jo and Jac's work chums who took us birdwatching on our first visit. What a lovely thing to do.

The Edible Arrangement!
Thanks, Lorena.

We are developing our baby-wrangling skills (he's asleep as I write), and for most of the time everyone seems happy. We've been having a short walk with Marty in the frontpack in the mornings while it's still bearable outside, then feed-play-sleep on a reasonable regular cycle. Jean found enough space to bake bread and Anzac biscuits this morning, and I've been able to get a couple of jobs done too. Hopefully a routine is developing.

This babysitting is a breeze!
(But who photographs the grizzley times?)

Here at Last!

Getting up at 3.45 am was well worth it. The whole trip went very smoothly and we had the best Premium Economy seats on the plane: just behind the Business Class section, so we were in good shape when we arrived in Los Angeles, and despite the horrendous queue to get through security and onto the flight to Dallas, the flight there and on to San Antonio were easy, and in overall we were only 20 minutes late.

A380 Airbus.
We didn't get to fly in one (maybe on the way home), but this one is for Angus.

Jo was waiting for us, and San Antonio had laid on a very moderate day with temperature just in the high 20s and in no time we were at Heubner Oaks and meeting Marty Roo and Jac. He is, as we all guessed, a darling and in no time we were getting big smiles. Since then we have been out for a couple of walks with him, off to the supermarket and even to church. There are a couple of other people who seem to be hanging around; they prepare food and look after him when he cries. Their names begin with J......., but Marty is definitely the Main Event.

But seriously, tomorrow we take over full responsibility when Jo and Jac set off for work. We've practised the feeding, the changing and the pacifying, so I hope we'll be OK. Watch this space.

The rarely-photographed Jac and Marty.

Granma getting in some practise.

And we have domestic duties, too.

New Windows and unsnapped wonders

We made our shortest ever visit to the shack on Friday; we were only there for about 18 hours! But it was important to see our new windows before we leave. We were very pleased with the job that Jarrod Poke has done: neat joinery and a tidy worker, so there was little mess to clear up.

The new kitchen windows
They seem huge! We plan to have roller blinds.

Bathroom roll-out.

Bathroom #2.
This one is fixed. There will be a net curtain.

Kitchen windows outside.
I would really liked to have primed the wood.

Bathroom windows outside.
The frames will be iron blue, like the other windows.

Despite a gloomy weather forecast it stayed fine for our trip up on Friday arvo, and remained very pleasant for the early part of Saturday morning, which gave me the opportunity to cut the forest, sorry I mean grass, while Jeannie dusted inside. I was nearly finished when Jeannie rushed out mouthing words I couldn't hear with my ear muffs on, and brandishing the binoculars. A whale! A Southern Right Whale, we think, just past the far point on the Table Cape side, heaving its tail out of the water and crashing it down in a mass of spray. We watched it for quite a while before it moved off eastwards.

Then just time for a coffee on the deck, before jumping into the car and heading south, since the Mortons were coming to dinner. As we drove south, listening to the Grand Final on the radio, the sky over Campbelltown got pitchy black and we drove into a fantastic hailstorm. The road was quickly white and the noise so loud that we couldn't hear the radio at all (and there are distinct chips on the paintwork!). Thunder and lightening too, before we drove out of the other side.

The weather hasn't finished with us either, since a violent southerly gale blew up in the night with torrential rain, several trees down and the creeks all running bankers. Roll on those balmy days in San Antonio!

Geelong to be here?

Last weekend we were in Geelong for the biennial Conference on Science and Christianity, organised by ISCAST. The main speaker was Prof Simon Conway Morris, from Cambridge, and we had just been hosting him in Hobart. He does a very good impression of the rumpled Cambridge don, kinda neo-Chestertonian. I love the story of GKC who sent a telegram to his wife one day which read "Am in Market Harborough Stop Where ought I to be". I can imagine Prof Morris sending something similar from Hobart. But the visit here went well, though I was glad when it was over.

This was our second visit to Geelong, but better weather this time allowed a little more exploration of their fine waterfront. One of its features is a host of bollards painted, rather whimsically, to represent people, and apparently some local stories.

Geelong waterfront
No takers for the seawater pool yet

Botanical gardens
Nice cactus beds

Jean liked these metal trees

The rather nice botanical garden has this very proper lady and her butler. But why the slight blush? From behind we see that she is discretely nicking a few cuttings.

Caught in the act!

Then there were bathing beauties and lifeguards, but why is one of then carrying a seagull? and why do two of the others have black eyes?

Note the seagull in a bag
The rabbit turns up in many places

Two lovely black eyes
(But why?)

The waterfront extends right around the bay and offers a pleasant stroll and many opportunities for food and coffee. Having visited the interesting wool museum last time (Geelong was the main port for wool export and has many impressive old warehouses), we went to see the art gallery. Amongst the good things there we found this charming little statue. Why hasn't someone made a replica for sale? I'd buy one.

About half life size

And this week in Australia I couldn't finish without noting that it's the footy grand final this weekend and that Geelong are playing for the third year in a row. We were in town in 2007 on the day they won, but this year we were there for their victory in the semi-final. Hard to over-emphasise how important footy is for the town and indeed most people. They play St Kilda on Saturday afternoon. Go Cats!

The Geelong strip is blue and white, but the style has changed a bit

Spring has sprung

Despite the grey, wet weather of the last couple of days there is no doubt that spring has arrived at this end of the world, and we don't even need the official date of 1 September to remind us.

So here are a couple of pics from the garden to prove it.

Jeannie has a nice patch of hellebores that brighten the winter garden

And I love camellias!

Old EG Waterhouse makes a fine annual display at the front steps

And a dish of "hoop petticoat" daffodils on the front step

We shall be leaving all this soon for Texas (2 October) and I'm wondering what to do with the vegetable garden. Probably plant a few things early and hope for the best.

The Third Man

It's true, there is another grandson, and I fear we have been guilty of neglecting him in these pages, so here are some pictures of Curious George.

What can I tell you about him? He's four months old now, he's a great watcher (especially of his Mum) and he thinks his big brother is wonderful, even though he's a bit rumbustious at times. I can also testify that he's a little furnace: always a very warm cuddle. Not sure yet where he gets his looks and his nature; not obviously a Richardson, at any rate. Time will tell.

Here he is, getting dressed on our front room floor.

Love my Mum!

Two little boys

(Cue Rolf Harris)

So grown up, when you're going on two and a half.

But wait! There's more. We all (well, all less three) had dinner at the Mortons last night, so here's a bonus pic of a couple of old grandfathers and their grandsons.

Only a lite beer at that stage, I promise.

That's George and me, Russell and Campbell.

Wattle Blossom, and a sad story

You could hardly call winter in Tasmania dire. Here we are in the first week of August (=February, for you guys up the other end of the planet) and and there are daffodils everywhere, the camellias are all coming out, and amongst the native plants the wattles are putting on their annual display. I snapped a couple of examples on our way round the Inglis River walk at Wynyard this afternoon, but you don't get the perfume. Think almond essence.

Wattle blossom
An introduced species, I think

But this is a native
Good old Black wattle

And a sad tale. We were just congratulating ourselves on spotting well over our projected target of 23 bird species (including a White Goshawk) and getting a really good view of a Tasmanian Scrubwren, that should at last enable me to distinguish it from the elusive Scrubtit, when I noticed a bundle of feathers up a tree. On close examination it was a recently-dead Grey Thrush that had somehow managed to wedge its neck between two branches and hanged itself! We love Grey Thrushes because they are so tuneful, and will often enter into a conversation if you whistle back to them.

Just too greedy, I guess

Boat Harbour Bulletin

I believe our small (but select) readership will appreciate a short bulletin from the shack, if only to take their minds away for a while.

We are here briefly to meet the builder who is going to install our new windows in the kitchen and bathroom in the coming weeks. Jarrod Poke turns out to be a young bloke from Wynyard who lived in Kingston Beach (Auburn Road!) for a while, and was taught by Alan Snare. We were very happy with him and confident to leave him a key so that he can just get on with it when the windows are made.

Lots of Pokes up this way

Jarrod will soon be building the replacement shack at the prime end-of-the-road West Bay site where the old shack was half blown away (not very well built, Jarrod said). At our last visit it was being dismantled, and now it's gone altogether, and the old slab is being broken up. We hope the new place has a design to complement what must be one of the all-time great sites (even if it is a bit windy). Who could complain about having albatrosses gliding past 100m or so away?

The West Bay shack: going
That Beamer has been sitting outside, unloved, for weeks

Gone!

Of course we have made a weekend of it, and so far the weather has been wild (overnight) and then classic BH winter: clear blue sky darkened periodically as cold squalls blow over the top of the hill. The albatrosses like it, and so do we. On our walk this afternoon we had five eagles in sight at once: two sea eagles and three wedgetails!

The office ain't bad either.

It's really good for your eyes to have a long view when you're working on the computer

Oh, and because he was on the camera, here's grandson #1 in his natural habitat.

Angus playing cars with Budda