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St Helens Come and Try Orienteering

Sunday, 10 August 2025

One of the goals of starting the St Helens Orienteering Club was to put on some small events for the locals to try orienteering and yesterday was our very first one. 

Getting to the day was quite a lot of work, I had to get permission from the council, organise the creation of a new map (thanks Mark) of the foreshore area, design (thanks Zali) and get banners made, sort out equipment and bring it all up to St Helens, plan and then try to promote the event so people actually showed up.  

 

Yesterday was a lovely day for it, but we were pretty unsure that anyone would actually show up.  Once we got the controls out and all our banners in the ground Jon and I sat back fully expecting to be spending the next 2 hours chatting amongst ourselves then packing everything up again.  However much to our delight, lots of family groups turn up and nearly everyone did both the courses we'd set, some kids running the 1k course multiple times. As always the electronic timing is a big hit. 

So all in all, a lot of work but ultimately a big success.  I'm not sure any of our customers will convert to regular orienteers, but I know they'll all think fondly about orienteering if they cross paths with it again.

 

Before and After #59

Sunday, 10 August 2025

Another St Helens before and after. This one started with my mistake in ordering probably 5 x the amount of mulch we needed to re-mulch our garden area. I didn't get a good photo, but this resulted in a mulch mountain sitting on the front lawn, slowly killing off the grass underneath it.  

 

So we decided it was time to extend the garden beds. We had a few rocks and grasses sitting out on the lawn slightly weirdly anyway - so putting a bed around it would finally make them look better, and use up some of the mulch.  Unfortunately this meant we needed some more garden edging, which I had to go to Launceston to get, but since I was running out of some art supplies I was happy to spend half of Friday driving up to the big-smoke and getting supplies - including a little cart which would help us relocate our five zillion tonnes of mulch. This was worth the trip in itself (we had already looked locally but the options were too big and expensive at the local mitre 10). 

So now we have a new bed, some new plants and rocks that don't look quite as much like they fell from the sky:

 

We still had 2/3 of the extra mulch so that has now been relocated to the side of the house - I think we probably had enough to cover the entire front lawn!  I won't make that mistake again.

Green Space

Sunday, 16 March 2025

Even though our Melbourne apartment is surrounded by other apartment blocks in almost CBDish Southbank, I really love how our own street, and streets just around the corner  are so lovely and green even in midsummer:

Is it Cake?

Sunday, 16 March 2025

Zali made the most amazing 'farewell' cake for her last day of blueberry picking this season. It was intended to replicate the gross icecreem container full of water they used for cleanup jobs in the sorting shed and I think it was a pretty realistic result!

 

 

And just to prove it was actually cake (and chocolate and gelatine)... 

 

NZ - Oceania Champs 2025

Sunday, 16 March 2025

In late January Jon, Jett and I  went to NZ for the Oceania Orienteering Championships.   The trip was pretty quick - especially for me as I arrived a few days after Jon and JEtt on the Thursday and we all flew home on Monday night.  Everyone had at least one really good run during the championships. Jon's highlight was a fantastic win in the long distance race in the rain and Jett had some really strong results in his class.

While the terrain was just fantastic - soft pine forest with detailed dune contours, the weather was very variable (mostly wet), and the location a few hours north of Wellington  was not what you'd call a must-see destination.

 Still, travelling with friends is always fun and we had a great time.

 

 

A sunny day for the middle distance. 

 

  

 

We went for a swim at this beach before the thunderstorms hit later in the day. Not sure I love the black sand. 

 

On the last day of competition we had to leave the event at 12pm at the very latest in order to just make our flight back to Australia. As it was a relay day this meant that we had to run either in 1st or 2nd spot, and if in 2nd spot, we really had to hope that the first leg runner had a good run.  The rest of us were all fine, but unfortuately for Jett who was 2nd leg,  his first leg runner Niko didn't have a clean run, and even if he had, it was still doubtful whether he'd make it back in time as the courses were longer than expected. This meant Jett had to pull out half way though his race basically keep running all the way to our minivan so we could jump in and drive away at the last moment feasible. The 2 hour drive back to Wellington was a bit slow with some traffic hiccups but we made it comfortably in the end. On the way there was some grumbling about our choice to fly home Monday (so we could all go to work Tuesday) - but once we got back to Australia we heard that everyone who didn't get out of Wellington on Monday was stuck for days as all flights out were cancelled on Tuesday and then delayed on Wednesday. I'm really relieved as I had a crucial event at work on Tuesday I really needed to be in studio for. So phew.

 

Before and After #58

Sunday, 16 March 2025

Our first visit back to St Helens after a busy summer of guests revealed a bit of a to do list, starting with the garden..

 

No matter, it didn't take long to weed and get it back into shape:

 

Looking at the garden in this angle really reminds me of what was a large inspiration for the curved path and grasses - from one of our favourite spots nearby..

 

The beautiful pathway leads to one of our favourite beaches:

 

Tracy's 50th

Sunday, 16 March 2025

A few weeks ago Jon, Zali and I had the most magical weekend at Tracy's 50th Birthday weekend at Currawong Beach, nestled in the Kuringai Chase National Park.  Getting there was an adventure itself, we flew to Sydney where we met Zali who had come up from Melbourne, then Andy picked us up for the longish drive from the airport up to Palm Beach. From there it was a 30 minute ferry across Pittwater to the beach where we were welcomed by the caretaker like on Fantasy Island.  


The beach is round the corner from the popular camping spot The Basin where we spent a very wet weekend for Andy's birthday a number of years earlier, but Currawong Beach only has about 8 cabins that you have to book many many months in advance. Tracy booked the biggest house that fitted 16 of us, and Andy's family had a little cottage for 3.   All the beach's facilities were at our disposal - volleyball, tennis, golf (or disc golf), swimming and just relaxing and hanging out on the long picnic table in front of our house.  

 

While there were about 20 of us staying on the beach, another 20 or so friends arrived just for the day on Saturday so we had a big BBQ lunch with everyone. 

 

 

 

 

 

The weekend went by in a blur of laughter and games and fun - it feels like a bit of dream really.  Once again I'm so grateful that we have a great group of friends. 

 

Before and After #57

Sunday, 16 March 2025

I have my mosaic stuff out for the first time in many years as I'm working on another project that's been waiting for me for about a decade.  With all my equpment at my fingertips it was hard to ignore the fact that my mosaic blackboard by the front door was looking pretty ratty.

I've already restored it but that was probably more than 5 years ago, definitely time for more TLC

 

Once I took it off the wall it took about 2 weeks of small daily efforts to re-tile, repaint and then, in an effort to discourage tiles from dropping off the bottom every time it got bumped, frame. I'm happy with the final result. 

:   

 

4 days of Melbourne culture

Sunday, 5 January 2025

Jon and I are in Melbourne at the moment soaking up some local sports and culture via a jam packed schedule of activities.

 

After a 2am arrival (thanks Jetstar) we thankfully only had a musical at the Playhouse on the agenda the next day. We saw Dear Evan Hanson with Susannah, which was really enjoyable.  We followed that up the next morning with a visit to the unauthorised Banksy exhibition - where we were able to stencil our own t-shirts with a Banksy design which was really fun -  then we crossed town to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the NGV.  We rounded off the day with some soccer watching in the scorching heat of the late afternoon - although we'd both agree that the soccer itself was far from scorching.

 

 

 

The next day Jon went for a long run while I swam, then strolled to the South Melbourne Markets which is huge and has something edible or arty for everyone.  After lunch at home we headed out into the very hot afternoon to visit to the Van Gogh exhibition at Lume which I'd been meaning to go and see for years - it was cool inside and very relaxing and calm so a lovely experience. Afterwards we strolled home via the Southgate DFO which had a decidedly different pace.   

Today I seem to have picked up a cold of some sort so we have slowed down a bit with just a trip to Ikea in the morning (where we missed the breakfast menu by 1 minute which was very dissapointing).  This afternoon we've taken advantage of our air conditioning as it's still super hot outside - we might try our pool later on which has been absolutely heaving with people in the last few days (although I always manage to get a solo swim in the early mornings)

Zali is 21!

Sunday, 5 January 2025

Hard to believe but our lovely Zali is 21 !  As per her request we had a low key brunch and then birthday cake for lunch..

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Adventures

Thursday, 2 January 2025

As we weren't travelling between Christmas and New Year I really wanted to make the most of being at home, so I've been alternating each day with home tasks such as restoring the deck, and then with out-and-about mini adventure hikes and runs. The were mostly by myself but sometimes with family and friends. It all kicked off with a summer solstice trip up the mountain after work:

 

 

Then I did a few runs around Conningham and the Tangara trail on the eastern shore:

 

 

Then a longer and steeper trek around the Cathedral Rock loop:

 

 

Then Jon and I did the Three Capes Loop - well, he did a massive loop of 40ish k, I just did 17:

 

Then as I hadn't done it in a while, I went from the bottom to top of Mt Wellington:

Then my very favourite trip which was up to Hartz  Peak with Jon, Zali and Julia, on a perfect summer afternoon:

 

 

 

I now feel ready for 2025. 

More taste tests - Lune Croissants

Thursday, 2 January 2025

I am not super keen on croissants in general but since I've become aware of the famous Melbourne Lune store and the Lune founder who seems like a really interesting person I wanted to see if the very very highly rated croissants were noticebly better than a normal australian croissant, and if they were in fact sooo good that I'd change my mind about croissants in general.

My first obstacle to this investigaton was that I couldn't be bothered queuing outside the Lune store. Luckily for me though, I struck an unrelated deal with Zali that included her queuing for me as one of the conditions - so the experiment finally was able to occur.  After a 25 minute wait Zali returned with 2 samples - the Lune and one from the cafe underneath the building - and prepared a blind taste test for us.

 

Sure enough the Lune croissant (on the left) was easy to identify due to its superiority - it had much lighter flakier pastry than the competitor on the right.  I'd definitely prefer it if I had to eat a croissant but I'd definitely prefer a vanilla slice, or even vegemite toast though!

Zali also brought back a few other treats from Lune which had amazing citrussy filling and were really really good - so I'd still recommend Lune to any fellow croissant non-believers.

KI not quite Christmas visit

Thursday, 2 January 2025

This year we decided to go to South Australia early as it was Hobart's turn for Christmas Day celebrations and we got some really good direct flights with Jetstar so we headed over Wednesday after work. After a day at Hilary and Tony's place (I had to work), we drove down to get the last ferry to Kangaroo Island where we were warmly welcomed by Jon's mum and sat down for a lovely late dinner.    

Kangaroo Island is famous for its special bees and consequently its special honey and honey products.  Every time we visit we make sure to support the local industry by visiting at least one of the honey places. This time we decided it was essential to discover which place (of the 3) had the best honey icecream.  This was not a simple undertaking - the three places were many kilometres apart and we needed to plan our run - although we pretty quickly realised we could rule the third honey place out of the competition as it didn't actually produce honey icecream - so that left two places, one in Kingscote, and the other in the middle of no-where.  

On the way to the first place we checked out some local galleries and the legendary hardware store (that has everything) then we drove to  Island Beehive and bought both their varieties - Cap Gum and boubialla.  We stashed it (organ transplant like) in our eski and drove to Cliffords honey farm where we purchased the competing product and did our very scientific blind testing sitting in the shade under a big tree. 

   

  

Ultimately we unanimously agreed that the original store (Cliffords) sold the best honey icecream (price was the same so it wasn't a factor), followed by the cap gum and the boubialla.  All of it was pretty delicious though.

We spent the rest of the holiday relaxing, swimming, going  playing mini golf and generally being treated very well by Jon's mum although unfortunately both Zali and Jett got sick for a day but were looking better by the time we left.


The last night and day of our Adelaide trip was spent at Andrew and Teri's amazing new house - I had to work all day but everyone else got out for disc golf and a swim, then we nearly missed our  flight home (or at least our baggage did) as we didn't check our flight times and had the wrong time in our minds, only realising 5 minutes from the airport that we had 6 minutes left to check our baggage in.  Despite Jon's speedy driving efforts and us running to the bag drop area, we missed the cut off by a minute.  LUCKILY, and miraculously - given Jetstars cutthroat reputation, the departures area was practically empty and the people behind the service desk were happy enough to fix us up so we could get our bags to hobart.  Thank goodness. 

Julie's 50th

Thursday, 2 January 2025

 

I've been pretty lucky with weekends with friends lately as November was also the month of Julie's 50th birthday girls weekend at her new-ish place in the Blue Mountains.  Last time we gathered together like this was for her 40th on the south coast of NSW for a weekend of stand up paddling and beach hanging-out. This was the mountains version of that weekend with a bit more running and hiking and it was fantastic.

 

The weather was a bit rainy but we still had time for a couple of runs, a few nice walks, a visit to the rhododendum garden and lots and lots of chatting and hanging out. So nice.

 

 

 

 

Inverloch

Thursday, 2 January 2025

There are lots of things we are looking forward to now that we have a Melbourne base, and one of them is being able to spend time with Melbourne friends, in particular my very good friend since a million years ago - Susannah - definitely my favourite housemate when I was at uni in the 90s.

 

It's great timing by Jon and I as Susannah and her partner Owen have just bought a holiday house in Inverloch - a surfy seaside town to the east of Melbourne so when Susannah suggested we visit overnight I was totally on board! 

On Saturday we left Melbourne pretty early and stopped on the way to pick up Susannah's brand new paddle board, then we still had time to visit the local library - yes LIBRARY! - to borrow another paddle board for me.  It was extremely hot that day, so paddling up and down the inlet was an absolute delight.  We did get a bit hot though so it was nice to take a quick swim in the pretty cold water afterwards.  In the evening we went for a lovely walk around … which was fantastic then we had a nice relaxed dinner and both nearly fell asleep watching tv.

 

 

On Sunday the weather broke so the day was pretty wet, but we still managed a nice trip to the farmers market for gin, fruit, plants and one of the best Portuguese tarts I have ever eaten - then we headed off to our 2nd (or maybe third) adventure of the weekend which was a walk / jog around XX.  Susannah walked while I set off on the advertised 5ish k loop but I pretty quickly lost the overgrown trail and ended up popping out on a huge beach feeling like I was the only human on earth. I figured I could continue my loop and pick up the track where it was supposed to meet the end of the peninsula about 2k away but when I finally got to the end I searched everywhere for the track but it was not to be found - so rather than bush bash for a kilometre to a larger track (which would have been on my hands and knees), I turned around and ran back down the beach, keeping my eye out for my own tracks as I would never had hit my exit point otherwise. I eventually made it back to the car and Susannah (who confirmed the track was missing) and we went back home for a shower and leftovers for lunch.  

Later on Owen arrived so we had a chance to go for a nice walk around the really pretty suburb before we headed home - Inverloch has lots of beautiful native gardens and a really nice feel.  

 

So we had a great weekend - their new shack is lovely - perfect for holidays with lots of space and a lovely garden to relax in, in a beautiful part of Victoria. 
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