Tagua nut necklace

I pulled out my jewellery-making box on Sunday and got creative. I bought these tagua nut buttons from Etelage in Newtown ages ago, but hadn't used them. Tagua nuts come from a palm tree found in the Andes in South America, and are used as an elephant ivory substitute. They dye well and I was lucky to be able to choose from a large range of colours. I wove together the buttons with waxed cotton, tying a knot after the last button. I then twisted the two strands before closing them with a crimp end and a clasp. The buttons aren't cheap at $3.95 each. The materials for this necklace cost me about $65.

Cycle Gerringong

Lesson learned. Before you get too carried away with how green the grass is, think a little about what made it green and how close it might be! As you can see by the stormy sky, my bike ride around Gerringong, Shoalhaven Heads and Berry on the weekend wasn't all blue skies and sunshine. Just mostly. The 60km ride varied from undulating hills to long flat sections through Seven Mile Beach National Park. The worst part of the ride is 8-10km of road with no shoulder and regular traffic, but this is far outweighed by a stop at Shoalhaven Heads to take a walk on Seven Mile Beach, sampling wine at Coolangatta Estate Winery and Two Figs Winery, and cafes and shops full of interior decorations in Berry. You may not get the most out of this ride if you're the type focused on riding from point A to point B. There are enough hills to keep the heart pumping and the muscles working, but I like my rides to be scenic as well, and the area between Seven Mile Beach and Berry has that in spades. After a quality breakfast and coffee at the Gerringong Cafe and Deli, two friends and I started the ride in sunshine. It suddenly became humid while we were tasting wine at Coolangatta Estate, and then the big drops started falling. We thought the rain was going around us, but no such luck. We took a ten minute break under a tree to sit out a heavy downpour and then we were back on the road. No more rain, and stunning skies for photos. A late lunch at the Hedgehog Cafe in Berry, a spot of window shopping, and then the prettiest part of the ride following Toolijoa Road. Great ride. Free tip - you can really feel a bottle of wine in your pannier when you hit the hills.

Mudgee Wine Festival

Last weekend I went to the Mudgee Wine Festival... in Manly. For those of you who don't know Sydney, they're two places separated by 280km, a mountain range and a cultural divide. Mudgee is an attractive town in the country, north-west of Lithgow. Manly is a beach suburb on a peninsula at the mouth of Sydney Harbour and a mecca for backpackers. Mudgee is a well-known wine region, and because of it's historic buildings, great pubs and even better local produce, it's a popular place to go for weekends away. But Mudgee also comes to the city for a day or two each year. With the help of two friends on a gorgeous sunny day, I sampled over twenty wines - the benefit of going with friends. $25 buys you a wine glass and ten tasting tickets which allow you to sample the wares from numerous marquees spread out on the lawns of Manly's 'castle'. Worth a look on any day, the St Patricks College grounds are open to the public. The building now houses a hospitality school, but once served as a seminary for the Catholic church. There were whites and reds, dessert wines and some great Rose's. I couldn't resist a Temperanillo from Optimiste, a Merlot Rose from Burrundulla, and a Cabernet Rose from Robert Stein, and also fell victim to a caramelized balsamic vinegar from Noble House Fine Foods. Keep an eye out for the event next year, or go to the real thing held during the month of September in Mudgee. 

Mountain Biking

Oh the rattling, eyeball shaking, shoulder tensing, dust creating, rock sliding fun of it all! Tip: it's probably best not to attempt mountain biking for the first time on a hybrid that has slicks and nooo suspension. Apart from my morbid fear that the combination of vibration and lack of vision might throw me from my bike, this was a most enjoyable first. In September I went with my club (SPAN Outdoors) to do a 40km ride along the Kings Tableland Road from Wentworth Falls to Mc Mahon’s Point lookout and return. This is an undulating cliff top dirt road, with stunning views over Lake Burragorang from the lookout. It's pretty easy as cycles go; there are no killer hills and the surface is pretty good. I'd always put off trying mountain biking because I disliked losing traction. And losing traction in sand was probably the only thing on the ride that I really disliked. I’m told this is easily improved by having knobbly's on your bike. The attraction is definitely the much broader range of tours I can now consider. I may have to buy a mountain bike though…

Latte art

I learnt how to stretch last weekend. I haven't got a personal trainer, I've just learnt how to make a coffee. I can't drink a lot of it myself, as I get the shakes, but I still love it and wanted to get over my fear of coffee machines. I got a half-price deal on a one-day course at the Sydney Coffee School and on a sunny Saturday, headed to school. The Sydney Coffee School provides training for baristas wanting to work professionally, and for people like me who just want to make their own. Everyone gets their own coffee machine and an endless supply of milk and coffee. I got the hang of making espressos pretty quickly, but I admit to trouble with 'stretching' the milk.

Stretching milk is the process of adding foam and texture to your milk while heating it. The secret is to keep the steam wand at the right depth for the type of coffee you're making. For a cappuccino you want your milk to have some froth, whereas for a latte, the milk should stay more substantial. If you're doing latte art, the milk has to be perfect, especially for a layered drink or to do etching. It took me a while to get the hang of stretching the milk. I was okay at latte milk, but my cappacino milk was either too thin or became meringue. The photo is of my mocha. I started with the milk pour, then added the chocolate sauce, which sank to the bottom. We then poured the espresso over the back of a teaspoon, and then decorated the top. If your milk isn't right, the chocolate sauce decoration sinks straight away. I also had a pretty good go at etching, basically drawing designs on the top of the coffee with a skewer and chocolate sauce (which I personally think would ruin the taste, and they couldn't give me any real alternative - I suspect you can do it with crema). I was really bad at pouring art. It must take so much practice to get it right. By that stage of the day I had the milk worked out, but then my hands just wouldn't cooperate and I ended up with something that looked roughly like clouds! I wouldn't hire me yet, but if you have a coffee machine and you're willing to be a guinea pig, I'm willing to practice :)

Cutting off the curls

I've always had so many reasons for not cutting my hair short. My past boyfriends preferred I didn’t, or I thought it might affect my chances on online dating sites. I'm sure most men can look past a hairstyle, but the photo counts for so much on an online dating site. I once tested how many responses I got first with a photo with my hair curly, and secondly with straight hair. Curly hair lost. Then there's the wierd mohawk you wake up with in the morning. However, short hair does wonders for my face, bringing out my eyes and exposing my neck. I can show off my jewellery and I don’t have to decide how to do my hair in the morning. I’m saving money because I need less hair product, and I’m saving the planet because I need less water to wash out said hair product. I’ve put off cutting my hair for years, and I’m ecstatic that I’ve finally done it. Now that it’s short, a dramatic colour change isn’t such a risky option. Thus I replace one quandary with another. Pink or blonde?

New huts and Mt Jagungal

Cesjacks

O'Keefes

   

The following weekend (28 August) I met up with a few people from SPAN Outdoors for a backcountry ski trip. I got to see four huts on this trip I hadn’t seen before: Wallaces, Cesjacks, O’Keefes (new version) and Mackays. I’m slowly working my way through the Snowy Mountain Huts, and was lucky enough to see a few before they were lost in the bushfires of 2003. Dad took me to O’Keefes one summer when I was about 17, so I’d seen the original version, and it was great to see the replacement built in 2009. As a member of the Kosciuszko Huts Association, Dad was a proud member of the working party that rebuilt the hut. They did a great job, using recycled and aged materials and lining the hut with newspapers from the 1930’s. Unfortunately they didn’t finish covering the lining with plastic, so a lot of the papers are being damaged and you have to leave the door slightly open when the fire is lit to prevent asphyxiation from smoke (very authentic). Cesjacks was packed to the brim with a working party. There must have been about twenty people crowded into it cooking their dinner. A crowd always means a more social night! Mackeys is a little more isolated and so was quieter. I’d like to head back to it at some stage to explore the area between the hut and the Happy Jacks Plains. It was a big moment to ski to the top of Mt Jagungal. My father has asked that when he dies I throw his ashes from this majestic mountain at the northern end of Kosciuszko National Park. As one of the true areas of wilderness in the Snowy Mountains, I have to applaud his choice.

 



Mackeys

Wallaces at dawn (private)



Camping and kangaroos in the snow

I camped at Thredbo Diggings in my dad’s campervan on my own for a few days after my beginners weekend. I fell in love with this luxurious style of camping but think that my social life could take a critical dive if I were to buy one. Skiing on the tops wasn’t an attractive option in a heavy blizzard and gale-force winds, so I decided to relax in my camper. During my idyll I took a walk through light snow cover and nearly walked straight past a large male eastern grey kangaroo, the first one I've seen in the snow. He was stretched out in the sun and wasn’t bothered at all when I sat only two metres away to take photos. I was ready to run, particularly when he started flexing his claws. His only concern was my walking past him to leave, at which point he growled at me. After another day of heavy snowfalls, I even managed to ski at Thredbo Diggings – rare indeed.

Teaching cross-country skiing

Teaching someone to ski is sooo different from just skiing. The masochist in me decided that I should contribute to my outdoors club by running a ski trip for beginners. My first ever trip as a leader and I organise a three day trip a long distance from home, for beginners. As soon as I volunteered and it was in the club program, I was terrified and started reading every tip I could find on the web about teaching skiing. There were only two absolute beginners on the trip, but that was well and truly enough to keep me busy. They might have appreciated a few more though – I think I overwhelmed them with my helpfulness and advice :S  They would have laughed if they’d seen me the following weekend. Put a pack on my back and suddenly I’ve lost control of my skis. It didn’t help that due to the ten degree days the snow had a really bad crust on it late in the day. Not easy skiing. I had one of my funniest falls ever on this trip. I fell on my face, with the tips of my skis into the snow, my stocks and hands locked under my chest and my pack forward and resting on my head. I couldn’t move. The guy that came to help couldn’t tell if I was crying out in pain so despite being tempted he didn't stop to take a photo. Shame is I was actually laughing and would have loved the photo! He had to remove my skis and lift me up by my pack. Back to the beginners and the thing I had most trouble with was getting them to go with the glide of their ski – they tended to pull back once the ski started sliding. Anyway, I was really proud that the group managed a 15km ski from Perisher to Charlotte’s Pass and back, and stayed in good spirits, and improved by the end of the weekend. After being tempted many times to cancel the trip, I’m glad it went ahead because it was really satisfying. I may even do it again next year.

Cheesemaking

You’re doing well if you escape the Haute-Savoie region of France without developing a love for cheese. When I lived there in 2006, the supermarket had two aisles of cheese and goat’s cheese was so cheap I ate it on a daily basis. It was heaven. I returned to Australia and to paying upwards of $40 a kilo for specialty cheeses. So imagine my interest when I discovered that it was possible to make cheese at home. I bought a kit to try at home, but couldn’t make head or tail of it. In August this year I found a course run by Graham of Cheesemaking, held at The Essential Ingredient in Rozelle, Sydney, NSW, Australia. They have a purpose-built training kitchen in the shop. We made quark, greek feta, chabachou, stabilised camembert, traditional camembert, cheddar, milk ricotta, and whey ricotta. The biggest challenge was working out how to get my cheese home! Being a confirmed cyclist meant I had to strap a full-sized esky to the rear rack on my bike. It must have been a funny sight. I now feel completely confident I can make cheese at home. You don’t need much special equipment, and nothing can beat being able to say that a specialty product is home-made. I made my quark into a German cheesecake, my whey ricotta into pancakes (yum!), the milk ricotta was thrown together with peas and chicken in a light and delicious pasta, and I turned the chabachou into marinated Persian feta. Last Thursday I sampled the camembert with friends, and it was creamy and full of flavour – nothing like the supermarket. The worst bit is I still have to wait at least seven more months to try my cheddar!

Blogging

It seems a logical place to start doesn't it? I've always wanted to write for others and I've finally been inspired to start by my friend Wendy, whose fantastic blog Le Franco Phoney discusses (in her words) "all things French as seen by an outsider". So here I am. This blog will be about my first attempts. I succeed, I spend a lot of money, I fail. I'm not too worried if I fail because I'd rather fail than be stuck with 'what if?'. I have no regrets, and everything I've tried has helped me to grow. Hopefully I've got something interesting to say ... stay posted :)