Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Miss E, Dad and Mr. Dylan
So sorry for the sideways orientation...I can't seem to figure out how to change it, but I think you can get the idea. WE LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Oh the weather outside is frightful...
Hello everyone,
It’s our 92nd week of living in Australia and it’s also the first day of summer down here. The 92 weeks have been good and have passed very quickly, the first day of summer brings with it the sad anticipation of 80%+ humidity and 30-35°C temperatures for the next 6 weeks at least. We spent the month of December in Canada last year so we had it easy, December being the BEST winter month in Canada and being the WORST summer month in Australia. Already I’m willing to admit that I’m unreasonably cranky these days due to the temperature, and this is only the beginning. We do have air conditioning in the house, thank goodness, and I’m at least aware enough to recognize that our family life is a lot better when we just turn the darn thing on, energy costs aside. Another factor that makes family life better is being able to cook on the barbeque. Anything that requires an oven to cook these days needs to be done first thing in the morning unless we’re going to be out of the house that day, it’s just too hot otherwise. We’ve discovered grilled veggies kebabs (pronounced kee-baabs in Aussie speak) over the past few months and just last night were exclaiming to each other about how crazy it was that we’re both extremely happy to mow down on a plate full of veggies for supper…our past carnivorous and/or very picky eating habits certainly wouldn’t have led us to believe it possible.
The Jacaranda trees have shed their purple flowers and have started to bud leaves, meanwhile everything else has come into full bloom. Especially lovely are the Poinciana trees right now, with incredibly vibrant red flowers. Our neighborhood has a few nice ones.
The birds are all back in full force now as well, making for many early mornings in the Jardine household. It’s quite a chorus at 4:30am…Edie likes to join in too. Christmas lights are also starting to make an appearance, but I’m just not sure that I can get too into it. I’ve had way too many Christmas lead-ups where the main thing that I wished for was a white Christmas, I’m an old dog and new tricks are rough on me. Every ounce of Christmas Laura wants to have snow. I guess I should count my blessings in that I won’t shovel snow for the following 4 months though. Once we get around to putting up a Christmas tree (i.e. dragging our potted plant from the backyard into the house) we’ll start to get in to the decorating thing. Also notably absent from our Christmas in Australia is our Christmas music, most of it being stashed away in our various storage places back in Canada. I don’t think Tim minds as much as I do, since I would have had it playing since oh, probably October, and he’s more of a December only kind of guy. I shouldn’t say that Christmas music isn’t available here, but a) we’re broke and b) I think we’d have a tough time finding what I miss the most- the Sufjan Stevens Christmas Box Set…If anyone has a spare and wants to send it our way…do it quick!
I’ve been getting Miss E out in the jogging stroller more and more these days. There was a long period where she didn’t want anything to do with strollers other than to push them along so we did most of our transporting with the backpack carrier. Now that she’s ~20 pounds (yup, she’s a small fry) it’s not so much fun to tote her around that way. Actually, last week I ended up having to run ~800m with her in the backpack during the middle of the day after carrying her around all morning. While she absolutely loved it, my body did not. I spent the next two days thinking that I was either pregnant or had Dengue fever because I was so tired (I have neither of those afflictions, just to reassure you). Either way, the early morning runs with the stroller have been good. Miss Edie just loves, loves, loves to go fast and to get a glimpse of all of the early morning traffic. She especially loves to wave at all of the busses and trucks as they pass by.
November, other than being the month where lots of men grew creepy ‘staches, was Australian music month. The radio station that we’re tuned into was playing all Aussie music all month and I’m happy to say that it was enjoyable! Making things especially easy on the ears was the fact that there was a big tribute weekend for Paul Kelly on the 13th and 14th of the month. I heard/read a number of interviews with Mr. Kelly (most humble musician out there I think) and there were rave reviews of the show and they’ve played scads of his stuff all month. He’s been making music here for 30 years here and has quite a back catalogue. If you haven’t given him a listen, we highly recommend it.
Tim came back from the Australian Rivers Institute annual forum telling me of a conversation that he’d had at the forum party about how every parent thinks that their infant is a genius. It’s funny, hey? Such simple things like being able to point to a ball and say “ball” make Tim and I go nuts with how smart and clever we think our little gal is (and she is clever and smart!). It’s always shocking to me when I see another child who exhibits the same traits as Edie, I somehow have them pegged as specific to our special little girl.
The reality is that children develop at very predictable and similar rates and in theory we know this, but we still think that our child is somehow unique and special in the things that she accomplishes (like walking…how many adults do you know who never learned how to walk? Or teething for that matter). I find it fascinating to think about this effect, as if it’s somehow ingrained into parents when that baby pops down the chute. It’s probably very good for children that we do feel this way. We’re still just so insanely proud of Edie. I can’t wait until we can share her with the rest of you back home.
Her new tricks of the day- spitting (I’m talking projectile) and biting her toys and screaming at them when they don’t do what she wants them to (most notably her sesame street vacuum cleaner). If anyone has any tips on how to nip these habits in the bud, we’re all ears. In the meantime, I'll be quietly repenting of all of the biting and spitting I did as a child. Sorry mom.
I’ll leave things there. Have a great week and maybe some nog on our behalf.
Love,
Laura
It’s our 92nd week of living in Australia and it’s also the first day of summer down here. The 92 weeks have been good and have passed very quickly, the first day of summer brings with it the sad anticipation of 80%+ humidity and 30-35°C temperatures for the next 6 weeks at least. We spent the month of December in Canada last year so we had it easy, December being the BEST winter month in Canada and being the WORST summer month in Australia. Already I’m willing to admit that I’m unreasonably cranky these days due to the temperature, and this is only the beginning. We do have air conditioning in the house, thank goodness, and I’m at least aware enough to recognize that our family life is a lot better when we just turn the darn thing on, energy costs aside. Another factor that makes family life better is being able to cook on the barbeque. Anything that requires an oven to cook these days needs to be done first thing in the morning unless we’re going to be out of the house that day, it’s just too hot otherwise. We’ve discovered grilled veggies kebabs (pronounced kee-baabs in Aussie speak) over the past few months and just last night were exclaiming to each other about how crazy it was that we’re both extremely happy to mow down on a plate full of veggies for supper…our past carnivorous and/or very picky eating habits certainly wouldn’t have led us to believe it possible.
The Jacaranda trees have shed their purple flowers and have started to bud leaves, meanwhile everything else has come into full bloom. Especially lovely are the Poinciana trees right now, with incredibly vibrant red flowers. Our neighborhood has a few nice ones.
The birds are all back in full force now as well, making for many early mornings in the Jardine household. It’s quite a chorus at 4:30am…Edie likes to join in too. Christmas lights are also starting to make an appearance, but I’m just not sure that I can get too into it. I’ve had way too many Christmas lead-ups where the main thing that I wished for was a white Christmas, I’m an old dog and new tricks are rough on me. Every ounce of Christmas Laura wants to have snow. I guess I should count my blessings in that I won’t shovel snow for the following 4 months though. Once we get around to putting up a Christmas tree (i.e. dragging our potted plant from the backyard into the house) we’ll start to get in to the decorating thing. Also notably absent from our Christmas in Australia is our Christmas music, most of it being stashed away in our various storage places back in Canada. I don’t think Tim minds as much as I do, since I would have had it playing since oh, probably October, and he’s more of a December only kind of guy. I shouldn’t say that Christmas music isn’t available here, but a) we’re broke and b) I think we’d have a tough time finding what I miss the most- the Sufjan Stevens Christmas Box Set…If anyone has a spare and wants to send it our way…do it quick!I’ve been getting Miss E out in the jogging stroller more and more these days. There was a long period where she didn’t want anything to do with strollers other than to push them along so we did most of our transporting with the backpack carrier. Now that she’s ~20 pounds (yup, she’s a small fry) it’s not so much fun to tote her around that way. Actually, last week I ended up having to run ~800m with her in the backpack during the middle of the day after carrying her around all morning. While she absolutely loved it, my body did not. I spent the next two days thinking that I was either pregnant or had Dengue fever because I was so tired (I have neither of those afflictions, just to reassure you). Either way, the early morning runs with the stroller have been good. Miss Edie just loves, loves, loves to go fast and to get a glimpse of all of the early morning traffic. She especially loves to wave at all of the busses and trucks as they pass by.
November, other than being the month where lots of men grew creepy ‘staches, was Australian music month. The radio station that we’re tuned into was playing all Aussie music all month and I’m happy to say that it was enjoyable! Making things especially easy on the ears was the fact that there was a big tribute weekend for Paul Kelly on the 13th and 14th of the month. I heard/read a number of interviews with Mr. Kelly (most humble musician out there I think) and there were rave reviews of the show and they’ve played scads of his stuff all month. He’s been making music here for 30 years here and has quite a back catalogue. If you haven’t given him a listen, we highly recommend it.
Tim came back from the Australian Rivers Institute annual forum telling me of a conversation that he’d had at the forum party about how every parent thinks that their infant is a genius. It’s funny, hey? Such simple things like being able to point to a ball and say “ball” make Tim and I go nuts with how smart and clever we think our little gal is (and she is clever and smart!). It’s always shocking to me when I see another child who exhibits the same traits as Edie, I somehow have them pegged as specific to our special little girl.
The reality is that children develop at very predictable and similar rates and in theory we know this, but we still think that our child is somehow unique and special in the things that she accomplishes (like walking…how many adults do you know who never learned how to walk? Or teething for that matter). I find it fascinating to think about this effect, as if it’s somehow ingrained into parents when that baby pops down the chute. It’s probably very good for children that we do feel this way. We’re still just so insanely proud of Edie. I can’t wait until we can share her with the rest of you back home.Her new tricks of the day- spitting (I’m talking projectile) and biting her toys and screaming at them when they don’t do what she wants them to (most notably her sesame street vacuum cleaner). If anyone has any tips on how to nip these habits in the bud, we’re all ears. In the meantime, I'll be quietly repenting of all of the biting and spitting I did as a child. Sorry mom.
I’ll leave things there. Have a great week and maybe some nog on our behalf.
Love,
Laura
Friday, November 20, 2009
Things that go "oink" in the night
No, it's not Edie, it's those pesky wild pigs that have invaded outback Australia. 
I was up in Kowanyama last month working on a new project we're developing in collaboration with the Ranger Office there. It is an attempt to determine just how badly the pigs, cattle and horses are mucking up the waterholes at this time of year, when they are the only remaining water sources in a very dry land.
To do this, we've set up a dozen cameras, some on time lapse, others on motion detect. These cameras take pictures of all the animal activity around the waterholes, including pelicans, corellas, brolgas and more. Note some of the temperatures recorded in the photos and you'll get a sense of the conditions we work in up there.
We then make measurements to see if the places that get visited most are the ones that are in the worst shape. This will help the community to decide if they should continue to invest money and time into placing fences around some these of sites to keep the animals out.
The waterholes are places of great cultural significance for the community and they also serve as seasonal sources of food (for example, one of the sites is called "Crayfish Hole" for obvious reasons). Before the introduction of pigs, cattle and horses, it is believed that the waterholes had clear, drinkable water and were covered with lilies. Now many of them are turned into glorified mud puddles. The community's vision is to see things returned to the way they used to be, so our job is to find out what is natural and what is caused by large foreign mammals. It's nice to know that our research is actually having an impact on the on-ground management of these special places. Too often we scientists bury ourselves in our self-directed research that may result in a journal article or two but has no real relevance to the community at-large.
So not long after I got back from that trip up north I was able to get in touch with an old friend - the pride of Sudbury Mr. Russell Vance. Turns out Russ and his fiance TL have moved to Brisbane. The great southern migration continues! There's plenty of room for more of you! Either way, it was great to see him again and catch up on our movements over the past five years. To sum up, he is youthful and stress-free as ever, and I have less hair and a child that wakes up at 5:00 am every morning. And let's not forget a loving wife of course.
Oh and before I go, here's a good story for you. I haven't written about Australia's slim water pickings in this space in awhile, and that's partly because of the good rains (at least in southeast Queensland) in the last year that have taken the pressure off the government to secure more water for a growing population. This has led to a bizarro scenario in which the following happened: 1) My boss wrote a report that was commissioned by the federal government; the report determined that a proposed dam on the Mary River (about 3 hours north of Brisbane) that was planned by the State government would have unacceptable consequences for some threatened native species of fish and amphibians, including the Australian lungfish. This was after the state government had already spent millions of dollars buying up land and paying consultants to plan the dam. 2) Based largely on the report, the Federal government used its sweeping powers to squash the dam proposal, which will presumably lead to higher water and power rates for us in the future. But here's the kicker - 3) The federal environment minister that made the decision? None other than former Midnight Oil lead singer Peter Garrett! You've gotta love Australia.
I was up in Kowanyama last month working on a new project we're developing in collaboration with the Ranger Office there. It is an attempt to determine just how badly the pigs, cattle and horses are mucking up the waterholes at this time of year, when they are the only remaining water sources in a very dry land.
To do this, we've set up a dozen cameras, some on time lapse, others on motion detect. These cameras take pictures of all the animal activity around the waterholes, including pelicans, corellas, brolgas and more. Note some of the temperatures recorded in the photos and you'll get a sense of the conditions we work in up there.
We then make measurements to see if the places that get visited most are the ones that are in the worst shape. This will help the community to decide if they should continue to invest money and time into placing fences around some these of sites to keep the animals out.
The waterholes are places of great cultural significance for the community and they also serve as seasonal sources of food (for example, one of the sites is called "Crayfish Hole" for obvious reasons). Before the introduction of pigs, cattle and horses, it is believed that the waterholes had clear, drinkable water and were covered with lilies. Now many of them are turned into glorified mud puddles. The community's vision is to see things returned to the way they used to be, so our job is to find out what is natural and what is caused by large foreign mammals. It's nice to know that our research is actually having an impact on the on-ground management of these special places. Too often we scientists bury ourselves in our self-directed research that may result in a journal article or two but has no real relevance to the community at-large.
So not long after I got back from that trip up north I was able to get in touch with an old friend - the pride of Sudbury Mr. Russell Vance. Turns out Russ and his fiance TL have moved to Brisbane. The great southern migration continues! There's plenty of room for more of you! Either way, it was great to see him again and catch up on our movements over the past five years. To sum up, he is youthful and stress-free as ever, and I have less hair and a child that wakes up at 5:00 am every morning. And let's not forget a loving wife of course.
Oh and before I go, here's a good story for you. I haven't written about Australia's slim water pickings in this space in awhile, and that's partly because of the good rains (at least in southeast Queensland) in the last year that have taken the pressure off the government to secure more water for a growing population. This has led to a bizarro scenario in which the following happened: 1) My boss wrote a report that was commissioned by the federal government; the report determined that a proposed dam on the Mary River (about 3 hours north of Brisbane) that was planned by the State government would have unacceptable consequences for some threatened native species of fish and amphibians, including the Australian lungfish. This was after the state government had already spent millions of dollars buying up land and paying consultants to plan the dam. 2) Based largely on the report, the Federal government used its sweeping powers to squash the dam proposal, which will presumably lead to higher water and power rates for us in the future. But here's the kicker - 3) The federal environment minister that made the decision? None other than former Midnight Oil lead singer Peter Garrett! You've gotta love Australia.
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