Greyhounds and Grazing

Greyhounds

Who knew that they came in so many colours?  On Friday, there was a meet-up of greyhound owners for a 3.5 km walk starting at Kent Street Weir.  All the dogs are rescued from the racing industry, where they are put down when they are no longer bringing in big $$$. They make gentle and loving pets, but must always be kept on a lead in case they revert to type and chase smaller creatures. 

At first the dogs were suspicious of one another.
There were a few growls.

C and Rocky, eager to get going.

Canning Regional Park has lovely walking trails.
The dogs brought a smile to the faces of other walkers.

A group of volunteers pedal around with trishaws,
giving free rides round the park.

This is their vehicle.
I booked a ride for JL next week.

There is a nice coffee spot at the end.

Grazing

Perth City Farm held a Great Grazing Market today. It was to showcase produce from the south-west, and to teach people how to make a splendid grazing platter. Alannah MacTiernan was there to open the event in her capacity as Minister for Regional Development, Agriculture and Food. She didn't dress up for the occasion. As usual, her hairstyle was modelled on Boris Johnson's. No photo!

Experts preparing a huge platter.

Too beautiful to eat (almost!)

Apples and pears in abundance.

Fuji apples (on the right) are my favourite.
She gave me two.

Milford Winery had a stall.
I bought some Brinjal Chutney.

It was a bit early for wine-tasting. I had hoped to have breakfast, or at least brunch, but the queue for coffee was too long. In the end I had to settle for a taste of cumquat-infused gin!

Perth City Farm is a community vegetable garden.
It is run by volunteers.

Some of my spoils.

I also got various freebies: potatoes, apples, bananas and a piece of honey-flavoured muffin.

Potato and rosemary traybake,
inspired by a free cookbook.

Down by the river

Some of the Bushwalking Group asked for some easy mid-week walks, in the Perth area and accessible by public transport. Today was the first one. The weather was glorious: a perfect Autumn day (warm and sunny but only 24 degrees after a very cool start of 11 degrees). 

We walked from Canning Bridge as far as the Bluewater Grill at Heathcote, where we stopped for a long coffee break. Val and I caught up with all the news and we were reluctant to leave the lovely spot to keep going again.

These easy walks are set to become a monthly event as ageing joints prevent us from doing 15 km as we used to!

A Walk in the Forest

We had lots of rain today. A bushwalk was scheduled for Pickering Brook, but the forecast was so bad that the leader decided to cancel at the last minute. There is a severe cyclone warning for up north, and Perth is getting the tail end of it. However, a few of us didn't get the message or decided to go anyway. It has been too hot to walk for weeks, so a walk in the rain seemed like a nice change. Jack strode off, intending to do the entire 11 km route, but three of us decided to walk for about an hour and then turn back when the rain got too heavy (which it did!) The trees were dripping wet and the track was muddy, but we enjoyed being out in the forest.

Twisted and gnarled tree.

Grass Tree.

Grass Tree close-up.

Top left and bottom right are "water bushes".
The flat leaves collect and retain water.

This is the Munda Biddi Trail,
a long distance bike path,
but no cyclists today!

Banksia recovering from a fire.

A Walk in the Park

At the end of the month, I’m planning to drive up to the Kimberley. To remind myself of some of the plants I’ll see up north, I went to Kings Park botanic section to see what is in flower at this time of year. There are parts of the garden devoted to each region. This is a tiny fraction of what I saw:

The plant diversity in Western Australia is pretty amazing in itself, but there are also lots of endangered species to think about.

Hairy Sucker Grevillea;
Tiny ground cover, vulnerable in the dry Wheatbelt.

Eneabba Mallee.

Phalanx Grevillea.

Round leaf Honeysuckle.

This really is soft and silky to the touch;
the cultivated variety not so much.

Grevillea intricata.

Hakea rhombales.

Kingsmill's Mallee, Pilbara.

Acorn Banksia.

Looking down on the Old Swan Brewery and the river.

Chinese tasting

E has a part-time job in a Fremantle Dumpling House. I wanted her to experience an up-market Chinese restaurant by comparison. Silks at Crown Perth is the place. C had given me a Crown gift card for Christmas, so the three of us blew it on a splendid meal. We all ordered the Tasting Menu, which included small servings of all their signature dishes.

The mysterious entrance to Silks.

The two erstwhile vegetarians decided to indulge in everything on the menu, including wok fried beef fillet and Peking duck wrapped in a pancake.

My favourite dish:
King Prawns tossed in Tamarind Sauce.

Top: Peking Duck pancake;
Bottom left: assorted dim sum;
Bottom right: dessert.

The dessert was a beautiful concoction which resembled Chinese lacquer. It consisted of  a dark chocolate shell filled with blackberries citrus jelly and other small delicacies.

E looked very glamorous in a strapless outfit.

I just looked my normal self.

Everything was unbelievably delicious. I was still full next morning! Where can we try next?

Astra Zeneca

Queuing outside the COVID vaccination clinic. 

Roll-out of vaccinations has ben slow in Australia. This week saw the start of Phase 1B, which meant that I was eligible. No chance of getting an appointment, I thought. Then I saw the Vic Park Respiratory Clinic pictured on the news on Monday night. I know this place, because I shop at Aldi, just opposite. I quickly got online and made a booking. Because it's a new clinic, there were lots of spaces. Most doctors' surgeries are still phone-only, so it would have been hopeless trying to get through this week.

They were calling in 4 people at a time and we all sat in a row waiting for the jab. I was first in line. There was a slight hiccup with the girl sitting next to me, when some of her injection sprayed outwards from the needle and landed on my arm. Did she get enough? Who knows? Did I receive an additional amount through the skin? All I can say is the side effects were not nice. We see politicians claiming they didn't feel a thing from the jab (which is true), but nobody speaks about the side effects. I felt very poorly for about 36 hours: headache and joint pain and generally under the weather. In the night I wondered if the cure was worse than the illness.

I feel better now, and have the second vaccination in 12 weeks to look forward to.

Gender bias?

There has been a spate of rape allegations in the Australian parliament and more young women have been coming forward to tell their stories and to demand a safer workplace. This set me thinking about my early career: nothing so horrendous happened to me, but here are a few reminiscences about gender bias.

1) In my early 20’s I was in charge of a small branch of Sheffield City Libraries, with a staff of five. The libraries were used as Polling Stations and public servants could earn a tidy sum working at the elections. Libraries closed on Thursdays to allow this. Women were normally Polling Clerks. Men were Presiding Officers. I applied to become a Presiding Officer. I was in charge of the library for the rest of the year. Why not on Election Day? What if there is some kind of an Incident, they said. There is always a policeman on duty, I replied. They had to agree in the end. When I went to the City Hall for the swearing in, I found myself in a room with a hundred or so men.  A small victory, I thought!

2) The post of Reference Librarian in charge of the Science and Technology Library was advertised. The obvious candidate was an efficient woman who had worked there for many years. When she went to ask for an application form, they wouldn’t give her one. The top brass favoured an up-and-coming young man from outside. He got the job! She was too shocked by the whole business to protest. It was all kept very quiet at the time. Later, the whizz-kid moved on and she finally got the job.

3) I applied for a position as Librarian at a top London boys' school. I believe I was the best candidate. On my visit to the school I became uneasy about the ethos there. Women seemed to be in all the more subservient roles: matrons, secretaries, art teachers. I sensed that this was not the place for me. The previous Librarian was a man who was retiring, but there were no male applicants. They gave the job to a local girl; they wouldn't have to pay my relocation expenses from Wales. Single sex schools are a breeding ground for perpetuating male notions of superiority. 

3. Many years later, in Australia, I came across this riddle, which I told to a man I know well. Like many others, he couldn’t solve it. Men of a certain age are entrenched in old beliefs and unfortunately that applies to many of our parliamentarians of the same generation. Yesterday’s March4Justice and the reaction to it show that there is a long way to go. 

A father and son get in a car crash and are rushed to the hospital. The father dies. The boy is taken to the operating room and the surgeon says, “I can’t operate on this boy, because he’s my son.”

How is this possible?

40-75% of people can’t solve this riddle because they’re unable to imagine the surgeon is a woman. The surgeon is the boy’s mother.