Hamster Dancin' Around the World

Hallooooooo DadPad - it's been a while! hope the holidays are great for you.

I'm loving my time with Nettie and NotNed. They might as well be old-time A2kers - they know how to show a girl a good time.

Penny, I think they're honorary Old Time A2kers by now..

Plus they have excellent screen names.

Wishing you a fine new year, Penny Wonderful.

Oooh, only just seeing this, wonderful!

I love the whole summer picnic vibe, so weird for us northern hemisphere types! Cold (well below freezing) and gray here. The mangoes look scrumptious!

What's the story with the paper crowns?

Damn things come in Christmas crackers....


Some people actually wear them.



I have refused to wear them since I became a grumpy pre-adolescent.

I see!

Christmas crackers I knew about but not the crowns.

Thankeeverymuch.

I love Christmas crackers - the goofy little prizes - and the crowns.

That's how I can tell I've been invited to a proper English Canadian Christmas.

A real ethnic adventure when I was a kid. White bread, peanut butter, tinned tomato soup and Christmas crackers.

Serious about the peanut butter and tinned tomato soup?


Australia seems to have run with very different English christmas traditions!

(Though we have kind of let most of them go....those crackers are still often there though)

white bread and pb on a small plate - in our subdivision, this was a mealtime staple

canned tomato soup was one of the premier appetizers in the early 1960's. I thought it was terribly exciting to not have to have home-made soup.

Canadian kids got all the good stuff - at Christmas - and generally at meal time. I was envious of all the packaged food they had.

Oh...we had tinned tomato soup up the wazoo...it was big for Sunday tea....but not at CHRISTMAS!!! I think we only had peanut paste (the dairy folk here wouldn't let it be called butter) as a special treat.

I think tomato was the only non-home made soup we ever had.

We had white and wholemeal bread.

When I was little the Australian middle class stay at home mother made EVERYTHING except bread herself...and everyone had a Fowlers Vacola preserving kit and preserved all the fruit from the back yard.

One minced one's own meat...both my big toe nails are permanently split down the middle from dropping this fearsome beast on myself...

You English subjects are such whiz-bangers. I guess that's the reason we Yanks save the heavy fireworks for 4th of July - and a pot of beer!

Pretty warm all round at Christmas here.

Happy New Year, Penny and all.

It's 2011!
Another ripper day shaping up here at Kiama! 5.30am, just starting to get light, the sky is clear, and there's a light north easterly breeze. Gunna be a warm one.

And I have to drive home today

I got caught in the act here trying to have another taste of sweet chilli dip. Having a wonderful time out here at Lake Meran again, it is an amazing lake, who would have thought 4 months ago it was completely empty. Nettie and Ronnie were out in their kayaks again. Saw plenty of water skiers and other boating activities. Even some people trying their luck at fishing. You can just see the top of the diving platform in the pic on the right. I will get Ron or Net to put up a link to his youtube video which is made up of photos of the lake filling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncyT2N0CchE
This is the series of photos over about 2 months showing the lake refilling. Since then the log has been more than half submerged! I will try to catch up on this project soon.
Ron

That was really interesting.

I learn so much through Penny's travels.

Thank you for posting that NoRelation.

Wow! How long was the lake dry? What caused it to become dry and then be refilled?

I agree with ehBeth, Penny always gathers interesting stories and history around her. Thanks for posting, NoRelationToNed!

The Lake was dry for 7 long years. Lake Meran needs flood water to fill it and so after many years of drought it eventually dried up.In the past 4 months there has been substantial rainfall and therefore floods. We thought it would take years to fill but were amazed it only took 4 months.
The lake water at the moment has a strange brown (coke like) colouration due to what they call 'tannin' This is caused by the decomposing vegetation which is now at the bottom of the lake and all other surrounding waterways in the area. Unfortunately this decomposing process takes the oxygen out of the water and so fish can die in huge numbers, can be a major problem, but thankfully not too bad out at Lake Meran. Another name for this water is 'blackwater'

Australian flooding reaching 'Biblical' proportions:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/01/03/132625271/australias-biblical-flooding-continues

Well, the ******* drought was ******* biblical......so it goes.

Yeah, you guys get it bad in both directions. So which way does a widdle bunny (or hamster) like it best anyways - drenched or parched?

Hope Penny can keep her fur dry....
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/01/australian_flooding.html