Christmas on the Beach

By -
We spent Christmas at Manly beach with our friends Tracy and Andy who were visiting from the UK. Check out the the slideshow below.
I'll let you guess who's who



Some Notes on the Slideshow
- We took a ferry from the city to get to Manly. The Manly ferry is apparently world famous. I guess I'm sheltered because I didn't hear about it until I got to Sydney.
- Andy is grilling up lunch on a communal barbecue. Many parks and beaches provide both propane and the grills. This has to be a uniquely Australian thing.
- Lunch consisted of beef sausages, veggie burgers, grilled peppers and onion, kalamata olive tapenade, hummus, veggie sticks, crackers, crisps and cake (lots of cake).
- The paper crowns Jean, Tracy and Andy are wearing are part of a English tradition that also involves a toilet paper roll and painful puns e.g.. Why did the golfer bring two pairs of trousers? This one has Jean doubled over with laughter.
- The sandcastle I'm building is a not so exact replica of Angkor Wat. This one apparently developed a gopher problem. 
- Tracy and Andy are on honeymoon. The running barefoot on the beach requirement somehow got slipped into their prenuptial agreement. Damn those lawyers.
- Those no swimming signs are just suggestions.




Comments

M and C said…
Merry xmas. Brillaint that you got photos up so fast. I hope you enjoyed the crackers - Jean's hat is very fetching. Very different to a beach in the uk at Christmas!
25 December 2011 at 11:02
Anonymous said…
Hi Jean and Aaron, what a lovely christmas day! Manly beach was one of my favourites and seeing the pictures is making me really excited to visit again! Looking forward to seeing you both in a few weeks, Vicky xx
26 December 2011 at 12:36
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Black Soldier Fly Larva Harvester

By -
Image
Black soldier fly larva are voracious decomposers. Here's a video  of a some larva completely devouring a hamburger over the course of five hours. And here's a video of some chickens completely devouring some black soldier fly larva. Black soldier flies have some curious qualities that make them particularly well suiting for cultivating their larva as fodder for your feathered friends: As stated before black soldier fly larva are voracious. They will eat fish and meat scraps that you would not typically put in your compost pile for fear of attracting larger vermin. They break down organic material into usable compost extremely rapidly. As an added bonus black soldier fly larva eat the eggs of other fly species who foolishly lay their eggs in rotting organic material. This severely diminishes your population of house flies and fruit flies. I had a compost pile that was beset with fruit flies until the black soldier fly larva moved in. When a black soldier fly larva is re...
Read more

Roundwood Building Workshop

By -
Image
I went to a Roundwood Building Workshop this weekend. Roundwood is timber that is left as logs rather than being cut into planks. We constructed a shelter for a cob pizza oven (yet to be constructed). The timer is a mix of red cedar and ash juniper. Before doing anything with it we had to take the bark off it to prevent insect infestation down the road. The night before the project leaders charred the end of the posts that would be put in the ground. The charring is another insect infestation prevention measure. Getting the cut ends charred is of particular importance. The post holes were dug to a depth of 2-3'. We also half buried a couple of dozen roofing nails in the charred end of each post for additional stabilization. The cool thing about roundwood is that you can use features of the tree(like this limb) to add beauty and support. This limb will provide support for a girder. After we got the posts in position we back-filled the holes with decomposed g...
Read more

T-Brick Shed: Rubble Trench French Drain Installation

By -
Image
The last thing Jean told me before she left for the UK was that I had better finish the shed project before she gets back or else. The trench was a little soggy still but I decided to press on with the french drain installation for fear what that else may be (Although, I'm hoping the "else" will be make me a delicious sandwich). I dug out the high section blocking  the drain outlet and and cleaned up a some edges before putting down landscape fabric and a layer of gravel. Putting down the landscape fabric in the trench. Landscape fabric is water permeable but significantly less sediment permeable. This will help prevent the gravel and french drain from becoming blocked up with silt. Here's my work crew. The tamp/rake tango Release the hose! Uncoiling the perforated tubing. First objective was to fill in the tripping hazard that is the drain outlet. Note how we form a sort of gravel/perforated hose burrito with the landscape fabric. We...
Read more