Hairy Mountain Folk

Nina Mobbed

2009-09-21T14:52:00.003+10:00

We have just been out to Katoomba for lunch with Nina in tow. Bianca and I have decided that we can't go travelling to Asian countries for a few years as we will never get out of the hotel lobby with locals going crazy over Nina. We have been out and about with Nina a couple of times around the Blue Mountains and been mobbed with enamoured Asian tourists. This lunchtime I got it on camera. Also got a short video of Nina eating a straw while we wait for food.

Bianca: What this photo doesn't show is me flapping in the background like a nervous mother hen as all these complete strangers pass Nina around like the latest accessory!

Food wrangling

2009-08-28T09:40:00.002+10:00

Food wrangling

Originally uploaded by Mistress B

Despite her parents' fondness for their tucker, Nina is far more interested in the world around her than she is in eating. We've been getting all sorts of grief from the childhood health nurses over her weight - she sits right on the bottom of the healthy weight curve and this week has actually dropped off the healthy weight curve. We've tried every trick in the book to cram more milk into her but we've come to the conclusion that she's such an active little thing that she just burns up way more calories than she eats.
So the latest solution is to start her on solids, seeing as she's nearly 6 months old. We're trying some baby cereal to try to get some more calories into her (but still breastfeeding as well), but it's easier said than done ... as these photos show. I think more of the cereal ended up on her face than in her mouth, and it was helped by the fact that she kept trying to grab the spoon and do it herself!

First girlie outfit

2009-07-21T15:20:00.001+10:00

First girlie outfit
Originally uploaded by Mistress B

Poor Nina spent the first couple of months of her life largely in her pyjamas while we tried to get the hang of juggling it all, but we have become a little bit more adventurous with her outfits and she has acquired some rather stylish little numbers, including this cute knit dress. It's a long way from the 'funky goth chick' look that Phil is hoping for, but they don't really make baby clothes in black.

Mothers' group

2009-07-07T21:11:00.001+10:00

Mums and bubs yoga
Originally uploaded by Mistress B

I haven't blogged about my fabulous mothers' group yet, and I don't know why because as Phil will attest, I never stop talking about it!
All new mums are put in touch with other new mums and bubs in the area (of the same bub age), via the childhood health nurses up here, and it's a fantastic program. It started with four get-togethers organised by the nurses, but now we organise our own get-togethers, and it's a non-stop social whirl.
We have a regular Friday get-together at someone's house, which is always a fabulous frenzy of babies and women (and some men) chattering, but then there's also mums and bubs yoga, bushwalks, gallery visit, movie excursions, endless excuses for lunches and home visits ... there's barely time for Nina to get her daily naps in!
It's exactly what we both hoped would happen when Nina came along - that we would meet other parents and finally start to establish our own social network in the mountains.
And it's lovely to think that these are the kids Nina will grow up with, go to school with, get into trouble with ... no, of course she won't be getting into trouble. With her innocent angel expression, she'll be the one standing in the middle of it all saying "moi?"

Moved to the Arctic?

2009-07-03T12:02:00.001+10:00

Moved to the arctic?
Originally uploaded by nospuds

Its cold in the mountains. By the look of Bianca and Nina we could be in the Arctic!
We have a big pile of wood that I need to carry up the stairs but really its too cold to carry wood. Please, I don't need to hear that if I carry it up it will warm me twice ;)

My Morning Ride

2009-06-12T20:31:00.003+10:00

It's officially cold. In fact it is freezing...literally. It was zero which with a wind chill at 90kph makes it -10°C for a trip to Sydney at 7:30am. Luckily I have new motorbike gear and my beema has heated hand grips. I was missing a heated seat though as the frosted seat meant that I slid backwards and forwards on the seat for the first 3 mins of the trip until my butt thawed the seat. At home we have the log fire going 24/7 which is really nice for Bianca when she gets up at 3am to feed Nina milky chops.

Nina falling asleep...

2009-06-11T19:28:00.002+10:00

... on arm at a time.

Baby earmuffs

2009-05-25T17:28:00.001+10:00

Baby earmuffs
Originally uploaded by Mistress B

Just been for our first trip to the movies with poor poor Nina. Bianca was worried about her hearing so made her wear socks on her ears!!
She slept through Star Trek except for a good feed somewhere in the middle.

Multi-tasking

2009-05-13T20:36:00.002+10:00

Multi-tasking
Originally uploaded by Mistress B

I know there's this thing called maternity leave (and paternity leave), whereby a couple produce a baby and then they both get a period of time where they don't work... but we seemed to have missed that memo.
With Phil going great guns on NoSpuds, and me working on a special big project (soon to be revealed) plus doing a story for Scientific American, I'm not sure we even had a week where we both truly stopped working.
But little Nina has been very accommodating of our foolishness, and as you can see from this photo, happily takes her afternoon siesta tucked up on Phil's chest, or in the sling on my chest. We're both learning to snatch time to work in between feeds, nappies, walks and screams, and so far are doing OK.
Mind you, I've decided when bub number 2 comes along, I am actually going to STOP work for at least 3 months... at least that's the plan.

Monkey face!

2009-04-23T14:15:00.001+10:00

got it!
Originally uploaded by Mistress B

Who'd have thought that breast milk was such good stuff, but the faces Nina pulls after a good feed look positively blissful! (and that's my arm, not my bosom, on the left of this pic, in case you're wondering).
Nina has just passed the one month mark, and it has been a pretty amazing month. As well as being just impossibly gorgeous, it feels like we've been blessed with a pretty easy-going bub as well. She's feeding well, sleeping pretty well and even her 2-3 screaming sessions each day are pretty tolerable at this stage. Mind you, have had visits from friends with slightly older babies and toddlers, we're realising that the screams are only going to get louder, so we're bracing ourselves for that!
But she's taken well to being walked around in the sling and pram, and has already become an accomplished bushwalker. The big test is an overnight trip to Sydney next week - mum is a little nervous about how the car trip will go, but there's a first time for everything.

Tyrannosaurus Phil

2008-03-29T21:24:00.003+11:00

It may seem that this photo has little in common with birds, but was in fact taken at Singapore's Jurong Bird Park shop, after Phil had patiently lasted an entire day being dragged around Bird Nerd Central. So many incredible birds ... so few recipes.

How d'ya like them apples?

2008-04-07T15:31:00.002+10:00

Loganbrae Orchard is a Blackheath institution, so I'm not quite sure why it has taken us so long to visit, but I'm very glad we did. Those at the wedding might remember the apple juice, but now we've graduated to some of their incredible apples.
Buying these was a real mountain experience. A chat about cooking, the weather, the merits of different apples ... a sample apple given ... conversation veers to the apparent lack of good baking apples in Australia, at which point the owner charges out into his orchard and comes back with a handful of HUGE cooking apples which he dumps on us for free!
soooo yummy.

Mushroom feast

2008-04-18T11:48:00.002+10:00

After having enjoyed some of these mushrooms around this time last year, courtesy of our favourite vege cafe Niche Nosh, we decided to venture into the mysterious state forests near Oberon/Jenolan Caves to pick some for ourselves.
The area is famous for these mushrooms - called Saffron Milk Caps, or Pine Mushrooms - which look disturbingly toxic but are in fact safe and delicious. After some very helpful advice from Oberon's tourist info centre, we set off armed with wellies and lots of enthusiasm.
It hadn't rained for a while so it took a bit of time to collect enough for lunch, and in our intial enthusiasm we nearly got lost. Note to file: when ploughing determinedly into a dark forest in search of mushies, be sure to remember where you parked the car.
But all was well and these beauties delivered a fabulous fry-up lunch, which tasted all the better for the fact that it was a working day and we both really should have been doing something productive.

Spring cleaning

2008-09-10T13:13:00.003+10:00

A combination of warm weather, sunshine and a fervent desire to put off doing any serious work has led to The Spring Clean - long overdue and both fascinating and painful.
I have discovered old personal diaries from school days, whose contents have led me to believe I was psychotic for a large part of my teenage years.
I have discovered a collection of poems I wrote when I was an earnest, nerdy primary school student (and what's changed except age, I wonder?).
I also thoroughly enjoyed re-reading my impressive collection of job rejection letters, which reads like a Who's Who of science, medicine and publishing: The Age, the ABC (twice), New Scientist (twice), The Lancet, Australian Geographic, the CRC for Genes and Human Diseases, Current Medical Literature, Nature (twice), the World Health Organisation and Australian Doctor (for a job I subsequently got four years later).
It's the jobs Bianca gets rejected from that make Bianca the best (apologies to John West for mangling their tag line).

Who needs a gym membership...

2008-07-24T15:17:00.003+10:00

I have had many doubters about getting this stump out of the ground. It has taken a lot of digging, sawing and gritting of teeth but I've got it out!!
Its an old hardwood tree stump that has been there since the house was built I guess but it was in the way of the water tank we want fitted.
So before you say (I have had many commentators):

a stump grinder is a very big bit of machinery and we would not have been able to get it up to the stump
the little chainsaw I have got cuts in 2cms and then just smokes
burn it out? nah after 1 day of hot coals I reduced it by 1mm on one side =(
chain around car/motorbike? After hearing 'Darwin awards' stories of various deaths by 'car and chain...' i didn't think it was worth it.
how are you going to get it out of the hole? Luckily we had two strapping lads staying with us who needed to test their manhood and help out an old fella.

So next thing is to prepare the ground for the 12000 litre water tank :D

New garden wall in progress

2008-10-05T15:36:00.003+11:00

When it rains it really rains up here in the Blue Mountains. The hill that the house is sat on is mainly sandstone with shelves of ironstone so it seems that weeks after the rains the back of the house is a quagmire.
Solution: build a wall with an agricultural drain behind it!
We had to move the large tree fern that Bianca looks at from her office window and we were worried about it not surviving the move but as you can see it is growing back with lush new growth.
It will be good to have a play area at the back of the house.

New vegipatch...waiting...

2008-10-05T15:52:00.003+11:00

Bianca and I keep watching the new vegi patch...
Currently it has rhubarb, raspberries, gooseberries and black currents planted (my choice) which a friend pointed out sounded like bear food...Bianca thought that was apt.
There is some asparagus (bears don’t like asparagus) but we won’t be able to harvest that until we leave it for a year.
Bianca has LOTS of seedlings waiting to be bedded in a couple of weeks. Lots of multicoloured heritage varieties from Diggers Club like five colour silver beet and ten colour tomatoes. Call me old fashioned but I like my silver beet green and my tomatoes red!! We will have purple, yellow, black, green, pink, striped etc...
Included a picture of the newly grown rhubarb

Weird weather

2008-10-22T10:37:00.003+11:00

I know it's the height of ordinariness to blog about the weather, but the last two days have delivered firstly some seriously whopping hailstones (thankfully only a few and the car wasn't here to get dented) yesterday, and then this morning, we had a good hour of snow. And not the wet hail that I normally get excited about and Phil dismisses as not being real snow, but big fat flakes that actually stuck around for a bit.
These were delivered by a thunderstorm, which is a combination I don't think I have ever encountered before and just added to the excitement of it all.
Some of my pics of the snow even made it onto the Sydney Morning Herald online photo gallery (not that that's much of a claim to fame, but I'll take it).
And of course, now it's bright and sunny outside and temperatures are forecast to get back into the 20s on the weekend.
Weird.

Sprout at 19 weeks

2008-11-07T10:35:00.003+11:00

Sprout has had its second photoshoot, and is looking good. The obstetrician pointed all the important bits (except the REALLY important bits, as we've decided to leave that as a surprise), such as kidneys, heart, brain, eyes, legs, feet and hands.
We also got some of the measurements, and I'm relieved to discover that despite its dad's rather impressively-sized cranium, Sprout has a slightly below-average head circumference. However it does have slightly longer than average legs and arms ... we may yet strike it lucky with the tall genes!
It is also a very active little thing and is really making its presence felt with regular kicks. It might have got Phil's tall genes, but I'm starting to suspect a bit of my hyperactivity might have snuck in there. As long as it gets Phil's sleeping genes as well, that's just fine by us!

Trimmed new beard

2008-11-23T17:16:00.003+11:00

Had a haircut the other day because as the hairdresser said "you look like a bear"...my hair was VERY long and my beard was unruly.
She even trimmed/styled my beard.
Dont know if I am gonna keep the beard but it will be fun for our trip to Tokyo.

Japan - Got here

2008-11-26T09:50:00.004+11:00

Well we got to Tokyo safe and sound although very tired. We have a good view of the city from the hotel room and woke up to the sun rising. Now Bianca gets to try a buffet breakfast in a new country!

Sprouting my Japanese pillow?

2008-11-26T12:58:00.002+11:00

Does anyone know what Marco Beans are? I can’t find out. I am worried about sprouting my hotel pillow...

Anyone that knows me well knows that I dribble when I sleep. That has been ok ‘till now as long as you don’t have long hair. Thing is the pillow in the hotel has a layer of Marco Beans in it and I am worried about my pillow sprouting. I have read the pillow instructions that I have included but they don’t answer my concerns. If anyone knows what they are and whether I am in danger of pillow growth please let me know.

Would you like a jet of water up the arse with that?

2008-11-26T20:29:00.003+11:00

I had heard so much about Japanese toilets - the heated seats, the electronically-generated flushing noises for those who suffer from shy bladders, the water jet - but didn't believe it until I sat on one.
I was freaked enough by the perpetually-warm seat, which makes you feel like you've sat down just after someone has been spending some serious 'quality time' on the same seat. It's also a bit disturbing to have all these industrious electronic noises coming from the general direction of your bottom.
But I defiantly drew the line at the water jet. Frankly, I'd be happy to go through the rest of my life without having a machine blast a jet of water at my nether regions.
That was, until I was sabotaged by my 'dear husband', who ambushed me as I sat, peacefully enjoying a quiet wee, by pushing the water jet button. Unfortunately, I wasn't even in the right position, so the water missed its target by a couple of inches and shot up my buttock cleavage. Probably didn't help that I clenched up like a reluctant clam.
But to add insult to injury, Phil failed to tell me that you need to push the 'stop' button to make it stop, so I sat there, paralysed with laughter, clenched like I have never clenched before, and powerless to do a thing about it.
I'm forever traumatised...

Tokyo Tofu Restaurant

2008-11-28T23:15:00.003+11:00

This was vegetarian heaven ... in fact, it was non-vegetarian heaven too. We have just returned, groaning and several kilos heavier, from the most amazing eight-course tofu-based banquet at the Kyo Tofu Fujino restaurant in Tokyo's Marunochi building.

We ordered a set banquet but unfortunately didn't hang on to the menu, so the following description is from memory, and therefore a fair amount of guesswork going on!

We started with a three-dish sampler that I couldn't even begin to describe, then chargrilled tofu, a glutinous mushroom and tofu concoction, a delicious salad of lotus root and tofu chips with a fabulous sesame oil-based dressing, a tofu steak and three veg, a selection of rice, soup and pickled veg, then the dessert - soy ice-cream with petits fours. The whole thing ended with a gustatorial bang - a green tea concoction that was intensely powerful and practically napalmed the palate clean. It was just amazing food ... a vegetarian Tetsuya-style experience and definitely one of the best meals I've had in a long time, both vego AND non-vego (GASP! What an admission!)

Love in the mountain air

2009-01-12T18:29:00.002+11:00

Our good friends Em and Dan - Bianca's former housemates, now of London - exchanged vows, rings and numerous loving glances last weekend at a stunning wedding in Leura and Katoomba.
I got to play bridesmaid for the first time in my life, which was so much fun. I managed to find a dress that succeed in making me look elegant while covering the Sprout's ever-expanding domain, and Phil got to play chauffeur to the married couple after the ceremony.
It was the most beautiful day - the sun even came out during the ceremony in a fruitless attempt to outshine the gorgeous couple.