Schanzenfeld Sausage

The weather in Perth for July was still very fine, and we took advantage of it. We really love going to King's Park in downtown Perth, an oasis in the urban landscape, and it sits high on an escarpment which allows for panoramas of the whole region. Greg is pictured with a magpie behind him; these birds are not actual magpies that we are familiar with in NA and Europe, but when the settlers saw them with their black and white colours, they decided they must be the same. The ones at King's Park are practically tame, but we would later find out these birds can be dangerous dive-bombers when it comes to protecting their nests...

This trip has been a bit different for us for a few reasons; Greg has been on his own in preparing the earth station for the missions he came out for, which means more work and stress. As well, we found out we're pregnant only days after arriving! (We decided not to post a picture of us with the pee stick; some folks might think that's too much information...) Initially this news had just meant that driving for longer periods (or even short ones) augmented my feelings of nausea (yeah pregnancy sickness!), so we didn't go very far. This thankfully only lasted until about weeks 9-10, and we still got out to see what we could.

Perth has an ancient line of hills that sprouts out of the countryside to the east of the city, called the Darling range. They're similar to the Gatineau Hills (the foothills of the Laurentian Mountains) just north of Ottawa in Quebec in that they used to be a huge mountain range a few million years ago. Hard to imagine; safer to climb these days though! There are a good number of nature reserves to visit and walk in, so we try to make a habit of packing a lunch and heading for the hills on the weekends. The vistas are wonderful. Greg is standing next to a grass tree in this pic. They were also referred to as 'black boys' in the day, a somewhat derogatory term (which is still common, not suprisingly). These trees were used by the aboriginees for all sorts of things; the stem of the flower spike (the black thing sticking out the top) was used for spear shafts, the plant's resin was used as a powerful glue, and the nectar from the flower is a high-energy food. That's good bushtukah! (ie bush tucker/food).

I've been hitting the gym here 3 days a week, back in with the gang there; I met them last year when I joined, and have kept in touch via email, and was going again when we were here in March. Some of them frown at my continued physical activity (you know, being pregnant and all) but it's really the only social contact I have, (we go for coffee at this fancy coffee shop called "The Dome" which sits on the Indian Ocean, and occasionally we'll check out a movie) and that makes it really important! My body doesn't seem to mind either... Oh, and I've already gotten advice to not do exercises with my arms above my head...(where do these old wives tales come from?)