Cosy Nook

Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another great installment in the series. A few long-unanswered questions are finally resolved, I wonder if this is it? A very fast and most enjoyable read.

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I took my Mum to High Tea at the Duxton Hotel today, for Mothers Day (a week late) - a long overdue rendezvous promised since before Mothers Day last year. The online menu http://duxton.globaldial.com/docs/High%20Tea%20April%202010.pdf looked promising, a selection of fancy or ordinary teas, the option of a glass of Chandon, and delicacies such as; sandwiches with Tasmanian Smoked Salmon, Lemon & Rocket...Black Forest Ham with Brie... Margaret River Goats cheese, Basil and Cherry Tomato... Free Range Egg with Saffron Mayonnaise. Scones, jam and cream. Petit Fours; Belgium Chocolate Tart... Vanilla Shortbread... Strawberry Tartlet... Hummingbird Cupcake with Creamed Cheese Icing... Kiwi & Berry Fruit Compote with Saffron Fairy Floss.

The last couple of years have been a blur - particularly for me personally. Early in 2007 I was struggling to make headway in my work at The University of Western Australia but by the end of that year I was working in a different section of the University on fundamentally the same aspect of its business but with real impetus for change.  In 2007 the Website Office I supervised was down to three staff struggling to keep things running. I'm ending 2008 managing a team of 19 with a long list of accomplishments behind us. I definitely fall into the work to live rather than live to work category, so it's been great looking back over 2008 and realising there was a lot of fun had along the way.

When I started this blog back in June some stores were already putting up Christmas displays. Unsurprisingly Christmas has crept up almost unnoticed.

Felix and Eliza both helped putting the tree up last weekend and with decorating. Apart from lights all decorations must be given to us or made by us - we're not allowed to buy any ourselves. The only exception is a couple of small tin christmas trees that Sharon and I bought for each other in St Paul's Cathedral in 2000.

Felix, Eliza and I rode our bikes to Hardly Normal and walked over the footbridge to Carousel for a little shopping for Sharon for Chistmas. Santa was charging children a fortune to have their photos taken. When we spotted Santa again as we returned through HN, Felix noted that Santa must have had some help getting across from Carousel so quickly!

Another visit from Vaughanie and another selection of treasures for the fishing box. It will take several sittings to get through all this, so I'll just pick up on a couple of the items from tonight's delivery. The most obvious item is the bright yellow rod holder with plastic tubing protecting all and sundry from the pointy bits. These are a custom-made Vaughan invention with assistance from Frank on the welding. Courtesy of my generous neighbour I'm now the proud owner of two of these beauties.

The little Canning Estuary tackle box is the first one provided by Vaughanie, primarily intended for bream fishing up and down the Canning River. The box is accompanied by a copy of the guide to Dodging Blowies Whilst Landbased Fishing 'Round Perth by Ian J. Vaughan (June 2007).

Felix and I were keen to try out the new rod and reel combo we purchased for him last weekend and consulted with Vaughanie about what might be best. Entirely understandably, and much to Felix's delight, this led to Vaughanie offering to take the two of us off down to the river this afternoon. Vaughanie advised that the boards at the Kent Street weir had been taken up earlier this week and that, as a result, larger bream were finding their way up above the weir more readily and that we were likely to find plenty of likely spots. Above the weir we need to look for the rising rather than the falling tide as the bream will ride this flush of salt water up river underneath the fresh water running down over the top. We checked the tide charts and discovered we were going to be hard pressed to make it in time for a high tide due at around 2pm.

Okay, so my own skills in languages other than English are as near as non-existent and I wouldn't claim to be perfect in my native language but who can turn down the opportunity to poke a little fun at some classic Engrish. The sample pictured right appears on a box of Lego-like children's building blocks.

While we're massacring the language, it's disturbing to see the way "harsh interrogation techniques" has slipped into common usage. Listening to AM on Radio National today I was disturbed to hear the phrase being used unchallenged in a news item. Thank goodness Wikipedia call it as it is. Torture. I've never written a complaint to the ABC or any other broadcaster before but my compaint sent to the ABC also appears below.

Vaughanie's fishing prowess beggars belief. All fisherfolk are given to telling tales and listening to Vaughanie you might be forgiven for occasionally wondering if he is having a lend of you. Not that I've ever been an unbeliever but a fishing trip with the maestro soon puts paid to any doubts.

I christened the new rod and reel today. Weather was pretty dreadful. Heavy showers occasionally fading to constant drizzle. The intrepid angling pair weren't in the least deterred. On balance I figured if I didn't go swimming in the slippery conditions I was going to be pretty drenched through with rain, so I didn't take the camera. No photos, sorry.

Vaughanie recommended a short cycle trip down below the Kent Street Weir fishing from the bank near Castledare for bream. With the winter rains, the bream have come up looking to feed and spawn but the weir is still up, so most of the bream are trapped below. As the high tide retreats from the tidal flats and channels a wash of worms and bugs flow back into the river and the bream apparently feast on this nutrient rich flow.

Living next door to a living fishing legend has its benefits. Ian J. Vaughan or Vaughanie to his friends and neighbours, keeps much of the district supplied with fish throughout most of the year. Literally. Most months and sometimes weekly there'll be a "Cooeee neighbour" from the back door and Vaughanie has arrived with a parcel of fish for our freezer. Each bag contains a foil wrapped parcel with small hand drawn picture of the fish for labelling purposes. Within the foil, wrapped in waxed paper, are portions of bream, garfish, trevally and herring - or tommy ruffs, as Vaughanie prefers to call them. They're always a sweet size; never overly large. Each is immaculately and beautifully filleted. I'll never forget the surprise on the face of one of the Vaughan children around for a meal of fish pie made with shop bought white fish, she took a mouthful and found a bone. While we occasionally make do and pick around the odd bone, for the Vaughan children raised on Vaughanie's exquisitely prepared fillets this was clearly an entirely new and altogether unpleasant experience.