The return of winter

It has been unusually cold here in Adelaide and it came as a shock after a succession of glorious Spring days. Strong wind brought cold air into the State and even whipped up some dust storm into Sydney and Brisbane earlier this week. The wind came again yesterday and while it was nice to hear the pitter patter on the roof, the rain and the wind made the night pretty cold. I’m really not complaining about the rain – I would accept all the water that I can get so the plants grow nice and strong to withstand the upcoming hot Summer.

It’s good to see that the trees that I planted earlier this year are waking up from their winter slumber and growing well. I took the picture above earlier this month when my Toona tree (toona sinensis) grew its pink leaves. It was really a great sight – the pinkish leaves turned into buttery gold colour and has now settled into pale limey green. My grapevines are growing well as well, albeit one of the trees is thinking that we’re turning into winter because it has actually turned crimson. It was growing all winter when the other two trees actually fell ‘asleep’. I do need to do some serious gardening soon, but I just can’t find the energy and time – our church is celebrating our tenth anniversary today so we’ve been busy rehearsing and planning the event. So, my weekends have been pretty much occupied by that, as well as the numerous activities with my church friends.

Last week, Yani and I as well as Vito and Verena went up to Strathalbyn, about 60km southeast from Adelaide to do some photo shoot. Just to give you some background to this – weddings in Indonesia have turned into almost like a theatrical production. Where in the past, families just rocked up to a restaurant to enjoy a meal together after the chinese tea ceremony and church/temple blessing, now we have things like pre-wedding photo shoot, ballet performance, and this and that (digressing slightly, an ex-workmate had the theme song to the Jurrasic Park played in the background as a line of waiters marched into the banquet room, serving each table. Sadly even with such a ‘grand’ production, they had a divorce just a couple of years afterwards!) … 🙄 So, whilst I was impartial to pre-wedding photo shoot (known as ‘pre-wed’ in Indonesia), I agreed to participate in it. 🙂

It was actually great to get away from Adelaide – I had been intrigued by Strathalbyn for a long time now. The town is not located in the major tourist route so it’s really nice and peaceful. It’s as if it was frozen in the 1950’s – very charming! The River Angas and the lush park also add to the charm of Strathalbyn, as does the St. Andrew’s church on the hill nearby. So Yani and I had to endure embarassment by posing and having our pictures taken in town. The locals were friendly as they looked at us almost quizzically. Hehe. We also visited Bridgewater briefly before we went to Strathalbyn. The Bridgewater Mill is the point of attraction there but unfortunately the cafe was still closed when we arrived at Bridgewater so we didn’t get to sample the local delicacies. We had our morning tea at Strathalbyn instead – in a local cafe where I had a big English breakfast. Yumm. After we finished at Strathalbyn, we took a long way around to continue our photo-shoot in McLaren Vale, where we also had our late lunch at the Almond Carriage Cafe and Wine Bar. If you ever come to Adelaide, pay a visit to McLaren Vale and have a meal or two at the cafe. The owner makes a great use of two old train carriages and turn them into a cafe – good old world charm! 🙂

We finished our photo-shoot in Adelaide – we had some pictures taken at Coromandel Place, off Grenfell Street, a tucked away corner in the heart of the city. My friends didn’t know about the Historian so Vito was pleasantly surprised to see an old looking pub so near to Grenfell Street. Vito also took some more pictures at the Art Gallery in North Terrace and also near the War Memorial Drive, near the River Torrens. All in all, a very long day indeed! Phew!

Rather than having a professional photographer, I trusted Vito, a young member of our church who loves photography. He was nervous and was fidgety because he didn’t want to disappoint us. Verena was there to choreograph our poses and because both of us are not that touchy-feely nor expressive, it took a while before we got the hang of it. Hahaha. At the end out of the hundreds of photos that he took, I managed to find around 50 great pictures. My older brother is helping me with the photo editing as I’m sure he will even turn them into even better looking photos.

Well, I need to get ready and get going. Before I go to the church anniversary this afternoon (I need to be there earlier at 2.30pm), I need to do some grocery shopping and also a visit to the aquarium shop to buy a new water filter cartridges for the aquarium. I have been neglecting the fish lately 🙁 [I still feed them but I haven’t changed their water for a while!] They’re such good forgiving companions!

So I’m going to brave the windy day and embrace the day with open arms! Thank God it’s the weekend!