Meet Alfred

I meant to post this ages ago, but here it is now. 

I found a little bug in the backyard at my home in Mayfield, NSW Australia one evening. The bug had such a unique expression that I couldn't help but take some photos. I also named it Alfred. 

The next day, in nearly the same spot, I found a bug that looked identical to Alfred except it was bright green instead of dull green. So either Alfred changed colors in the middle of the night or was replaced by a brighter doppelganger!

The next morning...

I looked up "winged insects of New South Wales" and found this excellent resource: http://www.ozanimals.com/australian-insect-index.html  

I dug though the most likely families (Orthoptera and Hemiptera) and found, under the "True Bugs of Australia" section, the Flatid Planthoppers, all of which look just like Alfred, but with a range of colors, from pale white with a pink spot (Mango Planthopper) to green with a border of reddish brown spots (Common Green Planthopper). 

Upon further reading, it appears that flatids go through five nymphal instars, which are developmental stages in between moltings on the way to reaching sexual maturity. Molting usually occurs at night or in the early morning and from one instar to another the flatid may change color or size, and may lose or gain a white powdery coating. So perhaps Alfred just molted and leveled up to the next nymphal instar . 

Also important to note, flatids are invasive in Hawai'i, but native to Australia and can be a vector of diseases. But look at that face... as one expert in cute bugs, (my friend) Dougal, has pointed out, "How could that bug invade anything? What does it do, run up to you, nuzzle your face and go eep?"

LJG's Gluten-Free ChiaFlax Bread

For all of those who suffer from a gluten intolerance or allergy, it can be incredibly difficult to find a loaf of gluten-free bread that doesn't taste like cardboard and doesn't cost $7 or more in the shop! So after months of trial and error, with input from friends and loved ones, here is a recipe that seems to turn out tasty each and every time and has only healthy, simple ingredients.

I'm not a professional baker, I just fiddle around in the kitchen until stuff tastes good to me. If you have suggestions for improving this recipe, please share them!

In the meantime, enjoy :)

Ingredients

¼ - ½ cup flax seeds, freshly ground

¼ cup chia seeds

2 cups water
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1 tsp dry active yeast

1 cup warm water

1 tsp honey
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4 ½ cups gluten-free flour blend

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp caraway seeds, or other herbs (e.g. thyme, rosemary, and tarragon)
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2 Tbsp olive oil

Directions

Stage one (flax/chia):

Place flax, chia and water in jar and mix well. Leave in fridge at least four hours and up to five days (overnight is fine!).

Stage two (making dough):

Add yeast to warm water with honey stirred in (or skip this step if you don’t believe in proofing).

Put flour in mixing bowl, add salt and caraway seeds (or other herbs). Mix well.

Add olive oil, chia-flax mixture, and yeast mixture to dry ingredients and mix until there are no more lumps. Cover and let rise at least three hours, overnight in a cool place is fine. No need to knead! It will have a consistency like mousse after it rises – this is good.

Stage three (second rise):

Oil and flour two non-stick bread pans.

Split dough in half with spoon and gently scoop into the pans. Cover and let rise three-four hours (not more!).

Stage four (bake):

Preheat oven to 425°F (~220°C). Bake for 30 minutes. Do not open oven door until the very end or it will be ruined!

Lower temperature to 405°F (~200°C). Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from pans and let cool before slicing.



Notes
Flour blend: You can either buy a pre-mixed gluten-free flour blend or make your own from bulk flours you buy. Gluten-free flours that work well in a mix are millet, garbanzo, rice, sorghum (strong flavor!), buckwheat (also strong flavor!), fava bean, amaranth, quinoa, and potato.

Baking time: The baking time is entirely dependent on the amount of water in the recipe. If you add more water, you will have to bake it for longer or it will be doughy inside. Absolutely do not open the oven door while this is baking, or it will never get hot enough inside to cook all the way through! Add the extra baking time on at the end, after lowering the temperature.

Chia and Flax: These soaked seeds seem to be what gives the bread its structure in the way that gluten would have provided a structural network of support. They also happen to be highly nutritious, so that's a bonus. The idea for using them came from Celeste's cousin's husband, Sam, who is a professional baker - so credit goes to him for that one!

Zippered pouch

With all my stuff rattling around loose in my rucksack I decided I needed a zippered pouch to keep some knick-knacks in while traveling. A friend invited me to go to a fabric/craft shop with her to buy googly eyes, and seeing a shelf of discount fabric scraps I was inspired to make one myself.

So, I got half a yard of duck cloth (a thick canvas-like cloth) and a zipper, then began searching for suggestions on sewing one. I found several tutorials, such as this one about how to make a lined zippered pouch,and this one about how to make the corners look nice. Since duck cloth is pretty thick, lining didn't seem necessary, so I opted for a simpler style without it.

Dad dug up Grandma's old featherweight Singer sewing machine and I read the manual to familiarize myself with its use (been a few years since I used a sewing machine!). We dropped oil into every little nook the manual said to drip oil into and I did a quick practice run on a rag, then got to work. Without a lining, I could use the sewing machine to sew all three sides of the material to each other after sewing each to the zipper. With a lining, you have to leave a few inches unsewn then push the material right side out and sew the rest up by hand.

finished zippered pouch with mechanical pencil for size comparison

And the other nice thing about duck cloth: you can draw on it!

zippered pouch with colored pencil sketch

I'm pleased with it, and if I can find affordable zippers, I will be making more (zippers are so expensive!).

LunarEclipse

I spent this past week exploring Melbourne, Victoria. I have to say, I absolutely loved it! 

Flagstaff Gardens at corner of La Trobe St and King St

I got to practice my Korean and eat Korean food (맛있는 돌솥 비빔밥을 먹었어요!) with friends.

leaving Korean restaurant (one of many)

I met lots of other researchers in my field (at several universities), participated in a discussion on a topic connected to my research, attended a seminar on the relationship between documentation and description when working with endangered languages, and learned more about the kinds of exciting projects other linguists are working on. Whew! A very fun and engaging few days, to be sure. I welcome any opportunity to nerd out with fellow field linguists.

walking in the city

I saw beautiful artwork, including some stunning work by Kate Oates at the Koorie Heritage Trust Cultural Centre. I felt very fortunate that on my second visit (I had to go back and see her artwork a second time) she was there, too, and I actually got to meet her!

a fountain outside National Gallery Victoria International

The whole time, of course, I was surrounded by Melbourne's fascinating architecture, including this building, Port 1010, which exhibits the Cafe Wall (or Münsterberg) optical illusion. The orange lines are actually parallel, but look like they taper off.

Port 1010

I got to ride on the free tourist shuttle, the city trams, and the ever-exciting, free city circle tram. Years ago, I rode on a matching streetcar, shipped to Seattle from Melbourne, with my dad, brother, and parakeet, "Rainbow".

riding on the tram, which got stuck (on a no-power spot), so the driver hopped out, cracked a joke about how him stealing his siblings' food paid off, and pushed it a few feet to get us going again

I went to the incredibly exciting Queen Victoria Market (a few times), full of yummy fresh mangosteen, okra, massive portobello mushrooms, touristy-doodads, tasty panini, hemp clothing, churros, and everything else you could imagine.

Carlton (suburb), on the way to the QVM market

I also went to the Rose St. artists' market.

houses and gardens, along the walk to Rose St Market

Rose St Market

Naturally, I did a bit of jogxploration (what else does one do in a big, unfamiliar city?).

near my hostel

Yarra River

And, of course, I spent a good bit of time watching leaves fall, like I do.

fallen leaves in Carlton Gardens, near the Melbourne Museum

leaves falling in Carlton Gardens

And, thanks to my friend, Gab, telling me it was happening that night, I watched the total lunar eclipse! Wednesday night slash early Thursday morning I popped outside my hostel in Melbourne to watch the sun, moon, and earth align at just the right time (a night with a full moon).

night sky near La Trobe's Bundoora campus

At first, the moon was gigantic. Full and bright. Slowly the shadow of the earth crept over the moon. There's nothing like watching celestial events to remind us that we are small and our problems are tiny.

full moon

I popped back inside to do some laundry, then ran back out into the crisp night. By then, the moon was glowing red with the indirect light of earth's atmosphere. I watched a while longer. It was almost gone. One more time I ran inside to check on the laundry, then ran back outside. As I burst out the door (I probably didn't need to run - it all happened rather slowly), I saw a man sitting on a bench smoking. I said excitedly, "There's a lunar eclipse!"

He responded (almost caring), "Huh. Are you into astrology, then?"
"Uh... no, not particularly. Are you?"
"Yeah. I used to be," he dramatically continued, "But I have bigger things to worry about." And then he went back to his cigarette.

After the moon disappeared completely, I went back inside. The front desk was open by then, so I told the person working there (in an attempt to explain why I had been running in and out the door at such an odd hour in my pjs) that there was a lunar eclipse. He said, "Really??" and ran outside in a hurry. Suspecting he might be a bit disappointed, I decided to go out there with him to point out where the moon had been, as there was actually nothing to see now that it was invisible. Ah well.

The sun came up shortly after and I went up to the roof to snap some photos of the city (next goal: take a photography class - I could use some instruction, hah).

Melbourne from hostel rooftop (note solar panels for heating the water)

Melbourne from rooftop 2

Melbourne from rooftop 3

For some BBC coverage of the total lunar eclipse, see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13787341


And now, I will leave you with a possum.

oak with anti-possum ring

possum (I think?)

Goodbye, Melbourne and your lovely people! Thanks for the adventure.

Newcastle, it is

It is rainy and beautiful. The trees are dancing. I found two seeds in my persimmon this morning (I've never found a persimmon with seeds in it before), so as soon as I figure out where a persimmon tree might like to grow I'm going to go plant them in the soggy-soaky soil. (Why not?)

I have to apologize - I've been speaking of my experiences in Australia, but honestly I can only really speak of my experience of Newcastle. The rest of (vast) Australia remains an adventure-yet-to-be-had to me.

photo from around my neighbourhood suburb

pretty sky in my suburb

However! Tomorrow morning (4am - ugh) I head to Melbourne for the week. I hear it's cold, but pretty happenin'. I'm hoping that the cold there is more like the cold I'm used to, i.e. cold which stays outside and does not enter dwellings. I've decided to stop complaining about the cold in Newcastle, so let me just say this: the buildings here were not built for it!

Since my last post, I've had a birthday (which was lovely), celebrated Easter Monday (observed on Tuesday, naturally), given a presentation at the research higher degree symposium as part of my confirmation requirements (a fun day of interesting presentations from across the school), and been accepted into the MA in Language Documentation and Description at the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (I'll be temporarily suspending my PhD here come September and heading to London). There may have been some salsa dancing and trivia nights thrown in there for good measure as well.

Tomorrow (Monday) is another public holiday: the Queen's Birthday. (The Queen's actual birthday is 21 April, so don't be confused.) I am on the lookout for more Americans so we can have a proper 4th of July celebration.

Okay, I have a lot more to do before I leave tomorrow, but there may be a few more short posts (like the one below this) in the works...

Peace!

p.s. I have discovered that my pronunciation of 'herb' usually elicits the following response:
(fits of laughter)
"She drops the haych!" 

Which then leads to several attempted imitations:

"Urb. Urb."
And more laughter. 

Ah well, I do enjoy having an urb garden.

An Observation About Crested Pigeons

Remember the crested pigeons I mentioned earlier? Well, I saw some sleeping on a telephone wire and now I suspect that their crests actually serve a purpose.

When a crested pigeon tucks its head under its wing (as sleeping birds do) its little crest sticks up in front of it. It looks quite a bit like a beak, enough so that (from a distance) the sleeping bird looks like an awake bird! And that just might be a deterrent for stealth predators.

Well done, little birds. Your cute little crests are (possibly) more than just a funky hair-do.

via Joseph Henderer

Aus-um Possum!

Cold cucumber

In addition to the various academically-oriented things I’ve been working on since jumping back into a university setting cold turkey (what a gross expression – I'm going to make it more animal-friendly by replacing it from now on with "cold cucumber" #vegetarian), I have been hard at work doing some of the more important things in life, like making friends, learning about the local wildlife, overcoming culture shock, and such.

Making friends

On some Friday or other I went to an international women’s dinner on campus, where I sat around eating delicious food with beautiful women, many of whom were dressed in their finest clothing from their home country. I exemplified some manner of typical American dress (flannel and jeans!), but wasn’t aware of the dinner until an hour or so before it began and thus did not dress up fancy.

Isobel, Yanyan (Yoyo), Song, Lydia, Katherine, and Yongxia
photo by Ruth

There were several friendly competitions, and I volunteered to compete with another woman in a game involving kicking a beach ball around an obstacle course in high heels as quickly as possible. 

I lost. 

I was given the beach ball (once it was recovered from underneath one of the many tables I had lost it under) as a consolation prize, or possibly just in gratitude for the entertainment.

I had never tried tai chi before, but thanks to the suggestion of another international student (Frank) and my own completely naive (but genuine) enthusiasm, we’ve now started up a tai chi class on campus. We had eight students for the first day. I have to say, Eduardo and I may not have known what we were doing, but thanks to Frank’s generosity and foresight in bringing spare attire, we at least looked pretty good while doing it.

Frank (teacher), Lydia, Eduardo in tai chi attire

Wildlife sightings

After class, I was walking to the bus stop and saw a MASSIVE SQUIRREL.

It had its back to me, so I quietly put down my bag and pulled out my camera. At that point it turned, looked at me like it was slightly annoyed that I was there, and hopped up into a tree.

I managed to get a photo of its hiney (cropped and brightened a bit here for your viewing pleasure) and was informed at a dinner party later that night that it was not a squirrel, but a possum. Yes, my friends, the possums here are actually adorable with big bushy tails, not beady-eyed and naked-tailed like in North America.

Moral of that story: don't assume that everything you're familiar with at home will be the same in a new place like Australia.

When you talk about spiders the locals insist, “I’ve never known anybody who’s been bit,” but the spiders here are quite big and googley-eyed. I encountered a massive one (“probably just a Huntsman – harmless!”) guarding the compost bin in the backyard. I calmly left it be, but not until after I shrieked and threw orange rinds and corn husks everywhere. Apparently they eat cockroaches, though, so they're beneficial, as many spiders are. What's your excuse, mosquitoes?

I've also seen flocks of corellas, a bajillion rabbits (adorable, but invasive), itty bitty lizards (possibly garden skinks) and flashy, crested pigeons (seriously, look at them). 

Culture shock

One thing that’s taken a bit of getting used to for me is the use of kilograms in the grocery stores, but the complete absence of scales. When I first went to buy produce, I knew that bananas cost $9.98/kg (it's now gone up to over $12/kg), but had no idea how many bananas were in a kilo or how many kilos were in a banana. With no scales anywhere to tell me, I decided I’d just have to find out the hard way, and find out I did! Turns out a banana weighs about 0.14 kg and the four bananas I bought cost me $5.67. Apparently the banana supply has been ill-affected by weather and the prices have subsequently increased and I will not be buying anymore bananas in Australia (as an unfair comparison, they only cost a few cents in Ghana).

I have completely fallen for vegemite sandwiches, though. I wasn't sure how good white bread with butter and vegemite could possibly be, but I was assured it was delicious enough to be a daily meal (some Americans might say the same for PB&J), so I finally gave in and made myself one for lunch. I cheated and used wholemeal bread and margarine instead of white bread and butter, but, amazingly, it was delicious! Vegemite has become a regular part of my diet now.

Transportation

I have a bike and will possibly be getting a motorbike license in the near future. I'm working up the mental fitness to attempt to ride the bike anywhere further than to the grocery store, after having only successfully ridden it home thanks to the kindness of one of the lecturers, who showed me the way and biked it with me.

My next priority is getting a raincoat, though. It's been raining off and on a lot. I suspect it will be a good investment for London and Ghana as well, which may be in my near future...