Perth City in pictures...so far.

Despite the abundance of Tim-tams, I haven't actually sampled any flavours yet. I did eat Mud Cake today and that was quite the treat. It was about the size of a small brick, rich chocolate cake completely frosted all the way around. I actually only made it half-way through. On my way here I passed a billboard for coffee flavoured milk, so yes, they are still crazy about their flavoured milk products.

I'm about to go back to the hostel and pack up. Tonight I'm meeting Meaghan (an old member of our research group) for dinner in Fremantle, a sort-of section of Perth. I'm catching the bus tomorrow morning at 9:00 am to head down to Albany. It's a 6 hour drive, of course, because nothing is nearby in Australia.

Here are a few pictures from my time in Perth City and environs.

The conference organizers planned a series of fieldtrips for all of the attendees. I decided to go see the massive restoration project at the Alcoa Bauxite Mine. The mine is the largest bauxite mine in Australia. Bauxite is a red rocky soil that contains aluminum. The top few metres of soil have about 30% aluminum and this is what they extract from the earth. Therefore, the mine is very shallow, but covers a HUGE area. Also, the bauxite is underneath the world's only Jarrah Forest. This ecosystem is mainly composed of eucalypt species, merri and jarrah. Since this whole operation is so close to Perth the company has been held accountable for the restoration of the forest. They've been working on restoration here since the 60's, so they're starting to really get the hang of it. They do a lot of seeding, topsoil saving, tissue culture, and they have a large nursery operation to produce all of the plant material required.

These are some eucalypt seed pods. The seeds are the size of 'pepper flakes'. The seed pod hangs on the tree from the fat end and the little opening has a cap on it until the pod is ready to release the seeds. The cap is gone from these pods and I could shake little seeds out of them. I just picked them up from the ground.


This is what a one year old restored area l0oks like with a tour group walking on it. In the background you can see an unmined, but logged, section of the Jarrah Forest. The aluminum is deposited in a very patchy pattern across the forest. They only mine areas with the required concentration and over the 100 year life of the mine they will only be mining 5% of the entire forest.


I can't remember what this is called, but it will grow up into a tree. It's name is starts with 'grand' and you will see why once you see the seed pods that a mature one of these has.


This is me in the unmined, but logged, Jarrah Forest.


This is the seed pod from the grand-something tree. It's very prickly. And used to have a grand flower around it.


This is very, very long conveyor belt that takes the bauxite to the crusher. They keep adding length to it as they mine deposits farther and farther away from the crusher. After 15 years deposits are too far away from the crusher so they pack up the crusher and move it too the next spot.


We had lunch and a tour at the nursery. They are growing many legume species there and harvesting the seed. This is an example of one of them. They flowers are all very colourful.


This is a coldroom storing 1 million dollars worth of seed. They use half of this amount each year.

Today I spent a little time touring around Perth. I went to WACA (Western Australia Cricket Association) to see the museum. They just refer to everything around here with acronyms. The WACA is what they call the entire cricket stadium. It's huge and really cool. The museum is very well-kept and is run by old cricket player volunteers. There is serious history behind this sport.

These are some tickets for a match in 1969. I liked the lady's ticket vs. the member's ticket.


This is how they make cricket balls.


This is in the entire room dedicated to The Don. Don Bradman was the best cricket player in Australia. Ever.


Then, of course, I found a little wool store. I couldn't buy much, but I needed a project! It was wild. Horribly organized, no prices labelled at all (the Aussies aren't really into signage), just like home. They really do carry a beautiful selection of merinos though.

Big things in Australia!

On my way to the conference I pass the Supreme Court of Western Australia. In their front yard there are five gigantic pen nibs. I was absolutely thrilled to find my first big things in Australia.



I'm presenting my work at the conference tomorrow. Turns out pit and mine restoration is a pretty big deal around here and I'll be presenting in the main theatre, the biggest room at the conference. So big that it holds over 700 people. I tried to snap a picture of the stage because it really looks nice. I'll get my friend to take a picture while I'm up there tomorrow.



Last night I went out to the student social event. It was at a very posh bar that served $9 bottles of beer. I met some friends though and we decided to find a cheaper place. We ended up at a Belgian beer house which served $9 pints of beer. Anyway. I had a really great time. I was out with a German guy, 2 Spanish girls and a Spanish guy, an Irish guy, a girl from Italy, a guy from Uganda, and 2 Aussies. Collectively, they decided that I was the one with the accent, thought my name was unusual, and wanted to hear all about Sidney Crosby. The thing is, they could understand every word I said, but I could barely follow what they were saying. So, I think their logic about the accents is flawed. Luckily, I can hold my own in a conversation about hockey. O, and they all thought the tea at the conference was horrible and I had actually thought earlier in the day that the tea was far superior to any tea I have ever had at a conference in Canada. I kept that to myself.

"Novel quarry after-use."

This weekend I'm heading to the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution Annual Meeting. It's being held at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia this year. I am very excited to see the east coast of Canada. Halifax has been on my places to visit list for a really long time.

I'm actually presenting my work this year and it should be good practice for my upcoming, date-to-be-set, thesis defence.



In other exciting news, Paul stopped by one of my restored quarry sites. He sent pictures of some of my plots and they are doing so well! I got really excited when I saw these and I can't wait to take a trip around to see all my sites. Hopefully Alex can tag along once the sea lamprey move is over.

These are two of the seed plots. I can't get over how diverse they appear. Almost all of the species I planted did very well.





Some of the adults have even started to escape!



O, and Paul also included this cool link to the an architecture blog that had a post about a winner of an international design competition. The objective was to design an after-use for a giant decommissioned quarry in Shanghai, China. Check out an artists rendition of the winning design:

The Songjiang beauty spot hotel.



And an even move spectacular nighttime shot.



When we colonize the moon, I hope this is what the hotels will look like.

Out of control.

I just looked over the most recent posts I've made here and I feel like I've started to move away from the original spirit of this blog. Good thing I came to Kingston today for the Ontario Ecology and Ethology Conference (OEEC). I've already ran into so many, um, very familiar faces and talked to a bunch of really interesting people. OEEC is an annual conference that rotates to different Ontario universities each year. It's mainly organized by grad students with the aim to brings together students from a wide range of backgrounds. Here we can gain some practice presenting our ideas to a larger audience than usual. I'm also enjoying the opportunity to spend some more time with my peers and people who are at the same point in their careers as I am.



Today I boarded the VIA in Guelph and came across the shore of Lake Ontario to Kingston. The old downtown part of the city where Queen's University is located is truly beautiful. The Lake is just to the south and every building is built of weathered limestone in old Ontario style. I really like taking the train because it travels in places you never get to see when you're in a car. There also isn't near as much stopping and starting. Well, and I have a soft spot for trains in general. I actually decided to stay at the one little hostel in Kingston. It is exactly 1.5 blocks from the edge of campus right near the City Park. I sort of feel like I'm visiting my grandparents, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Tonight, the first event of the conference was a mixer, of sorts, at the Grad Club. The bartenders were very nice and baked a burrito for me since I hadn't had anything to eat all day long. We drank Guelph beer and had sweet potato frites. The conference organizers gave each attendee a wooden USB key made by a cool little eco-friendly company. Which was cool, because I could definitely use one of those this summer for carrying presentations to conferences. They also handed out native wildflower seeds and I happened to receive Virginia Mountain Mint which is one of the species Paul used to plant in his quarry to alvar projects. Of course, his seeds were from western Ontario populations and these are from the east. I'll have to take them home to my parents house and find a patch of garden that hasn't been trampled by the pups.



I'm excited to see some interesting talks tomorrow. The conference programme is very well done and the more I look through it, the more interesting topics I notice. Unfortunately, mine is up against a talk called Darker, Longer, Better, so I have a feeling that might attract a larger audience than my drawn out, probably over-complicated, title. Ah well, just one of the bugs to work out before I head off to Halifax. Speaking of bugs, Kingston seems to be completely full of millions of tiny grass bugs. They cluster along the sidewalks and anyone not from around here can feel seriously swarmed. Almost everyone I talked to tonight mentioned them and they cover the fronts of all of the buildings.

Okay, I'm out, but I'm also back on track.

Cass

Umami.

I have so many things that I need to mention here right now that I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I feel like it's been ages since I posted last. It's fairly obvious that I need to keep on top of this interspace and visit often in order to manage the things in life that are making me feel a little stressed out.

So, on six seemingly unrelated notes (not really though, it's always so much more complicated than that...just remembered a 7th item to mention), allow me to dazzle you with the going-ons in my life.

1. I try really hard to eat like a vegetarian. I'm by no means perfect and I definitely do through some meat-eating phases. These usually coincide with special occaisions when large family meals are traditionally served. Summer BBQ time is also tough. The thing is, I really an a bit of a foodie and I truly miss the flavours that get left out when I don't eat certain food groups. A long time ago Em and I came across the term umami in biology class. Umami is a Japanese word that means something along the lines of meaty or savoury. It is the fifth taste to go along with sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. So, I'm hunting for some good ways to eat more veggie umami tasting foods. As I type, there is a large crock pot of chili bubbling away in the kitchen. It's full of cremimi and other little mushrooms that I can't remember the name of right now. I also added a whole bunch of vegetable protein because I need more of that in my life too.

2. Awhile ago I had personal information cards (I'm not exactly part of a business) printed by a really cool company from the UK called Moo.com. I uploaded images from my work and travels last summer then designed the info part including a picture of myself. I used 23 different background pictures for 60 cards and I could have used 60 different ones if I so desired. Moo.com is a really cool website and a great company to work with. I would highly recommend them for any of your printing needs. You can also make personalized postcards and stickers at the site and I will definitely be partaking in the future. Last time I attended a conference I ended up ripping about 6 pages out of my notebook to scribble down my contact information. I hope I'll get to hand out a whole lot of these this summer instead.



3. Today I received a phonecall from the mother of one of the students I tutor. Apparently he achieved a Gold Medal at the science fair I judged last week! There were just so many displays at the fair that I didn't come across him at all. He didn't see me either, and only knew I was there when he noticed my name as one of the judges in the handout from the award ceremony. Awards were handed out at 8:30 pm and I was only at the fair during the morning. I'm disappointed that I missed him, but I'm very proud of his work.



4. Last week, my good friend Bronwen, from Ottawa, sent me a package in a colourswap. This was a little mail exchange I organized with a few of my crafty friends. Everyone had a secret person to send a package to full of knit, found, made, or thrifted items in the recipient's favourite colours. One of my favourites is blue and she sent me a lot of really neat treats along with a handmade, bound notebook. Bronwen is a great bookbinder and I love receiving notebooks from her. This one is called good notes. I'm going to write in all sorts of little quotes and poems I come across that inspire me. The first one is a favourite of mine by e.e. cummings. He was on my mind from two posts ago.



5. Before and after this post I've been working on a new crochet project. I rarely crochet, it jsut isn't my thing, but I will always love the mindlessness that is the creation of a granny square. The most traditional pattern in all of crochet has to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing patterns in Canadian history. Image a cottage without a granny square afghan? Last weekend, I was home and Belva gave me a giant bag of cast-away wool. Even though I'm trying to pare down my belongings, I will gladly accept any offering of wool. In the bag there were 11 balls of Shetland Chunky Tweed in horrible, coordinating colours. So, now I am making a giant granny square tweed blanket and taking into consideration everything I know about colour theory to make this mix into an appealing blend of warmth and coziness.



6. Yesterday and today I received e-mails from the ESA conference in Albequerque, New Mexico and Perth, Australia, saying that my abstracts for oral presentations were accepted. I'm very excited to travel a bit, but I really need to get my thesis finished. Today I caught a little snag in the results section and it definitely brought me down. I was feeling pretty rough and had to leave work and get some fresh air. Tomorrow will be a new day though and I'm going to forge ahead with the discussion.

7. Last, but definitely not least, this morning Doug was talking about the Guelph Guitar and mentioned that Robert Bateman had offered him a piece of Tom Thomson's coffin for the guitar or case. The thought of this is sort of overwhelming and the entire web of stories about art, science, history, life, people, culture, everything inbetween that I can't even think of right now just blows my mind. I'm so glad Doug is putting this all together and I've had the chance to see behind the scenes. I'm a huge fan of early 19th century Canadian landscape art, the work of the Group of Seven and everyone associated with them. I could go on and on about this part of the story, but my fingers are getting tired. I don't know if Doug will take this piece for his work because how will he ever sum up the circumstances that led to this offer in one chapter of his book?



That felt really good. Getting all of this out of my brain allows me to realize that there are many more important things to consider in the world besides my protein intake levels. Got to stay humble,
Cass