Lady O'felia Smudge.

I had to upload a couple pictures of Mara's cat. I was incredibly allergic to her (the cat, not Mara), but she was a sweet little thing and she really just loves people. The cat is deaf, so she has a funny little meow and, obviously, has no idea what's going on around her unless it's in front of her. One night she managed to open and climb in my window by herself. I wasn't letting her in my room (due to the allergies) and I guess she wanted to hang out.


She liked my knitting a lot and I really like the way our colours matched.

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.

Inspiration.

This is so beautiful:



I found it on one of the crafty blogs I follow for inspiration. Every time I finish a section or a bit of thesis I get to look at one. This prevents me from sitting around and daydreaming about all of my knitting projects at home. Uh, yeah, I do that. It's so strange how you can care so much about so many different things and yet some things just seem so much more fun to do. I suppose knitting is easier for me than this science gig since I've been actively practicing craft for so much longer. Not to mention, science still has that schoolwork vibe attached to it for me. I can't wait to be a free agent and just float around in the world for a bit.

For now, I'll type away and post pretty things. This particular blankie is made with a wide range of Koigu Premium Merino (KPM). The colourways are rich and beautiful. Imagine the possibilities with this stuff for giant granny squares which happen to be one of my favourite crafty items. A throwback to easy days in Warsaw at Nana's house. And possibly every summer weekend in Cottage Country, Ontario.



Okay, I'm out. Enough pretty internet pictures. I've promise myself that I'll send my Hypotheses, Predictions, Methods, and Results to Uta this afternoon for proofreading. Got to buckle down and show up, I just had to post this first.

Knit Digestive System.

I actually came across the knit brain from the previous post at a crafty forum I read sometimes. The people there find all kinds of fantastic projects and items. This completely knit digestive system came up in the same thread as the brain. I'm going to keep an eye on this one.



The first Fibonacci legwarmer was finished just after knit group last night. The second was cast on today. It's slow going because the wool is fine and the entire thing is ribbed for extra stretch. Next up in my knitting bag is the fourth self-striping sock since Christmas (I had to take a break before I finished the last one...fourth sock syndrome, anyone?). Self-striping wool is a mathematical achievement in itself. One of my favourite bloggers, Eunny Jang of See Eunny Knit has a great tutorial for home dyeing.

Okay, I'm out. I've been doing some research on my science family so I'll try to update that tomorrow.

Cass