Some Things We Have Learned

Restaurants in the Portland area are cheap compared to Western Australia (WA).

Never, under any circumstances refer to a woman as "she." The word "she" means or is the "cat's mother." Always use a woman's proper name. This came about when we were having breakfast. Ed referred to Roxanne as "she" when saying what Roxanne wanted for breakfast. He was immediately corrected (like a teacher would say to a student) that "she" is the "cat's mother."

During the full moon, underground springs begin to fill ponds. This was told to Don, and it did appear to happen.

Kangroos (Roos) will strip and destem grapes from the vines. Told this by a vineyard owner. They do more damage than deer.

We now have seen the Southern Cross in the skys.

Clean Skins - wine bottles without labels

Dry Argument - discussion without beer. We learned this while visiting the RSL in Perth.

No Rules in Wine Making. We have discovered that this is definitely true. They blend together all kinds of grapes.

Australia only has sunguard lotion or cream available for sale with a SPF of 30. We were told this is because of the "hole in the ozone." We were told this by more than one person.

Cheeky wine is a "girlie" wine.

Roxanne does not like "high" places. This refers to our tree walk section of the blog.

Guinea fowl are used in the vineyards to clean up insects and slugs.

Aussies like Yanks - Yanks like Aussies!

Melbourne - Heading Back Home

Don and I are in Melbourne tonight at the airport Hilton. We leave on our international flight tomorrow for home. It has been a wonderful trip, but we are ready to come home. Ed and Roxanne leave tomorrow.

It's time to pay bills, pet the cats, spray the wineyard, wash clothes, top the wine, call Mom, say hello to the kids and grand kids, etc. etc.

SEE YOU SOON!

Quantas Airlines

I know that we are spoiled, and very seldom travel "in the back of the bus," but this is terrible. The economy seats were so tight! Our legs touched the back of the seat in front of us.

I will never complain about United Airlines again!

Fortunately we will by doing our international flying in Business Class on United Airlines on Monday.

Saying Good Bye

Our wonderful hosts, Phil and Irene. We feel that we made some new friends!




Preparing to travel back home. Do you think we can get all this luggage in the airplane? We can barely get it in our rental car.

Last Wine Tasting & Lunch

As Roxanne says, "Our hunters and gatherers" enjoying their last wine tasting.


The photo shows our lunch. A "small" sampler plate for four (4).

Bibbulmun Track - The Adventures of Ed and Roxanne

Photo at start of Bibbulmun Trail.


Ed and Roxanne hiked the Bibbalum Track. The Bibbalum Track is a hiking trail that was completed in the 1990's from Kalamuna (suburb of Perth) to Albany at the south end of Western Australia. It is approximately 300+ miles. The photos show the map of the trail, Roxanne and Ed at the beginning of the trail, mid-point of the trail, and end of the trail in Albany.

I bet you thought they were travelling with us! Well, we met them at various points of the trail and gave them food and water to keep them going.

Middle and end of Trail.
















If you believe this, I have a bridge to sell you!

Our new love - Gelato

We have a new love - gelato! The Italian word for "ice cream," gelato doesn't contain as much air as its American counterpart and therefore has a denser texture. So good! When I get home, I'm going to have to look up the recipe for making this wonderful ice cream. As you can tell by the photos, the gelato also looks great!

We went to Freemantle today. Freemantle is a sea coast town in the suburbs of Perth. I wanted to visit a ladies clothing store called Liz Davenport, and Roxanne wanted to see some galleries. Liz Davenport had some wonderful clothes, and I seemed to have left a "little" money there!

When we first visited Perth, we also went to Freemantle to visit their markets. Roxanne purchased a painting here.

The town has little cafe along the center of town. Naturally we had lunch there.

Still Eating & Drinking

This is the famous Pavlova dessert of Australia. Both New Zealand and Australia claim this dessert as their own. To learn more about Pavola, check out my web page on the history here: http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Cakes/Pavlova.htm






We went out to dinner withour hosts, Phil and Irene, tonight. As usual, we ate very well, and I couldn't resist taking more photos.

I have everyone trained to not touch their food until I get a photo first. They are even reminding me.

Presentation is fabulous. It is said that we eat with our eyes!

RSL Club - Returning Services League

We are back at the Rosebridge B&B in Perth (the same place we stayed at on the beginning of our trip). We say we are going back "home." We really enjoyed our host and hostess, Phil and Irene. Such lovely people!

We went to Phi's RSl (his guy club) with them tonight and had a beer or beers before dinner. RSL mean Returning Service League.

On the first of our trip, we also went here and bought raffle tickets to help them buy a new refrigertor. Phil said they were waiting for us to come back before they did the drawing. Fortunately, we didn't win, as the prize was wine. As you probably guessed, we have been buying and drink alot of excellent wines. Ed says he is going to tally up all the wines we bought and drank during this trip.

We are carefully brining home one very special bottle of pinot noir wine to compare with our Oregon pinots. See Tete Du Cuvee - best of the vintage posting.

Heading Back to Perth

Thursday, March 16th

One our way back to Perth, we stopped at the Wellington Brook Winery. Sue Cantelo and John Doberty had never made wine before buying this very small 3-acre boutique winery. This year will be their first harvest. Sound a little familiar?

They spent a couple of hours showing us around their winery and vineyards.

NOTE: They had a few pinot noir grapes, but they didn't look very good. They had lots of ants on them.

Photo of Shiraz grapes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANCY!

Happy Birthday Nancy! I'm sorry I could not be with you to help celebrate your birthday. Can we celebrate when I get home? Give my love to everyone.

B&B Party - March 15th

Our last night at the wonderful Blackwood Inn with our hosts George & Jill. Tonight, our last night before driving back to Perth, as you can tell by the photos, we had a little farewell party. All of us took turns pumping thier player piano. You really get a workout when you pump through one of the song rolls. I need a player piano at home to do my daily exercises.

Every morning and evening, our hosts cooked us a wonderful meal.

Tete Du Cuvee - best of the vintage

We finally found an area with somewhat similar climate with Oregon (at least today it feels that way). It made us a little "homesick" until we remembered about the snow and how cold it is at home.

Attention all our wine making friends! We finally found the most wonderful pinot noir wine.

Tete Du Cuvee - meaning "best of the vintage"

Note from Ed:
Picardy Estates - We found Oregon in Pemberton, WA. Here is a small estate (about 5000 cases annually) with a passion for pinot noir wines that is well rewarded. The owner-winemaker (Dan Pinnell) spent quality time with us describing his approach to growing and winemaking, plus sharing many barrel samples of the 2005 vintage.

Wine making sounded like home:
1. Low yields - 20% whole bunches

2. Cold maceration - 4 to 20 days

3. ML after primary to avoid risk of volatile acidity

4. 20% new French Oak (which is really expensive here- about $1700 Aud)

5. High humidity storage conditions. Topping only requires appx 150 ml per week, rather than 300 or so that we approach.

Dan's approach to blending is intriguing. Whether the bordeaux varietals or the different clones of pinot noir, he opts to blend at the earliest possible time - co-fermenting if possible. We have been tending toward blending closer to bottling to increase our choices, but we may be losing some benefits of integration.

Our samples of Shiraz and Pinot Noir were all very good - and the best was his 2005 Tete du Cuvee (Pinot Noir).: beautiful structure, great mouthfel, smooth lingering aftertaste. It retails for $45 Aud, but he hopes to get it to $60. I wanted to ship the barrel home.

Dan enters no competitions because the wine folk in Victorie tend to give little respect to Western Australia. He also regards entries as a waste of 6 bottles.

This year he even made wine from a neighb or who was unhappy with his grapes. He will not market it. He says that it si for his Mum.

Dan finds his effort to be a lot of hard work, even at this level. They only have 4 full time employees and rely on backpackers for seasonal labor. What he really wants to do is pursue his passion to make the very best wine - just a few barrels each year that he can share with his mates. Sounds like he would make a great Ferementing Friend!

Another Doll for Roxanne!

Roxanne finally found another doll she wants! In fact, the doll of her dreams! The only thing is - it is too big!

Sorry Roxanne, but you can't take this one home.

Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets . . . .

Introduction to Lola - On our first day driving south from Perth, Roxanne found Lola at an outdoor market in Muntarah. Lola is a spiritual traveler, and she now protects us in our travels.

By The Sea, By The Sea, By The Beautiful Sea

We walked in the Indian Ocean in Bunbury today. A beautiful beach town with some lovely homes. Roxanne said that the blue, blue ocean and the white, white sand reminded her of Cairns.




Don and Ed were wishing that they had some binoculars to view the bathing beauties on the beach.
















We also had a light lunch at the Ex-Tensions On The Beach Cafe.

Interesting Tidbit

The West Australian New:

An article on Aussie War Brides after World War II:
Following is what the Aussies called our American Servicemen who were stationed there at the end of the war:

"Over-paid, over-sexed, and over here."

The newspaper also said, " There was significant ill-feeling about the cashed-upped Americans "stealing" Australian women.

Gnomes, Gnomes Everywhere!

Gnomesville - A junction on the road with appx. 1,500 gnomes and "zero" people. A unique tourist destination that's hard to miss. Gnomesville is a large collection of garden gnomes that have mysteriously been place at the round-about. Nobody seems to know exactly how the quaint little hamlet of gnomes began.

ACCORDING TO STORIES: This all started as a joke. Supposedly someone left a small gnome in the area as a joke. It caught on, and people now bring and leave gnomes in this place with cute notes.

Rain Drops Keep Falling In My Tank

Except in the large cities, narly all the domestic water in Australia comes from rain water collected from roof tops and stored in large above ground tanks. The good thing is that there is no hard water. It's just hard to rinse out the soap after shampooing your hair.

We find a lot of signs in bathrooms pleading to make our showers short. We are doing our part by substituting wine for water whenever we can.

Photo of a 30,000 gallon tank. The tank usually overflows in the rainy season.

Country West Capital of Western Australia

This is a very unusual place - Harvey Dickson's Country Music Center

Dead Horse Saloon

Boot Hill
He has the largest collection of Elvis records in the world. I never knew that Elvis made all these records.

Photo below of Harvey and Don. When Don asked Harvey why he did all this, he said "It was meant to be!" Harvey kept telling us that Yanks and Aussies are like first cousins - we come from the same stock!

Phot of the Stage

Trout For Breakfast

Don was in "Trout Heaven."

Our host and hostess at the Blackwood Inn in Mullalyup previously ran a restaurant for years. The cook us the most wonderful breakfast and dinner each day.

NOTE: In case you are wondering about the "up" at the end of so many city names, "up" refers to "by the water," referring to the sea or ocean.

Heading On Down The Road - Sunday, March 12th

9:30 a.m.
Ed and Roxanne are at church right now. We will be heading back up toward Perth today, and staying at a country inn for a few days.

Ed is very worried that there will be no wineries, and that he will be bored. The rest of us are excited that maybe we can relaxe a little.











11:00 a.m.
Today is Don's driving day, as the boys take turns driving.

They both have become experts at driving on the "wrong side of the road" (left side). The first two days of driving, we were all nervious, but now you would think the guys had done this all their lives.

Rickety Gate Wines

We spent a lovely 2 hours with the owners of the Rickety Gate Winery. It was particularly interesting because they are a fairly new startup winery with only 8 acres of grapes. They showed us all around their place and all their new winery equipment. He made a lot of money in the 90's in the stock market, and decided to finally do what he has always wanted to do - make wine. They were a lot of fun! The photo is of sayiRuss and Linda Hubbard, owners of the winery, sayng goodbye to us.

Still Eating & Drinking our way through Australia

We had the most wonderfuly lunch at the Forest Hills Winery today. We tasted marron and sardines for the first time today. The presentations were fantastic!

Sardines wrapped in grape leaves and stuffed with saffron polenta - This is the first time that I had sardines that did not come in a can. They were fresh caught, approximately 6-inches long (with out head). They good, but I'll probably pass on ordering them again. Too many new foods to try!
Marron (a type of lobster or crayfish)
Crab & Prawn ?????
Fig and Pecan Torte - This was wonderful! The figs were an delightful addition for what we would call a pecan pie. I'm trying to convince Roxanne that she should make one of these pies. Roxanne rates up there with my mother, and my daughter, Brenda, as great pie makers! Hey Brenda, how about you making this pie?
A few photos of the wonderful food we have been eating in our journeys. We are sure that we have gained weight! They are very creative in their food presentation. We have never dined so well on holiday before. Yes, vacation is called holiday here.

Koalas, Dingos, Emu, Camels & Roos

I'm actually touching a koala! So soft!
Koala bear entertaining us. Roxanne was uncertain if it was safe to touch the emu. She did do it!

How about a camel?
We stopped at a Alpaca Farm that turned out to be a mini zoo. Since I purchased a Alpace Sweater (they call jumper), we were allowed to visit their vast variety of animals for free. A few of the animals are in the photos above.

Parade of the Swim Suits

When we were in Albany checking out our emails, we had an unexpected surprise. A parade! Western Australia (WA) was celebrating the 50th anniversary of their Sea Rescue Clubs. All ages of men and women members paraded by in their swim suits. The older members were very brave letting the world see their "older" bodies. You would never see me parading my flab before the world!

From Roxanne:
We were just in time to catch a parade down the center of the city of Albany. It was led by a Bagpipe Scottish bank all dressed in their colorful plaid kilts. Then came a group of old guys in old-fashion bathing costumes followed by the women, and ended with the children.

It was a parade to celebrate 50 years of Surf Rescue. Some of the original members, as you can see, paraded in their original bathing costumes. We thought they were quite brave to parade through the city of Albany in their bathing costumes.

I cannot stress how delightful the people of Australia are. They all seem to have great senses of humor. They seem to welcome us with "open arms." We delight in their Australian sayings.

We only met one unfriendly Australian. It was at an internet cake in Margaret River. We couldn't figure out how to get on his broadband connection. He came over to see what the problem was, look it over and said, "I don't know why you can't connect. You must be configured wrong! Just go away!"

We figures the unfriendly one was not a native Australian, but from Austria, as we had met another woman from Austria who had a similar personality.

Saturday, March 11th - From the guys!

From Don:
Linda says it's time for me to add to the blog. Ed and I take turns driving. One drives, the other navigates. So far we have hardly ever gotten lost. Just someplace we can't identify on the map. We are now on the downhill side of our trip and having a great time.

I'm glad you are having snow at home in Oregon and not us. The good thing is that our grapes won't bud while it is still cold. Ed will add a few words. Don



From Ed:
During our stay in Albany, we have explored he Great Southern wine region. It has 5 appellations, of which I think Denmark is the most interesting. Sauvignon and Semillon continue to be the dominant whites, but we also find Riesling here in the somewhat cooler climate. We have have found a few Pinot Noir's, but nothing very notble. A number of these makers have exports which I will explore on return.

The cellar doors here are smaller and more casual than Margaret River - more like home. Harvest is very late here this year - much like our last season. We saw the first of It at Mt. Barker two days ago. Today we return to Denmark - no sign of Scandinavian cuisine however.

Snow and more snow!

Friday, March 10th

10:00 a.m.

What's is this about snow at home! We are having 100 deg. F. temperatures. Which is worst - heat or snow! Laurie sent use some photos of the snow scenes on our vineyards, and Don's sister, Shirley, tells us about all the accidents on the big curve in front of our house.

We are off to the town of Denmark today to explore and taste more wines.

For some reason, I can't add any photos today. We finally found an internet place where we could use our own computer, and it won't work! We'll try later with the photos.

Laundry Day - Mid Point of Trip

5:00 p.m.

I told Ed and Don that either we wash clothes today or we go shopping for new clothes. I figure that you can guess what we did before dinner tonight.

Cheeky Wines

Thursday, March 9th

We spent a wonderful 2 hours chatting with Mandy, one of the wine tasting staff, at the Plantagenet Winery out of Albany. She was very "chatty." Photo on left is of Mandy holding up her "cheeky wines."

We learned a new wine term today. It is Mandy's term:

Cheeky white or red wines - "girlie" wines. These wines are nicely priced, under $20. Ed is going to call one of his red wines a "cheeky red" in 2006.

New Wine Terms:

1. Clean Skins - mude wine bottle, no label

2. No Rules - They don't follow the traditional wine making rules in Australia. Lots of blends - anything up to 15% does not have to be listed on the label.