Blackwattle Bay

My youngest season plays soccer over the winter months. His home ground is Wentworth Park in Glebe. The only thing that separates our home from the park is Blackwattle Bay and Anzac Bridge.

When the weather is fine, I like to walk to the game. 

It takes about 45mins if I go across the bridge and about an hour if I walk around the bay. 

Both are scenic and interesting and provide lots of photo opportunities! 

But I prefer the bay walk - less traffic and more greenery.

And plenty of different views of the Anzac Bridge!

Blackwattle Bay was a working harbour full of timber mills and ship-breaking yards. 

In 1969 the Glebe Society was formed to create access to the foreshore for local residents. It has taken them 40 years, but they now have four beautiful parks to their credit - Jubilee, Federal, Blackwattle Bay and Bicentennial parks.

They have kept a crane and some of the old machinery as memorials.

The old timber mills reclaimed mud flats and mangroves swamps to house their yards.

The mangrove swamps quickly became putrid - full of industrial waste and sewerage.

The current sea walls are far more lovely and make it much easier to enjoy the foreshore, but they (& the earlier pollution) have changed the ecosystem of the bay tremendously.

Two years ago, Sydney Uni devised a flowerpot system on the seawalls to encourage rockpool activity once again in the area. See my original post here.

The project has been so successful in re-introducing 28 species of marine life back into the bay, that they have continued the scheme around more Sydney seawalls, including those in Farm Cove and Elizabeth Bay.

Near the Blackwattle campus of Sydney Secondary College, they're also working to re-establish some saltwater mangrove trees. Eco-engineering is the new growth industry around the foreshore!

The Glebe foreshore is also trialling a new bee pollinator habitat.

This post is part of Saturday Snapshot

Walking my suburb

This winter has not been very cold in Sydney.

I've enjoyed lots of walks across, through and around the peninsula that I call home.

Below are a few snaps that I took along the way.

Propeller Park, East Balmain

Space saving kayak storage!

View of White Bay. Sydney Harbour is still a working harbour.

Magnificent gum tree in the park near my house.

It's very therapeutic having a little bush retreat so close to home.

As winter comes to end, the wattle begins to blossom.

Bird of Paradise (Strelitizia) flowering in Mort Bay.

There are only a few spots left on the peninsula where you can walk on sand. This is my favourite little beach.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, merry, merry king of the bush is he....

Ferry Crossing!

Sea mist over White Bay.

Frosty after effects on my walk to work one day.

Evening lights over the city from Cameron Cove

Here comes Spring! The first magnolia!

Ferry entering Mort Bay.

This post is part of Saturday Snapshot

Bathurst Winter Festival

Recently I visited my family in Bathurst.

The area around Bathurst was originally the home of the Wiradjuri peoples. 

Bathurst is now the oldest inland settlement in Australia. Last year the city celebrated 200 years of white settlement with a big festival and street party.

It was so successful they've decided to make it an annual event to coincide with the two weeks of the winter school holidays.

Bathurst has had a number of very cold, snowy days and nights this year, but it's never usually cold enough for the snow to last for very long (it usually melts by lunchtime each day). 

So even though their new Winter Festival features lots of snow related activities, there was very little real snow in sight (although the freezing cold wind was blowing in from somewhere snowy close by!)

Bathurst has done a lovely job of celebrating the cold with markets, food and wine festivals, an ice skating rink, ferris wheel and Vivid-like lights. 

I'm sure this is a festival that will continue to grown and evolve.

Bathurst Court House looked beautiful with it's Winter Lights.

My parents enjoying the light and snow display.

Apparently there is a new ice hockey comp happening in Sydney this year.

Several of the teams travelled to Bathurst for the Winter Festival to play some exhibition games.

 The line for the Ferris wheel was too long at night, so Mum & I returned the next day.

It would have been lovely to see the town all lit up at night, but the daylight ride gave us a fabulous panorama view of the surrounding areas.

This post is part of Saturday Snapshot.

French Onion Soup

Weekend Cooking with Best Fish Reads allows me to get one last post in for this year's Paris in July event with Thyme for Tea.

During the winter months I love my slow cooker, but I've never tried to use it to make soup. This weekend I felt inspired to give it a shot.

I have a wonderful Slow Cooking book by Aussie kitchen legend, Margaret Fulton. 

We've enjoyed her Osso Bucco, Lamb Pilaf, Lamb Shanks and Beef Stroganoff over the years and I've used her chicken and beef stock recipes as a basis for making my own stock.

I always find her recipes easy to follow, using ingredients I usually have to hand with the end results guaranteed yummy for the whole family (although I always add a little more herb and spice than she recommends).

In honour of Paris in July, I decided to try her French Onion Soup (soupe a l'oignon).

Onion soup dates back to Roman times and was considered the poor person's soup.

In the 18th century, the French developed the modern recipe we all know and enjoy.

Legend has it that it was actually King Louis XV who made the first French Onion soup from the only ingredients to be found in his hunting lodge - butter, onions and champagne.

The gratin and gruyere cheese version familiar to most Francophiles is a modern invention.

As with all her recipes, Fulton's French Onion Soup was easy to prepare and cook.

The aroma of the caramelising onion and butter was divine.  

I added some sprigs of thyme during the slow cooking phase because I simply have to have more flavour.

I also added some parsley, croutons and parmesan cheese at the end, but decided against gratinising it as I was too hungry to wait any longer.

It was delicious, although a I found that a little goes a long way. The sweetness of the caramelised onions was a little overbearing at times.

One recipes I read (for comparison) suggested using water instead of stock to get a more traditional flavour. I might try that version next.

I will also definitely explore adding more spices like pepper and garlic next time to give my savoury taste buds a break from the sweetness.