"S" is for...

Spring! It has officially been spring in Melbourne since September 1st and our temperatures have been on the rise. It is nice to know that the cold, windy, rainy days of winter are mostly behind us.

A calm spring day. It is often windy in spring, so we relish calm days!

Pretty spring bloom on our street.

A view of the CBD from Albert Park, where our Year 10 students were running the 5km loop.

Swooping season. This is no joke! Magpies in particular are very conscious of protecting their nests and if you walk/run/ride on a footpath near trees with nests in them, prepare to be attacked. Getting swooped is startling!

A warning about swooping in our local paper.

This is how cyclists attempt to protect themselves during swooping season.

Apparently the "protection" is not always all that helpful!

Sunsets. Our days are getting longer every day, and I have been taking advantage of the extra daylight with walks along the river near our house after work. Spring seems to bring some spectacular sunsets! All of these sunset pictures were taken from different spots on different evenings using my phone.

On this evening the sun was blazing an amazing orange color as it dropped from the sky. I had to run in order to get to a spot where I could see it fall to the horizon, and it was worth the extra effort!

Snakes. When the temperature warms up, snakes come out of hibernation. On my evening walks I have started to become a bit more vigilant about being on the lookout for snakes. I have only seen one snake near our house in the three years that we have lived here, and I am pretty sure it was a brown snake, not the kind of snake you want to be bitten by!

Our local paper warning us about snakes in the area

Sausage sizzles. These actually happen year-round, but once the weather warms up, everyone heads out to their local Bunnings (the equivalent of Home Depot/Lowes in America). Each weekend a different group serves up sausages outside the store, usually offering fried onions with the sausage and serving them on a piece of bread. These sausage sizzles serve as fundraisers for different organizations, and shoppers are always keen to have a sausage in the middle of the afternoon on a weekend.

People queuing up for sausages

What the finished product usually looks like. Mind you that is tomato sauce, not ketchup!

Helloooooooooo Spring!

Today, September 1st, is the first official day of spring in Australia (it is also Father's Day in Oz, for anyone that is interested!). However, we have been lucky enough that it has been feeling like spring for the last week or so. The sun has been out with temperatures ranging from about 65-75 degrees F, and if our luck continues, the cold, rainy days of winter are behind us! We cannot complain too much, though, as the winter of 2013 set records for being warm (average winter temp of about 60 degrees F), albeit rainy. Trees are blossoming, the smell of freshly cut grass is in the air, and we don't have to "rug up" for our morning bike rides to work for the next 8 or 9 months.

With the change in seasons, we do start to see insects and other animals come out of their winter hiding places, which is always an interesting experience. This week we caught a spider in our hallway:

Not nearly as big as the one in our bedroom last summer, but still scary-looking!

Friday night we had some rain that lead to the exposure of about 30 snails in our backyard. 

Not sure what is going on here?!

Tiny snail!

Checking out our back door. Sort of looks like he is suspended in the air!

This week we also enjoyed an outside lunch at a barbecue joint in the city. Aimed to mimic American BBQ, this place offers several different kinds of BBQ sauce including our favorite, a vinegar-based Carolina style.

Carolina style pulled pork with 'slaw, of course!

The "Zee Man" beef brisket with crispy onions.

Also this week, Melbourne was named the world's most liveable city for the third year in a row. Kind of exciting news as we begin our third spring in "Melbs". The video below is a couple of years old but shows a few highlights of our awesome city!

Post

No, not the blog post type of "post"...I'm talking about the good old fashion send a letter in the mail type of post. In Australia, if you mail something to someone, you are "posting" a letter rather than mailing a letter. The equivalent of the United States Postal Service here is called Australia Post. My first encounter with the system of mailing things in Australia was quite amusing to the locals.

When we first moved into our house in Australia there were a few items I needed to post for various reasons. Like we do in America, I placed stamps on the letters and put them in the mailbox for collection. The next day, I noticed that the items were still there, however, we had not received any mail either. I assumed that our "postie" (short for postman, of course) might have had a day off and he would pick the letters up the next day. This went on for several days, except that eventually we were getting mail and my letters were still not getting picked up. I asked Erik if maybe I hadn't placed the proper amount of postage on the letters, but he assured me that they were okay.

Mail was sitting here for days not getting picked up.

Finally, after a week of the mail not getting picked up, I mentioned the "issue" to one of my colleagues at work. She stared at me with a very confused look and kindly explained (after a bit of a laugh) that posties do not pick UP mail, they only drop it off! Who knew how lucky we have it in America to simply walk to our mailbox and put up the little red flag to make it known that we have mail to send out? Instead, here in Oz, we must find the closest Post box and mail our letters that way. Obviously this is not a difficult task once you realize how the system works. I can only imagine what our postie was thinking when he kept seeing my outgoing mail in the box day after day?!

The big red box, where you must take your mail to get collected!

In fairness, our posties travel on motorbikes and therefore do not have as much room as a USPS worker to carry mail.

 VS

There is no mail delivery on Saturday here, something that I think the States is leaning towards and I think it is probably a good idea to save money. We certainly do not miss our Saturday mail delivery.

My only real complaint about the system here is that our "mailboxes" (at least the ones in our neighborhood) are not completely enclosed and therefore when it rains, the mail gets wet. When mail is placed in the box, the lid does not close completely (as seen in picture above). Mail can also be placed in the front slot (see below), but then part of the mail sticks out resulting in mail still getting wet.

At least only part of this letter was wet. We have had mail completely soaked on a bad day!

All in all, the post situation is a very minor inconvenience, but perhaps something that Americans take for granted when they only have to walk down the driveway to have their outgoing mail collected. Could posties on motorbikes be a thing of the future for Americans in order to save the USPS?

Time Abroad

I have been slacking on the blog posts lately, haven't I?! In fairness, I was on "holiday" in the States for part of that time, where I did have intentions to blog but ended up relaxing and spending time with family...the best kind of vacation. But now Erik and I have both returned to Melbourne after our respective trips and life is back to "normal".

Erik's trip overseas was arguably a lot more exciting than mine. He flew to London, presented for a research group at a university there, then flew to Ireland to visit our friend Eoin and do a bit of touristy stuff before eventually landing in Barcelona, where he was presenting at a conference. I would have LOVED to hang out with E in Spain, however, last August I had booked a plane ticket to head to Vegas for my own professional conference, which happened to be taking place on the same exact dates as his conference. So, unfortunately, we took separate long trips across the world.

Here is Erik in Ireland...

Erik and the Cliffs of Moher

Ring of Kerry

And here are some shots from his time in Barcelona...

View of Barcelona from the castle at Montjuic.

BIG city!!!

Barcelona Cathedral

A nice day on the water in "Barca"

Street views

Erik's apartment building for the week.

I spent 5 days in Vegas learning and also soaking up some much-needed sun at Mandalay Bay, where the conference was held. It was also an opportunity to catch up with friends and to do a little networking for my current position in Melbourne.

View of "The Strip" from the plane

Blue skies, sunshine, and palm trees.

The Mix Lounge on the 64th floor of Mandalay Bay provides some sweet views of the strip!

A trip to Vegas is not complete without the Bellagio fountain show, even from a distance.

'Merica

Wave pool and convention center at Mandalay Bay.

After Vegas, I headed back to Baltimore to spend time with my sister, mom, and dad, along with friends in the area. The highlight of my trip was spending a few days in Ocean City, MD with my family. We had absolutely perfect weather and it was just like the "old days", since neither of our husbands could make the trip.

The hubby sent me flowers since we could not be together...I am a lucky gal!!

Trying on the Super Bowl ring for size (MASSIVE), thanks to my friend Kevin who is an athletic trainer for the team!

Crabs, beer, and family on the 4th of July.

Hello, friend!

Cheese plate appetizer at our belated Mother's Day lunch.

Seacrets. There is no other place in the world like it.

Late day on the beach in OCMD.

International terminal at LAX...the long journey home.

Early morning views from my seat on the "Spirit of Australia".

Now its is back to winter, work, and footy. Yesterday's footy game was played in awful conditions...freezing cold and raining, so I thought I'd share a picture of Erik after the game.

Yes, that is the field behind him. Horrible!

During winter it seems we do get quite a bit of rain, but often there is the reward of seeing a rainbow afterwards. Twice this week we saw full rainbows after storms! My iPhone is not good enough to capture the full rainbow from after footy yesterday, but if you piece the two photos below together you get the idea.

Rainbow over the footy field.

Left half of rainbow...

...and the right half of the rainbow!

Today it is sunny and a bit warmer as we celebrate 6 years of marriage, Australian time anyway!

At the wedding "after party" with our two Aussie guests!!