Pavlova for the Holidays

The holidays seem to be all about eating—so I thought I’d offer a recipe to enjoy during your festivities. While traveling around Australia, I had several encounters with a really lovely dessert called a Pavlova, named for the great ballerina.
While Pavlova is massively popular all across Australia, where it is viewed as a fair dinkum [...]

Garden of Eden

Kings Canyon is in the arid Red Centre. The top of Kings Canyon reflects this, with only a few tufts of dried spinifex and an occasional ghost gum dotting great stretches of weirdly sculpted red rock. But in the crevices, touched by the sun for only a brief time each day, and where water can [...]

On to Kings Canyon

The cast is now off my broken wrist, but I’m wearing a splint, so typing is still slow, as I’ve only got one hand to work with (though I can now push down the Shift key with the one free finger on my splinted hand). But fortunately, I’ve already done a fairly long entry on [...]

Phantom Lakes

Australia’s outback is dotted with what poet Banjo Patterson called “phantom lakes” in his poem “The Droving Days.” These lakes can be real lakes, at times, when there has been rain, or when distant rains have been so great that water makes it down the usually dry rivers to fill these basins. When that happens, [...]

Southern Cross

Back to writing about Australia and my adventures there.
It was while in the Centre, camping near Ayers Rock, that I first saw the constellation known as the Southern Cross. I have always enjoyed stargazing, and the Australian nighttime sky is astonishing, but this constellation delighted me beyond simply being a nice grouping of stars. Of [...]

Today’s Word is “Riparian”

Riparian means “relating to, living on, or located on the bank of a natural watercourse.” While riparian refers to anywhere there is water, riparian areas are always more astonishing when they appear in arid country. One of my favorite sights, whenever I’m visiting a desert, is the sudden appearance of the surprising burst of luxuriant [...]

Other Deserts, Other Sands

Just as I have taken a break from work, so too I am going to take a very brief respite from talking about Australia.
I spent the last two weeks visiting friends in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Southern New Mexico is perhaps best known for missiles and rockets, as there are bases for both the U.S. [...]