My 2016
Suz was in Austria for most of January but was back in time for my 50th.
I celebrated my 50th in much the same way I celebrated my 40th, in a secluded part of a restaurant with a couple of dozen friends and family. This time at Salt at port beach with a swim in the surf beforehand. I was honoured to have people come from far away, Paul from London (again) and Tom from Melbourne as well as some very old friends, Chris from school and the very new, Debra who house sat last year and Stefan, the Italian engineer. The food was surprisingly good, too.
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I managed a road bike ride with Paul and another on the dirt and in the hills before he returned to the UK. Paul has ridden road in the mountains of France but this was pretty new for him. Tom was also over to accompany me to Margaret River to meet with the shire planners. Nearly two months later, Susanna and I met up with one of the landowners who unfortunately was looking at housing for his kids about where we were thinking of siting some of the turbines, "would this be a problem?" Well, yes, goodbye.
Also, in February, was a trip to Mt Barker for the Mt Barker Power Co 2015 AGM (yes, late) and to pick up solar data. Susanna and I stayed, for the first time, at the Banksia Farm. We have been going down to Mt Barker for over 15 years now and I have been aware of this place all this time. About 33 years ago, this couple bought some farmland out the back of Mt Barker Hill and planted every one of the 79 Banksia species in Australia (on the planet). Any botanist, like the Kew Gardens of London, should go here.
We went to the Camelot open air cinema a number of times this year. My movie highlight of the year, was Eye in the Sky.
The commander is in England.
The drone pilot is in America.
The terrorist is in Kenya.
and the authority to strike is up in the air.Welcome to the new frontline.
For a dvd series, it would have to be True Detectives, bleak but so well done. And my book of the year, 'The Invention of Nature', Andrea Wulf's bibliography on the brilliant Prussian scientist. humanitarian, world traveller and polyglot, Alexander von Humboldt. Known to English speakers only by the Humboldt current off Chile, his influence was as great as Darwin, and indeed, inspired the young Charles.
On the 9th of March, we made it to the annual Sculpture by the sea in Cottesloe (as in Manly, Sydney and Aarhus, Denmark).
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Saun Tan'esque, no? |
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The major event of 2016 for me was a bike accident I had on the Freeway Bike Hike, Sunday, April 3rd. Nearly finished and just over the Leederville overpass, some thing happened. I was in a pack and woke up in Royal Perth Hospital with someone shining a torch in my eye and asking me stupid questions about my name and date of birth. I did not and am ever so grateful that I still do not, remember a thing. I had a MRI scan and was discharged after a few days with nothing wrong, apart from some grazing (a full salami pizza on the left knee), bruising, a minor crack on the skull above the left eye and a cracked rib. In some 45 years of cycling, I had never hit my head on the deck and it was, by far, my worst incident. Susanna, after waiting for me at the finish, had finally found out what had happened from mum and had turned up just as the doctor asked me to wiggle my toes. It scared the hell out of her. The doctor said no competitive cycling for 8 weeks. My barber's assistant defines competitive cycling as trying to ride faster that the guy in front . . . I was on the shopping bike in a week and the old road bike in a month. Some 24 hrs after admission . . . |
On the day after, Peter and Susanna had begun the work on the lounge rear wall, replacing 40 year old second hand windows with new German double glazed windows. We had the windows included with Peter's order for his Grand Design works at his place, the sea container now resting on Peter's front lawn. The timing for the work on the wall was the discovery of just how active termites had been.
With double glazing and rockwool insulation in the stud wall cavity, the house is now very comfortable - bring on the winter cold or the summer heat.
Finished wall and tiling.
And the bike? The bike doctor okayed the frame but reported micro cracks on the wheels, and it was heavily scratched elsewhere. Quite a few months later, it now sports new hoods on the brakelevers, new handlebars, new handlebar tape, new saddle and new wheels.
In May, I flew over to Melbourne for the Solar and Storage conference, staying with Tom for a few days and then Mags and Chris. Chris is building a 3/4 scale Spitfire and he took me out to the airfield to see it. It is nearly finished and he was able to taxi the aircraft in front of the hanger. So close to being ready for first flight. Myself in front of a solar pile driver . . . gps locating, self leveling, drill or hammer. |
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We now seem to have gotten the honey extraction down pat, May and December, about 25kg each time with no stings. Interestingly, the hive swarmed no less than four times in November, but we were unable to capture it.
May's effort;
At the end of June, Peter, Susanna and myself all went down to Denmark for a number of minor jobs. A rather exceptionally clever mural on the wall at Denmark,
Mid year, of course, our PM finally called a double dissolution and barely won the ensuing election. I volunteered a few times to hand out How to Vote flyers for the Greens at the prepoll voting centre in Fremantle. It was the absolute conviction of a certain Liberal Senator for WA, also there, that wind plant is evil that really throws me. It was religious in it's intensity and so cheerfully fact free (they don't offset as many tonnes of carbon emissions over their lifetimes as they emit during their manufacture, they kill many birds, they are hazardous to health etc). Along with Brexit and Trump, the word for 2016 is, indeed, 'post truth'.
I flew to Austria mid July to catch up with Suz who had left earlier. I failed to follow through with a plan to do an intensive German course and the weather put us off from any long bike tours. We did manage an overnighter at Kamp and later, a couple of days at Lake Neuseidler. Links to writeups below. We also had Paul spend a weekend with us and we spent a nice Saturday leisurely touring Vienna itself.
Paul and Suz at Schlosspark behind her parents' place.
We caught the train to Salzburg, to catch up with Steen and Hanne from Denmark who were driving to Italy and needed a stopover.
Steen and Hanne at the top Gaisberg Mountain, just outside Salzburg
On another trip to Salzburg, we met with Willy and Roswita. Willy is researching project costs for a short section of underground railway in Salzburg. The blatantly obvious solution is to ban cars from the town centre of Salzburg, which is also known for it's exceptionally high numbers of cyclists . . .
Maureen is now back in Perth and was able to house sit for us during this time.
In October, Steen and Hanne from Denmark come over for 5 days and we managed an overnighter to Dunsborough. On the way, we took the coast road to check out the Thrombolites at Lake Clifton.
Steen on the boardwalk
Thrombolites, not to be confused with the Strombolites of Shark Bay.
Then a few too many hours were spent at Capel Winery. On the Sunday, it was whale watching at Cape Naturaliste and a mad dash to the end of the jetty for Underwater Observatory at Busselton. It had been 12 years since we had been there with Willy and Roswita.
In September, after all these years, I finally took Susanna to the Royal Show. It was also the first time I had been there in 15 years. Fowl shows and sheep dog trials, with pig racing and pig diving the outstanding highlights. And we scored a show bag - a food bag from the Gascoyne area featuring a banana loaf!
Opposition over the wretched Roe 8 continues. Suz at the Fremantle Parade in November.
The garden has seen successful breeding by the galahs with no less than 3 chicks fledging, the black faced cuckoo shrikes had a nest in the paperbarks and right now, the hornbill honeyeaters have a pair still in the nest. A dozen or so of pairs of red tailed black cockatoos spent a day or two in the neighbours tree.
SkyFarming
Our work with the Mt Barker and Denmark continues with November and December seeing a big number of trips to Denmark and Mt Barker to sort out Telstra's 2G wireless network changeover and to use the opportunity to add remote control to the Sepam in the switchrooms. Three of these trips were with Tim from Blair Fox who are operating a couple of behind the meter windfarms using second Enercon turbines north of Perth. While we lost Margaret River, we gained another site closer to Perth (details next year), and on the 1st of November, installed a sodar, our first wind monitoring in 10 years.
The other major event for me for 2016 was induction at Mt Barker and the climb up T1, mid December. Over 5 and a half years since commissioning, it was well overdue. We went downstairs to check out the transformer and HV gear - after it had been turned off, of course. Wearing industrial harnesses, both Peter and I also got to climb the 72m tower and check out the nacelle, on top and in the nose. It was fascinating to see the engineering under the hood.
Links
all the best for 2017
Andrew
Fremantle
2/01/2017
