Love the Pacific!

I can see my house from here.

Not seen one of these before - a 'Snakebird'!! Quite something to see  as we rounded a bend on a path in the bushland park over the road to see this Australian Darter sitting on the handrail of a small bridge over a creek. (Hope Jon and Victo are impressed with this sighting.) It's a cormorant type bird but somewhat larger and it was flexing its neck just like you'd expect a snake to do. We had left the camera at home and this is a shot I found on the internet. It flew up into a tree where it looked quite colossal and then we saw it fishing where it looked fairly small - however it seems that it swims with most of its body underwater. We got back to tell Pat over the road and he'd seen one this morning spreading it's wings to dry by the pond opposite (where Bandi hangs out) which is quite a sight as apparently it's wing span is nearly a  metre wide! Later today we went down to feed Bandi to find him already waiting for us - he's getting a bit too tame perhaps? Anyway we'll try to remember the camera for the darter next time and show you what it really looks like. Other birds we've seen include Noisy Friarbirds, Bazas, Pelicans, White Herons, Rainbow Lorikeets, Scaly Breasted Lorikeets

Finding some excellent beer now we know where to look. In Melbourne there was a lot of Stone and Wood Pacific Ale, very refreshing and it's no wonder it's popular here. It's very pale, just the sort of thing to appeal to former lager drinkers but it's got plenty of taste, in this case a fruity, hoppy taste. Not sure what an equivalent UK beer might be, maybe a lighter version of Kelham Island's Pale Rider. Microbreweries have really started to take off in the last five years in Australia but not without a fight from the establishment. The vast majority of beer in Oz is made by breweries owned by either SAB Miller (the second biggest brewer in the world) or Lion Nathan, part of Kirin a huge Japanese brewing conglomeration. Both Kirin and SAB have been buying up the more successful microbrewers. The two big supermarket chains have also got in the act and distribute products that are packaged to look as if they've been made by microbrewers. But the breweries keep on coming and the consumers are gradually getting wise to it all.
Three top beers that we've had over here are as follows:

• Stone and Wood Pacific Ale - an independent brewery in Byron Bay, New South Wales, we've seen their Pacific Ale in bars and bottles all over the place but it's good stuff and highly regarded.
• Little Creatures India Pale Ale - a micro brewery that's expanded rapidly and is now part of Kirin, the Japanese giant but they still make excellent stuff - the IPA is strong and delicious.
• Gage Roads Atomic Pale - a smallish craft brewery producing a lovely leafy hoppy beer (there are Citra hops in there) with a bite to it.

 We'll build up a top ten of favourites and publish it here.

Phew glad that one's over!

Finally here's a pic of Vicky at our latest 7 am parkrun on the shores of the Pacific at Wynnum. Results are not finalised yet as the provisional results are under review - but we both did well!