COVID-19 - What a Wonderful World!

The view from Mt Painter

It's hard to make sense of things right now. A week ago we were joking about toilet paper, dried pasta, and how incredible it was that grown adults needed instruction on how to wash their hands. Now, the world has changed. 

I am working from home. My job, which involves putting educational programs into schools and communities to ensure that all children have equal opportunities to aid their learning development and engagement, is in limbo. Schools are still open, but they are not allowing any incursions or excursions; hence all our programs are suspended until further notice. 

I have read a lot of information. I have answered a lot of emails. I have cleaned up my digital files. I don't know if my job will continue to exist. This is a time of great uncertainty. We need to support ourselves and the vulnerable members of our community. But how? The Australian government seems to be doing very little compared with other governments - this is a global crisis and, as a citizen of three countries with family in all of them, I am watching things closely.  Our family is connecting and checking on each other regularly. 

I am avoiding gatherings where I might spread any infection to others - I don't think I've contracted it, but how would I know? I think the best thing to do is to avoid others. I don't know. Governments in different countries are telling people to do different things: stay in; go out; get exercise; abandon sport; support local business; avoid cafes and pubs 'like the plague' (even the cliches are relevant). 

I'm jotting my thoughts down here like some kind of diary - I don't know what's going to happen; no one does. But I need to record things because it's all so weird. In every version of apocalyptic scenarios I've seen, the world does not look like this. After months of not being able to go outside, due to fires, smoke and hazardous air quality, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, the fields are green and the roses are blooming. It is a world full of wonder; if not a wonderful world. 

A rose in our garden

Friday Five: A Good Year for the Roses

We have roses in our garden. We didn't plant them, but still we reap the benefit of their perfumed blooms. Much has been written of roses: they are literal and metaphoric flowers. Here are five of my favourite quotes about roses:

5 Quotes about Roses:

1. 'A rose is a rose is a rose.' - Gertrude Stein
2. 'What's in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.' - William Shakespeare
3. 'The worker must have bread, but she must have roses too.' - Rose Schneiderman
4. 'What though youth gave love and roses/ Age still leaves us friends and wine.' - Thomas Moore
5. 'For women are as roses, whose fair flower/ Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour.' - William Shakespeare

Friday Five: Barossa Wineries

Our trip to Adelaide was mainly for the cycling, but obviously, one can't pass through the Barossa region without stopping at a winery or two. Or a dozen. So we did, and here are some of them.

Bethany Wines cellar door

5 Wineries We Visited on Our Barossa Trip:

1. Peter Lehmann - set among fabulous gardens and cultivated lawns, this was a wonderful place to start (and handily just round the corner from our accommodation). In 1979 there was a grape glut and the growers couldn't sell their grapes, so Peter Lehmann set up saying, 'Give me your grapes, and I'll make your wine'. Of course the growers had to trust him and wait for at least three years before they saw a return - it seems to have been successful! We drank many different shirazes, ranging in price from $20 to $100. Top Drop: 2010 Stonewell Shiraz; a classic example of the rich concentrated old vine style, packed with flavours of dark fruits and chocolate, with a touch of aniseed.
2. Wolf Blass - Him Outdoors had a particular inclination to see this winery. It was one of the first in the region, and although it's big and somewhat corporate, it didn't disappoint. We were served by Jenny who did an excellent job, explaining all the different labels to us (red; yellow; silver; gold; white; grey; brown; sapphire; black; platinum) and talking us through the range. Founder Wolfgang Blass believes that the winemakers of the Barossa should really just stick to shiraz, and, on the evidence of this tasting, they could do worse than heed his advice. Top Drop: 2012 Brown Label Classic Shiraz; an intriguing blend of the same grape from three different regions - Barossa; McLaren Vale; Langhorn Creek - produces a soft and approachable wine that is still robust and richly flavoured. The brown label was not a successful marketing colour, but was reinstated for the year of Wolfgang's 80th birthday with much greater success.
3. Bethany Wines - Bethany itself is a beautiful little spot steeped in German history; the village was settled in 1842 by 28 families who emigrated from Prussia. The Schrapel family planted their first vines here in 1852, and the winemaking philosophy is to produce food-friendly, elegant wines. Top Drop: Old Quarry Fonti; white port made from Muscat QP Blanc Muscadelle grapes grown on some of the oldest vines at the Homestead Vineyard, harvested late in the season, then fortified with premium quality brandy seasoned in oak barrels. It has aromas of caramelised fruit and nuances of orange marmalade - delicious!
4. Two Hands - the experience is a little different from other cellar doors; we were invited through to the patio, given the wine list and encouraged to pick and choose samples from it. Top Drop: Twelftree Grenache Rose; of course we had to try the wine with this label! The Twelftree wines are an exclusive selection of six wines handmade by Michael Twelftree on a very small scale, using a blend of new and traditional techniques to maintain the purity of the grape variety and showcase the regional characteristics. The Grenache Rose from Moppa Springs is bright, aromatic, energetic and strictly limited (with only 50 cases being produced).
5. Yalumba - A marvellous tasting in the chateau followed by a tour of the cooperage, which Him Outdoors was very keen to see. We popped in just as they were closing but one of the lads (Corey) was happy to stay around and chat and answer all his questions. The cooperage is not lucrative or even economically viable, but it is quite the marketing exercise and all part of the tourism. Top Drop: 2012 Virgilius; Eden Valley Viognier from old vines which produces a great intensity of aroma (orange blossom and ginger) with a long opulent palate, rich with apricot, stone-fruit and spice flavours, and a fresh citrus finish.

Wolf Blass tasting room

Friday Five: Red and White

A couple of years ago I mentioned my love of red and white as a colour combination. Leaving aside the fact that red and white grapes make up champagne, there are still at least five reasons why those colours look brilliant together:

5 Great Red and White combos:

1. Christmas - from stripy candy canes to the great jolly present-giver himself
2. England - the red rose of the House of Lancaster merged with the white rose of the House of York to form the Tudor rose and the emblem of England
3. Liverpool FC - need I say more?
4. Strawberries and cream - one of the best and simplest food presentations ever
5. Barbers' poles - curiously hypnotic

Looks good on E-types too

Friday Five: Figurative Flowers

5 Emblematic Blooms:

Remembrance poppies at the Australian War Memorial

1. Poppy – The symbol of sleep, peace and death. Sleep because of the opium extracted from them and death because of their blood-red colour. Memorable images include the magical poppy field in L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in which Dorothy are chums are almost lulled to eternal sleep, and the blood red blooms on Flanders’ fields that recall more than a million sacrifices. Lest we forget.
2. Red Rose – UK Labour Party; House of Lancaster; England Rugby; socialism; romantic love – combined with the white rose of York to become the Tudor Rose and national flower of England. With its combination of powerful scent, dramatic beauty and viscous thorns, it is beloved of playwrights and poets form Shakespeare and Robert Burns to Gertrude Stein and Poison.
3. Daffodil – Wales and the Cancer Society. As daffodils are part of the narcissus family, they also represent vanity. Appearing at spring in the Northern hemisphere, the yellow daffodil is associated with new beginnings and particularly Easter (the German word for daffodil is ‘Osterglocke’, meaning Easter bell). Thanks to William Wordsworth’s (in)famous poem, it also represents The Lake District for many.
4. Sunflower – Honesty; Happiness; Faith; Adoration; Vegan Society; Cancer Support – individually they are remarkable and together they are glorious. From the fields of gold the cyclists ride past in the Tour de France to Van Gogh’s crazy brilliant blooms or Ai Weiwei’s Tate/Unliever-commissioned sculpture of ten tonnes of porcelain seed husks, they have stunning visual impact. It was thought that the sunflower (girasol) turns its head to follow the sun until sixteenth-century romance-busting botanist John Gerard pointed out this was only true of the immature buds but the adult plants grew out of it. Despite that, this is still a beautiful flower quote from the film Calendar Girls:

   "The flowers of Yorkshire are like the women of Yorkshire. Every stage of their growth has its own beauty, but the last phase is always the most glorious. Then very quickly they all go to seed. Which makes it ironic my favourite flower isn't even indigenous to the British Isles, let alone Yorkshire. I don't think there's anything on this planet that more trumpets life that the sunflower. For me that's because of the reason behind its name. Not because it looks like the sun but because it follows the sun. During the course of the day, the head tracks the journey of the sun across the sky. A satellite dish for sunshine. Wherever light is, no matter how weak, these flowers will find it. And that's such an admirable thing. And such a lesson in life."

5. Forget-me-Not – True love; Faithfulness; Remembrance; Freemasonry; Alzheimer’s Association – Henry IV adopted the flower as a symbol of his exile in 1398. It grows madly in English spring gardens and woodlands, particularly by riverbanks as it prefers moist habitats and can tolerate partial sun and shade. I love the delicate little blooms and the subtle fragrance which develops in the evenings although they have little scent during the day, and I incorporated it into my bridal bouquet.