Mayor4Unley

On Sunday 25 January I participated in the Crush Festival in the Adelaide Hills – a multitude of venues with local food and wines. I selected Uraidla and was enticed by the food on offer and the associated wines. The late breakfast was green eggs and ham at the Owl & Elephant Café . Sounded good. Sounded fantastic. I was thinking of Dr Seuss and green eggs and ham. It was described as an uber cool café. The food was crap. Very disappointing. It was an overcooked egg with a green/grey mix (and supposedly ham) in a bread base, curled at the edges. It was cold and served with a cold fried tomato half. I’d rate it at 1/10 . The waitress was surprised that I didn’t enjoy. (She did ask how I found it.) There was no offer to redress my concern. I should have selected the rhubarb and quince on rye toast. That did look appealing. The coffee, a latte, scored slightly better (at 4/10 ). The milk was good, but the coffee had no depth or finish. There was no lingering after

Last night I went to pizza night at the Community Garden, Fern Avenue, Fullarton. A fantastic garden with heaps of fruit and veggies ripe for picking. The pizzas were home made using produce from the garden and cooked in a wood oven. I took a jar of home grown dried Cajun chilli. The pizzas got hotter as the night progressed. Wine was from a small backyard winery nearby. Absolutely superb. Good company made the night perfect. Now I'm not normally one to scrounge through pre-loved rubbish left on the verge (although I always have a good look), but it was rick pickings in front of a house on Fern Avenue. Good stuff was left abandoned on the verge, probably ready for a booked hard rubbish collection by Council. It was left overs from a recent garage sale. There was something for everyone. The top item I spotted and took was a good looking metal rooster. Despite the one wobbly and rusted leg, it will look nice in the garden amongst the chillies. All up, it was a good night.

I visited Forestville Reserve last night. There were a few families out walking and visiting the newly developed area on the East side. Someone jogged past. A lot of bikes zoomed through. It's looking good. The culvert entrance to the creek has been improved with the top layer of stones removed - my suggestion - it was too high, over engineered and served no purpose. Skaters were using the newly surfaced concrete. Some kids were shooting hoops at the basketball/netball court. The new lawn is coming on nicely. The weather is perfect to get it started. There is a mass of new plants and trees. I would have planted more medium sized trees on the boundary. Perhaps they will go in later, but I suspect not. All of this is in stark contrast to the ongoing vandalism of the long mural on the support wall for the tram overpass. Back in November I sat on the wall of the skate park and watched the spray can artists at work creating a fantastic mural. Their work was repeatedly vandalise

There is a rally tonight to show solidarity with the je suis Charlie gathering and march in France. Victoria Square (northern end) Adelaide at 8pm. Take a candle. For more information ...  https://grumpyinunley.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/jesuischarlie/

I have a family of spotted doves living in and near my back yard. Actually it's a rather extended family. The number of visitors seems to be increasing. I would prefer to have the Australian native top knot pigeon visit, but it's spotted doves. They get fed with mixed seeds each morning and if they're lucky again at dusk. A couple are quite tame and walk up to me, totally unafraid. They sometimes come near me to escape when others are aggressively chasing them. Two years ago I climbed a ladder to peer inside a nest. There were two feathered chicks peering at me and I'm convinced that my face formed a bonding image; just like a duckling adores the chicken hen that hatched it. Since then, these two birds see me as a friend and are totally unafraid. It's nice to be loved.