Somewhere Else

Here is the solution to the books and authors crossword puzzle that we gave last weekend (cryptic version) and again during the week (regular/straight version). Hope you got it all correct!

Over the past few days we’ve been showing some highlights from our recent drive from Perth to Bridgetown. The next stop after Brunswick Junction and Mullalyup was Balingup, which has a rather “alternative” feel with craft shops and an organic cafe. There are many amusing sculptures in the town, and we also noticed this cow in the main street:

Actually we were quite pleased to see this colourful cow, since we had already met it earlier this year in another location. Last time we saw this it, this cow was located in Margaret River and was part of CowParade 2010 (which has now ended). It seemed to recognise us as well:

Yesterday we mentioned the cow motifs in Brunswick Junction, south of Perth. But that’s not the whole story; as we continued driving south we came across a whole herd of other amusing cows.

The sign above is in the tiny town of Mullalyup. We’ve seen it many times before, but this time there was a bonus. Previously the Krazy Kow Kafe was closed for restoration, but now it is open again. It specialises in milkshakes and burgers, and we’re rather partial to milkshake so we tried their chocolate shake. It was a good, old-fashioned milkshake, made with generous scoops of real icecream and plenty of chocolate syrup. 10/10.

A few days back we drove south from Perth to Bridgetown. On the way we stopped for a while in Brunswick Junction. This small town is located in dairy farming country, and there are plenty of reminders that cows are very important in this part of the world. This cow and calf are located in the main street:

And on the road into town from the north, you can see these two cows in a field. They’re pushing the car to the Brunswick Show, which will be held on 23 Oct 2010. The “Junction” part of the town’s name seems to be an optional extra.

Last Sunday we gave you the challenge of doing a cryptic crossword puzzle, with the theme of books and authors. In case you don’t “do” cryptic, here is the same crossword but with straight/regular clues. We will give you the solution on the coming weekend.

This is a close-up view of the carnivorous plant that we mentioned yesterday. To a human being it looks decidedly dangerous, with all those threatening spikes. But to an ant it presumably smells or tastes delicious.

As you may have noticed, we put these photos up because we received a comment asking for some close-ups. There was one snag; we didn’t actually take any close-ups. So these “close-up” photos are cropped from pictures of the whole plant. It’s slightly sneaky and not as good as taking a real close-up in the first place, but it works fairly well if you use a high megapix camera and make sure that the photo is properly in focus.

Another thing that struck us during our bushwalk at Serpentine National Park on the weekend was the profusion of wildflowers. It is still the middle of winter, but there are already masses of wildflowers in full bloom. We saw many varieties of wattle, including the spectacular one above. The low-growing Couch Honeypot below also caught our attention.

There were plenty of interesting carnivorous plants, including this one which appeared to have eaten a large black ant for breakfast:

And this one had so many sticky, hairy leaves that it could have consumed a whole army of ants:

But maybe the most satisfying plant was the orchid shown below. It is a Winter Donkey Orchid and is not a rare plant, but it was the first orchid that we have seen this year. One of our flower guidebooks comments that it is one of the first orchids to flower each season. That certainly sounds right.

As we were walking along the Baldwin’s Bluff Nature Trail at Serpentine National Park on the weekend, we were hoping to see some kangaroos. Along the trail we saw plenty of insects, including this beautiful Monarch (also known as Wanderer) butterfly. The kangaroos must have been hiding Somewhere Else, since we didn’t see a single one. However when we got back to the grassed picnic area at the car park, we found:

There were five kangaroos, one male and four females with joeys (babies) in the pouch. You can just see a joey peeking out in the photo above. Most of the kangaroos were chomping on the grass, but one seemed to think that the nearby weeds were tastier. Don’t you just hate it when someone takes your photo while you are eating?

On the weekend we didn’t just write the crossword that we posted yesterday; we also drove to Serpentine National Park, about 50km south of Perth. We walked the short 6km round trip to Baldwin’s Bluff, which is mostly uphill on the way there and (not surprisingly) an easy downhill stroll on the way back. From Baldwin Bluff there are expansive views of the surrounding countryside, and also of Serpentine Falls in the distance:

The falls are just a few hundred metres from the car park, so we went for a closer look after returning from Baldwin’s Bluff. This has been an abnormally dry year in Perth, but the falls were looking fairly impressive anyway:

We have just written another crossword puzzle. It’s on another of our favourite pastimes – reading. Many of the clues/answers are connected with books and authors.

Of course, as Abraham Lincoln commented, “You can’t please all of the people all of the time”. That’s especially true of crosswords; some people love cryptic crosswords while others hate them. So we are going to be please both groups. The crossword below is cryptic, and during the coming week we will post the same crossword but with “straight” clues. And we’ll give you the solution next weekend.

If you haven’t tried cryptic crosswords before, here are a few tips. Most cryptic clues actually give the clue twice – once in straight form, and once in a more cryptic form. So you have two chances to solve the clue, and get a real “Aha!” when you discover the answer.

One example: In the clue “Modern as Huxley’s world” (1 down, below), the straight clue is “modern”. Huxley’s world refers to Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World. So the answer to the clue is “new”. Aha!