When my husband and I saw this advertisement in Adelaide, we realized immediately that we were not the target audience. We had no idea what a frog cake was, but we both pictured something like a crab cake, with little frog legs sticking out the sides.

As always, curiosity drove me to do some research. What I discovered was astonishing: the frog cake is a South Australia Heritage icon, listed by the National Trust of South Australia in 2001. Talk about missing a cultural reference!

Frog cake is served for dessert. It is a small cake shaped like a frog’s head, made from sponge cake, jam, and cream with a fondant covering. Balfours Bakery, an Adelaide institution, created the frog cake in 1922 when tea rooms were still very popular. The inspiration reportedly came when a member of the Balfour family visited a confectionary in France. Frog cakes were originally covered in green fondant, but brown and pink versions were introduced later.  

The frog cake is the Balfours Bakery mascot, and it has been used to promote both Adelaide and South Australia. While frog cakes traditionally have been sold only in South Australia, now they are sold in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland as well. The recipes I’ve found all look too fiddly to me, so I hope those frogs will be reaching Canberra sometime soon.  

A recent post compared the government shutdown in the United States to Australia’s 1975 crisis over passing an appropriations bill. To resolve the crisis, the Queen’s representative, Sir John Kerr, who served as Governor-General, sacked Australia’s prime minister and put in the opposition leader to pass a bill before the supply (appropriations money) ran out on 27 November. When Parliament sought a no-confidence vote for the new prime minister, Kerr dissolved Parliament and called for elections. Kerr’s actions have remained controversial all the way up to today, and I noted there was a pending court case to make his communications with the Queen public, to determine to what extent Queen Elizabeth II was involved with her Governor-General’s decisions. Buckingham Palace has always maintained she knew nothing at all.

A court recently found that the palace letters between Kerr and Queen Elizabeth II will remain off-limits to the public. The decision has outraged many Australians and prompted more discussion about becoming a republic versus remaining a constitutional monarchy. This article explains the case and the constitutional ramifications of the court’s decision.

Yarralumla is a southern suburb of Canberra, located around 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) away from the city. Although the formal suburb was established in 1928, the land has been known as Yarralumla for a much longer time, at least since 1834, when the area owned by Sydney merchant Henry Donnison was given the name in a land survey. The word “Yarralumla” comes from an aboriginal word meaning “echo.”

The streets in Yarralumla have the names of governors and botanists, such as Hopetoun Circuit, named for Australia’s first governor-general, and McGillivray Street, named for botanist Donald McGillivray.

Yarralumla stretches along the southwest bank of Lake Burley Griffin. The lake was created in the early 1960s by blocking the Molonglo River with a dam. Many Canberrans are drawn to the lake, to enjoy the outdoors and have some fun. On a recent visit, I was struck by the sunny yellows all around me.

Like the Canberra suburb of O’Malley, Yarralumla is home to more than 30 embassies and high commissions. Eight of the countries represented in Yarralumla feature yellow in their flags.   

By the way, all these products are Size A4, which measures 210 mm × 297 mm (8.27 in × 11.7 in). It is the most commonly available paper size in most of the world’s countries (except for the United States and Canada).
 
You might also find yourself buying rubbers at Officeworks, which are what Australians sometimes call erasers.

School started in late summer here and we’ll soon be entering autumn, not fall. The first day at my daughter’s school was the fifth of February, which would be written here as 05/02/2019, putting the day before the month.

Her first stop that day was tutor group, which is loosely equivalent to our homeroom. In her school, however, the tutor plays a much more significant role than does a homeroom teacher. We have no real equivalent in the United States to what Australians mean by a tutor in the school. This person is kind of a combined teacher, mentor, and advocate.

The school subjects are much the same, except that my daughter takes Maths, not Math. Her assignments, tasks, and tests are part of her assessment. She is accessed with marks rather than grades.

At lunchtime, she goes to her school’s canteen instead of a cafeteria.  Students purchase the food and leave with it, to eat somewhere else on the campus.

I’ve always enjoyed school shopping, particularly the ads. This ad from several years ago was one of my favorites back in the States. This one is an Australian example. Comparing the two led me to conclude that Australians are much nicer people.

We ended the day’s beach odyssey with Glenelg, located on Holdfast Bay, only 20 minutes from Adelaide’s central business district. This beach is the busiest, with something for everyone. People can enjoy snorkelling, scuba, and boating. A Ferris wheel is only one of many kid-friendly spaces. Others include a splash park, pedal cars, water slides, trampolines, and climbing activities. Cinemas, restaurants, and shops line the historic streets. Established in 1836, Glenelg is the oldest European settlement on mainland South Australia.

At a recent lunch with Australian friends, we commiserated over the U.S. government shutdown (now in its 33rd day with 800,000 federal workers still unpaid). One said, “We did this once too, you know.” And he shared with us the story of Australia’s 1975 government shutdown.

The Parliament of Australia consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. In October 1975, the ruling Labor party had passed appropriation bills in the House of Representatives, where they held a majority. The opposition Liberal party, which controlled the Senate, refused to pass those bills. The Liberal party objected to what they saw as expansive spending, particularly since signs indicated the country could be moving into a recession. The Liberal party wanted Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, leader of the Labor party, to call an election for the House of Representatives. Instead, Whitlam planned to call for an election in the Senate, hoping to seize control there.

Meanwhile, because Australia is a constitutional monarchy, Parliament has another element: Queen Elizabeth II is the head of State. The Queen’s representative at the time, Sir John Kerr, served as Governor-General. Kerr negotiated with both parties and recognized that neither the Labor nor the Liberal party would give in. He also knew that the supply (appropriations money) would run out on 27 November. Prime Minister Whitlam’s planned election to break the Senate stalemate wasn’t until 13 December.

Kerr sacked Whitlam on 11 November 1975 and put Liberal party leader Malcolm Fraser in his place. Fraser quickly passed the appropriations bills in the Senate. Kerr released the following statement on 19 November 1975:

The Labor party, outraged by the change of government, sought a no-confidence vote against the new prime minister. No doubt exasperated, Kerr then dissolved Parliament. An election was held the next month, which resulted in Fraser and the Liberal party controlling Parliament with a large majority.

The resulting political turmoil from Kerr’s controversial actions has lasted many years, up until the current day. It is unknown how much Queen Elizabeth II was involved with her Governor-General’s decision. While Buckingham Palace maintains she knew nothing at all, there is a pending lawsuit to make her communications with Kerr public.

There has never been a government shutdown in Australia since. Those long-lasting reverberations from the 1975 crisis have convinced Australian politicians to never again hold appropriations bills hostage. There is an unspoken agreement between the parties that appropriations bills will always be passed, and Parliament will keep the government running.

Looking at our current crisis, I find myself wondering: Where’s Queen Elizabeth II and a Governor-General when you need them?

In Sydney one weekend, I was wandering down Hickson Road in Walsh Bay when I saw a car that had been crushed by something and moved off the street to a roundabout. What on earth had happened?

As I came closer, I saw a huge boulder balancing on top of the car, apparently responsible for the damage. Had the car just been left there?

I circled the car and saw that the boulder had a face.

Odd, right?
 
This piece of urban artwork is called Still Life with Stone and Car by sculptor Jimmie Durham. Born in Arkansas and now based in Berlin, he created this piece for the 2004 Sydney Biennale. The Biennale is an international festival of contemporary art.

Still Life with Stone and Car was created onsite in the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House. A two-ton stone, quarried from Australia’s Central Coast, was lowered by crane onto the red 1999 Ford Festiva hatchback, which had been specially purchased for this work. Before the stone was hammered into position, Durham painted a face on it. Why? Durham said, "To my way of thinking, if the stone is simply a stone without a face, it becomes a gesture, but with the face painted on it, the work develops a strange narrative."

Strange indeed.

Durham’s work was moved to its current location in 2006. It certainly blends into the environment. I should have realized sooner that it was street art but had ignored two signs that frame the work, no matter which way you approach it on Hickson Road. These signs are by artist Richard Tipping and they read:

The name of Tipping’s piece? Artwork, naturally enough.

Clever.

We live in O’Malley, a suburb about eight miles south from the center of Canberra. Established in 1973, O’Malley is in the Woden Valley. The suburb was named after King O’Malley, a politician best known for arranging the competition  to design the new capital city of Canberra.

O’Malley is home to around 20 embassies and high commissions. All the streets include aboriginal words, such as Callemonda Rise and Timbarra Crescent.

Because of the two nature reserves here (Mount Mugga Mugga and Issacs Ridge), many trails lead into the bush. Kangaroos and cockatoos are common sights, framed against the blue sky, green grasses (this time of year), and the varied tans of the dusty trails. What I didn’t expect to see when I moved to O’Malley was orange … and a lot of it.

Wildflowers thrive at the edge of the trails.

The color orange appears in some unexpected places in nature.

Building materials match the surroundings.

For one day at least, both Milo and I were orange too, although he's really more of a light apricot.

And we can always count on shades of orange in our sunsets.