Hemingways & huge kangaroos

While the Facebook algorithm usually annoys me with the random stuff it serves up in my newsfeed, it has been delighting me lately by picking up on the fact I am a teensy bit obsessed with fossils.

Not a middle aged dating joke.

My current fascination is megafauna – large animals that roamed the Earth during the Pleistocene, 2.5 million to 11,700 years ago. Australia was filled with massive marsupials! Our megafauna included the huge wombat-shaped Diprotodon, Procoptodon kangaroos that stood 2.5 metres tall with an estimated mass of 274 kg, and giant goannas called Megalania.

The diprotodon may have survived on the Liverpool Plains of NSW until about 7000 years ago. As First Nations people have been in Australia over the past 60 000 years, megafauna must have co-existed with humans for at least 30,000 years.

How freaking cool … and just plain freaky … is that?

There were also super-predators in Australia called thylacoleo (the marsupial lion) and Palorchestes (sometimes called the marsupial rhino).

It spins me out that all those mega marsupials once roamed around Australia with their young in pouches.

Anyways, Facebook is keeping me informed about all the latest dino news, plus Egyptian tomb finds, meteors, radio signals from space and other associated fascinations that tickle my fancy.

According to an ABC article I was served up yesterday, a scientist called Dr Julien Louys is scuba diving at various locations around Australia looking for megafauna bones.

He reckons some of the Procoptodons he’s hunting were up to three metres in height and unlike modern kangaroos, some of them were actually walking rather than hopping.

Blimey.

It’s a very long bow that I’m about to draw, but I’m off to an art exhibition this evening at Gosford Regional Gallery featuring kangaroos.

These ones are tiny though.

The stunning works are by my former colleague Michele Heibel. I am hoping to snaffle one for my living room wall.

Her exhibition – Making Time – is at Gosford Regional Art Gallery until 28 May 2023.

I was gallivanting last night too, at Brix Distillery in Surry Hills. Sydney’s only dedicated craft rum distillery was unveiling their new look core range of 100% Australian rums.

I sipped these three spirits …

● Brix Australian Rum aged in Australian red wine casks for 3 years and features notes of pastry, baking spices & light oak balanced out with aromas of vanilla caramel and stonefruit.
● The full-bodied Brix Australian Spiced Rum, has first been aged in local red wine casks and the infused with local spices, fruits and nuts. Think Aussie pavlova, Jaffas at the movies and fruit & nut chocolate.
● And light Brix Australian Cane Spirit, crafted from premium Australian molasses and is sourced from the cane-fields of Queensland. Encompassing a 30% portion of aged rum, removing its colour through charcoal filtration, adding a boldness and further depth of flavour to its profile.

I also tried a rather delicious Hemingway Daiquiri, made with rum, lime juice, maraschino liqueur and grapefruit juice.

It’s the drink Ernest Hemingway used to enjoy at Havana’s famous La Floridita cocktail bar.

I didn’t know a soul at the event, which made it a bit lonesome, until a rather handsome young landscaper called Sean befriended me.

He specialises in strata landscaping, so I may be tracking him down soon because our current gardeners are VERY ordinary.

I asked him about the giant tree that my apartment looks out on, which appears to be getting leafier as winter approaches rather than the other way around. Sean said it might mean it’s on its last legs and giving a last gasp of growth. Nooooo! I love that tree!

OK, that’s me over and out for another week – have a great weekend.

PS Do you think all my random blather over the past few days is the universe telling me it’s time to shut up and stop blogging?

Song of the day: Peter Gabriel “Big time”