A LONG WEEKEND in MENTONE

It's been a busy work week this last 5 days but we celebrate Lizzy's birthday with a long weekend. It's really not the actual Queen's Birthday but we celebrate it for some strange reason on this Monday. It is also a weekend of activity for many people with the opening of the ski season in the Australian Alps.


Although her birthday is in April, we celebrate it on the second weekend in June.

All forms of sporting activity take place and Melburnians take the opportunity to maybe take the Friday as well to extend the weekend. It certainly seemed that way on my way home from work Friday night with the freeways just packed.


Although we are now well into winter, the weekend brought sunshine and clear skies over Port Phillip bay. The beach is just behind those trees and on Saturday morning there was the odd fisherman and several yachts out there.

Sue decided to make Gougeres this weekend (twice). To my memory, I don't believe I've had them before so off to Wikipedia for an explanation. I can say I enjoyed several. This lot were to take to her sister in-law's birthday dinner along with a really spicy green curry that she made.

A gougère, in French cuisine, is a savory choux pastry primarily made of milk or water, cheese, flour, salt, and egg; nutmeg, white pepper, and sometimes dijon mustard are generally added.^[1] Traditionally, the gougère features Gruyère or Comté cheese, both of which are specialties of the Franche-Comté region, though other cheeses, especially emmenthaler, may be used.



You might remember that Sue tried the rabbit recipe from Jacques Reymond's book a few weeks ago - well she opened the pages again to make something for her Sister in-law's birthday.



The recipe was for Gougeres and one of the finished product on the book does justice to the recipe.
It didn't stay on the page for long after I took the photo.



Sue's sister in-law lives no more than 10 minutes from us just three doors up from Beach Road on the bay. It really was her birthday celebration unlike Queen Elizabeth.

I took the camera with me with the thought that I would get some late afternoon photos in for this weekend's post. Keep in mind that we have moved from autumn now to winter with our mornings as low as 1.5 degrees recently. Mostly its around 5 to 10 in the mornings warming to the high teens so it would be interesting to see if there was any life on the sand.

The bay seems to always be changing with the seasons - people were still walking dogs, or jogging,  sometimes taking their young children out for a walk or bike ride despite the colder conditions. We love our Bay area with a passion.



Its probably 4.30 pm Sunday afternoon as the cliffs cast a shadow over the beach at Mentone.
Low in the clear blue sky, an almost full moon was rising.



The path leads you down to the beach from the busy road above.



Once there, you don't realise suburbia is just a short walk above.



Normally in summer the beach is spotless with the council regularly cleaning up any garbage left behind. In winter and in particular with the rains, garbage from roadside gutters finds itself ending up on the beach. I'm not sure if people realise the result from emptying their car ashtrays and fast food debri in the gutters. OK, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Textures from the Beach



Suburbia starts to emerge through nature. I can hear cars rush by as I see the Mc Mansions above.



And I'm back where I started, no more than 100 meters way from the beach.

And I still have another day off work - Whahoooo!