Monday 19^th November

A bit more shopping this morning as we have been invited to a parish meal at the Catholic church tomorrow and I have decided to make a batch of lamingtons in order to give the locals a taste of an Australian icon.  We had to look up the history of this cake in case anyone asked us how the name was given to it.  Better to be forearmed with this information, rather than be embarrassed and not have a clue as to its origin.

I found out that about 90 people attend and while I may not have this many, tomorrow morning Bob and I will form a production line to dip the cake in chocolate and roll in coconut. I made 3 good size cakes today, so I hope they all get eaten, otherwise John and Aileen will have them in the freezer for later.

During the beautiful crisp sunny afternoon we took to the streets of Downtown Amherst to capture a few final photos.  We were loaned a book titled “Historic Amherst” and it contains many photos of some of the older buildings taken in the early 1900’s.  As a change from just taking a picture of a building, I decided to take the one from the book and then match it with a photo from today – some buildings have remained much the same, while others have had either additions or modifications over the years. It was a fun way to have a good walk, stop and talk to many locals who stopped us as they thought with book in hand we were lost and appreciate the charming buildings.

Tonight we were invited to a meal at Barb and Jim’s home to have Chowder made in the Maritime fashion.  We began our meal with some prawns coated in crumbs, followed by a beautifully presented plate of various sushi bites.  Following this we had a bowl of the most delicious and flavoursome chowder, a fish soup containing so many delights from the sea including prawns, crab and lobster.

A dessert followed named after a Tennessee mountain range called Ozark. It was a cake like pudding with apples and nuts and drizzled with a caramel type warm sauce.  It seems like the region is going to be remembered by us from all the food and hospitality events we have attended.