Birthday cake

November 13

I have learned that having a birthday out in the bush can be surprising.

We were having our evening meal in the dining hall on November 13 (my birthday). An interesting collection of folks: Alan and Loraine (our hosts at Western Flora), Byron Lamont (a Curtin University ecologist), Tianhua He (a Chinese geneticist plant geneticist who works with Byron), and two Telstra (the Australian telephone company) technicians that were working on a pipeline communications system that runs for hundreds of miles across western Australia. The conversation was rich and varied; the climate and landscape of Tasmania, seed dispersal across multiple scales, and how many Chinese people believe the U.S. has blundered badly in the Middle East - and that this is a good opportunity for China because by the US squandering its leadership role and resources, it provides a chance for China to increase its standing in the world.

After the dishes from the meal were cleared away Loraine emerged from the kitchen with a cake bearing candles. On top of the cake were ants fashioned out of chocolate pieces and plant parts. There were also cashews, which resembled and represented ant larvae. Once happy birthday was sung and the candles were blown out everyone was served a piece of cheesecake that had a similar ant and ant larva on top of their desert. The creativeness of Maria, the resourcefulness of Loraine, and the cheery nature of our dinner party made for a nice birthday celebration!