Cold, Cricket, and a Cathedral

I had been warned that when the wind blows at Adelaide in the autumn, it can be very cold. And I found that true on Monday morning at Adelaide Shores. I’m happy to report, however, that I was the member of a team that made eight birdies on that cold morning to go round in 64. We would have been the champions but for a technicality, namely that the prize in this competition was for the best net score, rather than best gross. C’est la vie.

I’m here for the Australian Turfgrass Conference where I had a chance to make presentations about plant nutrition, warm-season grass selection in tropical parts of Asia, and about the management of fine turfgrass in challenging microclimates. After the final conference sessions this afternoon, I took a walk over to the Adelaide Oval and looked at the Santa Ana couch and one wicket of Legend couch in the center of the oval. 

From the oval one can see the spires of St. Peter’s Cathedral. I walked over to the cathedral across lawns of kikuyugrass, hoping I would find what I was looking for in this beautiful building.

Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher died at Adelaide in 1962 and his ashes are interred at the Cathedral here. On this sunny afternoon in Adelaide, I was please to find this marker relecting the light from the stained-glass windows in the vault, beside a memorial pew. For many years, I’ve wanted to visit this place. Being able to spend some time this afternoon in the quiet of St. Peter’s Cathedral was, in a word, numinous.