Jen & Tam Down Under

Latest Cringeworthy Production!

2010-02-09T19:46:00.027+11:00

News: I have a lovely new camera, thanks to Len, which is capable of taking half decent pictures of the moon - one of my first attempts above - I'll keep working on it!

Mangoes Galore: today we've harvested about 30kilos of mangoes from our two lovely mango trees. Much of the fruit left high on the trees or already lying on the ground is going to local wildlife - flying foxes, possums, bandicoots, echidnas - which seems reasonable to me, especially as we've done nothing other than let nature take its course.

The mango trees are mature and were here already - we've never pruned them or fed them. Until this year we thought they were too shaded to actually fruit. However, it happens to be a bumper year for mangoes in Australia, so its mango chutney, mango smoothies, dried mango, mango tart, frozen mango... yum!

Here's Milly exploring the delightful spider lilies beneath the mango tree on the drive. Unfortunately there's a jumping ants nest here - little did we know - we've all, Tam, Jenny and Milly, now been bitten - such are the risks of mango harvesting!

Flaming Trees: aside from the mangoes, this has been a particularly good year for Flame Tree blossom. We'd heard about their stunning display but never seen it. We happen to have a couple of flame trees in our garden which this year gave us much delight for a couple of months, given their particularly striking blossom. Guess which tree's the Flame tree!

And Blue Knob, our local mountain was dotted with Flame Trees for months. According to the locals, it was the best display for many years.

Our veg garden is coming along, after a very slow start this spring. Here's our proud if humble first harvest some weeks ago:

We now have lots of fresh basil and parsley, as well as various peppers. The aubergine has suffered a serious setback from some kind of pest. We've got more basil, tomatoes and rocket coming along. The soil is not very fertile so Tam is developing a wonderful compost system including two worm farms. I bring home big buckets of kitchen waste from Nimbin Organics which is helping to boost the compost. Gradually we hope to make the garden more fertile and more productive.

Demolition Time: here's Tam demolishing a wall in our rather small shed to allow easy access for the ride-on mower:

An iris-catching photo, taken on my lovely new camera:

Escaping the Jungle: we recently enjoyed five fabulous days on Moreton Island, c/o the Moreton Island Protection Committee. We were well and truly fed and looked after in return for 3 hours conservation weeding each day. Whilst coping with the heat we swam in Blue Lagoon, a nearby fresh water lake. We danced on the beach under the full moon and slept in our huge tent (marquee) lulled to sleep by the rhythms of the Pacific surf. My knees may never be the same after removing large quantities of invasive Glory lily rhizomes, but there you go! Sunsets are always a glorious time on islands!

As promised in the last post - for yet another Cringeworthy Production, entitled 'Early One Morning', please go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQHlJwhjELU

As usual, we'd love to hear from you - drop us a line, however brief, to let us know you've had at look at this: jenmartin@aapt.net.au and/or tamyeld@aapt.net.au.

Bye for now, Jx

Shooting Native Wildlife

2010-01-09T13:27:00.025+11:00

Tam's shot of a White-tailed black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus baudini) flying overhead.

White-tailed black cockatoos feeding in a nearby silky-oak

We found this alien creature on our kitchen wall recently - apparently its a moth....any further information would be useful!

This poor little Azure Kingfisher (Alcyone azurea) flew into our patio doors and sat stunned for a few minutes, before flying off

A big goanna going up a tree in the garden and a blue-tongue lizard going down the side of our house!

A Brush Turkey (Alectura lathami) in a hurry! The male builds huge mounds of rainforest debri and soil (7 to 12 feet in diameter, 3 feet high) to attract the female. She has her way with him, lays her eggs and departs for good! The male remains to take care of the warm composting pile incubating the eggs!

The chortling Noisy Friar Bird (Philemon corniculatus) sitting just beside the caravan

A delightful Crimson Rosella caught on camera near the Border Ranges, and a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo displaying its very fine sulphur crest up a tree in our garden

Wallabies grazing at dusk in a nearby field

A female red-necked pademelon (Thylogale thetis) pronounced Paddy Melon, grazing at dawn in our garden - you can see she has a youngster in her bulging white pouch

We were amazed when we caught site of this multi-coloured pigeon feeding on seeds in a Bangalow palm. We later discovered that its the Wompoo Pigeon (Megaloprepia magnifica)

Within about 30 feet of our house Tam recently discovered a male Satin Bower bird's intricately woven bower strewn with blue jewels. We are yet to see him parading within his bower attempting to attract the females!

A big black land-mullet (Egernia major) that lives in the wood pile near our compost heap!

We discovered this huge carpet python paying close attention to our hens one morning whilst they were safely cooped up in the hen-house. He/she soon disappeared, only to be re-discovered by Tam the next day wrapped around our biggest and best laying chook, slowly constricting her.

Tam bravely managed to somehow get the chicken-constricting-snake-bundle into a sack and later we redistributed it, with a very conspicuous large lump halfway down its body, to a nearby national park - film coming soon.

A Trip to Bald Rock National Park with Jake

2010-01-06T17:32:00.007+11:00

October 2009

Lovely campsite at the foot of Bald Rock, huge new tent!

Walking up Bald Rock - amazing rock erosion

Big boulders baby!

We're now well above the tree line, but still a fair way to go to get to the top!

Going up! Vertigo? What vertigo?

Somewhere near the top - stunning views all around

Back down below, Jake's shot of a friendly kookaburra

Jake takes a spin around the campsite!

Boonoo Boonoo falls - beautiful, the photo just can't do it justice, the swimming was divine, especially in the heat

Jake shows off his Capricornian expertise

Our last night there, full moon-rise just above the tree line on Bald Rock, enjoyed with a picnic! Getting back down after a few slugs of wine was a bit of a challenge!

We miss Jake so very much of course and we're looking forward to his next visit, whenever that may be! For more photos from his trip have a look at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffIgUQSSvuE

Dinosaur in the Garden!

2009-09-02T17:10:00.019+10:00

A couple of days ago, whilst quietly weeding, I heard an unusual crunch crunch upon some nearby leaves, looked over and saw this well camouflaged beast, a goanna, striding past.

As soon as we saw each other, the goanna darted up the nearest tree and settled in a sunny spot. I slowly retreated to get my camera, hoping that he/she would be there on my return - and the photo speaks for itself. Unlike the photos in my previous bird-life post, this is my photo! This is the best look I've ever had at a goanna and what really impressed me was the length of its tail, longer than its body!

A recent delight, our King Orchid flowered for the first time since we moved here - eleven stunning blooms. Please appreciate Milly's patience whilst posing in the shot for scale! Sadly the display was over all too soon, probably because of the entirely unseasonal heatwave (37 degrees) we had last week, followed by nearly freezing night time temperatures this week. Its the extremes of temperatures that are so surprising here!

You can see the individual orchid flowers in the next photo - they are so beautiful.

Latest News: Tam has returned safely and happily from three weeks in the UK, enjoying catching up with lots of family and friends, being thoroughly spoilt (her words) and delighted to have been present at her niece Emma's wonderful wedding. Back home and back to work at Gondwana Native Plant Nursery.

Jake & Charlie are still at Uncle Ian's in Brisbane and hopefully saving $$$. They changed their return date from early September '09 to early March 2010 - hurrah! We are now planning various spring and summertime adventures, including where best to spend Jake's birthday?! A beach location is first choice, but likewise for millions of other Australians seeking the iconic Aussie beach christmas... The lovely photo below was taken by Jake (on Charlie's digital SLR) at Brisbane Botanical Gardens - does anyone know what the flower is?

Milly had a small paralysis tick removed this morning - she's fine - its only if they're not found and stay on for a number of days that they become lethal.

Jenny has not continued with the Community Welfare Mental Health course. Having started mid-semester she felt that too many significant bits had been missed, for example a whole unit on Interpersonal Communication (quite important!). She would rather start the complete course at the beginning next academic year, perhaps. In the meantime she's rethinking, job hunting, continuing to work at Nimbin Organics and occasionally at the Rainbow Power Company.

Blue Knob birds enjoy the Aussie bird life!

2009-08-29T13:46:00.054+10:00

One morning whilst Tam was away in the UK in August, I sat on the deck eating breakfast and noticed a sulphur crested cockatoo sitting in a nearby tree munching away on a big seed. It held onto the branch with one claw and held the huge seed in the other, taking big bites and chewing, as if eating an apple! I was utterly mesmerised.

We often hear these noisy fellows flying by screeching at each other and sometimes glimpse them high up in nearby trees. But this was up close and personal. We were looking each other in the eye!

He or she kindly displayed the sulphur crest for me over and over again raising it slowly and showing off (as shown in the photo to the left). I must find out if the crest is exclusive to the male or vice versa.

Tam of course had our only camera and so I was frustrated by not being able to snap the gorgeous fellow. However, it brought to mind the idea of showing the range of beautiful and fascinating birds that we see in our garden and in nearby locations. And to that end I have taken full advantage of google images!

In stark contrast to sulphur crested cockatoos, are the regal and stately yellow tailed black cockatoos. These huge fellows regularly fly by, gently whistling to each other and occasionally they land in a nearby tree and we get a good look at them.

This cute bird is the male Splendid Fairy Wren, and they really are quite splendid, with that nearly luminous blue. We regularly see these cuties hopping around on our lawn, along with a harem of plain brown females, searching out tiny bites to eat.

Recently Jake, Charlie and I , whilst chilling on the deck, enjoyed watching a family of King Parrots feeding on the seed pods in the nearby bangalow palms. This is the male king parrot.

And we regularly catch sight of Rainbow Lorikeets whistling to each other as they zoom past

Crimson Rosellas are possibly my favourite, simply because the blue is utterly stunning and what a treat to see these in my garden! All the parrots are wonderful - there are many others, but these are the most common around our way.

This extraordinary looking fellow has the most delightful chortle (almost alien) - I saw one on a nearby branch only this morning whilst weeding - introducing the unique and wonderful Noisy Friarbird:

Here's the lovely yellow robin, a regular visitor to our garden and a particular favourite of Jake's. Why yellow? Who knows?

More birds from our garden and the local area in the next blog.

As usual, I'd love to know you've read this so please either comment here or drop me a line (jenmartin@aapt.net.au).

Bye for now, Jx

70th Birthday, Wonderful Wooli & Chirpy Chooks

2009-07-13T19:05:00.034+10:00

Kay, aka Mum, on the occasion of her 70th Birthday party at Blue Knob Hall Gallery, a lovely evening shared with various friends, partner of 50+ years Len, three of Kay's children, Grant, Jenny and Kerry, and two grandchildren, Jake and Charlie Patrick. A delightful evening was had by all.

On a recent mini-break to the coast, the beach at Wooli was rather crowded. Mind you, I did know everyone in view! In this photo: Charlie & Milly, and in the distance Ollie, Joe and Jake.

Here's Tam with her foot stuck in the sand! Oh how we laughed! Ha ha he he!

Full moon rising over the Pacific ocean with the Solitary Islands (not Solomon Islands, Tam!) on the horizon

Above, Ollie, Joe & Jake larking about on dead tree, whilst Charlie Bananas, otherwise known as Molesworth, relaxes in the sunshine.

Holiday over, its back to the ranch to take down that dividing wall! Finally we're removing the diagonal tongue & groove (how wrong is that?) and opening up the two downstairs rooms.

We're still halfway through the job, posts and woodburner to install. We'll be extremely pleased when its finished, and we'll have a much bigger living area. Watch this space!

Feathers (white), our one remaining chook following the onslaught of the hungry carpet python, has recently received some new house-mates. Chosen and named by Jake and Charlie, introducing the twins, Black'n'Decker and the jittery, slightly bullying Ms Eggsie McGee!

Other news: Auntie EJ finally managed to leave, having found herself stuck here due to official Natural Disaster. After extremely heavy rains throughout the region every route out of our mountainous retreat was blocked by floods, collapsed roads or rock falls!

Jake and Charlie Bananas are currently residing in Brisbane with Uncle Ian, looking for work and hoping to save $$$ to travel/ buy car/van or simply live the good life in subtropical Queensland!

I am starting the Community Welfare Cert IV specialising in Mental Health in late July (part time 18 month training). My aim is to become a personal support worker for people recovering from episodes of mental illness.

Tam is off to the UK at the end of July for three weeks for her niece Emma's wedding. She will, of course, be missed by the gels back here, but I get the feeling she's gonner have an absolutely fabulous time catching up with UK family and friends (and not a leech, tick or giant spider in sight!).

Let us know you've been reading the blog - email jenmartin@aapt.net.au or tamyeld@aapt.net.au. I lost all my emails recently and so if you've not heard from me in a while, drop me a line.

Nimbin's own Mardi Grass

2009-05-21T19:05:00.013+10:00

- a few snap-shots from the annual Nimbin cannabis reform rally, first weekend in May. Don't touch the stuff myself, but - like it or loath it - its part of the local culture and brings a lot of tourists to Nimbin.

A nice bit of pot art!

Above: Inflatable spliffs, whatever next!

Below: The Parade, lead by local Bundjalung people

The fabulous Ganja Faeries, shaking their groove thang!

Jake & Charlie in Aus: Part I

2009-05-19T10:27:00.030+10:00

Jake & Charlie in the view from Mt Nardi look-out overlooking the Nimbin Valley. The big hill/mountain in the background is Blue Knob and we live just on the other side of the left slope.

The view from Calurla, with Mt Warning just visible in the haze. Jake, Charlie, Tam, Jen & Milly all stayed here last weekend, looking after Andrea & Bob's three beautiful dogs and taking care of their guest chalets - it was hard, but someone had to do it!

Above, Andrea & Bob's gorgeous house that Jake & Charlie resided (Tam, Milly & I had our own cottage with huge veranda). Below, the rather large garden at Calurla, and I'm VERY happy to be with my boy!

As many of you will of course know, Jake is at his happiest when there's food involved (or when he's drumming - hmmm could he indulge in both at the same time!?). Here he is, cooking a lovely dinner for us at Calurla - note the classic heritage Aussie stove area!

Keeping the dogs and the boy exercised!

Charlie meets a Wallaby - this a Peggy who was rescued (probably after being hit by a car), nurtured back to health and released back into the wild at our friends Tony & Lesley's place. She is utterly tame, has reared her own young since being released and Charlie & Jake met her the other day. What a beautiful moment.

Below: what a lovely fella and a great gob cut, if a little on the generous size! Given the shirt, it was essential that Jake should fell a tree, and so the sickly palm which was getting in the way of the view of Nimbin Rocks simply had to go!

Jake is no longer a felling virgin!

Charlie & Jake have also spent a week in Sydney in a swanky hotel seeing all the sites; spent 11 hours on a train travelling up the East Coast of Australia; experienced the unique Nimbin Mardi Grass; hung out in Byron where they met up with EJ & caught a fair number of Pacific Ocean waves, got a bit of a tan going, drank strangely named cocktails and stayed at the Arts Factory. Yesterday they visited Currumbin wild-life sanctuary, held a koala (with photos to prove it), became entirely drenched in quite heavy rain, got marooned in Murwullumbah, stayed in a cheap hotel, bought cheap pyjamas from Crazy Clerks, splattered ketchup all over the hotel ceiling and returned this morning entirely unscathed to find Pythagorus the Python (named by Tab) lurking on the veranda, much to Jake's delight and EJ's utter horror.

A random shot taken when Jake & Charlie treated me to a coffee in Nimbin the other day. I love the women in the background striking that classic 'having a good gossip' pose! I also love the beautiful Charlie aka Ms Bananas, especially when she's havin' a good laugh!

Carpet Python hangs out!

2009-05-19T08:41:00.022+10:00

This fella is a carpet python, approximately 7' long, physically harmless to humans (possibly psychologically harmful to EJ!), but lethal to chickens, small mammals and marsupials, etc. He/She will bite, constrict & crush their prey. They will then dislocate their own jaws & slowly consume their victim. After which they find a cosy safe spot to sleep it off for a few weeks, with the tell tale compacted lump gradually reducing in size as digested.

Hmmmm? Good dinner party talk!

And this fella is currently lazing on our veranda directly above the dining table.

Beautiful patterns, handy zoom on camera!

Hurrah - Jake & Charlie are here with us in Australia, as are Auntie EJ and Auntie Kerry (Tab's sister and my sister respectively). Here we are enjoying a happy Sunday morning photo opportunity after a rather large brunch on the veranda.

My how Jake's grown! As have my hips, clearly.

And here's the same spot on the veranda two days later with resident python and Milly (helpfully posing in the shot for scale! Watch out Milly!).

Hmmm?
I wonder how EJ will feel about the veranda now.... it WAS her safe haven from all things creepy and scary.... ('scarey' corrected following Tab's helpful comment)

G & G Downunder

2009-04-23T17:12:00.017+10:00

Grandad Len and Georgie on Crams Dam, 10km or so north of our place...

with views of Mt Warning in the background. We all canoed and Jenny enjoyed the effect on her tummy muscles, almost as good as mowing!

Three generations - Auntie Kerry, Gina, Georgie, Jenny, Mum/Kay. I hadn't seen Auntie Kerry for 22 years. She and husband Donald made a special trip all the way up from Tasmania to see G & G while they were here - fantastic!

Georgie, Len and Sinbad on Wooli beach, playing around in the surf

Georgie swimming in the crystal clear Wooli river

Drippy castles rock! Georgie hones her dripping technique with expert tutoring from Gina at Byron Bay

Lunch in the Byron beach cafe

Strolling on the beach at Byron

Party time - G & G's last weekend,
never mind the rain, lets have a bbq on the community house verandah, eating steak won by Georgie at the pub raffle!

Gingham ribbons are required attire!

Silly times, best of times!

And some time later....

2009-04-17T20:05:00.006+10:00

Shortly after the last post, way back in ........, the Yucca, or whatever it is, flowered and has continued to flower since. Given that Tam is 5' 5", this is without doubt the largest flower I've ever seen! Estimates of its actual height are very welcome.

We've been rather busy with the visiting G's (Jenny's sister Gina & niece Georgie), who left Aus for their return trip to Blighty the day before yesterday. Their departure has left an enormous gap - 8 weeks was plenty time to get very used to having them around.

ITS RAINING RELLIES: Jake & girlfriend Charlie arrive in Sydney next Wednesday; sister Kerry arrives Brisbane a week later; EJ, Jake's aunty, arrives mid-May......look, please, if you're thinking of visiting, wait a while, PLEASE!

Let us know that you've had a look at the blog so that we feel inspired to keep it going, and particularly given that I, Jenny, lost all my emails recently. That's another story just NOT worth telling......bloody computers! Email: jenmartin@aapt.net.au

That'll do for now, more updates soon.

Working and Growing!

2009-01-31T12:49:00.016+11:00

Winner of the Biggest Plant with Biggest Flower competition has to be this beast of a plant (shown above) growing at the end of our drive. This is how it looked a couple of weeks ago when we noticed a giant asparagus-like flower-spike emerging from amongst the huge leaves.

And this is how it looked this morning - the flower-spike must be about 30 foot tall now, and rising! Something tells me this is not an Aussie native. If anyone can tell us what this plant is, we'd love to know. How tall will it grow? Watch this space! And, just to shatter any illusions you may have about Aussie weather, please note that Tam is wearing a long sleeved top and rain hat!

Hurrah! Tam has started her new job at Gondwana, a wholesale nursery specialising in growing and supplying native plants throughout Australia. Aside from working in a stunning location, being paid to learn all about the propogation and care of Aussie plants, Tam reports that they have a proper coffee machine. My wife is a happy woman, with breaks enhanced by the divine smell, taste and welcome effects of good espresso, whilst relaxing on a huge verandah overlooking wild Aussie countryside. Meanwhile, I'm knocking up gluten free lasagnes, rice balls, quiches and salads in the hot kitchen at Nimbin Organics a couple of days a week - where, sadly, there is no coffee machine....

Back at the ranch, we've treated ourselves to a new push-mower, to reach all the rough bits that the Duchess can't get to. This is MY mower (as opposed to the ride-on Duchess, which is undoubtedly Tam's) and it's definitely paying dividends - my tummy muscles are getting a regular and much needed work-out. Of course mowing is limited to dry days and whilst the Southern regions of Australia are suffering an apocalyptic heatwave (officially due to Climate Change) we are experiencing irregular heavy rainfall or drizzle with occasional hot spells inbetween. So everything, including grass, is growing at an alarming rate, leaving little opportunity to mow.....

Check out these Strong Gels: having successfully loaded the trailer with wardrobe, scaffolding and lots of other cast-offs from sister in Brisbane, Felicity and Tam were suitably pleased with themselves! We plan to construct a shed or car port using the scaffolding - any design ideas very welcome.

And of course, a blog entry cannot pass without a brief update on the welfare of our three remaining chooks. They are roosting in their chook house again, but are still laying randomly around the exterior of the house, rather than in the nest box where their sister perished. Here they are, brushing themselves off after a recent downpour and entertaining us with their comic antics:

They're taking over.....

2009-01-17T12:56:00.035+11:00

Well its all gone a bit Animal Farm around here lately with some chooks thinking they're perhaps a little more equal than others! Ever since our lovely hens had a Christmas break down at Grant's, they've been getting a bit above themselves.

We suspect the hen above had ideas for writing her own blog or perhaps she wanted to redesign the hen-house using Autocad, whilst reading up on post and beam technology! And poor Milly was rather taken aback to find them roosting on her bed the other day -

The hens moved to Grant's place, 15km down winding roads, for a week whilst Tam, Milly and Jen took a road trip down to Dungog to spend a few days with Clare & Shane.

Moving the chook house to Grant's using the trailer was Jen's great idea. Unfortunately she had to work at Nimbin Organics on the day of the BIG and utterly back-breaking move, leaving Grant and Tam to get the job done.

All agreed this was a 'Never To Be Repeated' exercise. However, their home from home was a success and as Grant chooses not to celebrate Christmas at all (ie. no roast dinner), we felt they would be safe with him! Grant enjoyed their occasionally ridiculous antics and a regular supply of eggs for a week or so! Thank you so much for taking such good care of our hens Grant!

The chooks and their house are now reinstalled at our place and the girls, being well-travelled and worldly wise, are more adventurous than ever. Throughout their entire escapade - being packaged up in Tooheys boxes and transported along bumpby roads and back again a week later - the hens didn't miss a lay, and so we have collectively and with great affection named them The Lay-Team!

The road trip south - we took the inland route, avoiding the Christmas traffic on the coastal Pacific Highway. We firstly headed West to Tenterfield, winding our way up onto the Great Dividing Range - a vast plateau (1200m above sea level) and series of mountain ranges, escarpments and gorges spanning 3500km North-South along the Eastern side of Australia.

We then headed down the New England Highway, which was almost empty of traffic. I neglected to take any photos of the breathtaking landscapes we were passing through. However, somewhere near Glen Innes we came across this marvelously tacky and utterly incongruous rest-stop sign:

Just South of Armidale we headed off the highway onto the 160km Thunderbolt Way, named after Captain Thunderbolt (aka Fred Ward), a notorious 19th Century bushranger renowned for escaping from Cockatoo Island prison and committing over 200 crimes ranging from highway robbery to horse-stealing. His rather hardcore wife, Mary Bugg, allegedly swam across the shark infested waters to Cockatoo Island, carrying tools and food, to assist in her husband's escape.

These days Thunderbolts Way offers fantastic scenery and a thought provoking glimpse into the ancient and verdant landscape that original Australians enjoyed. Rolling tree-clad hills, winding valleys, bubbling brooks and waterfalls, vast horizons and hardly a vehicle in sight. And thankfully no modern-day Thunderbolts to take advantage of our remoteness.

Driving down the dramatically steep and winding road off the plateau we hit a wall of cloud and the incredible views were blanked out by a thick layer of fog. However, a detail in an Aussie anti-littering sign did catch my attention!

So onwards to Dungog and the glorious hospitality of Clare and Shane. We delighted in their house renovations since our last visit, particularly their new kitchen (the self-closing drawers were a sensation!) and thoroughly relaxed after the long trip.

Christmas day was a wonderful family affair, with 4 generations of the Hannon family sharing a huge festive feast - fresh Aussie prawns, divine salmon en croute and sumptuous turkey cooked in chocolate, Mexican style. Is it any wonder that we didn't manage to fit the pavlova in until a late breakfast on Boxing Day.

Birthday Blues: of course this was the first time ever that I've not been with my boy, Jake, on his birthday on Boxing Day. However, phones are a wonderful thing and we spoke a number of times throughout the day - I coped, with a bit of help from my lovely friends.

And after the over-indulgence of Christmas with Clare and Shane, a change of scenery was in order. So off to Hawks Nest to Shane's parents Gail and Peter's house by the sea to.....well.....carry on over-indulging with Clare and Shane of course - assisted by a lovely sea-breeze!

Life on the verandah at Hawks Nest: Well, I have to say it was hard to escape the verandah, what with the continual flow of fabulous and various consumables - for example the home made dolmades (stuffed vine leaves) being prepared by Tam and Clare above. We occasionally took strolls on the beach, taking in the views and sea air. We even braved the surf one day.

Its a hard life! Thank you Clare and Shane for a wonderfully relaxing and utterly over-indulgent break!

And here's Milly, sniffing the sea breeze and enjoying the freedom at Hawks Nest!

CHICKEN UPDATE (19th Jan) : well, its a very sad day here. This morning I discovered that one of our hens had been mysteriously 'disappeared', with just a small spot of blood in the nest box and a few feathers remaining. Most likely a carpet python. Its shocking and very sad. The other three hens are refusing to go into their pen and are roosting independently in various locations around the outside of the house. Life and death in the jungle.

Tam loves the Duchess!

2008-12-31T10:47:00.003+11:00

To see how Tam is handling the Duchess, please go to:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=pT9i7LJQpH8

(love the sound-track - Tam's choice!)

2008-12-07T11:59:00.007+11:00

Just to show you that we're alive and well in our snake, tick, leech and lizard infested jungle, here we are on the veranda, just before going out to the annual Nimbin Womens Dinner, a fund-raiser for the local Domestic Abuse Project. Oooh how that red dress and those pink strides clash!

It was a great night, with a fabulous cabaret, lovely food and about 150 women relaxing and enjoying the wide ranging talents of the local female population. High light of the night was the recently formed grass-skirt clad Ukelele band singing the utterly hilarious Boob-titty Boob-titty! You had to be there....

Tam on a recent bush walk at Nimbin Rocks co-op, amongst a forest of grass trees (in a pre-PC world these were known as black boys!).

View from the northern border of Nimbin Rocks Co-op looking towards the Border Ranges and the Nightcap National Park. We live at the foot of Blue Knob, the humpy looking mountain on the right.

We'd love to know you've read this, so please take a moment to comment below, or email us at tamyeld@aapt.net.au and jenmartin@aapt.net.au.

Latest chicken-house action!

2008-12-04T19:06:00.003+11:00

Electric Storms & Random Reptiles

2008-11-23T10:00:00.012+11:00

The TV addicts amongst you watching I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in wintry England may have noticed that its been raining a lot here. We live just down the road from the show's location. The recent storms were extremely dramatic, heart-pounding on occasion. Fortunately we've emerged unscathed, just the loss of power for one night. No trees falling on the house, no roofs or cars destroyed by mega-hail. Meanwhile Brisbane (200km north) has suffered apocalyptically - cyclones, floods, cricket ball sized hailstones. Happily, the weather has changed and we now have a cool front drawing air up from Antarctica. After the apparently relentless rain of last week, we are enjoying crystal clear blue skies and a cool breeze.

The chickens continue to supply us with an abundance of delicious eggs. One hen has gone decidedly broody, giving Tam some hen-management challenges - Mrs Broody has taken up permanent residence in the nest box and has stopped laying.

The nest box, at one end of their run, was designed for two hens (see photo above) to find privacy and lay their wonderful eggs. However, after returning home at dusk yesterday, Tam discovered all four hens crammed into the nest box. This is very unusual and quite impressive, given the nest box only measures 37cm x 44cm x 25cm. Tam's immediate reaction was 'oh my god, they've ALL gone broody!'

What to do? Perhaps they've been put off their roost, at the other end of the run, by the big sheet of paper placed beneath to catch chicken poo for the compost? So Tam clambers in - the chicken house is only about 4 foot tall - to examine their sleeping quarters. She notices a shadowy shape on their roost inches away from her face and quickly retreats to find a torch.

'There's something in the chook-house', I hear her exclaim and there, curled sleepily and contentedly on the chooks perch, is a medium sized beautiful carpet python. Another WOW moment and understanding dawns - not four broody hens, four very scared hens.

Here's the python some time later down on the floor of the chook house, rethinking its accommodation strategy, given all the flashing lights and excitable human activity. We stomp heavily nearby and slowly and with reptillian grace, all 2 metres slithers off into the starlit buzzing night.

The chooks remained tucked up tightly in the nest box, emerging fluffed up and happy this morning, unscathed and ready for another day free-ranging. We're yet to see if their laying has been affected by the snake-scare.

Tam and I, with the benefit of this experience, have added another rule to our ongoing management strategy - never crawl into the chicken house at dusk without checking with a torch first. Whilst carpet pythons are harmless to humans, many other snakes are equally likely to try out this bed & breakfast opportunity. For example the potentially lethal Red Bellied Black, the Australian brown and the appropriately named Death Adder all reside locally, if rarely seen. We don't ever walk out of the house in bare feet for this reason.

Visitors, visitors: Nephew Charlie arrived in Aus about a month ago. Here he is assisting Tam with some felling:

Ollie (friends with Jake since the age of 9) and girlfriend Kate dropped by for a couple of days respite from life in a van in the relentless rain. Here's Ollie calmly enjoying some of our local wildlife:

So another day dawns - sunny and clear - and we wonder what wild adventures might await us and our humble hens today?

Please take a moment to let us know that you've read this - you can comment below or email us at: jenmartin@aapt.net.au or tamyeld@aapt.net.au.

All Chooks Alive!

2008-11-10T21:41:00.005+11:00

STOP PRESS: The little chook survived and revived - just one very small perfectly round egg laid 6 days after the paralysis tick episode! (see above). More soon....

Poor Little Chook

2008-11-03T11:28:00.010+11:00

Having celebrated our lovely chickens' adaptability in my last post, less than 24 hours ago, this morning we find one of our little hens is unable to walk. Gentle examination reveals, eventually, a huge paralysis tick that has burrowed into her neck just beneath her beak. It has obviously been there for some days now - it's size at start of feeding would have been around 2-3mm.

As shown in the photo, the horrid little beasty had grown to nearly 1cm across, engorged on our poor chook's blood. Tam quickly and in one fell swoop removed the tick with her bare hands (I was impressed!). We have administered a homeopathic remedy "Ixodes", which was developed some years ago by our very own Nimbin apothecary particularly for paralysis ticks, given how rife they are in this region. However we now have to wait and see if the hen will recover. She's sitting quietly in the chicken house, having got cosy in the nest box, which is the best thing for her - movement and excitement will encourage the paralysis 'venom' to travel around her body and have more effect (usually on legs and lungs). We have no idea whether she will survive.

Here's the engorged tick photographed beside an unfed paralysis tick. I found this crawling through my hair today. The extent to which they expand while feeding is remarkable.

We'll keep you posted on our poor hen's progress. In the meantime, Tam says please send universal loving, healing energy to our littl'Un.

Eight Months since leaving Blighty!

2008-10-26T16:35:00.013+11:00

Pondering the changes: I'm sitting here listening to Massive Attack (some things never change), Tam and my nephew Charlie (recently arrived from Eire) are in the kitchen chatting and preparing dinner and I'm enjoying my screen time!

We have no TV, no DVD player and no broadband, which is great! I very occassionally and momentarily miss being able to veg out in front of the tv. I more often wish I could surf U-Tube and check out the recommendations sent by friends (which simply take too long to download on dial up), but mostly I wonder when I ever had the time to watch tv in that previous life. I asked a local friend recently if there were any excellent films to be highly recommended that I may have missed in the last eight months and he couldn't think of a single one....however, please if you have any recommendations, let me know.

Listening to music and the fantastic ABC National Radio are mainstays. ABC radio is even better than Radio 4 - yes really - not least because I'm learning so much about this country - the history, the social documentary, the politics, the personalities, the different world view....

We have local Nim FM community radio which can lurch from fantastic to abysmal in terms of quality dj-ing, but is always entertaining one way or another! And perhaps I'll re-live my pirate radio days and get a regular show one day. I find I listen to a greater range of music, hungry for new sounds (hint hint). I'm glad to have let go of tv. It feels good.

I definitely suffered culture shock for the first few months - hard to describe the actual feelings, all I know is that I now feel settled and am no longer in the throws of it - whatever it was. Without doubt part of the shock was very, very personal - the change in my personal culture, rather than general culture. In retrospect, leaving Jake was deeply traumatic for me and I can now, with the cushion of time, allow myself to see that. I was numb. I put one emotional foot in front of the other. To an extent I'm still doing that, but the process has become normalised. And thankfully we have the luxury of cheap international phone-calls.

Life is simpler on some levels, more complicated on others - the complications however are the one's I want - how to develop the garden, how to build a workshop/guest room, how to make a living in a rural environment, making sure we get all the shopping we need when we're in town. The simplicity is welcome, oh so welcome. The elemental side of life is more immediate at a daily/hourly level - water, heat, growth, decay, light, dark, rain, wind, moonlight and sunshine. All are more significant here, away from the street lighting and convenience of town life - and I love it.

And having the chickens is a very fundamental experience - producing our own eggs, our own first class protein from living beings we're responsible for. And we harvested broccholi for the first time ever today and a very small aubergine! Tam has finished the deluxe chicken house (see above) and the four hens have settled in very well, not missing a beat in egg production with the move to their new home. If only I could be so adaptable!

We'd love to know that you've read this so either leave a comment, email us at above address (top of page) or write to PO Box 45, Nimbin, NSW 2480, Australia. Any CD compilations of your current favourite sounds are very welcome!

Peak Egg Production

2008-10-20T20:58:00.019+11:00

We are so proud of our lovely hens - we've had at least 1 egg every day since they arrived just under two weeks ago. This morning they eggcelled themselves, producing 4 eggs between them- that's an egg each, peak production!

Here they are (see above) getting down and dirty, dust bathing at the end of the patio during their afternoon free-range. Chicken House Mark 2 is coming along slowly, mainly because there's so much else to do, and we keep redesigning it! Such is life.

If only we could let the hens free-range in the house - not an option, obviously too messy! Rather large arachnids regularly appear and we've observed that the chooks quite like to nibble on a spider - they've been known to fight furiously over them. But then the spiders catch the flies, so the spiders do a good job - if only we could stand having spiders around!

Tam and I are both getting a bit braver at dealing with the medium sized spiders (like these Huntsmen). We'll catch them and redistribute them to the far reaches of the garden, because we simply can't cope with them wondering around the house and appearing here, there and everywhere.

However, it's the really big spiders that freak us out - that's when we get Tam's industrial vacuum cleaner out and hope they don't run too fast.

Ho hum, life and death
in the Aussie bush.

Care for a tincture at the local hostelry?

2008-10-11T14:35:00.021+11:00

We've been Clived!
To Clive (vb): to render helpless with laughter and good humour. Clive arrived some weeks ago and stayed for some time! And oh how we laughed, from the moment he arrived - we laughed with him, at him, about him, at ourselves - I haven't laughed so much in a LONG time. Clive is hilarious, especially when he goes all Lesley Phillips on you.

And in return, Clive has been Nimbin Rocked - rendered helpless with relaxation upon various Nimbin verandahs (see sketch of view from the Community House verandah above by Clive). He arrived at our place after dark, having been driven up winding mountain roads, and was quite blown away with the night sky, the surrounding forest and the possibility of ticks and leeches!

Photos show Clive, Grant & Tam on a walk up at Mt Nardi, surrounded by tree ferns, palms, epiphytes (ask Piers!) and the occassional carpet python! Clive and I nearly trod on one python curled sleepily in a patch of warm sunlight lying in the middle of the path, before Grant spotted it. Carpet pythons are not generally dangerous to humans, as they are constrictors and their bite is not deadly. However, I wouldn't want one wrapped around my arm!

Further along the track - what is it about the male species that requires the average bloke to go to the very edge of any impossibly high precipice and scare ME to death? Please explain in less than a hundred words!

Clive got on really well with the Martin clan. Len and he typically and fondly describe each other as 'utterly insufferable'; Kay took him walking through the Nimbin Rocks forest to the waterfall, spotting a goanna and a possum with a baby hanging on; and Grant and Clive shared some relaxing times on the CH verandah, chatting and soaking up the view.

After a week or so he cheerfully headed South to Sydney and Melbourne, saying, 'its been great, I've had a wonderful time. I'll be back. How am I going to explain this to people back home?' Life in the Rainbow Region!

And the final picture, well, that was late one night at our place, Pink Martini blaring out and much dancing, drinking and, of course, laughter....

Wild Wooli & Eggsellent Developments

2008-10-11T08:36:00.017+11:00

Karen & Ken invited us to join them for a couple of days at their rented beach house in Wooli last month. This was an absolute delight. Old-style Aussie architecture (clap-board and verandahs everywhere) and literally seconds from the beach. Wooli is about 2-3 hours drive South from our place and is surrounded by National Park. And the big bonus - dogs are allowed on the beach, which is great for Milly (seen above galloping at full pelt, ears everywhere, to Tam). Here's the extensive walk all the way from the house to the beach!

And here's the view at the end of the footpath, showing Ken & Karen indulging in a favourite pastime. We thought the beach was a bit crowded, but we coped.

We had a fabulous time, especially Milly, particularly as beaches are tick free zones. We didn't dip more than a foot into the Pacific as it was extremely windy and the sea was rough. We walked the length and breadth of Wooli - which isn't difficult as Wooli is a long thin strip precariously perched between the sea and a wide river, about 150 metres wide and crammed with ramshackle beach hideaways.

We searched the surf for whales that may have been returning South with their new born young. We were rewarded, not with whales but dolphins bobbing in the waves just off shore. We saw sea eagles and brahminy kites, thousands of tiny crabs marching across the sand, fantastic rock formations, beautiful driftwood, wide horizons and big skies - a refreshing escape from our forest hide-away. We've booked for a week in March to share with Gina and Georgie when they visit next year and may extend to two weeks.

Wednesday 8th October was a big day in the Martin-Yeld household. Our beautiful girls arrived, Un, Deux, Trois and Little F - four lovely white hens - gifts for Tam from Ken & Karen on her 40th birthday. We are in the process of designing and making a chicken house/tractor. Unfortunately, Chicken House Mark 1 failed miserably. We were attempting a polytunnel style run covered in predator excluding fencing - it all went horribly wrong and we are now going for a more traditional A-frame based design. Watch this space.

As the more observant among you will know Tam's birthday is in June - some time has passed since being presented with 4 delightful chicks, which have been growing steadily and residing with Ken & Karen's flock. After 3 months waiting for us to get our chicken-housing act together, Ken & Karen threw us in at the deep end, offering to lend us a temporary run (shown above), and delivered the chickens that very day!

And so our hens arrived and our life with chickens commenced - and we love them. Protection from egg snatchers and predators is essential - snakes, goannas, wild dogs, foxes, rats are all likely to be in the locality and seeking a good meal. Much to our delight, and impressivly only 48 hours after their arrival, Little F (identified by the feathers on her legs) presented us with a Little Oeuf (see photo). To have been rewarded so soon after their arrival is a blessing. Humble yet cherished beginnings.

Once Chicken House Mark 2 is complete we will free range them every afternoon, limiting the opportunity for predators and maximising the likelihood that they'll lay in their nest box, as they apparently most often lay in the morning. We are SO very proud of our hens and will keep you posted on their productivity, housing status, welfare and, hopefully, survival....

I'm off to make a very small omlette!

And now for something completely different...

2008-09-23T16:49:00.004+10:00

A short film taken of Tam, Felicity and Connor today...

We've just got back from a weekend with sister Felicity in Brisbane, helping her and partner Peter to clear out beneath their house - which is on stilts and the underneath has become a regular dumping ground for at least a decade's worth of this and that, including an entire Corvette in bits. As usual Peter cooked divine food and we enjoyed a bountiful supply of Aussie red wine. Hopefully we managed to assist in their de-junking exercise. We have, of course, acquired a few items along the way - inflatable dingy, boogie board, directors chair, heritage cast iron pot, dvd player, scaffolding, wardrobe, table....hmmmm? Didn't we just get rid of loads of stuff in England???

We returned from the big smoke via hectic highways and curling mountain roads to our modest and tranquil homestead. Happily the veggies have survived a couple of days of Aussie spring sunshine without watering and the vocal bird-life is as abundant as ever. As Tam and I sat at dusk sipping on Tooheys New and listening to the cicada opera, we were delighted to see two fire-flies flashing rhythmically as they hovered past. Apparently they are moths. Whatever they are, it was a WOW moment for us. Of course, the fire-flies' arrival is due to the warmer spring weather, which has also brought forth the mosquitos - ho hum, the advantages of winter are over and the insect repellent is now my best friend!

Tomorrow we're off to the beach - about two hours drive south to Woolli and a house just behind the beach, guests of friends Karen and Ken for a couple of nights. So a dip in the Pacific Ocean and hopefully not too many mozzies.

Blue Knob Pit Stop

2008-09-04T18:12:00.025+10:00

My big brother Piers, being the jet setter he is, popped in to see us for 48 hours last weekend. I have to say, it’s probably the first time since I was a little girl that I have spent this much time with him - even then it’s doubtful that it would have been as long as two whole days. Being 14 years older than me, my memories of him are infused by the smell of homebrew, hanging out in his hazy attic boudoir, where he got up to all sorts of things that I wasn’t allowed to know about. Coming home at weekends in his mustard coloured MG Midget he always had time to rip the mickey mercilessly out of his three little sisters, and to give me a helicopter ride whether I wanted one or not.

Piers's visit to Oz was sandwiched between Hong Kong and Singapore via Melbourne, and so we picked him up from Brisbane airport in our ever-reliable Subie. It never rains in August apparently, so of course the moment his plane landed the heavens opened and he had the full tropical downpour experience. Heading home via Murwillumbah, we stopped to get a few provisions. Piers returned triumphant from the bottle shop with a mere 6 bottles of vino, a carton of Tooheys New and another of Coopers Red. We’re not quite sure if he really had intended to buy 48 bottles of beer, or indeed if he knew that in Australia a carton of beer is a large box containing 24 x 375ml bottles. We would, however, like to extend our thanks - they’ve been keeping us going ever since. And yes, there will always be a cold beer in the fridge for you Piers.

Having total control over Piers for the weekend, we decided to have a full yet relaxed itinerary scheduled for him. We lunched at nearby Sphinx Rock Café on the other side of the Nightcap Range ridge en route home. Welcoming him to our "estate", we gave him the guided tour, teaching words such as “epiphyte”, whilst catching up, mulling over ideas and supping on divine lamb tagine courtesy of Jen. As self-elected designated driver, Jen delivered him for a nights rest to nearby Calurla, self contained chalets (shown below) run by friends Andrea and Bob (www.calurla.com.au).

The following morning, glad to see he could boil an egg and was bearing up under the strain, I brought him back to ours for more walks around Milly’s own private park and to show him where we source our water from - a nearby mountain spring.

We were slightly worried about him attracting ticks or leeches, whilst halfway through a business trip, and possibly contracting some infection or worse. Being the innovative thinker that he is, he devised his own, very fetching, critter repellent...

Off to Mt Nardi, top of the nearby Nightcap Range, for a pre-lunch appetiser - a brief walk and a taster of the incredible Australian rainforest. Then back to colourful Nimbin for lunch on the verandah at the pub bistro. We spent the afternoon at Nimbin Rocks Co-Op on Len and Kay’s sunny verandah for coffee and delectable nibbles, with Grant (Jen’s bro) and Karen (Co-op member) joining us.

Piers got the low down from Len regarding living off the grid – solar power, rainwater collection, composting toilet, and a tour of Len’s fabulous grevillea collection. The sun went down behind the cliffs, the temperature dropped and we quickly showed Piers the community house, basic accommodation where non-members can stay for $5 a night.

So Piers’s fleeting visit to the rainbow region sadly came to an end, hopefully not too exhausting for him, in terms of information overload. My only regrets were that it was too chilly to sit on our verandah and listen to the Whip birds, or watch the Eastern Spine Bill honeyeaters bathing in the pond. We did see a pademelon boinging out of our way one night, but as for the wallabies – there’s always next time. Come back soon Piers.

Scaling New Heights

2008-08-29T15:25:00.024+10:00

Comment has been made that our blog shows endless photos of Tam busy and active whilst very few show me doing much at all - which of course is FAR from the truth. In an attempt to redress the photographic imbalance, Tam has been taking a few shots recently. And I hope the photo above reassures you that Tam has not forgotten how to relax.

Jenny somewhat nervously crossing an old logging bridge spanning the gushing mountain creek below on a recent walk up in the mountains.

Vertigo?

What vertigo!

Up on the Roof, scrubbing away nearly 30 years of accumulated black mould and dust to reveal the pale green colour-bond roof. It took us about 3 days - having said that Tam gave up after the first day! It was a horrible job and yet immensely satisfying to finish. I discovered muscles I didn't know I had as I balanced at the top of the ladder, bucket in one hand whilst scrubbing away obsessively with the other....

The contrast half way through the job (photo taken from the paddock).

Hopefully the house will be a bit cooler in the summer as a result.

Its been cold and the nights have been long, so its taken a while for the veggies in our no-dig beds to get going. Spring is just around the corner and everything is finally beginning to grow. We've started harvesting salad leaves while the snow-peas, ruby chard and french beans are beginning to take off.

The aubergines and peppers are very slowly progressing and we've had to improve the fencing since a few plants have been nibbled by mystery mid-night visitors - perhaps possums, perhaps wallabies, perhaps bandicoots... We're yet to plant tomatos, lettuce, coriander, potatoes, sweet potatoes.....

Get off my land! This photo was taken at the beginning of a recent walk along an little known local right of way. The landowners would prefer people to 'KEEP OUT', although they have no right to demand this as it is a public right of way. There is a danger that the route will be lost if this pathway is not used and hence this group of local walkers and horseriders actively seek to keep these paths open and I have joined their cause. Ultimately we are campaigning for a network of 'unmotorised' and sustainable routes between communities to be created (or rather recreated) along these old tracks. A bit of afternoon radical strolling - right up my street. In fact we have one of these old routes passing by our garden.

A Bush-Rat in the cooker and no trap - so we created our own. The one design fault, I was required to sit on Mouse-Watch waiting - and yes it was cold. Thankfully, it didn't take long - the chubby little fellow couldn't resist the toasted sunflower seeds and with a quick flick of the foot we had him. The next day he was redistributed to an even more rural location!

And here's Tam relaxing in the garden - again - and enjoying a fresh cup of coffee, the view to Nimbin Rocks, the palm trees and the deep blue of the late winter sky.

I'm just taking the photo....

Bromeliad Delight

2008-08-18T18:57:00.024+10:00

We have thousands of bromeliads in our garden and a lot of the time, I have to admit, I simply do not like them. They gather copious fallen leaves and can be painful and bloody to weed as their skin-tearing serrated leaves often cause injury. Many have pools of water at their centre which will no doubt provide mosquitoes with perfect breeding sites come summer. And finally, given that all our bromeliads are entirely unproductive - beyond their aesthetics - I resent the time required to weed them and am planning a Dig Your Own Bromeliad sale to lessen their numbers and bring in some $$$.

However, when bromeliads come into flower, it is a different story - they can be absolutely delightful. And there is huge variation amongst the flowers. Here's a sequence of one particular Billbergia coming into flower. These photos don't do it justice of course, but you get the idea.

There are thousands of different species of bromeliads; they evolved in South America and have recently been enthusiastically incorporated into Aussie gardens. They produce 'pups' regularly and are therefore relatively easy to propagate, hence we have thousands - the previous owner must have loved them. Many species are epiphytes (can grow on trees) which allows for quite creative gardening.

My favourite bromeliad flower so far is the one on the left below which measures a mere 2 inches with tiny blue flowers. I have no idea which particular species this is, it is no doubt related to the pineapple, another bromeliad flower! We've got 3 of these flowering at the moment.

So whilst we will reduce the numbers of bromeliads in our garden dramatically, we'll keep a small selection to provide different delightful flowers throughout the year. And then there's the pineapple plantation....

Two Weeks in the Life of Dr Len

2008-08-05T20:28:00.010+10:00

My dad Len has had an interesting couple of weeks, starting with an unusually dramatic garden club visit a couple of Saturdays ago. There we all were relaxing and chatting on Ozzy's veranda, admiring the stunning view from his garden, looking forward to a talk on orchid propagation and a refreshing cup of afternoon tea. Suddenly there's an ear-splitting crack. I turn to see Len pivoting backwards through the now broken veranda rail and falling down onto the garden bed and rocks below. The drop from veranda floor to ground level is only about 3 feet, but he lands with full force onto his back and his head jerks back onto a rock.

He doesn't move. A number of us rush to his side. There's blood. He manages to raise himself a little, but is completely disorientated and shocked. A towel is brought to soak up blood, and a decision is made to take him immediately to the nearby Nimbin Hospital. Some hours later he is discharged, in typically goon-like good humour having been thoroughly examined by Dr Oscar, and his wound stitched and head bandaged. We're all immensely relieved, especially Kay.

Dad makes a remarkably rapid recovery, bandages off by Tuesday, busy with his usual round of community focussed work by Wednesday and precisely a week after his accident he's off on a 11km bush walk through the Mt Nardi National Park and larking about at the top of a huge waterfall - with a drop of some hundreds of feet. My mum Kay had to walk away not able to stomach his precarious and juvenile antics - afterall, he is 74 and a half! My parents took the walk happily in their stride, whilst Tam and I hobbled the last half kilometre complaining about our knees and spent the next couple of days aching and groaning!

And so another week of meetings, appointments and deadlines for Dad - afterall he is retired - AND preparations for his appearance in the 2008 Nimbin Performance Poetry World Cup on Saturday. Its the first round of heats - each performer has eight minutes to wow the judges with their verbal vitality and virtuosity. Sixteen out of 32 will make it through to the semi-final on Sunday. Dad gives a fabulous performance and is through to the semis. He is delighted, we're all delighted.

So, to Sunday and the semi-finals. The draw has Dad performing first at mid-day - what crowd there is has hardly woken up, he's very nervous, he rushes, we all know its not as good as yesterday. Nervously we sit through the other 15 performers and await the judges decision on the final eight.

Its close, very close - so close that the determining factor is timing - anyone who has gone over 8 minutes is penalised and, given Dad is safely within time and much to our further delight, Dad is through - he's in the final that very night. So its home to get the glad rags on.

Most of the poets perform from memory, whilst Dad always reads, and he knows this is not looked favourably upon by the poetic judges. He is also performing next to some well established and top class performing poets. Typically modest about his poetry and glamorously attired in ugg boots and thermals under his shorts, he is relatively relaxed. Thankfully, he's on fifth out of eight, a good position in the running.

The evening is great fun, with Tug Dumbley, last year's winner and one of this year's judges, giving a rip-roaring and hilarious performance of 'The Dog with the Golden Arse!'. All the contestants give it their best and the standard is notably higher than the semi's. There's a break whilst the judges make their decision. There's only one World Cup Winner with the top prize of $2000, whilst all seven runners up come jointly second and leave with $300 a piece. Dad is relaxed and happy all the performing is over and looking forward to congratulating the winner.

The eight finalists are invited onto the stage.

Tub Dumbley takes the stage to announce the winner.

'And the winner is.......Len Martin'

What can I say - Nimbin's own had won, the audience roared, the Martin clan collectively leapt for sheer joy, cheering and whooping with absolute delight, Dad was completely and utterly flabberghasted - a Stunned Mullet as he said! It was one of the best moments of my life - and I'm so chuffed that Tam and I were there to share it with my lovely drama-queen of a father.

His face says it all - Len, in fetching thermals and uggs, with partner of 51 years Kay (aka Mum) in his arms and Poetry World Cup organiser Gail at his side, astonished, overwhelmed and this year's World Cup Winner!

Creepy Critters: Ticks, Leeches & Termites

2008-07-30T08:42:00.026+10:00

I congratulated myself last week - having been here for 4 months (already! where did it go?) I had remained LEECH-FREE! Well done Tam. Of course, having patted myself suitably on the back, I then got 4 blood-sucking little leeches in as many days - one particularly yucky, being between my toes and feeling like some weird gloopy jellified matter - I couldn't get my boots off fast enough.

photo from www.treknature.com

Milly occasionally picks up leeches, and when they've had their fill, we trace a mini trail of blood across the floor or patio, to a happy, plump, soporific fat little leech which (Buddhists don't read on) I throw either into Hell Fire, or into Alternative Leech Hell: a little can of rock salt.

These small creatures (annelids to be precise) are attracted to body heat - miniature heat seeking missiles - they are relentless. Once attached, they have amazingly powerful suction pads and trying to disengage them can be a surpisingly difficult (elastic) experience. Especially if you are phobic of worms - as my poor sweet wife is. Often you don't feel a thing - the leech has already departed leaving only the tell-tale bleeding puncture.

www.treknature.com: the blood-sucking Australian Land Leech (Gnatbobdellida libbata) is found in the moist rainforests and wet eucalypt forests of eastern Australia. When conditions are suitable (moist ground conditions), these relatives of the worm come out onto bushwalking and animal tracks and wait, ‘standing’ in an upright position, clasping the ground with their posterior sucker. Chemical sensors and vibration are used to detect an approaching host, usually native mammals or humans. As the unsuspecting victim moves past they reach over and attach themselves with their anterior sucker; they make their way to a suitable vein near the surface, often around the ankle, upper foot or between your toes. Making a V-shaped incision, blood is prevented from clotting via an anticoagulant and a histamine with improves blood flow directly into the leech. Once attached the leech with fill-up with blood, perhaps tripling its size. When satisfied they drop off the victim and find a suitable niche to digest their meal.

Leeches are most active when the days are really damp. Ticks, however, are more of a constant every day battle, rain or shine. Little Millikins (fondly named by the Southern Hemisphere Martins) requires a daily tick check, despite being safeguarded with either Front Line or a tick collar. Her nether regions are a favourite hideout for these 8 legged little critters - we've never been so close to our dog and she has got used to the check up and all the extra grooming. Most ticks we've found have measured as little as 0.5mm - although the largest we've found has been 6mm. I 've heard they can get up to 20mm - whoopee.

We operate a tick kit, consisting of a jar, a pair of tweezers, and a highly effective invention called The Tick Twister, which does exactly what it says on the packet - twists the tick off, whilst not aggravating it to inject poison. The jar also contains (my) collection of ticks. Dead ticks. Nice.

We are yet to identify the infamous Paralysis tick from amongst the various local species - but I reckon there's more than one in the photo above. Incidentally, local hearsay is that aboriginal people avoided this area because of the high number of ticks. But don't let that put you off visiting...by the way insect repellents do work, we just keep forgetting to put them on. And in the long term we should build up immunity.

And as for bloody termites... 4 years ago I stored a pile of beeaauuddiful red mahogany floorboards in my parental "out-law's" metal shed, 12kms down the road - a safe bet, you'd think, from any wood munching critters. Lo and behold, what should develop in their woodstack just outside, but a dreaded termites nest. Somewhat surprisingly attracted to the metal shed, the little buggers trail in across my timber, leaving all sorts of messy bits in their wake and devour Len's soft wood stacked beneath - see photo. A lucky escape for our timber - just 4 inches of the mahogany was feasted upon - from 275 metres of the stuff. Len and Kay are surprisingly calm, given that all the aluminium joinery within their steel house is in fact fixed with termite tempting timber. Life in the bush sure keeps you on your toes...

Len, Tam & Kay loading the mahogony onto the co-op trailer to be towed up to our house, 12km up the road.

Whales, Wollumbin, Wattles & Waterfalls

2008-07-20T21:17:00.042+10:00

A couple of weeks ago we enjoyed a day beside the seaside with friends Tony and Lesley. A coffee at the pub overlooking Byron Bay, a leisurely stroll along the seafront, a glorious picnic on the beach and an awe-inspiring whale-watching hike around the headland.

And YES we saw whales (migrating north to breed). Most were off in the distance, visible by their fountaining blows of water - a couple were quite close up - close enough to see the patterns made by the barnicles on their huge and curvaceous black and white bodies as they serenely cut through the waves. It brought a tear to my eye, glimpsing these majestic beasts from that other watery world. Their numbers are increasing significantly every year along the Australian coast - fantastic.

The walk over the headland took us through a grove of cabbage palms and a forest of cycads, which was almost as incredible as seeing the whales, but then I've got a thing about unusual trees! The photo above shows Lesley, Tony and Tam standing beside a couple of cycads with crows-nest ferns growing within them. What a lovely day, and good to be off the cold mountain and beside the glorious Pacific ocean.

Here's me half way up Wollumbin (Cloud Catcher) aka Mt Warning on my 40th birthday, photo c/o Dad. The tip of this ancient volcanic plug is allegedly the first bit of Australia to get sunlight in the morning and is just around the corner, by Aussie standards, from where we live. We had a lovely time. Sadly, I didn't quite make it to the top after witnessing a young lad of about 10 scrambling down at break neck speed (almost literally) losing his footing and nearly falling over the steep drop to the side right in front of me. I completely lost my nerve at this point and decided to wait out the last 100m upward stretch to the summit whilst Dad (at the tender age of 74) made it to the top. I've done it before and so knew what I was missing. Its 4km up and 4km down and I have to say I was crippled for the next three days. Hmmmm, more exercise definitely required.

And here's Dad in fine fettle at a recent garden club visit to Bamboo Oasis designing new ways of making use of excess dried out bamboo shoot bits! Moments later the bishop-style head-gear was inverted and placed over the groin - I was laughing so much I forgot to take a photo. I love a bloke with a sense of humour!

Spot the difference between the following two photos? If you look carefully you'll find Tam making the first cut whilst felling a 40' Sally Wattle, with guidance from Grant. The wattle wasn't there in 2004 - which just goes to show how fast a tree can grow here - and how quickly they can be felled!

MISSON ACCOMPLISHED!

Tam cordless drill in hand, up on roof, preparing a batton for the ladder to lie against so that I can fix the leak along the 5' sloping edge of the chimney - ooh, we know how to have fun up here at Blue Knob! The roof is now fixed, and yes it was me, although there's no photo as usual! No more pools of water beside the fireplace after heavy rain. Well, hopefully not, yet to be tested, endless blue skies at the moment. What a hardship, but still very cold nights.

Hell's Bells - here's Tam standing precariously at the top of the rather dramatically named Hell Hole Falls, deep within Mt Jerusalem National Park - a recent hike with Nimbin Bush Walkers on yet another sunny day.

More tales of intrepid adventures and near-death experiences soon....

Elemental my dear Jennifer: Water, Wellies & Mud!

2008-07-10T13:02:00.013+10:00

Its late on Monday evening and we notice that the water pressure in our taps has reduced dramatically. Hmm? This can only mean one thing - somewhere along the 200m pipe between our 20,000 litre water tank and our house is a dreaded LEAK. Its dark and raining, so for now we can only hope the leak isn't immediately adjacent to the house and take ourselves off to bed for a night of apocalyptic dreaming - flood, famine, drought....

Tuesday dawns chilly yet thankfully sunny. Tam checks the route of the pipe to the water tank - and when she gets to the tank finds it completely empty. That's a BIG leak somewhere along the pipe - but with all the rain, everything is soaked, so no obviously wet areas. We turn off the supply from the tank to our house - at least the tank can fill up again. So for the time being no water from the taps, no washing up, no washing machine, no showers, no flushing loo and no idea where the leak is....by this time Jenny is in a particularly grumpy mood and has completely lost sight of her pioneering spirit - in fact, she's not sure if she ever had one....

Once the tank is half filled again via the 1km pipe from the creek (currently leak free!), we turn the supply to the house back on and walk the route of the pipe - and there, thankfully, in the middle of the paddock below a tap, is an obviously gushing and gurgling leak. The pipe the tap is mounted on comes away in our hands - we've found the problem. Jenny's mood lifts, much to Tam's relief. We're back in control. Feeling very relieved that it was so easy to locate the leak (this time!), we get on with fixing things and getting our precious water supply back.

Firstly we have to dig down about a foot into the heavy water-logged clay without causing further damage to the pipes and find the problem - at least its sunny, imagine having to do this in the rain! We then flush out the pipes before replacing the joiner - this requires advanced communication techniques - Jenny (at the tank) whistles thrice when she turns the water on, Tam (down at the leak) whistles thrice to request the water is turned off again - ooh its all mod cons up at Blue Knob!

Once the joiner is cleared of mud and replaced to our satisfaction, we set about designing and making a makeshift inspection pit, so that we don't have to dig this all up again in the future. Utilising our ready supply of spare breeze blocks from recent demolition work (read earlier blogs) and with further messing around in gloopy mud, voila:

Its certainly not pretty, and possibly not cow-proof (we do have occassional cattle randomly taking a wander through our garden probably from our neighbours farm!) but WE FIXED THE LEAK AND made the inspection chamber ourselves! So we're quite proud. And whilst we are entirely responsible for our own water supply, we don't pay ANY water rates, so inspecting pipelines and fixing leaks is all part of living the dream! I am my very own Water Board.

Suffice to say, we are delighted to turn on taps and see fresh mountain spring water gushing forth and we have an immensely increased appreciation of the basic stuff of life, be it earth, air, fire or water. Which reminds me, must get on with collecting firewood, its pretty chilly these mid-winter nights.

Green-Eyed Spaniel and the Birthday Blues

2008-07-02T20:14:00.009+10:00

Milly managed to damage her one remaining eye a couple of days ago whilst rummaging in the undergrowth in our gully. And so yesterday saw our first visit to the Nimbin vet clinic. The very patient vet finally, after much struggling on Milly's part, got the anaesthetic into her eye, then green luminous liquid which dramatically revealed to minor ulcerations on the front of her eyeball. After further struggles, anti-biotics were adminstered directly into damaged the eye. The photo left shows Milly at home after the vets, looking thoroughly sorry for herself and distinctly Hulk-like in the eye region. Tam has since successfully applied further antibiotics to the eye, with great patience, and the eye is looking good - panic over and all traces of luminous green have gone. We are now looking at how we can fence a safe area off for Milly. (STOP PRESS: a week later, July 7th, and Milly's eye has healed well).

July is here already and our birthdays are over for another year. Yes we over-indulged, particularly as it was Tam's 40th - having birthdays 10 days apart is a bit like Christmas and New Year, a roller-coaster of seemingly unavoidable over-indulgence - and now, with some relief, its time to clean up my act and get on with sensible, productive stuff. Talking of sensible and productive, it must be mentioned that Tam impressively spent a good portion of her birthday making us a sofa - or rather a base for the foam mattresses that now serve as a sofa. Uncle Bob's saw came out for the first time since arriving in Aus and got the job done nicely.
My birthday began with this huge and divine bunch of flowers being presented to me, all picked by Tam from our garden in the early hours. I then spent the day walking up Mt Warning with my ever-so fit parents (Mum 69 and Dad 74), and the next four days recovering. My leg muscles have never ached so much!

My nephew Connor and his dad Ian (he who lent us his car for six weeks) came to stay for a few days - we took full advantage of the extra muscle power - they cleared a huge swathe of lantana from around the lower damn, enabling us to walk all around the pond for the first time ever. Connor enjoyed thrashing around with two machetes which proved very effective as long as no one else was within swiping distance and no emerging saplings were in the way! Connor managed to do all this and still not get any leaches or ticks on him! Ian and Tam spent hours clearing and resetting our blocked water supply to our water tank - given that inlet into the pipe is 1km away through bush/unmanaged woodlands, this was no mean feat. BIG THANK YOU to Ian and Connor for all their fantastic efforts AND the beer!

Today we saw four dark green and red parrots at the top of the drive - we think they were female King Parrots, but are not entirely sure. We also pruned a Tippocina. I haven't a clue how that should be spelt, but suffice to say the fantastic display of large purple flowers that greeted us on our arrival three months ago are now over and it was time to get that tree in shape - the over-grown branches were about 20' tall and we had to be careful not to damage the neighbouring flowering magnolia.

If its mild and dry tomorrow we can either fix the leak in the roof or poison weed trees, both activities require no rain. Poisoning in particular requires no rain AND no wind. We live on the edge of a national park and so minimising the number of invasive 'weeds' on our little patch is a basic and legal responsibility. And after 4 years of tenants who were not particularly interested in the impact of weeds, and with the rapid sub-tropical growth, we have rather a lot of weeding to do - and some are 20' trees requiring felling and poisoning! So leaking roof or invasive weeds? Or both?! Watch this space.

Candy, you may recognise a few items in this photo, taken late into the night last night!

A few odds'n'ends

2008-06-30T18:30:00.017+10:00

Tam using the heritage pitch-fork (an excellent gift from Stuart & Gabrielle) to load rotting hay (created after whipper-snipping the overgrown garden) into the wheelbarrow to be transported to no-dig bed for lower layer of mulch.

Tony & Lesley's fantastic chicken tractor made with polypipe, chicken wire and shade cloth - we plan to copy this for our soon to be delivered chooks - birthday prezzies for Tam from Karen & Ken

Jenny thoroughly enjoys smashing the breeze-block fireplace surround

Tam works on removing the 2nd ugly, useless, can't wait to get rid of it breeze block thing.....

Tam unloading the gravel & sand mix for the concrete to level the floor in the living room after removing the breeze block blocks.

Tam mixing the concrete....

Nearly all done - fire place and blocks removed, beams and walls painted white by Jenny, Tam in process of concreting remaining corners. Now its just a matter of plastering the walls and a new floor....

Tam tries out her shiny new 16" chainsaw on a very little dead tree....

And now for something a bit bigger - this somewhat larger dead tree was felled and cross-cut expertly by Tam and provided lots of lovely firewood on her recent 40th birthday party held on Winter Solstice

Jenny, very brave, pushing through her fears, up on the roof sweeping up the leaves which would otherwise block the gutters...

Lovely, lovely bromeliad flowers

Jenny pruning the last of the very over-grown kumquat branches. We made 8 kilos of divine marmalade - and it set much to our surprise! A kumquat orchard is now planned in the paddock....

Milly Really is in Aus!

2008-06-30T17:19:00.028+10:00

Minutes after picking Mills up from quarantine in Sydney a month after leaving her at Heathrow. Tam's driving Clare & Shanes extremely cool and ancient white Ford Falcon panel van, with a bench seat in the front - just right for Jen, Milly and Tam to sit together in the front. Many tears and hugs before setting off on the 600 mile journey back to Blue Knob & Milly's new home.

After settling in, we discover Milly is fascinated by the tiny lizards in all the undergrowth at the end of the patio - a favourite sunny spot, she can spend hours studying the strange little critters and enjoying the warmth.

Milly takes a stroll across the lawn, past the fire pit and off into the gully for a romp chasing birds.

Past the newly created no-dig salad bed - hopefully we'll soon have salad leaves galore....and we'll probably find out about Aussie snails and slugs!

Here's Milly, up the drive....check out the bromeliads in the tree...

...in the paddock with views of the mountain 'Blue Knob'

Back home ....

And a snuggle with Tam

And then the daily tick check - Milly loves to run wild in the undergrowth and bushes around the garden, BUT she always picks up ticks and so its a daily ritual to check her and remove any.....and as for the risks she takes with her only remaining eye....

Milly would love to hear from you - please post a comment or two!

No car, no central heating, no dig....

2008-06-25T21:00:00.014+10:00

Yes the car is still in the garage - but the less said about the gas-guzzling carbon spewing vehicle upon which I rely too heavily, the better.....

To truly appreciate the photo on the left (showing the giant inflatable spliff held aloft by Nimbin residents at Mardi Grass 2008) one must attend the annual May Mardi Grass and perhaps look into the history of the town and its original Aquarius festival way back in the 70's. Of course we viewed the parade and loved all the human powered floats and particularly the voluptuous, various-aged and vital Ganga Faeries dancing at the head of the parade. This is all ancient history now, way back in early May.

Following Tam's previous post about demolishing the fireplace - I cannot let this pass without sharing with you the moment when Tam got stuck with the wheel barrow, having chosen a particularly inventive way of transporting this extremely heavy bit of block & metal up the step. Suffice to say she was stuck long enough for me to get the camera and take this photo. I have film of this too - I may publish in next post......

Please note that Tam is wearing a singlet (aka 'vest' in UK) - this may give the impression that we are basking in glorious sunshine and heat - wrong, wrong, wrong. It is winter here and we live up a mountain (the hilariously named Blue Knob) and so we have our own weather system, so different from warm Nimbin just 9km down the road.

Our house is South facing, chilly and damp, particularly after the wettest summer and autumn on record. And remember, South in the Southern hemisphere is the equivalent of north in the Northern Hemisphere. This has brought home the necessity to fit a wood burner with back boiler for hot water as soon as possible, or at the very least before next winter. The solar water heating just can't cope at this time of year - but with 5 acres, at least half of which is tree covered, stocking up with carbon-neutral firewood won't be too much of a problem, especially now Tam has her shiny new 16" Stihl. Watch this space....

So, as you can see from the next photo - our roof needs cleaning - free accommodation, wine and food for anyone willing and able to do this job and not break local health & safety laws! This photo is taken from our paddock, for which we have many plans - definitely plots of potatoes, sweet potatoes and sweet corn. Fencing an area and having some sheep or perhaps a horse for a manure-generating transport facility, is also an option, but we need to do some more research, particularly regarding the quality of the drainage in the paddock as hooved animals cannot endure damp.

Next photo, there's Tam, happy as a 40 year old re-distributing cow-shit! This was collected from Nimbin Rocks Co-op down the road. The photo shows the first of three little no-dig beds positioned just out the back for easy harvesting of all our lovely salad veggies & greens. Seedlings c/o sister Felicity, Peter & Connor - a wonderfully imaginative and generous gift to Tam on her recent 40th birthday - a whole tray of seedlings - french beans, sugar snaps, chinese salad leaves, aubergine, rainbow chard, brocholi & cauliflower (the last two are particularly challenging as we've not grown them before AND they don't like manure......

So, general impressions of life so far in Aus, up a mountain with no central heating or car. It is at times a very daunting challenge, in ways that I could never have imagined. Our relationship, Tam & mine, has been dramatically challenged - I've discovered that without the usual comforts of 'home', I can at times become a surprisingly unnecessary brat. I have questioned our choice to move here on many occassions and am still unsure. I have considered the value of the house and the presently beneficial exchange rate from Aus$ to the UK£. I have also discovered, or perhaps I should say rediscovered, that people, particularly family, can be extremely kind and generous and are always willing to help if they can.

And this morning as Tam and I sat supping our morning cup of tea, planning our next veg bed and the design of the forthcoming chook house, a delightful and yet to be identified red, green & blue parrot landed in a nearby native tobacco tree and moments later a satin bower bird chased it off. The garden is graced with fluffy iris (shown left), divine bromeliads and magnificent magnolia, whilst hippeastrum are threatening to erupt all over the place. White cockatoos flew by at dusk, screeching madly and flapping as usual, and later the centre of the Milky Way, including the Emu constellation, revealed itself between silhouetted bangalow palms and swamp mahogony . No flying foxes feeding tonight, but a definite crunch, crunch, crunch of a wallaby making its way through our woods.

Permadykes

2008-06-19T23:15:00.017+10:00

Nice idea, but it has to go..

Our friend Stuart from Britanny (arch blogger at http://www.permacultureinbrittany, on visiting us in Lewes, made the remark that once we are underway in our new life down under, we could call our blog "PermaDykes at Blue Knob". There was much guffawing all round, until we realised this would probably result in an excess amount of spam, and other such ingredients from strange gentlemen in long brown overcoats. However, I like the name so much, it would be a shame not to coin it, and am risking all to publish this chapter under heading of the same name.

Since our (ad)venture has begun, I am constantly amazed to find myself taking on the, shall we say, more testosterone driven tasks. For instance, one of our latest tasks is in the living room. We gleefully demolished two hideous breeze block (Southern Hemisphere read Besser Block) units by the fireplace (see pic) and our fantastic weekend workers, Tis and Peter, demolished the fireplace surround itself.

Tis & Peter, Jen & Milly by the dis-mantelpiece fireplace.

The units were used not only by humans as table tops but also runways by mice, and served little more than heat barriers from the much needed fire. When the temperature gets down to 4deg C, these monstrosities of bad design/taste had to go! Now there are 2 rectangles of missing floor that require being raised to floor level. Much as we are loving the 70’s dark brown sunburst floor tiles that make up the living room area, nicely blending into 70’s light brown sunburst floor tiles that make up the kitchen area, we have opted not to use these for the infill (funnily enough) but are opting for a quick fix of concreting these rectangles in requiring sand, gravel and cement (yes we could do mud bricks, or “sawment” or any manner of eco-alternatives, but we’re entertaining at the weekend and need a solution NOW! )

There is usually an unspoken agreement between my wife and I, about tasks needing to be fulfilled. So, it was natural that I should be the one to get the trailer (borrowed from our co-op down the road), get the premixed sand and gravel, with 40kg bag of cement, from the Mill (our local farm suppliers), bring the trailer load back home, learn the art of trailer reversing, and dump the load at the allotted spot. Naturally, I would be the one to actually mix and lay the concrete. I mention this all in such detail, because Jenny was the one to go to college to study Forestry, including the art of trailer reversing, chainsaw use and maintenance and brushcutting. In our first week here “we” bought me a brushcutter just to enable us to walk to our front door without fear and last week, not only did I get to tow a trailer, “we” also bought me a chainsaw so I can go about the estate knocking trees off for firewood. Hmm...

Not to be outdone, Jenny has a mower given to us by our friend Ian in Brisbane, who never wants to f**king mow another lawn ever! It being winter, she luckily has only had to mow once. I have just heard of a friend in Brighton who had to be admitted to hospital after mowing his albeit rather overgrown lawn, with an acute attack of predictive text gone wrong resulting in an accute attack of 'Gayfever'... Talking the gay talk, I notice that Los Angeles has finally allowed gay marriages, and an 87 and 83 year old couple of gals have finally got hitched, although they had difficulty seeing where to put the ring ...

Wow...What a chic warehouse kind'a look...kind'a...

Del Martin (left) places a ring on her partner Phyllis Lyon during their wedding ceremony, officiated by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (center) at City Hall in San Francisco on Monday.

Arrived and living in Blue Knob

2008-06-05T22:07:00.015+10:00

Red hot pokers in the paddock

Finally, yesterday, we got our connection to the internet sorted out - only dial up, but after having to travel at least 9km to the nearest internet cafe, it is a luxury to sit at home, with a mug of hot tea and browse, check emails, do a bit of internet banking, and hear from loved one's far away, if a little slowly!

And so finally we get to update our blog. We've been here 2 1/2 months, after a couple of extremely relaxing weeks in Malaysia & Thailand (see hut in photo - Tam reckons its the same one she stayed in 20 years ago - needless to say very cheap and carbon neutral air-con!)

Since arriving at our humble bush house, we've managed to do lots of mowing, pruning and weeding, whilst gleefully spotting black and white cockatoos, regent bower birds, crimson rosellas, and many other subtropical birds. We're getting to know more of the native trees and various dreaded exotic weeds to be removed at the first opportunity. Admiring the centre of the Milky Way as it stretches gloriously across the Southern night sky, and occasionally glimpsing a flying fox feasting on the flowering Bangalow palms or spotting a possum in a nearby tree are some of the delights. Finding another tick buried into my skin, or another blood sucking leach crawling up my leg, or coming across the biggest spider I've ever seen upstairs (now named Matilda, we're not sure why?) are some of the less delightful aspects of living here.

Unfortunatly we've also wasted a lot of time looking for a car, only to waste a lot of money on a Heap of S**t car that lies beleaguered with broken head gasket at the local garage. I'm wondering whether doing a mechanics course might be the next best move, given our relatively remote location and the horror's of buying 2nd hand vehicles! Buying a donkey and trap is a serious consideration - said donkey can mow our paddock for us, produce lovely manure for the veg garden and we get to quote Shrek on a regular basis! Watch this space! Although I might just buy a moped, possibly less moody than a donkey (if our recent donkey-sitting experience is anything to go by) and less fencing involved!

Sadly, I need a car to get to work - but I need work to earn money for a car now we've blown our car budget on what turns out to be a wreck (I'm feeling permanantly nauseous about this fact at the moment). So, after much tearful wailing, flailing of arms and general victimness, I'm finally calming down and beginning to consider the positives. The first being that it wasn't raining when we hitched into town today. The second being that we did get a lift and were not murdered and left in a ditch. We happily returned (c/o a pre-arranged lift with my father) having enjoyed a Soya Chai in town, posted letters, done a bit of shopping and discussed the next best move regarding the Heap of S**t car with our very friendly mechanic Dave.

I've painted a couple of beams in our living room this afternoon and Tam (seen brushcutting to the right) has cleared hay from the previously jungle-like lawn, relocating the hay on the bottom layer of our embryonic raised veg beds. Tam has also stacked firewood from a recently felled Sally Wattle.

Tomorrow my brother Grant is taking us to the local town, Lismore (40km south) and we are going to buy a BRAND NEW chainsaw. I am trained in chainsaw use and Tam has chainsaw experience from another lifetime working with a tree surgeon in Brighton. So we'll be able to get serious about stocking our wood pile for next winter.

Spaniel in the works

2008-02-13T00:23:00.003+11:00

Just when we thought we were ahead of things, old Milly the Moo had an unfortunate incident on a walk four weeks ago, resulting in a very shocking outcome - the removal of her right eye. (The picture below of her on the sofa, is the last record we have of it, making it even more poignant).

Still, the vet says she's fit and healthy and we shouldn't put off our plans. Yesterday, the poor old thing had to return to the vet for her bloodtests. Unfortunate enough that she had already spent 5 days in their doggie hospital on heavy sedation, antibiotics, anaesthetic and all on her own without us. After her op, when we went to get her, I was prepared for the worst, but that wasn't bad enough. When an eye is removed, the eye socket, now empty, fills with blood, so the swelling from the tissue damage made her like one of the Borg. I have never heard her so vocal - she was definitely telling us how cr*p she felt, and how painful it all was. So, when I saw her last night after her blood tests, (having had another round of sedation because she's such a wriggler) she had a few words with me, not least to say "I'm fed up - what are you going to put me through next?" Maybe we'll keep the journey we have planned for her a bit hush hush for now.

Just over 2 months to go!

2007-12-30T10:51:00.000+11:00

Jenny here: just to say that this blog will really get going once we actually depart the UK sometime in early March 2008. We will spend a couple of weeks in Thailand, lounging on shady verandahs and trying to decide where to eat next, before going on to Nimbin in Northern NSW, to start what can only be described as our 'new life'!

And so much to do!

2007-12-30T06:54:00.000+11:00

After much umming and aahing about whether we should risk taking our slightly hyper spaniel to a tick infested area (our paddock) we decided that she is so much a part of our family that she simply has to come, and we will deal with deadly insects when and as they arise (ulp!). Now we just have to face another mountain of paperwork (the first having been my visa) and devise a strict timeline for her that everything hinges on.

Firstly we had to re-microchip her (a hideous experience involving far more doggy blood than I was expecting) because her chip from '99 would not be compatible with the Aussie Chip reader. We have now applied for an import permit from AQIS and are waiting (10 days or so) for that to be granted before applying for a place in Sydney Quarantine and arranging her "travel agent". We also want to get her the travel container well in advance of the flight so that she's familiar with it as a comfortable place to hang out in (24 hours in the hold with no-inflight entertainment, free drinks, food or pretty stewardesses to look at...)

Moving to Aus early 2008

2007-12-29T15:12:00.001+11:00

We are moving from Lewes, East Sussex, UK to the Dar es Salaam community in Northern NSW, Australia. We bought the house nearly 4 years ago and are moving in early 2008. The house sits amongst 5 acres of beautiful gardens and forest at the foot of the Nightcap Range National Park.

Our plan is to renovate our house, develop our 5 acres of land into a productive small-holding and enjoy the abundance of wild flora and fauna surrounding us. We aim to create a sustainable home and garden with minimal impact upon the surrounding environment.

So many plans and ideas, but the first stage is to emigrate - which seems rather daunting just now!

Here's to stepping out of the rat race and getting off the grid!