70th Birthday, Wonderful Wooli & Chirpy Chooks

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

- 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

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!

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

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....

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!

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: