The Three Cliffs

This is one of the views from our back verandah up to the Billen Cliffs. There are three cliffs: on the left is Cliff Richard, the middle is Cliff Face and the far right is Montgomery Clifft.

Changes starting to happen

We dug out the garden at the front of the house last week, transplanted the natives we wanted to keep and then had about 5metres of soil brought in from a Lismore landscaping business together with about 10 metres of cypress pine mulch (supposed to be least susceptible to termites). We shaped and sculptured the soil into some mounds, covered with mulch and have started planting grass trees, cycads and other natives. Oh and as you can see we have removed that steel archway structure and those awful awnings.

Taking out the garbage

We hired a big skip from Richmond Valley Waste and started filling it.... an old sofa that had been left here, the remains of the kitchen we pulled out, old shelving from one of the cellars and some door framing and what not. Quite a lot of what not to tell you the truth. But, as you can see, if you ever want something neatly packed, Steve is your man!

Our first snake

Steve found our first snake today. It was a lovely small eyed snake which was minding its own business under some old carpet I had put down months ago to kill some grass. I let it go in our new rainforest garden at the front gate. We saw 'our' wedgetailed eagles for the first time in a couple of months as well yesterday...they were soaring above us with their new fledgeling. They nest in the Jiggi Valley which is the next valley over from us.

We've had a very busy day today, trying to get the place looking OK before friends start ariving just after xmas. We started the day as we usually start our Saturdays by going to the farmers' market in Kyogle. A very glamorous Mrs Claus was sitting on her throne amongst the veges. I wish that I had taken our camera!

Hmmm, don't know why that pic is so small..anyway, we seem to be in channel-billed cuckoo country at the moment...these large cuckoos with their large curved bills fly down from New Guinea in late spring and lay their eggs, like other cuckoos, in other birds' nests. Can you imagine the fright from some smalllish bird when junior starts to develop into something like this! They have taken to calling their gargling strangulated calls from around 5am lately...then the kookaburras joined them followed by maggies and currawongs...the dawn chorus around here is way more orchestral or operatic!

Channon Craft Markets

Had an excellent, if hot, morning on Sunday at the Channon Craft Markets. The Channon is about 45 mins from our place, and it, along with Bangalow Markets are our fave market. Lots of really interesting stalls, lots of interesting looking people, lots of colour, lots of yummy food, trop plants and all kinds of stuff. We met up with our friends Stewart and Matt who have recently moved to Jiggi from Melbourne and trooped around with them. We bought a bunch of plants, steve bought lots of hand made soaps and we also bought some really nice locally made cushions for our day bed.

Different view of Maryville

This pic was taken before we bought the place and I took it from the half of our property that is on the other side of McGuinness Road. It shows the two 'pavillions' that make up the house. The right hand (north-facing) pavillion contains the kitchen, lounge, dining and one bedroom and the upper pavillion that faces south has the other five bedrooms (one is now a study) and the bathroom. Our water tank can be seen in the middle. The space between the two pavillions is going to be converted into a tropical wonderland complete with fish pond, heliconia, gingers and Nepenthes pitcher plants. We took off all the hideous awnings on the house at the weekend as well (you can see one in this pic).

A cane toad called Spew

This toad was recently gobbled up whole by a dog in Darwin whose owner then took him to the vet's where the dog was induced to vomit and blahhhhhhhooohagh up came the toad still very much alive. So the vet called him Spew. Well you'd hardly call him Nathan or Felicity, would you.

There are quite a few toads in Larnook and at Maryville, though I'm yet to kill any other than those I run over. Every morning after a wet evening the road is littered by little/not so little toad corpses, usually on their back with their pudgy toad arms stretched upwards. To kill or not to kill that is the question. Killing the odd toad that I encounter at night won't make a scrap of difference ecologically, so I ponder whether I am obliged to kill them. I looked closely at one the other night by torchlight and I discovered little flecks of orange and green and yellow scattered on its warty back. It was quite pretty.

We do have quite a few frogs: so far - green tree frog; dwarf tree frog; peron's tree frog; rocket frog; bleating tree frog; striped marsh frog,but alas, apparently the red bellied black snake population has taken a tumble because of the toads. That's probably a good enough reason to kill the ones I come across. Pass me the freezer bag!

Just for your info: the most humane way of killing a toad is to place it in a plastic bag and put it in the fridge for half an hour or so. Then once it's in a deep toady sleep, you place it in the freezer. And leave it there for a good 24hrs. I was speaking with a biology teacher the other day who told me she was using thawed out toads once for disssection purposes and a number of ther toads regained consciousness whilst opened up on the dissecting boards. Ouch.

According to the work of Prof Rick Shine and his colleagues, the toads at the frontline of the invasion in Northern Teritory are evolving/adapting so rapidly to develop bigger legs so they can invade more quickly that they are developing arthritis.

More info on toads go to: http://www.canetoadsinoz.com/

Steve wins two CONDAs

Woo hoo! Steve had been nominated for a City of Newcastle Drama Award (CONDA - Newcastle's version of the Oscars) for his costume design for The Producers, the show that Metropolitan Players had staged in September at the Civic Theatre in Newcastle. The CONDA Awards took place last Friday 5th December, the same night as it happened that we had gone to Ballina to see Ballina Players perform the very same show with my colleague Maree and her husband, Joe.

As we were driving back to Larnook Steve received a text that he had in fact received a CONDA Award for Oustanding Achievment in Musical Theatre! However, more was to come. Just after midnight we took a call from Julie Black, who had directed The Producers who also informed him that he had also won another CONDA for Achievment in Costume Design. Woo hoo!!! That brings his total cache of CONDAS to 5.

Thanks to Jenny (Brook) for her lovely photo of the two awards which she will lovingly cradle up from Newcastle To Maryville at Larnook in the new year.

Flamboyant trees for flamboyant gentlemen (apologies to Cher)

While November is the colour of mauve up here with the beauty of jacarandas in flower, December is lit up by the firey colour of reds and oranges from the poinciana (or flamboyant tree) and also from Illawarra Flame Trees. Quite a few streets in Lismore have been planted with poincianas and they create a spectacular effect for the next month or so. Unfortunately, although the Rock Valley was smudged mauve all throughout November, nobody seems to have planted poincianas, so we have to wait until we hit Lismore to enjoy their colour. However, we have planted one at Maryville, but I think we'll be long gone before it achieves anything like the grace and beauty of the tree pictured (Thanks Queensland Museum).

Rita the Ride-On

This is Rita the Ride-On Mower or 'lawn tractor' as some of us ranch-types prefer to call them. Rita has had a hard life and we put her in to the Lismore Rural Buying Service (a local hardware/farmware/gardenware cooperative - kinda Bunnings without the bling) for a reoonditioning soon after buying Maryville (Rita came with the property).

I've mowed the lawns twice now...looks like I'll be doing them once every three weeks during the summer, and it takes me about 5 hrs, spread across two afternoons. It's mostly fun, but the few acres that I cut is somewhat sloping and it's not until you are saddled up on rita's seat that you realise the degree of angle that some of the ground slopes.

We also have a push mower that we then use to do the edge work and go around the plants we've put in, altogether more finnicky stuff that Rita is just not interested in. She's a bit rough, is our Rita.