OH MY GOD!!!

Imagine the surprise when I went out to feed the girls their pellets this morning and found a fricking tasmanian devil sniffing around the chookery!!! I luckily managed to see it from about 10 metres away and at first thought it was a dark coloured spotted quoll (or tiger cat) so raced back and got the camera. When I got back that it was then that I realised it was no quoll, but a tasmanian devil. WHAT THE???? Amyway, I managed to take a couple of pics (several of which I've sent to the Australian Museum) before it gallopped off down the hill towards the creek. It's obviously a captive animal that has escaped, but from who and where, who knows. Tasmanian Devils did occur on the mainland right up until European settlement so maybe there is a wild remnant population that still exists right here at Larnook. And to think I managed to see one on the very first day of April.

Gold Coast Get Away

Last weekend was spent up at the Gold Coast, taking advantage of a special offer that Merriton Apartments, Broadbeach was having. Our room was on the 12th floor, Glen's room, the 23rd floor. Go figure! Anyway, the rooms were very spesh, and while the view looks a little hazy because of the rain on Saturday morning, it was very nice. We arrived Friday evening, had some drinks and some cheese on the balcony and headed out for dinner at a Thai place. After too much chicken larb and massaman curry we decided to have an early night.

Next morning after a hearty country breakie of bacon and eggs a la Glen, we strolled across the road to Pacific Fair where we bought coffee, cushions, a scone ring, a pair of jeans and a leather sofa. We're suckers for friendly service! The sofa arrives in 5 weeks. I'll take a pic and post it.

After a terrific lunch on the deck at the Broadbeach Surf Club we headed up to Brisbane getting there around 5.30ish. Meal at a Greek restaurant at Southbank and then off to see....

Chicago. Brilliant! Starring Caroline O'Connor, Sharon Millerchip, Gina Riley and Craig 'Mona' McLaughlin, and a cast of very good supporting actors, singers and yes, dancers, many of whom would have felt right at home on the stage of the RHI for a 4am Mardi Gras show, the production was darker and sexier than previous productions (well certainly darker and sexier than Metropolitan Players' production that I saw in 1990 ). We all thoroughly enjoyed it and then headed back to Gold Coast where we went to a night club so that we could pay a $20.00 cover charge, drink overpriced drinks and watch an appalling drag show. We were in bed by 2am.

This was important because the next day was spent at Movie World, which was great...apart from all the people...and the queues, and well the fact that a couple of the rides weren't operating. But we still had fun.

Here is Steve and I having fun outside the Scooby Doo Spooky Ride...which was spooky and in places, a tad terrifying....

But this young man wasn't terrifying at all....though I feel his costume was a little too restrictive...he was part of Movie World's Grand Parade, a bit like the Mardi Gras Parade on lemonade.

Millie and Erin make dinner and its yummy

Millie and Erin have been staying with us since we picked them up at Lismore station on Sunday evening. They are members of Help-X (as were Baptiste and Ed - see previous postings from Feb) and we host them in exchange for them weeding our gardens, mulching our plants, feeding our chooks and cooking yummy Taiwanese meals. They are with us until Thursday before heading up to Brisbane.

Water, water everywhere and all the boards did shrink

Well the boards would have shrunk if they had been in the line of water that was gushing under the house from the water pipe that ruptured sometime today, causing our water tank to almost drain away. Agh the perils of having your own water source and the associated need for pumps and hosing and black poly tubes that loop around under the house like bloated intestines...anyways, the ever resourceful and skilled Steve managed to replace the faulty elbow joint and even managed a smile even while caked in red muddy clay.

And here's a shot of two of our pumps (I think we have four all up) which live under our bedroom, chugging and pumping away, just biding their time until they decide to pack it in and cause us grief.

What do these have in common?

You guessed it, they are all Tender Centre purchases. And what an interesting collection they make: the chest is for firewood, the edger doesn't actually work and will be returned tomorrow and the ergonomic stool, well is an ergonomic stool. Who can say what goes on in one's mind when confronted with the myriad of bargains at Lismore Tender Centre. We've become regulars now, diligently searching the musty aisles for treasures that we don't really want and definitely don't need. But it's what you do when you live in the country.

A bit of this, a bit of that...

Apart from mixing cement and shovelling it into holes, I made a big chocolate cake from a recipe given to me by a colleague..thanks Rosie...

and I mowed the lawn...using the hand mower as Rita the Rideon is out of action until she has her blades replaced...she's a tempermental 'b' that one

Glen wins a biggie

"Stop it, get away, I haven't even got my socks on' squealed Glen as he got ready to go to the Lismore Square Annual Awards Dinner held at Zest Function Centre at the uni on Saturday evening, after he had spent the afternoon cementing at our place. 'What will you say in your acceptance speech? Ya gonna thank us?' we teased. Well, well, well, who won Best Merchandiser of the Year at Lismore Square. I'm sure everyone will want to congratulate young Glen, surely The Donut King of the Northern Rivers! What a year Glen has had so far...pulled up on the stage to perform with the Kransky Sisters, winning this award....what next???

Deck building #2

This weekend marked Phase 2 of Building the Deck. Since last weekend, 8 holes were dug to a depth of 60cm by ourselves and Shane (well mostly by Shane). These will be the footings.

Look at that lovely slurry that those butch lads, Steve and Glen are mixing. It was hot and wet work and we were rained on several times, soaking us to the bone. Never mind, that's the Australian way, isn't it.

And into each hole goes the contents of 4-5 20 kgs bags of cement multiplied by 8 thats almost 800kgs of the stuff.

All the footings have now been completed. Next phase is the bolting on of the bearers and the nailing of the decking. Timber will hopefully be delivered this week.

Maryville moods

'Agh the weather be queer, this weekend, I say', hissed old farmer Tom from the end of the road. Well actually there's no farmer Tom that we know of, just thought it would be an interesting way to start this posting, because the weather was indeed queer with lots of different light, rain, sun, a lot of variety indeed. Here's a few pics of different weather and lighting that we experienced over the weekend.

See the whisps of low cloud starting to dissolve after a shower

and a faint rainbow in front of the Billens

Anyone for toad in the hole?

Several small cane toads fell into the holes that we dug for the deck foundations. I've noticed quite a few small toads around 5cm long at the moment, no doubt this season's progeny growing up.

Deck building

Our next big project is to build an extension deck on to the back verandah to put the spa on. We are aiming to have this complete and operational by easter. Today we cleared the site, cut down the azeleas and pulled out some old logs and rubbish.

Steve clearin the site and packing it in Rita's little cart thingie

Will be nice having 'wine time' in the spa looking out at that view....

luscious lettuce (and some rocket)

some of our lettuce that we grew from seed with some rocket inter-mixed

Meet Glen Kransky

Steve, Glen, Lady Katherine, Stewart and I saw the delicious Kransky Sisters a few weeks ago at the decidedly unglamorous Lismore Star Court Theatre. The Kranskys selected Glen for an on-stage performance, complete with Kransky wig, blouse and skirt. Glen played the triangle very credibly. Unfortunately we didn't get a pic of him in full Kransky drag - this is the next best thing.

AWOL in Singapore

Surely, leafy sea dragons must be the drag queens of marinelife? This one was being flamboyant at Underwater World, at Sentosa Island, Singapore's playtime park. I spent from 6th to 12th in Singapore on a work trip with two colleagues. We spent Saturday and Sunday at a huge careers and education expo at Suntec, the huge convention centre in Singapore, before visiting two of our partner institutions, MDIS (Management Development Institute of Singapore) and....

Tourism Management Institute of Singapore. I also took the opportunity to visit Singapore's Night Safari

where I saw Asian rhino, blue sheep and jaguars and leopards. The trip begain last Friday evening when we attended a ceremony to confer a national award on the TMIS which was held at Hort Park, a new amazing park in the centre of Singapore's CBD...so green, so beautiful, so Singapore...

Speaking of things botanical, I also managed a quick visit to the Botanic Gardens and the National Orchid Garden..again brilliant! This trip was my first to Singapore in about a decade and its rekindled my love of the place. Steve and I will be making a visit sometime soonish!

Sunday afternoon on the back verandah

Today, Sunday 1 March, was pretty hot out here at Larnook. Steve and I spent most of the day outside doing outsidey type things (watering plants, whipper-snippering, cleaning Rita's undercarriage, wrangling Richmond birdwing butterflies - see post below). But, by 4.00pm we called a halt to work and had a few drinks with our friend Glen. This is Glen after drinking two coronas. Please note both Glen and I drank our beers out of the bottle - the glass with the lemon in it was for a coke zero that followed the beers.

Glen an Steve contemplating whether to have a cinnamon scroll or a chocolate eclair (Glen has Donut King franchise at Lismore Square and he generously plies us with goodies from his shop from time to time).

This is what we looked at while we had our drinks.

Richmond Birdwing

It's been over a week without any rain so this morning to mark the first day of March I spent several hours watering all our plantings. While I was down in the rainfores garden at our gate I was lucky enough to see my first Richmond Birdwing butterfly. This species was once quite common but has declined in numbers over the past few decades. We are going to plant a few of the vine that its caterpillars eat so Maryville can be a sanctuary to these guys. Really very pretty.

Saturday morning in Kyogle

OK, so this is in reverse order to how I was hoping it would appear....most Saturday mornings we drive down from our place to Kyogle, which takes about 18 minutes. We usually do our fruit and veg shopping at the farmers' market, buy the papers, get some other stuff from the IGA. Steve is seriously contemplating buying some shallots.

Looking down the main street towards the Border Ranges. Pretty nice view, hey.

This is the view from a lookout about 5kms out of Kyogle. You get a great view across the plains towards Kyogle, which is snuggly nestled along the Richmond River.

Unfortunately, this photo doesn't do any justice to this hillside that is just covered in these ancient grass trees.