First Aid Qualified

So there I was yesterday afternoon with a room full of strangers trying to tie a fricking clove hitch so that I could make a collar and cuff sling. I kind of fashioned up something that sort of resembled this knot that up until a week or so ago I'd never hear of, that seemed to satisfy my instructor, though I suspect mine was probably a bare pass rather than a credit or distinction level. At least I could correctly identify the funnel web spider embedded in resin and distinguish the difference between it and a mouse spider.

As a requirement for my massage course I needed to attain a Senior First Aid Certificate so I enrolled a couple of weeks ago in a one day course that was run through Lismore Community College. And yesterday was the big day. Over the past couple of weeks I'd studiously worked through my Active First Aid handbook, and answered the 120 questions on everything from cardiac arrest to choking to visible internal bleeding and I had memorised what DRABCD, RICE, SAMPLE and DOTS all meant. I knew the chain of survival off by heart and was well versed in what to do in case of blunt or penetrating trauma. I'd practiced putting Steve in the recovery position and felt reasonably confident in identifying febrile convulsions.

But, what I was apprehensive about was the whole torrid business of making slings out of bandages. Because this involved knot work.

Now I need to give you some back story here. When I was a kid I was barred from joining Cardiff cubs until I could tie my own shoe laces. Joining cubs was a big deal (at least for a week or two) so I now had this added pressure to make sure I could master the double bow or I'd be forever peering over the fence at all the fun things the cubs got to do. But no matter how my poor mother tried to teach me, I just couldn't get the hang of it. In much the same way I could never master fractions or 24hour time either. I never did join cubs.

So, here I was some 40 years later coming face to face with my knot-phobia, but luckily I managed to negotiate my way through. So, after spending the day learning how to give CPR and rescue breaths, playing with bandages and understanding the need to give constant reassurance to any casualty who comes my way, I passed the multiple choice test and now await my shiny new certificate in the mail.

Grey Goshawk

Google Images:www.birdforum.net

This is another of my favourite raptors or birds of prey, the elegant Grey Goshawk, which I saw yesterday perched in a roadside tree about 5 minutes down the Rock Valley Road from our place as I drove home. I've seen a couple hunting around our place as well. They are magnificent, stealth-hunters with this beautiful grey plumage - although some can be white as well.

Grevillea madness

One of the great things about having so much land is that we get to grow lots of plants and to grow lots of species and cultivars of the one type of plant. I'm show casing some of our Grevillea range this week. The plant above is a Grevillea Robyn Gordon which the lorikeets love.
This one is coastal gem I think it's called...it has these wonderful comb-like flowers and is just starting to break into flower now.
This one is exquisite and the photo doesn't do it justice. It's actually growing on the roadside verge in front of our fence and I don't know what it is.
And these two shots are of a cultivar called coconut ice and I think you can see why. We have a stack more which are not yet in flower. It's fantastic to build up these collections of natives like Grevilleas, Banskias, Callistemons etc - not only do they look fabulous but the nectar eating birds love 'em too.

pine pollen (not wanted)

As I mentioned a few blogs ago, we have a few pine trees, radiata or slash, I'm not sure, which have been planted as wind breaks or screens by someone thirty or so years ago. Not something I'd choose to have but they are generally manageable and it's my hope/intention to plant rows of silky oaks behind them so eventually the pines can be removed. Anyway...when Piglet was up visiting last week we noticed what we though was a cloud of dust drifting out from one of the rows of pine trees but in fact on further investigation it turns out to be pine tree spoof - pollen...and lots of it. The curious thing is that it seems to be released in puffs at only certain times of the day, or maybe it needs a bit of a breeze to release it all...anyway...it's getting over everything...you can see where we have been walking on the back verandah
and this came from Steve's wiping down of the furniture in the lounge room yesterday (OK I also wiped it over some of the decking for exaggerated effect)...lucky neither of us has pollen allergies.

diversity

One of the things that you learn when you have your own chooks is that the eggs that they produce don't necessarily always follow the Australian standard that turns up in your carton of shop-bought eggs...there is actually quite a bit of variation in colour, size and even texture sometimes. Here's two days worth of eggs from our girls and just take a look at the variation...hmmm I wonder what happens in commercial egg production then to get all those eggs looking pretty much the same.

Rogue bovine

It's like trying to spot a lion out on the African plains...'there amongst the long grass....you can just make it out...' here's the rogue beast that has been jumping with gay abandon over our fences - hopefully not through them - and into our paddocks. We don't want it, but what do you do with a steer you don't want and isn't yours? Can't easily shoo it out of a 3 acre paddock...and you thought it was a hassle when a stray dog turns up in your back yard...'anyone want a pet cow?'

Thoughts/comments please

This is the publisher's preferred cover of the book that my colleague, Nancy Cushing, and I have been working on for the past few years. It will be published in October by UNSW Press. The publishers are now at the stage of finalising the book's front cover and this is the version that they are most happy with. I'd be keen to get feedback from you if you like it or don't like it and why. You can either post a comment directly to this post or email it to me kevin.markwell@scu.edu.au Need to have comments by early next week.

A visitor in the wood burning heater

I happened to glance in through the glass-fronted door of our fireplace this morning and was rather surprised to see staring back at me an agitated fairy martin which must have somehow flown down the chimney and landed in the fireplace. I don't usually make a habit of looking into the fireplace very often so this is one lucky, unlucky bird. It was quickly caught, duly photographed and liberated outside.

just a nice shot

Taken yesterday afternoon down by the creek, looking back up towards the Billen Cliffs. The eucalypts are flooded gums. Note the lawn like quality of the grass down here now and the various plantings.

Wattles in winter

Some of our wattles are now bursting into splashes of bright yellow which does so much to bring colour into a rather dreary July.
This tree was planted as tubestock about 18 months ago and now its a tree over three metres high and covered in little yellow puffy balls of flowers.
and OK, so it's not a wattle but it is starting to yellow up nicely..our coastal banksia with its first and only flower starting to colour up nicely.

The march of the slash pines

Slash pines have been planted for various reasons on properties in our valley, including our own, and they reproduce rather too well. Our paddock that sits under the shadow of Billen Cliffs has way too many of the feral xmas tress for my liking, so
I spent a couple of hours over the weekend traipsing through the face-high grasses and hacked most of them down with a bush saw. When we get our chain saw back from being repaired, the big ones can be sawn down too.

Larnook Sweat Shop

For the past month or so, Steve has been hot glued to his janome working on costumes for The Boy from Oz which Metropolitan Players is presenting in Newcastle in August. Steve heads down to Newcastle on Tuesday for about ten days, much of which will be taken up with CAA (costume-associated activities). Sequins and glitter from arse to elbow.

A bit of baking

It was a beautiful sunny and still weekend so I spent a fair bit of it outside, mowing. But I also managed to do some cooking as well - the pic above is of the banana and passionfruit yogurt cake I often make while below...
is a rather billious-y looking lemon tart...tasted much better than it looks. Love making things with our own produce. We have a tree full of beautiful, juicy lemons at the moment.

The girls and their boy

I let the girls out on Saturday and Sunday because they just look so good scratching around on the lawn and in the gardens. OK they eat all my leafy vegetables but at least their eggs are likely to be even tastier. Doesn't Terriyaki look very proud these days, as he chaperones one of the new girls around.
Not only do they get into the vege garden and eat the leaves off my brocoli and cabbage plants as well as trashing my tatsoi, the girls come close to their chooky Nirvana when they scratch around in the mulch around the trees that we've planted, searching for worms and other grubs. This keeps them happy for a good ten minutes before they lose interest and move on to the next pile of mulch.

Replacing Rita

Our new toy, a 'zero turn' ride-on mower that has more grunt than a sty full of pigs. Well it should except that when Steve trued to start it yesterday it just stood there. Nothing. Not even a wheezing 'I'm almost kicking over, just keep tickling me a bit more' kinda noise. Not impressed because Rita's replacement didn't come cheap.
So this is where it stayed all weekend. Hopefully Andrew from Alstonville Mowers will come over tomorrow (Steve is on holidays) and make it work with some magic. Or a new battery. To the right of the zero-turn you can also see the replacement for Rove the hand mower. I blame it on Primex. We also bought a new brush cutter.