Weeds

Well the tree in the centre of this pic isn definitely not a weed, but rather a red cedar, but it has had to struggle valiantly to grow above the profusion of weeds that now substitute for an understorey along the side of the road coming down to Leycester Creek bridge, just before our place.
Weed growth is rampant up here as you could imagine.
Great swathes of native trees and shrubs are smothered in various climbing weeds which propagate their wicked kind so easily. There is so much weed growth up here ranging from camphor laurels and slash pines through to everything else - lantana and privet and a myriad of others I don't know. I can't imagine they will ever be managed - just naturalised I would think.

Staghorn babies

Our friend Graeme, who was staying with us over Easter noticed something that had escaped my eyes - about half a dozen baby staghorns (or elkhorns, too early to tell yet) which were growing on one of our jacaranda trees at the entrance to our place. This is fantastic and I hope they grow quickly - can't wait for them to grow and epiphytically enhance the jacarandas.
It's quite remarkable to think that some spore was floating around and hit the tree just when conditions were perfect for them to attach and start growing. All of these are located on the south-facing side of the jacaranda.

Bibliophily

I was in the Co-Op Bookshop at work today, buying a book, titled The Species Seekers, Heroes, Fools and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth. Exquisite. I also picked up another book called Books Do Make a Room, which was basically filled with beautiful photos of bookshelves and book cases in various homes. I loved it. And it caused me to reflect on just how much I do love books. I love reading them as well, but I think you can love the book as an object and something of promise just as much as actually something to read. So, I thought I'd take a pic of my book cases in my study. Poxy pic, I know. I'd really like a floor to ceiling bookcase all along one wall..,.heaven.
I still have one of my earliest books, The King Bear, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to find it this evening when I took this pic. My mum, Elaine, bought The King Bear for me from Ell's Bookshop in Newcastle, when I was about 8. Ell's was having a sale and they had a primitive catalogue in the Newcastle Herald, so mum let me select a book from the catalogue which she bought the next day when she 'went into town', as we called going into Newcastle city (we lived in the western suburbs).

Anyway, the books in the pic are also books I've had since I was 7 or 8. My aunty Maid gave me the Bafut Beagles for Christmas, which led me to a deep interest in the writings and life of the naturalist, Gerald Durrell. The Children's Animal World was a close companion of mine throughout my early years while Roger Connant's Snakes and Other Reptiles was probably my first reptile book. I love the smell of a new book. I love finding a rare, old book in a second hand bookshop. I just love books.

Swamp wallabies seen at our place

This is really just a diary note for myself, but those of you into macropods will be impressed as I was when we saw not one but two swamp wallabies bound across our top paddock while we were looking from the deck. This was on Friday 22 April. We had seen the very occasional swamp wallaby a few kms from our place but to see them, however, fleetingly, on our land, was fantastic.

Our creek recreation

This is what we have done to finish off the edge of the deck. This area was just a combo of bare earth and grasses and weeds. So, our French HelpXer, Fabien, cleared the area back to soil and then we located Lomandra and other plants where we wanted them planted.
Our previous Helpers, Susie and Andreas, had dug out a creek like channel and then we lined it with left-over pond liner that we used for the pond in the deck. Then, we bought several metres of rocks and river pebbles
which Fabien arranged into a fairly realistic creek bed and then spread smaller pebbles over the soil, over which he has placed wet newspaper to try and stop weeds from growing through the pebbles.
Not a bad look, hey. The 'creek' takes water which overflows from our deck pond during heavy rain.

Walking in the rainforest near Kuranda

OK, so I'm not normally out of synch so much on my blog, but thought I'd add these pics, anyway. I flew up to Cairns for a couple of days on my way to PNG so I could catch up with Peter Krauss who was a great help in writing the book, Snake Bitten. He's also given me my snakes, Kimba the woma, and my two baby rough scaled pythons. So I caught up with Peter on the Friday and then on the Sunday, I went for a walk in a national park near Kuranda with Ryan, a nature lovin-boy from Canada.
He invited his friend, Damien, along as well, and we had a really nice walk through lush tropical rainforest, down to a mountain stream and then up a hill to a lookout with sweeping views across the narrow strip of land that Cairns sprawls out along and out to sea.
Ryan has an unnatural interest in quolls and hopefully he shall be staying with us for a while some time this year.

Easter 2011

We've had a lovely Easter, shared with our great friends, Graeme and Simeon and their friend, Adam, as well as their two pugs, Keo and Geordie. They arrived on Thursday night and left this Morning (Monday -which also happens to be my 3rd anniversary here in the Northern Rivers). We had a lazy day at home on Friday, then on Saturday we drove up to Uki and then to Burringbah - a new place for us - to buy some plants at this amazing rainforest nursery that had squillions of amazing rainforest plants from everywhere. This guy who worked there was very knowledgeable and loved the plants...love seeing that and I'm envious of his job.
We then headed back, stopping first to get a pic with this rather fantastic replica of a goanna...perhaps an idea for our front gate?
Then on to Mavis' Kitchen for lunch. The weather was beautiful, sunny, warm and calm. Perfect weather for drinking a fine bottle of sparkling chardonnay before lunch made from organic, free range animals and herbs and veges grown in their own garden. How fabulous to watch one of the chefs come out and pick fresh herbs to cook with.
And here we are at lunch: Adam, Graeme, Simeon and Steve. And yes, there was another helicopter parked on the lawn on Saturday. How fricking amazing to fly your helicopter down to Mavis' Kitchen for lunch.

Imagination and creativity

Steve and I have admired these little rock sculptures that sit in a small creek flowing into the Tweed River that you drive over on the way to Mavis' Kitchen.
Who builds them is a mystery and of course each time the creek floods they are destroyed and have to be rebuilt. But that's part of their charm, I think...there's persistence there as much as imagination and creativity

Seasonal change

Summer has well and truly left us now and this weekend had a touch of cool about it. Wet and grey and cool. So much for bringing the lawns under control - we had showers alternating with rain over the entire weekend. Our white cedar tree is losing its leaves now and the growth in our shrubs and trees is slowing down, although hasn't stopped. There are still plenty of cane toads around, including lots of little ones, but I would think that the chooks are safe now - no more big meals for the local carpet pythons now until September I would think.

There is a tribe of black cockatoos about, ripping into the pine cones like there's no tomorrow and the mob of red necked wallabies spent most of the weekend on the lawns grazing or resting in the Big Bush Garden. I counted seven this morning lazing about, surveying their lands and looking contented.

Some PNG pics

This is a bad pic of a nice little snake - a Papuan tree boa, Candoia carinata, which was sunning itself by a track at Balek village sanctuary, Madang. I should have taken one with at least its head visibile...bad kev...from a biogeographical perspective it's interesting that there should be a boa here in PNG...in Australia of course we only have pythons.
View over a table of fruits and peanuts, Madang markets
A fellow who runs a butterfly 'farm' in his village called Bilbil....he has planted it out with lots of trees, shrubs and vines that attract various butterflies which then lay their eggs and turn into big, fat, spiny caterpillars....in terms of product development, he still has a way to go, I think, but he has some very interesting plants and butterflies....just think that many tourists might be expecting more though
At Balek village, the villagers have created a small wildlife attraction including the viewing of eels in this creek..he managed to attract three big fellas to his splashings....a few hundred metres up this creek the creek is actually made up on 'normal' creek water on one side of the channel and sulphuric water with a very distinct icy blue colour on the other side of the channel..the two 'forms' of water remain separate and most of the fish only live in the normal side water...very unusual
My colleague, Michelle, who, as you might imagine, attracted quite a lot of attention being blonde and tall, buying some rambutan fruit at Madang markets

Madang Calling

Presently in Madang, Papua New Guinea, with a colleague, Michelle, where we are investigating opportunities for collaborations between Divine Word University and Southern Cross Uni. Some of you know I was here four years ago, on sabbatical. All has gone well so far, although the very first sign you read as you enter the airport at Port Moresby is to please place your weapons and ammunition in bin provided. This is a little off-putting, as is the level of security at the Coastwatchers Resort where we are staying. To access the reception 'room' one has to be let in by a receptionist pressing a button on the front desk. We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. We've had rain everyday and night but while it bucketed down this morning while I was lecturing their 4th year students, the clouds have evaporated to reveal a beautiful sunny, blue sky day. We finished our official business at the uni around midday today and headed into Madang town where we had lunch at Madang Resort and had a look at the market and some handcraft markets. The President of Divine Word Uni is taking us out to dinner this evening and tomorrow we are visiting a village and looking at a wildlife park. Madang is pretty much as I remember it, though the potholes that pock mark the roads are more like minor craters now. People smile back at you with blood red, betel-nut stained teeth and gums. One of the first year students, Teo, I met while I was here four years ago is now working at the resort where we are staying while one of the fourth year students, Nathaline, is now working as a tutor in the Tourism and Hospitality Department at the Uni, so it's been great to see them again.