Corry Poulet

Meet Jules, who tonight cooked us a delicious chicken dish from his homeland, Reunion Island, called Corry Poulet. After dismembering the free range chook he fried it in a little olive oil, then added onion, garlic, tomato, tumeric, thyme and then simmered...
Here it is in the pot as the liquid reduces....
Jules concentrates as he dishes up
And there we have it, Poulet a la Jules....it tasted as delicious as it looks

Wet August

We had quite a deluge over the past week or so and my records indicate 150mm so far this month, compared with 29.5mm last year and 5.5mm the year before. All this rain will be great for plant growth during spring, however, so the valley should be restored to its green hues within weeks and the grass in the paddock will soon be making the boys happy again (not that kind of grass, pulease).

We had a great weekend in Sydney, primarily to attend the 50th birthday do of our friend, Keith, then dinner with Puppy before the three of us saw Hairspray (lots of fun) and then ended the night with a cocktail or two back at our hotel. Pup got home to Elizabeth Bay OK and we headed to bed. Brunch the next day was with my bro, Brett, at Newtown, followed by a spot of bookshelf assembly back at his new apartment in Camperdown. Back out to the airport and up to Coolangatta, and, after helping a couple of friendly Byron Bay musos start their battery-dead ute, and receiving one of their CDs in return, we headed home under clear skies and the reassuring form of Wollumbin/Mt Warning.

We had left the house and animals in the care of Jules, our current Helpxer who did a very good job of house and animal minding while we were away. Jules is a French lad who comes from Reunion Island, a French territory off the coast of Madagascar, and seems to be loving his time here. He made friends with a racing pigeon today and, after taking a pic of its leg band rego number, was able to find out, via the Internet, that the pigeon had set off on a race from Newcastle two years ago. Is there anything you can't find an answer to, anymore?

Only a matter of time

Sometime last year I noticed a couple of Indian mynahs along the Rock Valley Road, about 15km back towards Lismore from our place. I wondered when they would find their way up to our place. So far we are yet to see any, but on Sunday there were four of the wretches near Cawongla, which, is only a few kms from our place towards Kyogle. This doesn't look good, and so it will only be a matter of time before we see them at our place. I will try and trap any that I see to try and head off an invasion of the brutes.

Chookish frustrations

So there I was this afternoon, changing the water in the chookery when my carelessness meant that a couple of the girls managed to high-tail it out into the freedom of the Big World Outside The Chookery. Now, I could have let these two recalcitrants stay out and keep the rest inside, but my heart is big, and so I opened up the door widely and gave the rest of the flock their freedom. They looked so good as they pecked at the new grass shoots, who was I to deny them this joy.

Well, it would be great, super, really fantastic if they were happy to graze the lawns. But alas, they of course find the appeal of grass short-lived and then turn their little chooky beaks to a region where they have a better chance of finding protein. Our garden beds. So that's what they are doing, scratching and scraping and flicking and damaging our garden beds in their lust for worms, crickets and such like. Steve has already indicated his serious displeasure. A short-lived holiday, I'm afraid, Girls.

Do you have a problem with artificial forage?

Are you sick and tired of the back of your car looking like the floor of a barn? Growing increasingly annoyed at finding unwanted dry lucerne in crevices that barely see the light of day? Then have we got a product range for you! Designed specifically for the discerning tree-changer who has a dinky few acres with a large ruminant or two grazing on it, just pop your bale of hay in the sleek, contemporary-look satchel and into the back of the barely muddied RV it goes. Then, back home on the hobby farm, you can easily remove the hay by simply tugging on to the natty velcro ties and ease it out on to the floor. Available in a range of designer colours including aquamarine (as shown), thunderstorm and lizardbreath. Available at all good rural retail outlets.

East Coast Low good for the garden

Yesterday was bloody cold. So cold that Steve and I looked like the lads from Brokeback Mountain as we strolled down the main street of Kyogle with our heavy coats. It warmed up a bit by midday but it was certainly different weatherely-speaking from the past week or so. The east coast low must have parked itself off the coast adjacent to us last night because we received 35mm overnight and it's been raining pretty much off and on all day today. Now, this is great news, especially for The Boys, who will be soon munching on freshly grown grass of a suitable length for them to wrap their leathery tongues around.

Dexter managed to push his way out through the fence into the house paddock yesterday afternoon and was cutting a bovine swathe through one of the gardens when I realised he was out. A 'biscuit' of lucerne soon had him slobbering behind me and back into the paddock, and then Steve and I fastened 'wallaby mesh' to the fenceline in question, which has brought a halt to his wanderlust.

Feral Census

European Carp

Cane Toad (zillions)

House Mouse (lots in winter)

Brown Rat (lots in winter)

Rabbit (only ever seen 1)

Fox (seen 1 dead cub and 1 attempted break-in to the chookery)

Entry Rainforest Garden

Apart from the loquat tree you can see on the extreme left and the now-dead crepe chestnut tree in the middle (borers got to it), there was nothing in this garden when we moved here in September 2008. Now it's looking pretty good with a range of rainforesty plants including a variety of tree ferns and gingers, a few lilly pillies and a bunch of other things, including some cardamon and galangal. For the first six months of beginning this garden I would hand water (ie with a bucket) all the young plants.

Cymbidium orchid - always a reliable flower-er

This orchid always puts on a very fine show in August. It's one of these plants that seems to thrive on neglect. For most of the year it lives peacefully under one of our mango trees and we do nothing for it other than water it during drier spells. Then, once it starts to flower we bring it down and sit it on a table at the entry so we can admire it as we leave and come home.
Otherwise, it gets no attention from us. We've had it for years - I think Steve brought this with him into the relationship so it has been in that same pot for over 20 years. I think we'll split it up once it's finished flowering (in early September), fertilise it and give it a bit of attention. Let's hope it it copes!

Census Time

Given that we've just accounted for ourselves in various ways via the census, I thought it apt to provide a census of sorts relating to the vertebrates who we share this place with. Now the bird list is way, way incomplete (sorry, I'm just not a birdo), and no doubt I am yet to add to the frog and reptile list (I have no doubt that there are brown snakes on the property, I just am yet to see one), but it will give you a reasonable idea of the fauna here:

Mammals (4)

Red necked wallaby

Common Antechinus

Brown Bandicoot

Grey headed fruit bat

Fish (3)

Perch

Catfish

Eel

Frogs (7)

Green Tree Frog

Dwarf Tree Frog

Peron’s Tree Frog

Bleating Tree Frog

Dainty Tree Frog

Rocket Frog

Striped Marsh Frog

Reptiles (14)

Carpet Python

Green Tree Snake

Brown Tree Snake (dead on road near bridge)

Yellow Faced Whip Snake (dead on road near bridge and above culvert)

Small Eyed Snake

Bandy Bandy (on road near Cawongla)

Rhamphotyphlops sp

Bearded Dragon

Eastern Water Dragon

Grass Skink

Bouton's Three Lined Skink

Lace Monitor

Long Necked Turtle

Short Necked Turtle

Birds (57)

Masked Lapwing

Brush Turkey

Brown Quail

Australian Wood Duck

Pacific Black Duck

Little Pied Cormorant

Straw Necked Ibis

White faced Heron

Black Shouldered Kite

Pacific Baza

Wedge tailed Eagle

Grey Goshawk

Nankeen Kestrel

Peregrine Falcon

Buff banded Rail

Spotted turtle Dove

Crested Pigeon

White-headed Pigeon

Brown Cuckoo-Dove

Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo

Galah

Rainbow Lorikeet

King Parrot

Eastern Rosella

Crimson Rosella

Common Koel

Channel Billed Cuckoo

Pheasant Coucal

Barn Owl

Tawny Frogmouth

Kookaburra

Azure Kingfisher

Sacred Kingfisher

Rinbow Bee-eater

Dollarbird

Superb Blue fairywren

Red-backed Fairywren

Little wattlebird

Red wattlebird

Blue-faced Honeyeater

Noisy Miner

Eastern Whip-Bird

Grey Fantail

Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike

Olive-backed Oriole

Figbird

Pied Butcherbird

Magpie Lark

Australian Magpie

Pied Currawong

Spangled Drongo

Australian Raven

Satin Bowerbird

Willy Wagtail

Zebra Finch

Mannikin

Welcome Swallow

20 years together

Today, 9 August, 2011, marks Steve's and my 20th anniversary...woo hoo! Where has the time gone? We are going to celebrate today with take away Thai from the Thai place in Lismore and a bottle of chardy and we'll celebrate again in a couple of weeks when we go to Sydney for our friend, Keith's 50th, by staying somewhere nice and seeing Hairspray. Now for another 20 years together (although I don't think we'll make the 50 years that my mum and day recently celebrated)!

Farewell Piglet

After 5 weeks at our place, Piglet returned to the Central Coast on Saturday, leaving here in the mists of early morning. The time he was with us seemed to zoom past (which is always a good thing) and he had no trouble fitting in to the Larnook lifestyle, having stayed here many times previously. Piglet earned his keep of course - he managed the Chookery for the time he was here and also became The Boys' personal caretaker, giving them their lucerne and pollard each day.

Thanks very much, Piglet, it was great having you stay with us for so long.

One of the fantastic things about our place is it is big enough to host friends and family (as well as our various HelpXers) for extended stays..and that's good!

Just a really nice weekend

As I write this, the sun is starting to sink down below the Mt Homeleigh Range and Dexter and Baxter are happily slurping up their afternoon treat of molasses and pollard. We've had very spring-like temperatures up here this weekend with today being quite warm. It won't be long and new buds will be appearing on the white cedar and other deciduous trees and the kangaroo paws will be in full bloom.

Yesterday morning began early with a fond farewell for Piglet who headed back down to the Central Coast after 5 weeks up here doing his prac at St Vincents Hospital in Lismore. We'd had a celebratory spa and dinner the night before with Piglet (celebrating his triumphant prac) and Warwick (our friend from Melbourne who playfully vies with Piglet for the honour of being our most frequent visitor) who came up for a couple of days of R&R here at Maryville@Larnook. After bidding farewell to Piglet we headed down to Kyogle, excited at the prospect of shopping at the brand new IGA that had opened earlier in the week. Very new, very big (well for Kyogle) but I fear not so country-esque as the previous IGA was. That's progress for ya, aye.

After giving the main street a good going over we drove across to Bentley, a small dot on the map midway between Kyogle and Lismore and called in at the famous Bentley Art Prize Exhibition at Bentley Hall. The small country hall was packed full of art, sweety, art, and what little space remained between all the art was pretty much taken up by people viewing it. Warwick bought some lovely scones, jam and cream from the CWA Ladies but alas we didn't purchase any art. Had the Hall not been so crowded and we could have thought about it a bit more, we may well have put a red dot on one of them.

A soak in the hot-tub and a few glasses of good champagne followed lunch, before Warwick headed down to Lismore to catch up briefly with a friend he'd recently met, and then we ended the night with a bbq, more wine and a dvd.

Warwick left around 9.30 for Gold Coast airport and Steve and I busied ourselves all day with tasks and chores and little projects all day, which has been great. We yarned for a while with Cheryl and Pete who have the property across the road from us and checked out their new dexter cattle that they had delivered earlier in the day. I've taken the eggs from the girls, given the boys their afternoon treat, and feel like I've achieved a few things today. It feels good.

Buff-banded rail

Image: www.aviceda.com
My early-morning drive to work has been enlivened over the past couple of months by scatty buff banded rails which run, full bore with their heads and necks down, from the dangerous middle of the road back to the safety of the scraggly vegetation along its edge. This morning I counted seven of them which I think was a record. They seem to manage to zip back into the safety of the vegetation pretty well judging from the lack of dead rail bodies on the road. They nearly always run back to safety, in fact I don't think I've ever seen them use their wings.
The first time I can remember seeing this species was in the Myall Lakes National Park, north of Newcastle, back in 1984. I was walking through a freshwater swamp, intent on trying to spot a red bellied black snake when this little woodhen-like bird with the colourful face and breast zoomed across the leaf litter and into the shelter of a reed-bed. Luckily they are so distinctive looking that I could easily make a positive ID when I consulted my Slater and Slater.