An Icelandic Concern

Around midday today my mobile went off and it was our house number phoning through. 'Hmmmm" I thought, "what has happened at home that is creating grief for Artie and Sigga?". And immediately my brain started sending 'high alert, high alert' signals to my various bodily systems. Luckily, Artie was phoning to report a 'very large snake' that had taken up prime position in the chookery. Resisting the evil temptation to respond with 'OK, well Artie, the life of all the chooks is in your hands now....matey, you are going to have to catch it....I'll talk you through it, it will be OK', I reassured him that it was harmless and would have been sleeping off the night's catch of rats (after having established that Terryaki, the bantam rooster, was still alive and licking.

We've seen this fella before and i'm happy that it is content to feast on the rats.

Some flood-related images (broadly speaking)

Dexter, looking bovinely-curious at Steve - perhaps its the rainbow umbrella that has caught Dex's eye, who knows....but they do now have a paddock of very lush grass....
I planted this red paw paw a matter of weeks ago (from Daley's Nursery at Kyogole, of course) and it has just taken off like a weed. I'm so impressed. I love green papaya (paw paw) salad, so I'm looking forward to harvesting the unripened fruit from this guy in a year or two.
The floodwaters came up quite high above some of our plantings...the wild tobacco bush (stand back, they bite) and the other young trees you can see in the shot are of course usually high and dry.
What a beautiful paddock our bottom paddock has become now that we mow it on a fortnightly basis. We really are pretty proud of our work down there. And it's great to mow...you just sit on Roger (that's what we have called our zero turn ride on mower so one of us can say 'I'm just going to roger the paddock') and away you go. It takes, hmm, about 90 minutes to mow the entire lower paddock, although the next time will be longer. You can see how high the creek is - wouldn't have taken much more rain and it would have inundated the paddock.
These cuties are called storm crocuses...they just erupt out of the ground after heavy rains....most are this cream colour but we do have the occasional crimson one. I tolerate these in my Big Bush Garden even if they aren't ridgy didgy native.

Dead rough scaled snake on road to Nimbin

This is Arnar (Artie) one of our Icelandic HelpXers with a dead rough scaled snake on the Stony Chute Road about 10 kms from Nimbin. Quite dead, after having been run over by a car as it lay hard against the road sometime last night, soaking up the warmth. Artie was quite keen to take the dead snake from me and pose with it, but was slightly taken aback when I told him afterwards that it was highly venomous. (Well actually I had told him that before he took the snake, but he mustn't have heard me). There are no snakes in Iceland. Just Ice.

Here am I at Protestor's Falls (see post below)

Just me, getting drenched, today, at Protestors Falls, Nightcap National Park...shhh, don't tell anyone (see post below)...

A squelch through Nightcap National Park

Meet Sigga and Arnar (Artie) who are a really lovely couple from Iceland, would you believe it, who are staying with us as HelpXers for a week. Unfortunately their week in Larnook has coincided with very wet, unimpressive weather, which has made their various work tasks at home (you know, re-fencing the entire perimeter, felling unwanted slash pine trees, rewiring the house) a tad more difficult than it would under more pleasant weather. Anyway, we decided we'd go for a drive today and take them to Nimbin (I was offered the opportunity to buy various mind-altering substances a total of 8 times in 35 minutes, a record) and then on to Nightcap National Park. Imagine our disappointment when we saw that it was closed due to the wet weather. However, a rather large family group came wandering out of the park just as we arrived and they assured us that it was still OK to reach Protestors' Falls, which was our goal. Of course, we shouldn't have, but we had our Icelanders all so eager to go for the walk...what were we to do?
So the first challenge was crossing the flooded causeway, which really wasn't much of a challenge at all. The water was a tad cold, however.
'Are you sure you didn't purchase some of those mind-altering substances from the friendly folk at Nimbin?' I hear some of you asking. Yes, it does look a tad trippy, doesn't it. Just some cute little fungi growing on the trunk of a tree taken through a foggy lens with flash.
Artie, Sigga and Steve on the almost inundated boardwalk bridge.
And here we are at Protestors' Falls. It was incredible. The water was tumbling off the cliff face with this very audible hiss, the water droplets were being blown in sheets into our faces and the whole atmosphere was one of great turbulence, energy and drama. We didn't stay long here, today. On hot, sunny days, this spot is a place to refresh and contemplate. Today it was somewhat frightening (well OK, just a little, I'm exaggerating for effect..come on guys...)

Creek at 12noon

OK, so you can just make out the creek height indicator towards the back third of the photo which shows that the creek is now just on 2m. The creek has risen 1.8m in 5 hours and will probably continue to rise. We'll check it again at 3.00pm and post another pic. Hasn't stopped raining since yesterday evening.

Creek still high

So I managed to get home yesterday afternoon around 5ish; the creek was just under the bridge. As I said yesterday, the creek peaked at 1.5m, but this morning, while it was still over the bridge, it was only at 0.2m. We've had constant rain overnight, but only 38mm of it. However, I won't be leaving home today as it's likely the creek will continue rising. I do have a class up at Tweed Heads this morning but I can do a teleconference as there are only three students in that group (they are Masters students).

Currently flooded....out!

Will I get home tonight or won't I? That my friends, is the question. At about 2.00pm the creek was 1.5 metres above the bridge and I await further intelligence from Steve who, luckily, is at home, to let me know if the creek will have receded for me to cross. Our friend, and also my colleague, Erica, who also reads this blog - hi Erica, lives further up the catchment and she was unable to come to work this morning, although she did tell me this afternoon that her creek has now dropped. I can stay with friends in Lismore without any problem, but will need to go to Woolies and buy a new shirt and stuff.
Things could be interesting on Thursday, however, when we are supposed to be picking up our Icelander HelpXers from Ballina airport. It looks like the rain is hanging around for a few days, so could be flooded again.

Not quite Nigella, but tasty

We've been enjoying getting to know Nigella Lawson again on ABC (I think she is on Wednesday nights). I'd forgotten how gorgeous she is and how she is so sensually involved with her creations. There are some very funny mash-ups of Nigella on Youtube, rather naughty, but very funny.

The pic above is what we had for dinner tonight: in the pan is garlic, onion, haloumi cheese, eggplant, potato and home grown (well mostly) tomatoes. At some stage earlier on you mix up spices (I use garam masala, ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, ground cardamon and caraway seeds). Throw in some pasta, work it through and then eat it and enjoy.

A very wallaby morning

Took this photo sometime last week as I walked out of the house to go to the garage to drive to work. It is so wonderful to start my day having bid my best 'good morning' to this little mob of wallabies. It's now quite rare not to see a mob of around half a dozen wallabies around the house on any day. Which is delightful.

HelpX

We were very happy to receive a couple of emails from Cal, who has been in New Caledonia for the past month or so. He's heading back to Australia in early February and is keen to come back to his adopted home at Larnook for a little while before continuing on his adventure around Australia. We have also been very happy to have reconnected with Taylor who spent a month with us at the end of 2010. Taylor, who was only 18 when he stayed with us, is now at uni, doing his pre-nursing year of study. It's been great to reconnect with him. We also received a lovely Christmas email from Susi and Andy, from Austria. Yann and Maxime are also planning another trip to Australia and have said that they will call in for a few days. And of course, Alex keeps a watch on the goings on and comments on occasional postings to this blog. And just this week we got a lovely xmas card from Andrej and Olle who stayed with us back in 2009. Andrej said he still pops in to the blog from time to time to see what we have been up to...hey there Andrej!

We have been very privileged to have hosted so many lovely people through HelpX. They have enriched our lives here at Larnook and have made so many contributions to the house and property. It truly is a great way of meeting some wonderful people.

We have an Icelandic couple arriving on Australia Day for a week, so we are very much looking forward to hosting them.

Mary Poppins

Glen, Steve and I enjoyed one of our infrequent nights away in Brisvegas over the weekend, this time seeing Mary Poppins. We stayed at the Urban Hotel in Whickham Terrace, though Glen managed an upgrade in to a king suite on the 6th floor with sweeping views over the city while we had to make do with our queen room and view on to the building next door on the 2nd floor.

We each received a complimentary bottle of wine as well, so we made good use of those and then showered and strolled down to South Bank where we enjoyed our meal at Viet De Lites Vietnamese Restaurant (Tamarind soft shelled crab, chicken satay and duck with basil). Glen and I polished off another bottle of chardy before we lurched our way up the road to QPAC to see Mary Poppins. Excellent show, wonderful sets, costumes and performances. As if we hadn't had enough entertainment for the night, we strolled back up to the Sportsman's Hotel in Spring Hill, where we downed some more alcohol and enjoyed the drag shows. A healthy breakfast this morning and we were on our way home, arriving at Larnook at about 2pm. We had a nice deluge of rain, 25mm over the weekend. Just what the plants needed.

water dragon sighted

7 January - sunning itself on McGuinness Road where Julia's Little Creek flows under the road. Adult female. This is the first water dragon I've seen at our place for a few years. I used to see a few around Leycester Creek when we first moved in but they seem to have disappeared. I've often wondered whether they were washed away by the floods. Anyway, was great to see this one.

Also saw the small goanna that we sometimes see...crossing mcGuinness Road into our place about 75 metres from our gate

Grasses...an idea

I planted some native grasses around the edge of the deck on which the hot tub sits and they now look lovely. I love the way the grasses wave in just the slightest of breezes and they look lush and give a different texture to this garden from our others. And so today, I was looking out at them, thinking that I'd done good, when it occurred to me that maybe I could start growing native grasses commercially. Just small scale of course to begin with, but perhaps there is a germ of an idea here. Virtually no start-up costs, and the grasses themselves are robust and grow very quickly. Now to convince Steve that spending our Sundays selling grasses at the markets will be a really fun thing to do...

Harvesting our finger limes

As you know, our finger lime tree has had a dozen or so fruit growing plumper and plumper over the last few weeks, and they are now starting to fall off. A sure sign that they can be eaten. So, today, I made a very refreshing drink from soda water and a couple of finger lime fruit. You cut the end off and then squeeze out the pulp, which fell into the glass of soda water like little globules of caviar, each one bursting with limey sweet-bitterness when they pop in your mouth.

The chicken, halumi and mango salad....again

I don't know, maybe its the colour of this salad, but I feel compelled every time I make it to take a pic of it. I promise I won't post it again. Honest. But it is very nice, so why not make it? It's easy peasy. I bbq'd free range chicken breasts (sliced down the middle so they are thinner) and the halumi cheese. Boiled up a few Larnook eggs and then created the salad with lettuce, onion, tomato, cucumber, avocado and mango. Then add your chicken and halumi and you have it. Yummo.

Da Boys

Here's a pic taken this afternoon of Baxter and Dexter doing their best 'snouts in the trough' impersonation. Late afternoon is 'molasses and pollard time'. Attracted to the sweetness of the molasses like a drag queen to a sequins sale, the boys literally gallop towards me, thick, sticky strands of spit drooling from their bovine mouths, as soon as they see me carrying the black tub. After a bit of argy-bargy, they settle down, each trying to scoop up as much of the sticky, treacle like goo with their raspy, fat tongues as they can.

Splashes of colour in the rainforest garden

These shots were taken this afternoon in what we call the 'rainforest garden' which I established in the first couple of months of moving in, and have added to it, from time to time. Looking from the outside, it looks for the most part, to be various shades of green. But if you move beyond the edge and into the garden itself, you find all sorts of beautiful flowers, such as this ginger.
and these gingers...
and yet more fabulous gingers
not quite a ginger, but close, a galangal flower, its creamy white flowers smelling exquisitely of some sweet evening in Thailand or Bali....
and not even close to a ginger, the flowering bract of a stream lilly.

First day of a new year

Well actually I'm writing this on the 2 January but the date thingie on this seems to be set to US time, so if I write it today it will come up as January 1. Go figure.

The Tropical Fruits Party was the best of the 4 we have been to, with a wonderful boppy, handbag dance set from 11 through to 3. The next set was a bit heavier but still good to dance to and we stayed until 5am, getting home in bed at 6am. The Happy High Herbs seemed to do their magic, so that was good as well.

Yesterday ie January 1, at about 8am, I took a walk down to the bridge and half way down McGuinness Road a very healthy looking adult fox shining orange in the morning sun casually made it's way across the road and into our paddock. This is the first live fox I've seen here and only the second in total (the other being a fox cub that had been run over near our letter box). When Cal and I went night spotting we twice saw mother foxes and their cubs foraging along the edge of the roads we were driving along. I also saw a grey goshawk fly up and sit in a tree near the creek, which was a much better observation.