The bower bird has now managed to acquire a number of blue trinketries and tricked up his bower with bottle tops, straws and pegs, some of which I've supplied gratis and others he has found himself. Looking good, bower bird, looking good.
This is Daniel who is a HelpXer here with us from Germany with his partner, Mirella. Daniel apparently doesn't get photographed very often at the stove so this is something of a rare image.
We had a lovely weekend with friends coming up for a dinner party last night. Seated from left is Glen, Dale (my dedicated gym trainer), Daniel, Steve, Mirella, Jason and Louise (who also looks after my training interests). Brilliant night starting with a thai pumpkin soup followed by rack of lamb with garlic and rosemary; kipfler potatoes, asparagus, beetroot fresh from the markets that morning, broccolini and followed by a traditional Bavarian dessert similar to a bread and butter pudding but with lots of cherries which Mirella and Daniel created. And of course washed down with lots of sparkling, red and white wines. Photo taken at first course
Similar pic to above but with me substituting for Glen. Everyone could relax because everyone stayed the night, we got a bit silly, watched a few divas in concert on dvd and some of us stayed up till 2am....lordie....then there was bacon and eggs for breakie and a tour around the property for Dale and Jason. Oh and the Telstra man arrived at 8.45 to fix our house phone. Photo taken at second course.
Jen decided to have a quiet, relaxing day back at Larnook, while Steve, Sim, Gra and Viv and I headed up to the Border Ranges National Park and drove all the way westwards to Kyogle. After a quick lunch at the Kyogle Bakery and to find a cache, see posting a bit further down, we headed out to Toonumbar Dam which is about 35 kms west of Kyogle. This was a new adventure for Steve and I, so it was good to be taking friends somewhere where we hadn't actually been before as well. The dam was lovely, especially this part of the dam called Bells Bay where a delightful camping area is located.
Great place to stop and slow down and think or not think
Steve and I at Bell's Bay, Toonumbar Dam.
Rather than adding to already burgeoning haul of chocolate easter eggs and bilbies, Simeon and Graeme kindly bought us two new chooks and they also bought one for themselves but have left us to foster parent it. Of course we needed to celebrate the arrival of the three girls in style so we poured out some sparkling wine. Here am I pouring out aforesaid sparkling wine into Vivienne's glass while Jen eagerly (some might say, too eagerly) looks on.
It was a delicate operation to liberate the girls...
especially after I had been a tad over-exuberant in wanting to 'christen' the box they had travelled in with the wine bottle...ouch....(lucky that cardboard was tough)
and here's the first of the girls about to be released into their new home, yes we now have two little black hens
and this is Girtie, in a rather un-lady-like position. She also haas no tail feathers to speak of. But a nice bird, nevertheless.
Image: Queensland Museum
Sim and Graeme introduced us to one of their new interests...geocaching, which is basically a high-tech treasure hunt in which you use your smart phone as a compass as well as the clues that are given to track down little boxes full of trinkets and things. The pleasure is in locating the cache and entering your details of when you found the cache and by whom in the little notebook that is always in the box when you found it. You also upload this info through your smartphone or computer. Anyway, unbeknownst to me there is a hugely number of people worldwide who go out looking for these caches on a regular basis. Sim and Graeme have found 42 and have hidden three of their own. So, on our drive yesterday to Border Ranges National Park, we took the opportunity to search for a cache that was hidden at Hanging Rock waterhole, about 10 minutes from our place. Simeon's phone is showing how many metres we are away from the cache and which direction it is located.
Of course, each of us thought they knew exactly where it was. We had to walk along a rather overgrown track down to Hanging Rock Creek - all part of the fun. Once we got to within a few metres of it then the search was really on. This particular cache had quite good clues but nevertheless...
we got fooled by a decoy! This stubby looked like it could have held a cache but was filled with nothing but water. Some further searching revealed the true cache, however
which was cleverly hidden under a flat rock at the base of a big tree. Once found, we entered our details and took one of the items which had a name I can't remember - but it's meant to be removed and placed in another cache - so that it moves around the world. Lots of fun....www.geocaching.com.au if you are interested. We also found another at Kyogle, so the boys thought a two cache day was pretty good.
Let's start with a food shot (of course). The salad on the left is beetroot and basil (the beetroot bought from Kyogle farmers' market on Saturday morning and the basil from our place) and the salad on the right is a green salad with quail eggs. How very lah-di-dah. Our friends, Simeon and Graeme, Vivienne and Jenny arrived on Friday and headed back home this morning (Tuesday) at 6am. We had huge fun with them - they are all such wonderful friends, so it's all very easy. We enjoyed lots of wonderful meals of course....
had plenty of wine time (=quality time) in the hot tub every afternoon, evening
visited Nimbin
and the Channon Markets. We were fortunate to have perfect weather for the entire five days - unheard of! 
The Markets were terrific as they always are, lots of great stalls, lots of interesting people..it's a fantastic place for people watching. This is the chai tent, quite a famous part of the market, where there is always a banner encouraging some kind of action to help make the world a better place.
