Carping on

There is a pair of large carp, I think they are koi, that have lived in the deep part of Hanging Rock Creek, just to the south of our bridge, for a long time. They are well known to locals, who mention the big carp from time to time. We'd seen them occasionally, usually when we've had a long dry spell and the water in the creek flows clear. One of these great fish is a golden colour, the other mostly white. But we hadn't seen them for a long time, maybe all year. On the odd occasions that I thought about them, I'd guessed that they had left that part of the creek, swimming downstream to somewhere they had decided was more liveable. But on Sunday afternoon I saw them. Together, this piscean long-term couple, slowly swimming about in the late afternoon sunshine. It's hard not to feel a little in awe of them, actually. And I'm probably being very anthropomorphic and projecting human qualities on to them. I'm sure I am, actually. But how wonderful to see them. Together. I wondered about how they manage to stay in this stretch of the creek during big floods, when millions of litres of chocolate brown water flows ferociously, spilling out over the banks and flattening grasses, reeds, shrubs and trees. When do they sense that the big waters are coming? How long do they have until they seek shelter perhaps in an eroded under-bank or underneath a great log? The ecologist in me of course categorises them as feral. They shouldn't be here. And just this Saturday I'd picked up a bottle of Charlie Carp fertilizer, made from the crushed up bodies of European carp, and thought how wonderful it was that a useful product had been made from such an ecological disaster. And then I imagine the creek without this pair of old carp. And I think it will have lost part of its story.

Spring flowers in the gardens

some natives, some not..just some random point and shoots this afternoon

 this is a beautiful plant, wish I knew what it was...I think it's self sewn

 Magnificent Dendrobium orchid that Shane (aka Julia) gave me for my birthday

 Stunning Grevillea

 Cliveas

 Mango trees are covered in flowers at the present

Hippeastrum are popping up around the edge of one of our water tanks

My Birthday Weekend: The People

 Well some of the people anyway. I am very very lucky to have such a wonderful family and friends, many of whom are family as well. So above: My sis, Leanne, friend, Tracy, mum, Elaine and other sister, Alison.

 Jason, Shane and Jason

 Jason and Piglet (aka Michael)

 Mr Music Man, Andy

 Sam, my brother Brett and Puppy (aka David)

 Me, Puppy, Sam, Sheryl and JJ

Dale, me and Glen

My Birthday Weekend: The Brunch

 So, once again, I always get multiple postings out of synch....oh well....so on the Sunday we held a brunch at our place and about 50 friends showed up. We had to have overflow parking down on the lower paddock. We made a big fruit salad and got croissants and breadrolls from Kyogle, free range bbq chook and champagne and orange juice.

 I took a group down to the creek to show off all the work that we had been doing down there. Some of our friends had visited us when we first moved here 4 years ago so they were quite impressed with the changes.

 Sam decided that the creek looked too good not to have a swim so he jumped in but found that it was still a tad too cold to stay in for too long. Or maybe it was the unseen threat of the large eels that patrol the deeper sections....

 The obligatory group shot of course.

 Shane, in the orange t shirt, basking in the glory of being our super-hard-working and talented grounds curator who's work over the past three and a half years has created the lovely place down by the creek...

And this is a lovely shot of us with some of our oldest and dearest friends...friends who we unfortunately don't get to see too often any more other than our close friend, Geoff, who has his arms around Steve, and who lives in Newcastle. Next to Geoff is Nick, then Ross, Casey and Ross, who all came up from Sydney. We used to make an annual pilgrimage to Leura in the Blue Mountains with these beautiful men, over the Queen's Birthday long weekend...we did that for about 12 or so years but since moving up here have only managed two out of the past four years. Hopefully we might see the boys up here a bit more often, hey boys?

My 50th Birthday Weekend: The Party

 My party was held at Lismore Bowling Club and we used some of the spectacular lanterns that the Lantern Parade people have created to help with the makeover. Two of these suns stood at near the doorway, welcoming guests inside. A local fire-twirlers group displayed their talent twirling fire as my friends made their way up the path.

 When Steve and our friends Jason and Andy arrived at 4.45 to set up the club, it was still packed with bowlers enjoying their post-bowls drinks. I just couldn't see how we were going to get the place ready by 7pm. But we did and it looked pretty amazing. This photo doesn't really do it justice but it became a colourful glamorous space for about 7 hours.

 And of course, no party of mine (or Steve's) can go ahead without fabulous entertainment! We are very lucky to count amongst our friends great performers such as Glenda above and Savannah von Spelling below.

 Glenda did a spot earlier in the evening and then she, Savannah and Newcastle's one and only Mrs White Trash performed the second show.

 About a third of the way through the number she was doing, Mrs White Trash deftly removed this outfit to reveal another on underneath that was more in keeping with the song she was performing to, I Just Wanna F***in' Dance (which, if you haven't heard it, is pretty fabulous).

Apart from the suns, we also had some star-shaped lanterns on the pathway into the club as well as these exotic beauties, orchids, which we lashed to a couple of poles in the club. They really gave the interior a somewhat surreal look.

Tasty and simple

Pic: ladyandthefork.wordpress.com

Avocados up here are about 3 for a dollar at the moment, so we've buying lots. We make guacamole but we also eat them this way: cut one in half, get rid of the seed. Sprinkle lemon juice and a bit of salt over each half. Enjoy.

Farewell Terriyaki

Our little Japanese bantam rooster, Terriyaki, died last week. I didn't think I'd miss the little fella as much as I have. He was always a cocky (sorry) little rooster, if slightly neurotic, but he always looked after his girls, which, as you can see, were rather bigger than he was. In the early days he'd optimistically attempt to mount them, but he seemed to have given up on this activity of late. Remember, his girlfriend, the equally neurotic Sushi, became lunch for one of our resident carpet pythons, last year. Anyway, sometime last week, he appeared listless when I was feeding and watering the chookery before work, and I did make a mental note that maybe something wasn't right, and by the time I arrived home from work he'd fallen off the perch well and truly. He was quite funny to watch when he'd keep an eye on his girls if I let them out to forage around the yard. He'd be like a cattle dog, rounding them up, herding them this way and that, sheparding them to where he thought was safest to go. For such a little fella, he had a big, dare I say it, personality.

Dry, dry, dry August

I think we've probably just had the driest month since we've been living here in paradise. Just 5mm fell during August over three rainfall events (if you can call them that). July was dry as well but much wetter in comparison to August with 27.5mm falling. If the El Nino kicks in as the weather soothsayers are predicting, then we may well have our driest year here. Luckily we have a bore so can keep pumping water to water our gardens if it does get dicey.

Sweet smells of spring

Well 'smells's really isn't the best word, but I do love my alliteration. Spring has certainly arrived here at Larnook and the air is heavy with all kinds of sweet scents (agh I could have replaced 'smells' for 'scents'). The lemon, tangello and lime trees are giving off the most beautiful sweet perfume which transports me back to a place in southern Portugal called Lagos where my friends and I arrived at a time when the air was saturated with the fragrance from hundreds of orange trees. Even though dissections of the human brain show that we are highly dependent on vision, smells are such evocative reminders of times past, aren't they?  I can still recall the 'plasticy' smell of my first school tuperware lunch box...anyhow I am digressing.
So, apart from the citrus in blossom and filling the air, the port wine magnolia is also in flower. This bright green tree is covered in small flowers which are filled with a very sweet, 'port' like fragrance and is especially noticeable just on still evenings. At the entry, a beautiful jasmine has lazily draped itself over fences and other shrubs and is now a cascade of unbelievably beautifully sweet smelling flowers. I come close to swooning when I breathe in the fragrence - it is so intoxicating. As I said a few postings ago, lots of grevilleas are in flower, but of course they don't have a fragrance that can be detected by humans, at least. Our mango trees are also covered in flowers. It could well be a bumper mango season as it was a couple of years ago. We have experienced the same dry winter and spring looks like it could be quite dry as well. Last year we got no fruit off the trees, while the year before we were soaking in mangos.