Happy New Year!

Happy New Year and all the very best for 2013 from all the chaps at Maryville@Larnook!  Steve and I hope that you have a fabulous night and hope that 2013 is a brilliant year for you.
Hope you keep checking in on the Mutterings from time to time to see what's going on.

Rainfall 2012

January 318
February 256
March 212
April 125
May 63.5
June 214
July 27.5
August 5
September 20
October 16
November 95
December 239

Total 1573

2011 1776.5
2010 1687
2009 1500

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Steve, me and this funky Santa who I photographed out the front of Mt Burrell shops the other day. The Sphynx Rock Cafe is situated here, as well, and it takes its name from the rock formation that you can see on the ridge-line behind Santa.

I hope you have a wonderful, peaceful and enjoyable Christmas!

Larnookian Meals

 Shane, Steve, me and Cathy (HelpXer from Singapore) enjoying a meal on Wednesday night.

 I had made thai beef salad (starting to become one of my signature dishes)

 and Shane had made garlic prawns which were divine

and this was a delicious pickled pork dinner that Vivienne created a month or so ago.

some pics..enjoy

 One of our friendly green tree frogs eager to catch some of the many flying insects swarming around the lights at night at the moment

 We were blacked out from about 10pm Tuesday night through till the early hours of Wednesday.

 Wednesday morning following the big storm of the night before (see post below)

 The amazing upside down flowering orchid, Stanhopia, starting to flower with some spactacular bromeliad flowers as well

Gorgeous hydrangeas

Cathy and Jeff, HelpXers from Singapore

We've been enjoying the company (and labour) of Cathy and Jeff, HelpXers from Singapore. They are actually from China, but are studying economics and maths at a university in Singapore.  They arrived early last week and today I'll be taking them up to the Gold Coast airport for their flight to Cairns, and then I've got some meetings at my university's campus, which is adjacent to the airport.

 Jeff preparing the stuffing for the delicious dumplings they cooked for us one night

 The proud chefs, Jeff and Cathy, in front of their dumplings, shredded potato and a chicken and vege dish.

Simply delicious. As I've so often said, one of the many pleasures of hosting HelpXers is that we get to make and share food together.

If you go down to the chooks today...

you're in for a big surprise...

As I was typing the post below, Shane (our friend formerly of Murwillumbah, who is now staying with us for a while until he sorts out his housing situation) interrupted me to tell me that one of the girls was missing in action. Well more like missing because it's now inside this rather large and impressive carpet python. One less chook, one fat python.
I am really surprised that the python managed to swallow the chook, which was fully grown. Often a python will kill a chook and then try and swallow it but gives up by the time its distended jaws get to the actual body of the chook and basically back out, leaving the tell tale sign of a very slimy looking chook's neck as evidence of a failed eating attempt, but yeah, just very surprised that this one managed to get it all down.  The snake is not that big, just over two metres I guess, and it won't be going anywhere anytime soon, until that bulge has shrunk in size.

Perfect Storm

Although we've had a bit more rain so far this month than last month, and the grass had started growing again, greening the pastures nicely, another week of dry, very hot weather had begun to brown things off, and we'd had to start supplementary feeding the boys with lucerne, which we've not had to do (other than in winter) since we got them.
Things changed on Tuesday night.
The day had been a scorcher and while storm clouds started to appear promisingly in the late afternoon, they seemed to dissipate and we were again disappointed. But something magical must have happened because we started to hear the rumblings of thunder as we began preparing for dinner. The sky was almost constantly lit up with flashes of lightening and then it began to rain. No wind, just rain, heavy, constant, wet, warm rain.
It felt so good to be outside on the verandah watching this awesome display of weather that we decided to eat at the outdoor table on the verandah.
And still the rain kept going, the lightening became even more dramatic and the sound that some of the lightening was amazing. The energy that must be released during this kind of storm must be incredible and I felt like a little kid, enjoying the drama, the excitement, the noise, the smell of wetness, I was enjoying wonderment.
We have two HelpXers from Singapore here at the moment, Cathy and Jeff, and they enjoyed the storm as well, particularly once the blackout began and we lit candles.
I excitedly checked the rain gauge the next morning, hoping we'd get a couple of inches - we got 101mm, which is just over four inches. We so needed that!

Not happy

I was going to post various postings using photos from my iPhone that I had taken over the past week, but it seems I have lost all my photos (as well as all my phone contacts) because my iPhone resynch-ed itself when I plugged it into my computer. I think this is because my password had been reset at work because I was given an ipad to use for a particular committee I am now on.  I'm not a happy camper. No postings tonight I'm afraid.

Nicely wet

We've finally enjoyed a storm. As I was driving back from Coolangatta this afternoon, the sky darkened and grey smears of cloud contrasted against the darker background. By the time I got to the outskirts of Cawongla it was raining and the rain kept up until I reached home.  I checked the gauge at 6.30pm and we'd had 6.5mm.  Not a huge amount, I agree, but oh so better than nothing. And then the rain picked up again while we were eating dinner, accompanied by a green tree frog chorus of at least three plump males, each locked in an evolutionary battle to win over any girls that were within hearing distance of their big bellowy croaking.