A few different views of Maryville: looking up from Martins Road

 I don't often take photos from Martin's Road back up our slope towards the house, so here are some photos I took last Sunday coming back from another walk to Billen Cliffs. Well this first one is actually half way up McGuinness Road.

 This is from Martin's Road looking up our front paddock towards our house perched on top of the slope. The boys have done a really good job of keeping this paddock looking very nice.

 The intersection of McGuinness and Martin's Roads with the garbage 'bin' we share with neighbours. We don't get a council garbage collection out here so we share the costs of this bin with a neighbour. 'Taking the garbage out to the bin' is a tad different here at Larnook but I enjoy the strolls down to the bin.

And this shot was taken this afternoon from our lower paddock looking back up over some regeneration 'work' ie those plants in the foreground that I and some HelpXers and Shane planted about three to four years ago towards the new seat that Kevin and Antonin installed a month or so ago. The stunning white eucalpyt on the right is a flooded gum.

My next projects

 Project 1: Planting this bank with Grevilleas. We've progressively planted this bank that runs along our eastern fenceline and McGuinness Road with Grevilleas and other natives and I want to continue going down the road replacing this grass with a more biodiverse habitat. This will mean brushcutting the grass down and then planting a bunch of young plants. Keeping water up to them in the dry late winter and early spring will be tough.

 Project 2: Regenerating the streamside vegetation down along Hanging Rock (Leycester) Creek. First task will be to get these climbing viney weeds under control. As you can see here they go right up to the crown of the casuarinas that are growing down here and they can really cause lots of problems. I think we should be able to chop this vine using an axe and applying some roundup with a paint brush to the stems.

 And then it will be a slow matter of beginning to plant young trees down along the creek, both in the flood prone zone that you can see in this photo...

and the higher, drier areas down near Martins Road along the western border of our property. I went for a drive upstream today to see if I could work out what kinds of trees and shrubs I should plant down along our creek and have some ideas but I don't know what most of the trees and shrubs are. I want to create a stream-side forest that will improve the wildlife habitat of our place and act as a wildlife corridor. It will be a battle of course against the weeds that grow down here but if I start now I should at least see some reasonable progress over the next ten years or so that we will be here.  I was spurred into doing this after reading a scientific paper on carpet pythons in this region and how important riparian, that is stream side vegetation is as habitat for this and other species.
So both these projects will be ones that our next lots of HelpXers can provide lots of assistance to.  I shall keep you posted on progress.

Farewelling Claire

 After almost five weeks with us, (including a week where she suffered from chicken pox), Claire left Larnook last Tuesday. From northern France, Claire has been in Australia about seven months and is flying out in June or July to resume her studies (in tourism as it happens). Claire was great fun and did heaps of great things around Maryville and she was always cheerful. She was also an excellent cook, as so many of our HelpXers are, so here she is proudly standing alongside a vegetarian pie that I've been perfecting over the past few weeks, but her version was just as tasty or even tasty (layer fried eggplant, sweet potato, silverbeet, onion and garlic into a short crust pastry lined dish, add grated tasty cheese and some parmesan, then add a whisked egg or two with some nutmeg) and then poke in some cubed fetta on top and cook for about half an hour.

 Not only did she cook the vege pie but she also cooked the delicious apple flan which was so yummy!

So here are Steve and Claire before getting in the car last Tuesday to drive Claire down to Lismore station where she travelled to Grafton and then by bus to Walgett, of all places. She is staying there with a fellow who she met on Gumtree for a couple of weeks before heading back to Brisbane and on to Fraser Island. Thanks for everything, Claire!

A tree for Jay

Our very dear friend, Jay, died, earlier in February from a very rare blood disorder following a battle with lymphoma. Steve was friends with Jay before I met Steve and he and Jay shared a love of musical theatre, which is how they met, through the Newcastle-based musical theatre group, Metropolitan Players. We planted this tibouchina at Larnook in memory of Jay today. Jay loved purple, and the flowers of tibouchinas are a lovely bright purple, so we think Jay would approve.

Jay (on the right, for those who don't know Jay) met Keith about a year or so after Steve and I got together and they have been wonderful friends to us. Here they are helping me to celebrate my PhD graduation back in 1997. Jay was given the alternative name of Aunty Joan when our friend David, who lived with us back in 1998, thought we were saying 'Joan' instead of Jay, when we'd be speaking with him on the phone. We are David's 'gay parents' and so naturally Jay became Aunty Joan and Keith, Uncle Keith. The familial relationships are what Keith calls his 'logical family' as distinct from 'biological family'.

And here we were at a Mardi Gras parade, when for some reason, we all decided to wear masks.  (The feathers were very hot). Steven, our friend Craig, Jay and myself. Back in those days (mid 1990s, when the Mardi Gras parade was at its zenith), we'd get to our favourite spot on Flinders Street around 3.00pm and wait for the parade to commence - it wouldn't reach us until about 8.30pm. So we'd drink plenty of champers and the merriment would increase while we waited and then once the parade had begun Jay and I would lure men from the parade over to us to choose a lolly from our huge bowl of mixed lollies that we had earlier put together in return for a friendly kiss. We miss you, Jay! And we shall be reminded of you whenever we look at your tree.