Project: Pale Headed Snake

                 Photo: Australian Venom Research Unit, Melbourne University

This is a snake that I have wanted to see in the wild for some time, and while I knew that Larnook was well within the overall distribution of this species, I really didn't think there were would be any within the general neighbourhood of Larnook/Kyogle.  However, recently I happened to have a look at a distribution map for this species made up of actual sightings/specimens now lodged at the Australian Museum and was surprised and not a little excited by the fact that was about half a dozen sightings of this snake within 30 km of Larnook.  Woo hoo!
I am going to make finding a pale headed snake a project for 2013. I shall let you know how I go.
The genus that this snakes belongs to, Hoplocephalus (broad or big headed) has three species in it: the pale headed snake, the Stephen's Banded Snake and the Broad Headed Snake. The latter is one of Australia's rarest and most vulnerable species and only lives in sandstone habitats within a radius of 100km or so of the CBD of Sydney. Consequently I have never seen any in the wild. However, when I worked at Nature Wonderland at Maitland while I was at high school and uni, we actually had the only captive broad headed snake at that time, so I 'worked' with that snake for about 5 years (it eventually died at the age of around 17 which is very good for a small snake).
And I have seen a number of Stephen's Banded Snakes, most of which at our friends, Ros and Kev's property, Yeranda, outside of Dungog, although I am yet to see any up here. I actually think/hope that both species inhabit the country just outside our property boundary under the Billen Cliffs. So bring on spring and summer, and let me find these snakes.
Exciting News: I head down to Melbourne tomorrow afternoon to attend the launch of the exhibition catalogue for an exhibition called: Venom: Fear, Fascination and Discovery, which is to be held at the Medical History Museum, University of Melbourne, tomorrow evening.  My colleague from University of Newcastle, Nancy Cushing (with whom I wrote Snake Bitten, Eric Worrell and the Australian Reptile Park) and I, contributed two essays to the catalogue, so yeah, I'm excited about this quick little trip down south.

Farewell Julia aka Shane

After staying with us for about seven months, Shane decided he needed to fly the coop and move across to the property at Cawongla (under ten minutes up the road from our place) where he will be living from hereon in. He bought himself a caravan and hopes to rebuild part of a dairy bales that already exists on the property to create a lovely home for himself and Bluey, complete with fruit trees and vege garden.  Here he is, with Bluey, and Marty, his new vehicle, a very blokey looking ute.
We will miss Shane in a very big way. We've been friends now for five years and the time that he has spent living with us at Larnook has been very easy. He has played a big part in the experiences of our HelpXers during that time, each of whom valued the knowledge and the stories and the skills that Shane is only too happy to share. He has constructed the Lizard Palace and done his usual creek vegetation maintenance and a bunch of other stuff around the place. And he's made lots of delicious meals and, lately, some very nice fires.
But I can well imagine how much he will be looking forward to bringing all of those skills and knowledge to his new project, and we look forward to visiting him as our neighbour.  And, he will still be coming down to Larnook to work on our place, when he needs a bit of a break from his place. But still, an auspicious day.
So we shall miss you, Julia...and we shall miss you, Bluey!

Carpet patterns

 I'm working on a 'cultural ecology' of the carpet/diamond python (Morelia spilota) at present, which is fascinating. I've been searching newspapers from the early 1800s through to the 1950s to understand how this species of python which so often comes into contact with humans, has been 'imagined', thought about, written about. Anyway, I thought I should put together a little gallery of some of the carpet pythons we have seen on our place. Now this one is a bit of a cheat shot - it was taken in 2009 about 100km west of our place. Lovely big snake though, just sunning itself along the edge of the road.

 This very beautiful individual sunned itself amongst the pumpkin vine which grew in the compound between the shed and the garage.

 This one was the first to discover the chooks. A lovely brown colouration with creamy blotches.

 The same snake as above.

 This was the chook killer which ate two chooks in January/February 2013. It's also the biggest python I've seen here.

 probably the same python as the one that first found our chooks. It's belly is big but probably just with a rat or small bandicoot.

This was a very long python which we found digesting a bandicoot, judging by the bulge in its belly. We saw it a couple of more times but I'm pretty sure we found this one dead a few years ago in the boys' paddock in the middle of winter. It had lost so much condition and may have had a major worm infestation (I didn't open it up to have a look).

A very nice long weekend

Apart from the Brisbane Book Fair (see next post below), the weekend was filled with lots of other nice things. Our friend, Keith from Sydney, arrived Saturday afternoon and stayed until mid-morning Monday. Keith is the partner of Jay, who died earlier this year, and for whom Steve and I planted a tibouchina, a few weeks ago. We enjoyed some wine time in the hot tub, a perfectly roasted leg of lamb and veges courtesy of Julia, and a dvd in front of the fire on Saturday night, while Sunday night was much the same except Steve's green chicken curry replaced the leg of lamb. Great company, great food, great wine and a couple of great movies.
The weather was a tad iffy over much of the weekend up here but it was fine for much of Sunday and we took advantage of this to take Keith to the Channon Markets on Sunday morning, which is always great fun. We bought a kaffir lime tree and a fabulous ginger plant, and then headed to The Channon Tavern for a tasty burger and beer battered chips for a lite lunch (not).
Then this morning, after a delicious brunch of poached eggs, asparagus and hollandaise sauce, Keith headed off to Southport to spend time with his brother, while Steve went back to making costumes for Phantom of the Opera, Julia finalising a car deal, and I to faff about a bit.  Such is life at Larnook. By my count, Keith was our 17th visitor to stay with us at Larnook since January.  Love it!

Brisbane Book Fair

I'd been eagerly looking forward to prowling the Brisbane Book Fair (which takes place over the June long weekend), for some time, after my friend, Ros, from Yeranda EcoCottages, had told me that it was one of the largest book fairs in the country. So a couple of weeks ago I booked my accommodation in Brisbane in anticipation of feeding my book lust. And on Friday afternoon I drove to Brisbane after a morning spent at my university's Gold Coast campus, settled into my spacious apartment near South Bank, and then headed into the city to take advantage of a Myer sale and two Myer gift vouchers I'd been lucky enough to score for my birthday last year. And then on to the Book Fair at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre first thing Saturday morning.  I arrived a little after 8 for the 8.30 opening and a small, polite crowd had gathered around each of the four entrances into the two huge exhibition halls which were occupied by the Book Fair.

Anyway, the doors were opened at 8.30 and in we streamed, some of us (not me) pulling those upright shopping trolleys behind us (there were some very serious book predators among this lot). Indeed, by the number of books some people were piling into their trolleys they either had their own bookshop or sold lots of books on eBay. I was already a little frustrated when I walked in because none of the categories of books I particularly collect (natural history/reptiles/marriage/sex guidance books up to the 60s/sexuality) had been categorised. So I had to search through tables of thousands upon thousands of books in General Non Fiction, Leisure/Pets/Lifestyle and Australiana, to find anything that I was really wanting to buy. And I didn't have as many OMG moments as I was anticipating.
But probably the book that I liked finding the most was a Yates Garden Guide published in the mid 1970s because it brought back fond memories of an edition my mother had which I used to look at quite a bit when I was a kid, fantasising about recreating the garden (complete with pond) that was featured in that edition. As soon as I found it, I was overcome with very nice memories of my childhood.  So I quickly plonked that in my bag (it was $1.00) and whispered a 'you beauty' contentedly to myself.
I still managed to buy 27 books and I spent a pretty enjoyable three and a half hours at the Fair. I was intrigued by some people who wore those white cotton gloves that you are required to wear when you are reading a rare book at a state library, but I suspect in this case it was to protect the wearer from cold and flu virus particles that might have been on the books after so many hands had touched them. (I made sure I washed my hands vigorously once I had finished at the fair). I got annoyed with the people with the proper shopping trolleys that you use at the supermarket, though. These could be hired at the Fair but I thought the users were a bit rude when they parked them along the edge of a table, basically meaning that a good linear metre or so of books were out of reach while they had their trolley parked.
Anyway, a very enjoyable book fair and I'm now looking forward even more to the University of Newcastle's book fair in August.

My Western Blueys

These guys are growing like crazy. When I received them in February I think it was, they were about 10cm long.  Now they are over 20cm.  They are feed three to four times a week on a mixture of various fruits (in this feed they are eating mushroom, strawberry, tomato, kiwifruit, lettuce and a dry cat food.  I'll keep them in this plastic tub until spring and then transfer them to their grown up enclosure which will be outside. (However, because they occur in drier climates to ours, they will need to be sheltered from the rain and their enclosure will need to be quite dry).  They also like catching crickets and wood roaches and they are quite voracious predators.
I also have four baby Tasmanian blotched blue tongues which I will feature when they have put on a but more size.

Meet Cesar and Enrique, HelpXers from Spain

 The guys stayed with us for a week, before heading to Brisbane yesterday morning. They come from northern Spain, Enrique lives in Bilbao while Cesar lives in small village about 45 minutes from Bilbao. We have only had one other Spanish HelpXer, Tomas, who was with us about three years ago, so it was great to host the guys and learn a bit more about Spain. And of course to taste wonderful Spanish food!

 This paella was so delicious!  Yummo!!  We started with this tortilla below (which, as you can see, is very different to the Mexican version) then main course was the paella followed by a delicious pudding.  I tell you what, hosting HelpXers is a form of reverse gastronomic tourism!

Pics from Tyagarah Lagoon

From time to time I call in at Tyagarah Lagoon which is a paperbark-fringed lagoon five kilometres north of Byron Bay. It's a wonderful place to sit and relax, and it seems to induce mildly creative thoughts in my mind, so I usually feel energised after visiting.  Yesterday after I dropped Cesar and Enrique off at Murwillumbah where they caught their bus to Brisbane, and after I'd called in to Burringbah Rainforest Nursery to buy some grevilleas, I called in here for a little while and I took these photos, before heading back to get on with what ended up being a very full day. (oh and aren't iPhones remarkable things).

 Looking across the water to the western side of the lagoon. Waterlilies flower in late winter. Reflections.

 One of my favourite bankisas, Banksia ericafolia

 The paperbark forest that surrounds the lagoon.  Plenty of birds, and the occasional snake. But no toads, which really intrigues me.  Well I haven't been there at night so maybe there are toads, but the fact that I found a new born red belly black snake suggests the absence of toads.

Citrus time

Winter is citrus time here at Larnook, This is a mandarin tree which owes its continued existence to Shane (aka Jukia) who persuaded me to keep it even though it was growing in what became the Big Bush Garden (I wanted to remove it because it isn't a Big Bush Garden kinda plant and because back then it didn't fruit well at all). After four years of improving the soil through the application of how many tonnes of mulch, this tree is now covered in luscious sweet fruit. Our lemons, bush lemons, tangello and limes are all groaning under heavy loads of fruit.  I squeezed myself a zesty drink of tangello and bush lemon for breakfast this morning - I could feel the vitamin C with every gulp.

Playing Catch-Up: Farewell Claire

OK, so I admit that I've been a bit slack on keeping the blog updated, - please forgive me, loyal, discerning and oh-so-intelligent, readers!  Sometimes I have to admit, Sunday evening rolls around (which is when I do most of blogging) and I'm just not in the mood to be creative.  The comparison with Facebook is interesting I think in the sense that as a 'content provider' on Fb you get much greater levels of feedback - whether that might be a 'Like thumbs up' or a comment. I know some of you comment on some of my posts here, for which I am very grateful, but, the sometimes almost instantaneous feedback I get from Fb does feed my ego.  Anyway, I am not at all implying that I will no longer be blogging...Mutterings from Maryville has a very long life ahead of it.

So...let's play some catch-up.  Earlier this month we farewelled Claire who ended up staying almost five weeks (which included an unexpected bout of chicken pox).  Claire is French (as are about 80% of our HelpXers for some reason) and she contributed lots to Maryville - helping Julia with the construction of the Lizard Palace, doing lots of gardening, weeding and cooking. Claire is a very good cook!  Here she is with her version of my spinach, fetta and eggplant pie....

 and on her last night with us she made this fabulously delicious apple flan.....very scrummy.

 On her final, foggy, morning with Steve before we dropped her off at Lismore train station, where she took the bus (the trains having succumbed to government policy just before we moved here) to Casino, train to Grafton and a bus to Moree, where she was then met by her next host who took her back home to Warialda.  She stayed there for a couple of weeks and then went to Brisbane, where she stayed for a few days before resuming her journey north.