It's raining

So, as I type at my computer tonight, it is to the relaxing sound of rain on our iron roof. This rain is very welcome and up until last week, we had only received 10% of our normal rainfall so far this year. It was the driest period we had experienced while living up here, and we've lost several tree ferns and even a few young eucalypts that had come up themselves and were five metres high, succumbed to the dry conditions. But, since the beginning of March we've had just over 200mm, which is great news, and a big relief. If the rain keeps up over the next day or two, we might even be flooded in.

Road Trip to Willow Tree, near Murrurundi

 It was Steve's niece, Deb's wedding last weekend at Willow Tree Inn, Willow Tree, just north of Murrurundi, so much of the weekend was spent on the New England Highway. It was a seven hour drive there and back, but driving this highway is always a pleasure, so much different to the Pacific Highway and the landscapes seem to look fresher.  This large rocky formation is just south of Tenterfield, but I forget its name.

 We stayed at Qurindi, which is about 15 minutes to the north west of Willow Tree. We had an hour or so to fill in before we needed to get ready for the wedding so we explored the town, first by heading up to Who'da Thought It Lookout, (don't ask me why it is called that) which gave a great view over the town and the mountain ranges that skirt it.

 The wedding was great (I left my phone back at the motel, sorry, so no pics) and Steve and I had a great time. But we had a big drive back to Larnook, so we started our return journey around 7.30 on Sunday morning. Much of the country was showing signs of returning to green after the rains that had fallen the week before but there were some areas around Tamworth that were still very barren, which would have yielded pretty much nothing of any sustenance to the sheep and cattle that foraged in the dirt.

 We'd spotted a bookshop in the town of Uralla (somewhere between Glen Innes and Tamworth) on the way down, but we didn't have time to stop. Coming back, I'd secured Stevie's agreement that if were open we could stop so I could do some of my own foraging. However, we both thought it unlikely that a second hand bookshop would be open in a small country town at 9.30am on a Sunday morning. Well, who'da thought it was an open bookshop on a Sunday morning!  The shop had a surprisingly good natural history section and I was able to purchase a number of books that added to my own Australian natural history collection. And Steve bought some sheet music.

Also on the outskirts of Glen Innes was a most unusual letter box.  So, selfie with a dalek.

Field Trip to Coolangatta with my Master's students

 There are any number of very beautiful places in the northern rivers and southern Gold Coast regions that I can take my students to, and one of my favourites is to the Coolangatta area. The subject I am teaching at the moment explores sustainability within the context of tourist accommodation and attractions, so this trip took students to Coolangatta RSL, which is doing wonderful things with regard to minimising waste, harvesting rainwater and growing herbs and veges. I took the pic above around 8am last Friday while I was waiting for the day to start.

 Here we are out the front of the funky vertical garden at the entry to the club. I have 21 on-campus students who represent eight nationalities: China, Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Papua New Guinea and Australia, so each session I have with them is very interesting and rich with their own experiences of their own nations.

 After leaving the RSL we drove up to Coolangatta Ecovillage which is a residential estate, which is designed, built and lived based on ecological principles. One of my students is actually a resident and so she organised much of the visit (although I had taken students here twice before so I'm pretty familar with the place now). After a talk and a couple of videos about the philosophy underpinning the ecovillage, and a yummy morning tea, we strolled around looking at various houses before inspecting one of the houses from the inside.  Here some of the students are on the deck of the house.

And when it was all over, I stopped and had a late lunch by the beach at Bilinga or Tugun, not sure which, and thought how lucky I am to have such a job.

Sunset from the back verandah

Not much more to say. Really.

Stevie's birthday movie

Yesterday was Steve's birthday, so we decided to celebrate it (well we had celebrated it the night before with friends, Julia and Glen at a hot tub/wine/dinner) night, but on the actual day of his birthday, Sunday, we took ourselves off to the magic of the cinema to watch Dallas Buyers' Club, which we both enjoyed. But not only was the movie good, but we discovered how fabulous, Kyogle's cinema is. It's now a community owned and operated cinema, after nearly folding last year because about $50k was needed to upgrade the projector system from film to digital. The local community rallied around and the cinema was saved. And to our great shame, this was the first time in 5.5 years that we had watched a movie there. But we are very glad to say, it won't be our last!

The sublime beauty of frangipani

 I took advantage of a drizzly, overcast day to wander around the gardens and take some pics (just using my phone cam) of the joy that comes from frangipani flowers. Enjoy.

Stunning.

Exquisite.

Spectacular.

Fresh.

Jason's birthday weekend

 Jason, who is becoming a Larnook frequent flyer, came up from sydney for almost a week, getting up here last Thursday. No sooner had he unpacked his clothes and made himself at home that he got down to the serious business of creating a painting for us. Here he is hard at work in the early stages. Alas, being the perfectionist that he is, he decided that it wasn't what he wanted and he has painted all over it and will start afresh next time he is up.

 It was his birthday on Saturday and even though there was a pretty amazing party happening in Sydney, he chose to spend it with us, awwww. Liam had come down as well for the weekend, and so we had a lovely dinner at Mavis' Kitchen, which you know, is a fave of ours. We had taken Jason to Mavis' for lunch on his last visit in October, but there's something even more special about enjoying dinner there.

 And the friendly Mavis' staff, on hearing that it was Jase's birthday, provided a birthday sparkler in his piece of cake.

Jase and Liam's visit also coincided with a Lismore car boot market, which, coincidentally, was on the last time he came up. He bought up big on Tupperware last trip; he bought up bigger, on this trip, as he had driven up this time. Here he is in a Tupperware flurry.  So many lids, so little time!

Chillis: red against green

Liam gave us some chilli plants he had germinated back on Karragara Island around November and by the middle of February they were covered in beautiful green and then red chillis. They looked so vibrant against the lush green of the plants.  We had way more than we could use of course and then, very suddenly, they began to disintegrate on the plant. I guess that's what they do.