Some more Nimbin pics

All the pics in this and the post that follows were taken by our friend, Graeme Hands.

A little impromptu market down an alley.....where you could buy more than just tie-died clothes...

Beautiful image of a death adder...actually looks like a species that occurs in the Pilbara, not the local type.

Saturday afternoon in Nimbin

Last weekend, our friends Jenny from Newcastle and Simeon and Graeme now of Toukley, formerly of Newcastle, came up for three nights. We visited Kyogle, Lismore, Bangalow and Byron Bay and on Saturday arvie we drove up to Nimbin which is about 20 minutes from our place. It had been raining, the sky was a lovely ledden grey and the road was wet. It was lush and moist and it brought out the colours in the painted shop fronts.

This is me in the emporium which has the most amazing spices, pulses, flours, nuts and dried fruits.

Most of the shop fronts have been painted in these brightly coloured murals.

Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo

Today has been cooler with drizzle and at about midday we heard the characteristic squealing of a flock of beautiful yellow tailed black cockatoos that had descended on to a row of pine trees growing in front of the house. They seemed to be having a great time ripping apart the pine cones for their seeds. There was a carpet of soft pine cone innards on the ground below the trees

We're off to see the wizard...

Steve and I fly to Melbourne tomorrow morning for a few days, back on Monday. We are seeing Wicked with Brett my brother and his partner, Justin, as well as catching up with friends and enjoying some Big City Culture. We are leaving Maryville in the capable hands of our friend, Shane, who lives in Condong, near Murwillumbah. Hopefully the pygmy goanna eggs I have incubating in the basement won't hatch while we are away.

Look what we are producing

The girls are now producing an average of 6 eggs per day, although we have an egg pecker that every few days pecks a hole in the end of one of the eggs. Bad girl! One of the girls has also been producing super dooper double yolker eggs like the one on the left.

And the vege garden is starting to produce now: tomatoes at present, along with lebanese cucumbers, herbs like basil, rosemary, and what else, um silver beet (I made a yummy spinach, fetta and bacon pie the other night), and our corn is really starting to put on growth. We should have eggplant in a few weeks as well.

Kelly's Risotto

Kelly and Grant were the last of our friends to leave (they left this morning, Saturday) so last night Kelly made a magnificent risotto. It was unbelievably delicious. I asked him if he would email me the recipe so I can post it here. Stay tuned! Note also the glass of bubbly by his side - an apparently essential aspect of his cooking approach.

New Year at Maryville

Steve, Davey (Puppy) and me

Me, Karen (Honey Haze), Lee (Jane Fondle), Nell, Steve, Kris and Ross

Davey's banquet

Puppy in the kitchen.

A big bunch of our friends decided to come and stay over the Xmas-New Year period, with most coming along with us to the Tropical Fruits danceparty held at Lismore Showground on NYE. We managed to accommodate eleven friends over a period of five days, so Maryville is looking good as a future B and B! On one of the nights Davie (Puppy) cooked up a storm, so one of the pics is of the dishes he conjured (on a day when it was 36 degrees - it was hot in that kitchen! We've also had some very big storms over the last few nights - Davey and Kevin were almost blocked from returning home after the Tropical Fruits Recovery party last night (Thursday 1 Jan) by a tree that had fallen across Cawongla Road.