Misty mornings

It's often misty in the mornings here at Maryville, but it usually clears by around 7.30am. However, the last couple of mornings the mist has persisted well into the day. These pics were taken just before 8am on Sunday 1 February. You can see the sun trying to break through to get the first day of February happening in a sunnier fashion. Just on things meteorological, we scored 123cm of rain in January which is just under 5 inches. Feb and March are the wettest months apparently. We'll wait and see....

Five beasts and a daybed

My how we all enjoy lolling about on our new daybed. On the bed with Richard (middle), Steve and Graham are our friends, Kerri and her son, Jack. Kerri and Jack spent the weekend with us before leaving this morning to drive to Lammington National Park for a couple of nights. All of us had a great time at Bangalow Markets yesterday, with our friends, Glen and Catherine, with Steve and I adding to our daybed cushion collection with three new cushions, most of which are hidden in this pic. Pity, they are nice cushions.

Tree Planting

Graham gets to work digging a hole for a lemon scented ti tree he bought for us. This will become known as Graham's tree and we're hoping other friends who visit will do the same. Simeon and Graeme (another Graeme) bought us a black sapote and Jenny a vanilla bean plant to kick things off last week.

In goes the soil around the young tree, note how Graham is careful when he pats the earth down around the base of the tree.

Richard now pours some water around the plant to 'water it in', giving it a head start. Nature can be a harsh mistress, so any extra help is well worth it.

Doesn't Graham look happy and pleased with himself standing next to his young ti tree. He can't wait to come back and see how much it has grown. Girls and boys: You may note Graham is only wearing thongs - you should always dress appropriately with proper footwear when working in the garden. The blade of that mattock is rather sharp.

Red Necked Wallaby and joey

This wallaby has recently shooed off her at-heel joey who now has to fend for himself. The little fella poking his head out of her pouch will start to spend time out of the pouch in a couple of weeks, and no doubt, she also has an embyro ready to be born soon, too. She is usually grazing on the lawns around the house each morning up until about 7.00am, together with a buck, her previous joey and a couple of other females.
I wonder if these wallabies have ever seen The Omen....

Stewart tells us a story at Mavis Kitchen

Here we are on the lawns at Mavis' Kitchen at Uki, see posting below. Stewart, on the right, is quite a story teller, and here he is, captured in mid-story!

Dinner at Mavis' Kitchen, Uki

Mavis' Kitchen is a wonderful restaurant run by two boys in a magnificent old Queenslander at the foothills of Mt Warning or Wollumbin, at a special little village called Uki, about 45 minutes north east of us. We've been a few times now and last night took our friends, Graham and Richard, from Newcastle, and Stewart from Jiggi.

Steve, Richard, Graham and Stewart sitting at our table with the obligatory bottle of bubbles.

The guys who own Mavis have established a beautiful herb garden where they grow much of their fresh produce. The fresh produce in this pic includes Steve, Richardm Stewart and Graham.

Me, Steve, Stewart and Graham on the lawn with a drink.

Me and the Girls

Here's the girls as I put them away after they've been given a taste of freedom for a few hours. They're gorgeous but exasperating because they are strangely drawn to the mulch around the base of our tree plantings as well as the seedlings I had planted in the vege garden. They eat the seedlings and scratch out the mulch from around the young trees.

But, still loveable, and they are now producing around 7 eggs a day.

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.