Some some random shots of green

Our galangal, planted in early 2009
This is a macaranga, a very good rainforest 'starter' plant as its quick growing, creates a shady canopy and its shed leaves mulch down really well. You can see Cliff Richard in the background.
Another new plant for us up here, an arrowroot. They have tuberous roots and stems that can be eaten like a potato or tarro.Fantastic flowers as well. Very fast growing in the right conditions.
Pumpkins are running riot here at the moment.
I think this is sorrell.

Sit yourself down and rest for a while....

A selection of seats (all bought for a nickel at various times at the Lismore Tender Centre) for you to enjoy our place on when you come visit....

Cloacal Sexing of Chickens

Excerpts from p. 4 of Range to Range, Edition 1, 2010 (a local free newsletter serving the communities of Rock Valley, Larnook, Cawongla, Lillian Rock, Barkers Vale and Wadeville).

The art of vent or cloacal sexing of day-old chickens is difficult to master without instructions from an experienced sexer. Use the following to develop the procedure. Before examining the vent, discharge the chicken's excretions by lightly pressing on both sides of the abdomen in a downward motion [Oh bugger, mustn't have been gentle enough - pass me that box of kleenex will ya?].

...With the index finger start from the top of the vent moving down, back and around, rolling the vent in a sideways action.

At the same time a similar action with the free thumb, starting from the top and rolling down and back

With the thumb and forefinger placed either side of the vent (cloaca) apply gentle pressure [whoops, pass me a new chick, there's a good fella] and a rolling action to evert the vent and expose the male eminence [that's a new term for me] or lack of it [hmmm what will my feminist readers think about that 'lack' as a definer of gender, I wonder, not that I necessarily think chicks have 'gender' but that's another story].

After a little practice [if I was a chick I think I'd be hoping I'd be getting picked a bit further down the line], this can be accomplished without injury of significant discomfort to the chicken.

The article ends, thus:

Having access to chickens of known sex is a great help in developing the art of vent sexing and feather sexed meat chickens [if you can sex them via their feathers why do you squeeze their little bits?].

The longer you live in the country, the more you realise how little you know.....

Hello darkness, my old friend (not)

Now, while I am generally pro-daylight savings time, even though it does make calculating arrival and departure times at Coolangatta airport somewhat fraught with error on occasion, what we don't like (and I'm including Steve here in this diatribe) is awakening at 6am not, to Fran Kelly, because that's a good thing, but to darkness. Very darkness. Very dark darkness. We hate it in fact. In fact at the moment, we don't see the first rays of the sun poking up above the Billen Cliffs until around 7ish, which is almost the time we get in the car and head to work.

So, we shall both enjoy the ending of daylight savings on Sunday at least for a month or so anyway, by which time when the tables will turn and we'll be arriving home in near darkness. Bugger.

Singapore trip

The shot above sourced from Google Images doesn't do this new resort currently being constructed in Singapore any justice at all. It's an astonishing structure - three sky scrapers supporting a stylised ship that straddles them. The 'integrated resort' as it's called combines resort and casino. Another is also being built and both will be open this year. Singaporeans will, however, be slugged $100.00 just for walking through the door of the casino to discourage them from gambling their hard earned dollars away! The resort in the pic is called the Marina Bay Sands Resort and we looked out over it from where we had dinner on our first night, close to where this image was 'taken'.

Had an excellent time over the five days I was there. Found some fabulous restaurants, ate and drank (In moderation of course); spent a few hours at the National Museum which was hosting an amazing travelling exhibition of Egyptian antiquities including several mummies; took a river cruise which I'd never done before; and of course did work. My colleagues, Maree and Paul left on Friday and I stayed an extra day, leaving on Saturday night. Our final dinner together was at a riverside seafood restaurant down at Clark Quay which was a delight.

Saturday was rather wet and grey and my opportunities for exploring any outdoorsie spots was dashed, so I spent much of the day wandering around ginormous shopping malls and poking around Chinatown. I always enjoy Singapore.

Only at the airport...

I think you can just make out what this product is that I happened to spot at Sydney Airport last Sunday on my way to Singapore. Essence of Kangaroo! That's right...it's made from the testis of red kangaroos, put into capsules and sold through well a limited range of outlets I suspect. According to the blurb, red kangaroos produce twice as much semen as a bull (I'd like to know the source of this fact) which is rich in all sorts of goodies that give anyone who ingests it extra strength and sexual energy...a kind of marsupial viagra. 1-2 capsules per day or as directed by your nutritionist. RRP $38.00. I declined to purchase.

Singapore for a week

Well it's been a wet few days up here and as I sit here at my desk typing this on Sunday morning it's raining hard. A kookaburra looks remarkably undrenched sitting on a post along our driveway and the wallabies are grazing quietly. It was wet enough and cool enough (well we pretended it was cool enough) for the slow cooker to be turned on yesterday and I cooked lamb shanks for dinner which turned out to be rather delectable. Steve made his Armenian nutmeg cake which rounded the whole meal off quite well. Glen came over for the night which began with a good soak in the spa with some bubbly and ended with watching Misery on dvd. Well really ended this morning with scrambled eggs on toast before Glen then went to work.

I've been busy working on my reptile park book manuscript - the very last chapter indeed - which I was hoping to have completed by today but that's not going to happen. Never mind, we are almost there now and we will have the finished ms. to the publishers by early April.

Probably won't be much action on the blog now for a week or so, because I fly down to Sydney this afternoon and then on to Singapore tomorrow for week for work. I can't wait to hit the tropics!