House plans and a ride on The bike....

I forgot to say last week that Robert and Deb very kindly gave us two sacks of oranges from their tree (pictured in an earlier blog with Fred howling underneath it). They are the sweetest juiciest oranges ever and what  a lovely way to start the day... there is nothing like a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.... hmmm.... delicious!

Roses and Red Robins are blooming all over South Australia alongside more familiar spring blooms like azaleas and Californian Lilacs.  The wisterias took a bashing in the recent storms and have mostly lost their blooms.  Strawberries are just coming into season along with beetroot and pineapple (from Queensland) and much to my confusion so to are mushrooms and its also a great time to do preserves.

I can see it's going to take a little while to get out of Northern Hemisphere thinking...

I am still attending yoga classes and am still amazed that we can all walk at the end of them.  It is (I may have said before) Hatha yoga so focuses on using the breath as part of the movement.  There are many times I get into an Asana to find that I've held the breath... maybe this is the reason for not always being able to get into the full Asana I wonder!

These are the gardens beside the church hall where I do my yoga.

And my Tai Chi attendance is still weekly, I do struggle with the concept that something so graceful (well, when done properly) is actually a martial art!  We've 'learnt' two complete movements and have now progressed to learning something called the 42 movement.  I looked it up on line and had to laugh I think Norman, our teacher, is a very brave man if he thinks he can get us all doing high kicks let alone remember all the choreography.  Both these groups thankfully don't take themselves seriously and there is much laughter as we crash into each other or fall over from an Asana.

We visited Rob our draftsman on Friday and had a great chat with him.  It now feels like he really does understand what we want with our home.  He agreed that a Waffle Pod base rather than concrete slab is the way to go.  These Waffle Pods are made from very firm polystyrene and will form our house base along with concrete, they will provide a great deal of insulation.

Waffle Pods in place awaiting a coating of concrete.

                               
Wall and roof insulation and roof ventilation was also discussed and agreed.... all good.  We've yet to decide on the windows what frame we go for as well as type of glass.  It seems we don't need them all to be double glazed.  Northern Hemisphere thinking regarding these things is now the go, so suddenly I have far more understanding and input than previously.  I was a wee bit stumped though when a chap was talking about a hydronic heating system, until he explained it to me... the penny dropped...he meant central heating.  Every day is a school day.

Buoyed up with our successful meeting we made our way home.... in the worst storm we've had since I've been here.  Rain going sideways and very heavy, exciting lightening strikes and tremendous winds, all very exhilarating.  Rick and I were hugely thankful that we had decided to leave the bike ride till Saturday.

By Saturday the storms had blown themselves out and the sun shone again, it was a beautiful day.  The beautiful Triumph Speed Triple was dusted off, leathers and helmets were donned and we were off to visit Mannum a fairly gentle 88km ride away.  Mannum is a very pretty little town perched on the side of the great Murray River.  About 15 mins into the hour long journey the heavens opened again... that was not in the plans and we did get a little soggy.

But it was a perfect excuse to visit our lovely friends Vicki and Brian who live in a beautiful home in the Adelaide Hills.  By the time coffees and teas were drunk, a tour of their amazing garden and catching up done the sun had come out again and we were off on our original mission.   Its been a long time since we've been on the bike and it seems there is still some adjusting regarding the hand grip (mine) needs to be done.
                                    
I do feel slightly precarious perched higher than Rick and need a little more practice when he leans into a corner.  Apparently I am not too bad... but there is always room for improvement.

The Murray Princess

The iconic Black Swan

Fun on the block

You'd think with the amount of cool (read cold... Aussie cold not UK cold) wet weather we've been having since the fantastically hot start to Spring that our trees on the block would be flourishing.  Apparently not so.  Our once very healthy looking flowering gum started to look decidedly crispy as if it was in a drought.

We checked with various experts and were given various explanations.  Perhaps witchy grub type bugs were ring barking the tree, careful inspection revealed no evidence of with either of these types of interference.  We finally dug it up and checked the roots, no munching had occurred there either. We took it back to the State Flora Nursery, from whence it had come and they couldn't offer any words of wisdom either but they did swap it for another one.  Apparently this can sometimes happen to very happy looking trees.  Sad as it was to see this beautiful young trees demise it was also a relief that we hadn't done anything to assist it.

It is very hard to resist the huge variety of beautiful native plants at the Nursery and we had heard words of encouragement from a radio show urging us to plant Hakeas and Stringy Barks.  Once grown up these plants should help feed the Red Tailed Black Parrot.  These beautiful (and surprisingly large birds) are in decline as their native habitats decline. So what could we do....

In ideal tree and shrub planting conditions our growing collection of 'natives' were duly planted. As it was pouring with rain I supervised the hole digging (well we did only have only spade) from the back of the car until flattened by Fred diving for shelter out of the rain! This is Fred looking slightly embarrassed having knocked me over!

I did do my own bit of planting, the daisies were kindly donated from Deb and Roberts garden the area is fenced in to stop the sheep from having a nibble.

Talking of sheep, the hungry little Flock on the Block have managed to mow everything they could possibly reach and were running out of food.  They were munching faster than the grass could grow!  So Pete enlisted Roberts and our help to round them up and take some of them back to his grazing.

Now I'm not a natural sheep dog and don't respond well to whistles or shouts of 'come by'.  Thankfully with the aid of bribery in the shape of Lucerne Hay (the best possible treat for our fleecy friends) and some basic guiding commands from Robert (to us not the sheep) we got them into the enclosure featured in the above photo without to much ado.

The yellow ear tagged ones were rounded up and put on the back of Petes UTE, then the two lambs had to be ear tagged and sorted out.  I managed to catch one of them, dear little thing didn't struggle too much. Very quickly it was all done and the 18 remaining sheep were left to eat the remains of the Lucerne and make they way back to relative freedom.  They will hopefully have enough to munch on now.

We marked out the site of the house again, it's slightly smaller now and we needed to make sure it's far enough away from the gorgeous mature gum trees we are lucky enough to have.  It is looking good and I got quite a thrill standing on what will one day be the kitchen.

The day had started with sunshine so we took the opportunity to sort out the dead branches knocked down in the high winds and storms.  Rick revved up his brand new chainsaw and removed dodgy branches and mistletoe which we added to the bonfires.  One lot of mistletoe had a Red Wattlebird nesting so he left that one well alone.  Several great bonfires were soon burning fiercely, it was good to get the rubbish sorted out before the start of the fire season when all bonfires are banned.

The weekend was over far to quickly and we reluctantly took our leave for a leisurely drive back along the Coorong.   This beautiful part of the South Australian coast line has benefited huge amounts from the rain and the wildlife is slowly recovering.



We are so glad we took the Coorong road back as we were treated to very dramatic skies and yet more incredible breath taking sunsets.

Ooroo!

Royal Adelaide Show, Show Homes, Election, Fledglings and Hugs!

Its been a whirlwind of a week, starting with the election and change of  Prime Minister on Saturday.  From the flurry of election broadcasts, sniping, spin doctoring etc., etc., which follows every election these days, we are now in the throes of the post election settling down and the post-mortems.  All will be settled (hopefully) in the next few weeks.

It was also (co-incidentally) the day we chose to go to the Royal Adelaide Show, not to hot or chilly it seemed the perfect temperature to face the crowds and tramp around busy pavilions and show ground. What a show, I think it covers just about everything the south of England Show does but on a huge scale.

In one of the marques a couple of Rangers from a local conservation park were handling a Stumpy Tail and a Blue Tongue lizard. They had both been rescued from cat attacks and taken to the park to heal.  The Rangers were talking to people about the importance of making sure domestic animals are kept away from our diminishing wildlife.

This handsome fellow is a Blue Tongue Lizard saved from a cat attack.

The biggest draw for me (no surprise) were the food stalls, so many fantastic things to sample, all locally made, deep joy.  Followed by the Alpacas, such beautiful animals and their owners all seem to be really lovely people, full of enthusiasm and happy to share information.  We watched as a couple of the Alpacas were shawn, it didn't look a kind way to go about it and they didn't look very impressed.

And then there was the tree cutters demonstration, which was absolutely amazing.  These chaps are soooo fit and fearless.  We sat in the warming and gentle afternoon sun cheering on the lads and lasses as they went through the various competitions.

The next day was Sustainable Open House day across the whole of Australia.  We visited a couple of homes they were very interesting and we picked up quite a few ideas we could eventually use in our own home.  We were also able to pick the experts brains and found (much to our delight) we are on the right track.  So a few more adjustments to our drawings then back to the draftsman for another chat.

Mean time Spring temperatures have been up and down, one day we hit 30 c the next it was back down to 15 c.  Due to the rain and warmish winter many plants are in flower already.  One part of our early morning walk we go under a gazebo covered with racemes of Wisteria and heavy with their delicious heady perfume. The Bottle brush trees are coming into flower, they look stunning with their bright scarlet flowers.

Here the Honey Eaters have been busy feeding their young from the nectar of the Crocosmias.  The nesting Honey Eaters at Deb and Roberts have produced a couple of young, dear little things.  Unfortunately I only managed to capture one of them hiding in the Japanese Japonica.

And last but not least I saw this sign, which I thought was brilliant and I just had to share it with you.

A bit of a ramble to the first day of Spring

The days are getting longer and warmer as we approached the first day of spring, many 'spring' type plants we'd recognise in the northern hemisphere are blooming beautiful.  Which prompted Deb and Robert to take me to The Big Heath.  It is a huge area of natural scrub land and is renowned for its beauty in spring when the local flora come into bloom.

The Big Heath

It turned out to be quite an experience.  The roads into the place got to single, very muddy dirt tracks, which were lined with shrubs of all shapes, sizes and density.  We were a little early to see the place in full bloom but there was enough to get the idea.




So many plants were a surprise to me as they looked so familiar. The Heath Ericas have cousins in Scotland but are more pink in colour.  There are native orchids, daisies and quite a few more whose names I don't know.

We stopped by Swagmans Creek, due to lack of track and got out for a look.  I've never been in a place which is so free of man made noise but so noisy due to the local fauna.  It was amazing there were loads of bees, bullfrogs, lorikeets, laughing magpies all in full song, croak or buzz.

Robert couldn't resist a little 'off roading' which really got the adrenalin going especially when  my side of the Land Cruiser suddenly sank deeply into a very muddy puddle which took on the appearance of a mini lake.

The vehicle alarmingly lurched sideways and I really thought we were going to turn over.  All very exciting and funny once we'd got all the tyres back on even ground.

On the way back we spotted an Echidna, these ant eating spiny creatures are very shy.  They are about twice the size of the UK hedgehog.  Their front and back feet all point away from the body almost as if to confuse their preditors.

This little fella tucked his long nose under and rolled into a ball when he realised I was approaching him.

Our early morning walks with Fred in Naracoorte have been great fun, he bounces around like a very large puppy and thoroughly enjoyed the hydro therapy in the now very full creek.  

Fred avoiding the chief stick thrower.

We saw amazing sunrises which made the silver trunks of the graceful tall gums positively shine.  Here there were the sounds of a single Bull frog, the deep powerful boom of the male Australian Bittern, sleepy Lorikeets, Blackbirds, Laughing Magpies and a Kookaburra. All worth getting up at 6 am for.

September the first was officially the first day of spring, and started with a high of 25c!  The temperatures have been increasing steadily but I am told they can be very unpredictable and next week is forecast to be wintery again.  Well down to 15c so a very doable wintery...

We arrived back in Adelaide to find a celebration of Tall Ships was going on so whizzed straight down to the Port.  It was heaving with people but worth going to.  These magnificent ships have such incredible stories to tell (if they could speak).  The Maritime Museum hosted demonstrations of ship building crafts, very interesting and fascinating to watch the skilled craftsmen work.  They make it look so easy!

We finished the weekend with a Fathers Day breakfast on Sunday, a very civilized way to start a Sunday and delicious.

The missing photos......

As you will know from last weeks photo-less blog I was struggling with technology so these are the missing photo's... another blog will follow shortly....

One of the shy new additions to The Flock On The Block... not straying very far from Mum

The road in the pine forest looking out outwards the main Mount Gambier highway.... at rush hour!  Very calm and serene as well as smelling amazing.

This is Wing Commander Gerty, totally in charge of the Hen House.  I think you'll agree she is very beautiful.

Gertys second in command Flight Lieutenant Freckles.... just before she attacked the camera... which made me jump as I hadn't seen that coming.    

And finally the gorgeous Fred in full howl, harmonising beautifully with the fire sirens!

More tales to follow shortly....