Red Gums and Lorikeets: July 2015

I know I've been a bit remiss with my house updates so hopefully this won't turn into a brain dump of information. Our work has slowed down a notch or two but we are still ticking along getting things sorted now where to begin.....

The log fire
Perhaps with the fire, which in itself brings great joy and warmth. There is nothing like a real fire and being able to watch flames during the chilly winter nights somehow makes you feel soooo much warmer. It works really efficiently but would (we suspect) be even better if the fan worked. Now we choose this particular model of fire because it's small and the heat is convected out of the front of the fire. So when we finally install our book shelves we won't be roasting our precious books every time we have a fire.

Fan number 1 - all started quite well until we tried to put it on to boost... nothing happened. We duly reported this to the suppliers, a new wiring loom was sent, fitted and then the fan blew up!

Back to the suppliers and onto fan number 2 - and various wiring looms later (thank goodness Rick is savvy with these things) we soon realised it wouldn't work because the wiring just didn't match up. Even I could spot that one....

Back to the suppliers and onto fan number 3 - which was never tested because it was exactly the same as fan number two!

Back to the suppliers this time with detailed reports and many photos and they kindly supplied fan number 4 - which could never work because it was completely different much larger than the original fans and would never fit into the fire. Hay ho...

By this time I was getting quite used to finding Rick laying on the floor beside the heater with his head round the back of it... air slowly turning various shades of blue as he offered the latest wiring loom or fan words of encouragement!

Once more back to the suppliers who by this time were getting quite embarrassed by the whole debacle. But this time they sent Ricks detailed report and photos onto the manufacturers and within half a day we got the news that we would be supplied with a brand new replacement fire AND the manufacturers would pay for installing it. YEAY ... well that was a week ago and we are still waiting in anticipation... hoping it might happen this side of spring.

What does work very well is the heat ex-changer fan which we turn on once the fire is going and it very quietly and efficiently circulates air into our bedroom and warms the whole place up.

The water tanks
And finally the second water tank was sorted out, Rick is tenacious as well as being very patient and has finally worked out why our second water tank wasn't filling when it rained. The inlet pipe turned out to be just about an inch above the guttering, it was a great shame the plumber hadn't noticed this when making the connection. No matter he was finally persuaded to come back and drill a hole in the side of the tank. I have to say it is a wonderful sound listening to the happy trickle of water filling up the tanks when it rains and even after a heavy dew.

And now both tanks are almost full inspite of the rainfall being a lots less than is expected for this time of year (about 100ml down). With this amount of water we should have more than enough to keep us going through the dryer months. Fingers crossed

The weather
Well even though it is the middle of winter most days have had sunny moments and amazing blue skies. Which of course leads to beautiful night skies, stunning sunsets and amazing sunrises, There have been hardly any gloomy grey days which I was so familiar with in the northern hemisphere during the winter months. Even the grey clouds seem to sit higher in the sky.

We woke up to this beautiful sky...

The other morning we awoke to a fantastic crisp white frosty morning, the poor old fluffed up birds didn't look too impressed. But there is something magical about watching the long fingers of sun stretching out and slowly thawing the crispy grass.

I still haven't quite got used to being able to hang out washing even in these temperatures and it drying AND not being stiff when you get it on off the line! Oh the joy of that gorgeous winter fresh air smell of the dried washing on days like this.

The garden is also quite amazing, I am sure broadbeans in my UK gardens would never have ventured to have flowers in winter let alone the strawberries continuing to flower. Yes really. I was so surprised when I went to tidy them up the other day, fully expecting them to have had the vapours cos of the frosts only to find they are still flowering and even producing strawberries! Incredible. I am also growing 'traditional' winter crops of all seasons carrots, beetroots, turnips, spinach, silverbeet (aka chard) and brussels sprouts. The herbs are also going gangbusters, I've a trough full of very tough seedlings, parsley, dill, coriander and mint.

And I am very proud of my first ever crop of lemons. These little beauties are quite sweet and very juicy almost like they have been crossed with an orange. I thought a celebration of Gin and Tonics was in order, deliciously easy to drink but not so good the next day! Groan......

I think I've mentioned before that we've been busy planting natives along a windbreak along the west side of the house. It will take a little while for them to become established but will hopefully have many benefits, stopping the harsh cold winds which blow straight onto our verandah. Great in the hot summer months but not so welcoming in the cooler parts of winter. It should be very pretty with the plants flowering at different times of the year, give our neighbours a wee bit more privacy and the wildlife lots of lovely things to eat. Happiness all round.

This little gem is a wonderful Grevillea called Loopy Lou, great value for money as it has not stopped flowering since we brought it in February. Since we planted it as part of the windbreak the birds have loved it. One day I counted 5 New Holland Honey Eaters hanging off and feeding on one of these beautiful flowers.

After two years of biing in the ground and what felt like almost a year of watching buds slowly forming our first Banksia, called High Noon, has started to flower. I think it was worth the wait. Every day I've noticed the nectar eating birds having a feed. It's a shame they all seem to know when I've got the camera in hand and disappear into thin air before I get a chance to capture them.

Mats

We are still lacking sand and dirt catching mats by our doors, old towels are very useful but not quite as elegant. So I've been busy with my latch hook and a bag of rags from the Op Shop and made this.....

Which is a joy to walk on because it is thick but doesn't fit under any of the doors! Back to the drawing board then. It works very well as a bedside rug though and Fred discovered how comfortable it was to sleep on when he came for a sleep over the other night and spent the whole night there quietly curled up beside my side of the bed.

Now coming from the Northern Hemisphere I learnt from an early age how to keep warm in wintery conditions, generally by staying inside rugged up by a warm radiator sipping hot chocolate and eating comfort food. Never had I ever camped out in it!

It turned out to be a wonderful adventure and such a beautiful area to visit, due to the time of year there was hardly anyone else around a bonus which meant we saw more of the wildlife...

As soon as the decision to go was made Rick and Deb set too and made a couple of brilliant 'kitchens' for each of the vehicles. Debs opened up and ours slid out, both working from the back of the vehicles a very neat way of carrying most of our food etc., There was a flurry of vehicle maintenance, food preparing, map and thermal gear purchasing and in a blink of an eye we were off to the snow fields. The plan being to meet Kay and Mick there the next evening. They are experienced campers who had been there before at this time of year and so hopefully knew what they were doing. Fred was left at home with Uncle Pete and his two dogs.

Very early Saturday morning with our vehicles packed to the gunnels Deb, Robert, Rick and I set off for Rushworth in Victoria, wanting to spend a night there to break the journey up a bit.

With the 'help' of our GPS systems both giving us different advice... mainly Turn Around! and the use of a map we eventually found a quite spot in a glade to camp. A tarp was strung between our two vehicles for sleeping under and we set up our first camp.

In no time at all and with night falling we'd built the fire, got some tucker on the go, stretchers, swags, sleeping gear at the ready and (for some of us) hot water bottles filled.

I think the local wildlife were relieved we managed to resist the urge to sing Kumbaya around the campfire. It was magical and so very peaceful.

We awoke to a stunning misty morning and the beautiful eerie sound of the Currawong call. It was a little on the chilly side... Ricks swag was covered in ice!

After a quick brekkie and vehicles reloaded off we headed into Rushworth, via the cemetery, which told many tales of the hardships endured by the people who lived here. Established in 1853, Rushworth was a gold mining town and by all accounts a very tough place to live then.

Onwards then to the Blue Mountains, wanting to arrive in enough daylight to set up camp, this time with the luxury of a tent! We headed off to Tabacco Flats, which according to my map was bush camping with no facilities. Eventually after driving through some beautiful countryside along plenty of unsealed roads we found the 4wd track we needed only to discover it was closed. With nowhere to turn around we headed through the open gate and had to go quite a way down the sticky steep muddy track to find a place to turn. That got the heart rates going and luckily we made it back to Sheepyard Flat, got ourselves sorted just before nightfall.

The beautiful soothing Howqua river right next to where we put the tents

Our village of tents.... some a lot more basic than others

There is nothing like campfire cooking, everything tastes delicious.

There were so many best parts to the trip, enough to outweigh any discomforts and challenges of camping. We were on a mission for Deb to see snow but sadly we only caught glimpses of the snow topped Alpine Village of Mount Buller which we discovered had been man-made! We had a couple of really cold nights, a wee bit of drizzle and mainly cold but sunny days.

We visited old huts, which offered protection from the elements for hikers, graziers and anyone needing shelter. Found some amazing ice formations, had a day of exhilarating four wheel driving, hats off to the chaps for getting us back to camp safely and made friends with the local bird life.

There is so much to tell best perhaps to let the photo's tell some of the story......