Nice neighbors

Monday night was bin night. I was sick and a bit out of it, and I must have put the wrong bin out (we alternate between green waste and recyclables). The next morning I was on my way to the doctors when I noticed that everyone else had the green waste bin out, not the recycleable bin. Oh well, I thought, I'm feeling too sick to care. When I got home a couple of hours later, after picking up my antibiotics (turns out I have a sinus infection), one of my neighbors had swapped over my bins for me. It was a very nice thing to do, and really improved my mood.

Happily, the antibiotics are working fast, and I will be back at work tomorrow.

Silky Oak trees

Over the last week or so, some trees in my garden have started to produce lots of orangy yellow comb like flowers. They look pretty spectacular and I was curious about what type of tree they are. Well thanks to the magic of google, the search string "tree yellow comb like flowers" eventually lead me to pictures of the same variety of tree. They are silky oak trees (grevillea robusta). I have four of them, two along the front fence line and two along the back fence line.

Here is a shot of one of them in the front garden:

One of the sites I found says that these trees can grow to 35 meters in the wild, but usually only get to about 14 meters in suburbia. I sincerely hope these ones keep to the lower estimate, 35 meters is a bit high for a tree in a backyard!

Trip to Ballarat

Last Friday I drove to Ballarat, to visit N and S and their new baby T. S had just started back at work, so N and I went to lunch in Ballarat, with T in his pram. T was just two weeks old, and very gorgeous, and very small! He is big for a two week old though.

It was great catching up, and N is recovering well from the C-section and seems to be coping very well with young T.

When S got home from work, we ordered Indian take away and caught up a bit over dinner. After dinner I had a ticket for the "Blood on the Southern Cross" light and sound show at Sovereign Hill, so I said my goodbyes and headed off.

The show was fun, and the special effects were often very impressive. I now have a much better understanding of the Eureka Stockade and the effect on Australian history, so that was worth while. Then I drove back to Melbourne and collapsed into bed. Good day.

Otways day trip

On Tuesday, I decided to go on a day trip to the Otways. The drive down (via Colac) took about 3 hours all up, including a couple of short breaks.

Otway Fly
My first stop was the Otway Fly . The Fly is a raised path, which takes you from ground level to treetop height and back. To reach the fly, you walk from the ticket office, down about a half kilometer track to the entrance to the fly.

Here is a view of the walkway construction, looking down through the walkway.

The walkway curves around. Halfway along, at the highest point, is a tower. There is a very narrow spiral staircase to the top of the tower. The views from the top are pretty spectacular.

Looking down from the tower, here is a view of the cantilever section (left) and the continuation of the walkway (right).


After finishing the Fly walk, the path takes you back to the ticket office. On the way back, I saw a black snail on the path. Apparently this species is only found in the Otways, and is carnivorous, eating small insects.

I really enjoyed the Otway fly, it was worth the trip.

Triplet Falls

After finishing up at the fly, I decided to head on to the Triplet Falls walk, which is near by. The walking track has been upgraded recently and is in good condition, but involves a LOT of stairs. I was a bit daunted on the way down (worrying about the walk back up!) but the view of the waterfalls was well worth it.

The waterfalls have three viewing platforms. Here is a view from the lowest, where the falls are reducing to cascades.

Up the track (and more stairs), a short distance is the mid level viewing platform. This is probably the best view of the falls. The main section of waterfall has a forrested section in the middle, creating two main streams of water.

Finally, the uppermost platform gives a view down to the falls through the trees. I don't have any good photos of this, as the camera kept focusing on the trees.

The path back crosses over one of the streams feeding the falls.

When I came around a corner and saw this walkway, my first thought was "wow, that's quite artistic!". Then I realised that I was looking at a section of the walkway that a tree had fallen on. The chopped up remains of the tree trunk are next to the walkway.

Further up, there was an old abandoned steam engine, with it's load of wood left near by.


Once I made it back to the carpark it was getting late, and my ankles were a bit sore after all the stairs. So I decided to head back to Colac, then do the "Red Rock" scenic drive. To be honest, I suspect the "loop" of the drive was drawn on the tourist map by someone in Melbourne, who has never been there, and wanted something else to add to the map. The roads were very narrow and poorly maintained. However the drive to the Red Rock lookout was worth while. These are two views from the lookout. On the left is a view of the countryside, showing the volcanic nature of the scenery. On the right is a view of Lake Corrangamite. The sun was breaking through the clouds over the lake, which is why the foreground looks so dark.

After this, I drove north to Cressey, and then home. All in all a worthwhile trip.

Let there be shade...

Today I finally got around to finishing a project I started months ago, installing a new awning.


Last February, once I had finished replacing glass in a cracked window pane (see Window Repair Part 3 ), painting the window and the wall, and painting the eves, I was ready to install the new awning I had purchased. I drilled the first couple of holes with no problems, following the directions with the awning, put the supplied wall plugs in, and tried to screw in the screws. I then discovered that the supplied screws would not go into the holes! After stripping the heads of a couple of screws, to the point where I had a lot of trouble getting them out, I compared the supplied screws and wall plugs to some from my toolbox. Although the instructions called for 7mm holes, it was very clear that the screws and wall plugs were the right size for 8mm holes. No wonder they wouldn't fit! I then started to drill out the wall plugs, so that I could make the holes bigger. Unfortunately, in one of the key anchoring holes, I broke the drill bit off in the hole. After a number of attempts to get the drill bit out of the hole, I was forced to buy some filler ("builder's bog"), fill the holes, paint over them and start again. By this time I was completely sick of the whole project, so after putting a single hole and screw in (to the right of the original set of holes), so that I would know where to start from next time, I put the whole project into the "when I find the energy" bucket and left it there.

Well, it is now spring, the hot weather is on the way again (and I wanted the awning installed before it hits), and I was feeling enthused again.

This time everything went very smoothly. The only part I had trouble with was tensioning the blind (it is still not quite right), but I can have another go at that later. In the mean time, the pelmet and guide rails are fully installed, and the blind is in place. Yay!

New garden bed- In which there is much digging

This project really started some time ago, before the new fence was put in. The pile of grass in this photo actually has a raised garden bed under it.

In clearing the fence line to allow the new fence to be built, my parents helped me to remove the grass, plus the sleepers that made this a raised bed.



When I decided I wanted to put in a lemon tree, I decided that this would be a good spot. To remove the Kikuyu (the really hard to get rid of grass), I decided to dig out the garden bed, and sift the soil to get rid of the grass roots ( and also the large amount of broken glass I was finding in the garden).


Once I dug down about 200mm (to below the level of the grass roots), I discovered that the underlying soil was pretty much solid clay. Lemon trees require good drainage, so the best option seemed to be to build up the garden bed, and fill it with non-clay soil.

I decided that I wanted the raised garden bed to be deeper than the existing area. So I dug out a section in front of the original space. This required a lot of work with the mattock, as the spade wouldn't cut through the Kikuyu roots. I was able to reuse the sleepers that had been removed from the area during the fence clean up. I also bought a couple of redwood sleepers, to accommodate the larger space. I used a bow saw to cut the sleepers into the required lengths.


It took several weekends of hard work to dig out the existing root infested soil, sift it, and put the soil back in place with roots, broken glass and general rubbish removed.

I was finished with that piece of work eventually, but then discovered that I didn't have enough soil to fill the new enclosure, even after mixing in a large amount of composted lawn clippings. I decided to mix the lawn clippings, the sifted soil, and a bag full of fertiliser through to make the bottom layer of soil in the garden bed. Then I ordered a delivery of topsoil from a local garden supply place. I decided to get 2 cubic meters of soil, as I will need to build up garden beds elsewhere in the garden as well.

Here is the big pile of dirt that was delivered.

And here is the remaining dirt, once I had filled up the garden bed with a section. Still a lot there!

I watered the topsoil in thoroughly, using grey water from the washing machine (with Planet Ark washing powder) and left it for a week. Then, this weekend, it was finally time to buy the lemon tree, plus some garden herbs to plant. I bought a Eureka lemon, because they have strongly flavoured lemons, and are supposed to fruit year round.

I dug out the hole for the lemon tree, and filled the base of it with citrus planting mix. I used citrus planting mix to fill in the hole around the lemon tree roots. I made a kind of basin around the tree, to hold water, and watered the tree thoroughly. I then topped up the soil in a few places, from my big pile of dirt. Next step was to plant the herbs. I planted oregano, lemon thyme, marjoram and feverfew. I had wanted basil, but the weather is not warm enough yet, so I will add that in a month or so. Finally, I added some pine bark mulch, to keep the water in the soil, and the weeds down.

I am very happy with the outcome :)

Gardening - In which there is much weeding

A few weeks ago I decided that as the weather was getting warmer, it was time to get stuck into the garden. The first step, was to weed and mulch the front garden, in preparation for summer.

I ordered a cubic meter of pine bark mulch to be delivered and then got stuck in. Here are the before and after pictures for the front garden.

Before:


After:

Broccoli recipe

I'm stuck at home sick today, so I thought it might be good to cook up something healthy, as I can probably do with the vitamins.

The ingredients:
Broccoli (chopped into large chunks, about 2 cups)
bacon (low fat), (about 50g), chopped.
toasted almonds (approx half cup)
dash of olive oil
pinch of salt

To prepare:
If you don't have toasted almonds, then put some raw almonds on a non-stick tray in the oven (at 150 degrees C) for about 15 minutes. open the oven and shake the pan around a bit every 5 minutes.
Put a large pot of water on to boil, with a pinch of salt.
In a second saucepan, heat the dash of olive oil 'till it is just starting to run more freely, then add the bacon. Cook, stirring, for about a minute. Add the almonds and continue to cook until heated through.
When the water in the first pot is boiling, add the broccoli. Allow the water to return to the boil, then drain the broccoli (should be just cooked, but still a bit crunchy).
Put the broccoli in a large bowl, mix in the bacon and almonds and serve.

Very tasty (even if my sense of smell is a bit below par right now).

Daffodils

Dad came and planted some daffodil bulbs in my front garden a while back, to try to revive some bulbs that weren't doing well in the spot they had been growing in. They have grown nicely, and now a few of them are flowering. Spring is starting to... spring!

Let there be (working) light!

Recently, I turned on my living room light, and it started to hiss and spit and make popping noises and sparks. Needless to say, I promptly turned it off! Removing the globe (long dead) from the socket that had been causing the trouble just moved the problem on to the next globe. Time to get a new light fitting.

I had been planning to spend a while finding just the right fitting for the room and updating the light when my budget was in better shape. Suddenly the issue was a bit urgent, so I went with the first reasonably affordable fitting I could find that I liked. Fortunately, while I am not deeply in love with the new fitting, I quite like it, and can certainly live with it for a while. And it has a great feature - it works!

Here is the old light.

And here is the new light.

Tasmania 8

Wow. It's nearly the end of August, and I still haven't finished recording the details of my trip (which was in February)! I had better get a move on. Although I am finding that writing about the trip is a nice way to relive the experience. Just so long as I finish before I forget all the details :)

The day after arriving in Sheffield, I decided to visit the Mole Creek caves. There are two caves there that are open to the public and with regular tours, Marakoopa and King Solomon. Marakoopa is a "wet" cave, with a large glow worm population, while King Solomon is a dry cave.

When I got to the booking office, I discovered that Marakoopa has two different tours, one of which goes up into the "cathedral" and one of which goes down to a lower chamber with a river. I really enjoy cave tours (I have already been to Hastings caves in southern Tassie, Buchan caves in Victora, and the Waitomo caves in New Zealand), so I decided to take both tours of Marakoopa, plus one of King Solomon.

The first tour of Marakoopa was the glowworm tour. I had seen a glowworm cave before, at Waitomo in New Zealand, but they are always amazing to see. Then we were taken on a tour back further through the cave, where we saw some still ponds. The reflection of the surrounding cave formation in the pools was very beautiful. I took a few photos, but due to the reflection of the flash off the water, you don't get the full impression. Tourists are not allowed to take photos of glowworms (at least not with a flash) as light causes them to stop glowing, so there are no glowworm photos.

The second tour of Marakoopa was the cathedral tour. When we reached the cathedral, it was the largest open space we had seen in the caves. The guide told us that the acoustics were great, and invited us to sing. It took me a while to work up the courage, but I figured I might never have the chance again, so I sang the opening chorus of Agincourt Carol (very sonorous and in Latin). The acoustics were indeed amazing. It sounded like half a choir was singing. I got a spontaneous round of applause from the rest of the group, so I wasn't the only one who thought it sounded great. Now, if I could just manage to sound like that without the help of amazing natural acoustics :). Apparently there are sometimes concerts in the cavern. I would love to hear one some day.

It is remarkable how much difference the lighting used makes to the appearance of a cave. The older lights used in the cave have a yellow tint, which makes the cave formations look yellow. The picture below is taken of a part of the cave lit by newer lights, with a "whiter" color. This is a better impression of the actual colors of the cave.

As a dry cave (no flowing water, and no glow worms), King Solomon's cave had a slightly different look to the Marakoopa cave. Also, a lot of the formations are streaked with tannin, which produces a brown shading in the rock.

I have about another 50 photos, but these give some idea of what the caves look like. If you like caves then I highly recommend a visit to the Mole creek caves.