Sunday, November 13, 2011

flowers, food, fowl and fifty

My avid reader ( yes, I have just the one ) has lodged a complaint about the recent lack of blog updates.Almost 3 months, very slack of me. My only excuse is that we have been pretty busy.

I turned 50 last month, and Ness in cahoots with J & G organised a fantastic party with many of my favourite people attending. Only down side was that they could not organise the weather a bit better, so it was 8 degrees with drizzle/heavy rain. Having spent many birthdays in Preston UK indoors due to rain it was typical that NSW proved very similar. No compensation at all that on the same day a text from my sister-in-law in Preston boasted  a very heady 26 degrees and sunshine back in Blighty.

However the Poms and Europeans almost outnumbered the natives so I suppose it was too much to expect Australian sunshine.

Creative use of fire pits, patio heaters and outdoor shelters saved the day.

From Protea Farm 1

From Protea Farm 1

We spit-roasted one of our own lambs. Ness did a fantastic job, the rosemary and garlic marinade was phenomenal..
Pic below shows James carving the lamb with the aid of a head torch, with Profs Jules & Vanessa first in the queue for a feed

From Protea Farm 1

The garden has burst into full spring colour. I am glad that we chose a temperate part of Australia to live in, there is nothing better than watching the plants burst into life after winter.

From Protea Farm 1

From Protea Farm 1

From Protea Farm 1

From Protea Farm 1

From Protea Farm 1

We are now officially Australians, having purchased and installed a shiny new gas barbecue the size of a Ford Fiesta. Can cook a banquet for 100 people on this thing, although so far we have only managed 4 lamb cutlets which looked rather lost on the griddle.

From Protea Farm 1
Kylie and Kevin's offspring reared by the feisty bantam chicken are now fully grown. Ness the expert duck sexer reckons that they are all female ( a different quack than the males apparently ). Glad I did not have to show my veterinary shortcomings by trying to establish gender by examining feathered nether regions.

From Protea Farm 1

The second batch have also been hatched by a bantam, but Kylie is now diligently sitting on a clutch so may manage a brood of her own.

From Protea Farm 1

No snake sightings here as yet, but James dog was interrupted from her snooze on the verandah by a passing stumpy-tailed lizard which caused a bit of a commotion.

From Protea Farm 1

From Protea Farm 1

A birthday present from a neighbour was a '12 guinea note'. This translated into 12 fertilised guinea fowl eggs shipped over from Queensland. They were hatched at the local school- the farming and agriculture department have a large incubator- and 6 baby guineas were hatched from the batch. They currently reside in a brooder pen at home. The theory is that they must be handled so that they become tame and bond to your property so that when they are let out for the first time they do not just fly away in an ungrateful fashion. They are however very hard to catch and not too keen on the whole handling thing.

From Protea Farm 1

We also appear to have acquired a Happy Feet penguin pretending to be a guinea fowl.

From Protea Farm 1

Ness is currently away from home attending a 2 week residential permaculture course ( farming for hippies ). More news of this on her return, undoubtedly with grand schemes involving lots of digging and back-breaking manual labour.