Two Birthday parties

I flew to Sydney to go to William Yang’s birthday party at Jack’s eccentric house in Marrickville.  

















His invitation said to ‘dress auspiciously please’ -so Rebekah Fogarty who accompanied me to the party gave me a Jade ring to wear to the party.

The party was a buzz of excitement with William beaming and a cellist played a chinese musical piece.

 I enjoyed William’s birthday speech as he mentioned the Karen Blixon novel 'Babette’s Feast'.
Check out the story http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babette's_Feast

William asked me if I wanted to meet any celebrities at the party but I was happy enough enjoying his company and of course Rebekah was charmed by Jack’s Irish charm.

Best of luck William with your performance at the 2012 Sydney Festival this year! http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/uploads-2012/08%20I%20Am%20A%20Camera.pdf

Also Gareth celebrated his 50^th Birthday by throwing a party at home in Beechmont  

He certainly looks 10 years younger! I enjoyed reconnecting with his friends Kate and Max. Maurice, Anna and Maria Meagher, Madelaine, Melissa, Gerard and Lae stayed at Rosewood. It was a great party and the work that he and Warren had put into hosting the event was evident from all the people enjoying themselves! Delvae was there as was Michelle who made the most yummy of desserts.

Meanwhile news around the family was Mum giving my nephew Leo a violin lesson

In the garden the the tree waratah and Christmas




I welcomed a delightful German family from Bavaria - Melanie, Jens and their three children: Lilly, Jannes and Joris. They are from the HelpX organisation and it was a great hosting them. Jens and Melanie are both psychologists so we had some very interesting conversations. My nephew Leo also came up to play with their children and there was alot of laughter and activity around the yard. Jens was great helping me around the garden and Melanie helped in the house and we had a few laughs over cooking instructions that weren't followed. They went to do some bushwalking up in Binna Burra and are now heading south - what a great adventure for their children to be travelling.

and in the garden...the Qld Waratah Tree is a mass of blooming orange!

and the bromeliads are looking great as a mass planting!

An organic gardening workshop and cheesemaking demonstration

Rob came down from Cairns and was kindly given a cheesemaking demonstration by the lovely Delvae Edwards (thanks Delvae!).

At the dinner on saturday night Warren, Gareth, Delvae and Colin enjoyed the fresh ricotta when Rob prepared a yummy baked ricotta dish with fresh thyme.

Rob also planted an olive tree in the orchard. The tree was a gift from my brother Dave and Sister-in-law Cate.

We attended the organic gardening workshop held at the Griffith University Ecocentre by Jerry Coleby-Williams. It was a great workshop. He is also a presenter on the ABC’s ‘Gardening Australia’ and for 11 years managed the horticultural estate at Sydney’s Royal Botanical Gardens.

He also co-created Bellis, a sustainable house and garden in the Bayside of Brisbane. Check out his website http://www.bellis.info/Site_3/Home.html Jerry was inspiring with his sustainability message and reminding us you just need to take small steps to achieve sustainability.

Hopefully one day we can live in an autark system. This is a self-sufficient system; for example, a system that is economically independent. Some religious communities such as the Amish and the Mormons attempt to sustain a viable autarky. 

Warren and Gareth have their hands full with the second litter of piglets from Bernie and Bernadette.

I have Wei Ren Lai (Neck) staying from Taiwan He is from the HelpX organisation. 'Neck' has been great doing mulching around the top garden and weeding in the vegetable garden. He has also had the time to go to Binna Burra to do the bushwalk at the Bellbird circuit walk. 




My nephew Justin told me about HelpX and it is provided primarily as a cultural exchange for working holiday makers who would like the opportunity during their travels abroad, to stay with local people and gain practical experience. In the typical arrangement, the helper works an average of 4 hours per day and receives free accommodation and meals for their efforts. Check out their website http://www.helpx.net/index.asp

And finally flowering in the garden at the moment and the bed of hydrangeas and the drive to the house is purple with the fallen flowers of the Jacaranda trees.

A visit by a friendly King Parrot and a visit to Gareth's orchard

My Aunty Trish read my blog and she said there was too much work going on ...and it made her feel exhausted reading the blog - so this blog entry hopefully will be a little less full of work! Thanks for the feedback Aunty!

The garden is all red this month with an impressive red epiphyllum or orchid cactus that is growing up a Jacaranda tree.

and there are also mass plantings of double red hippiastrum bulbs blooming in all the garden beds.


I  have nicknamed the visiting King Parrot 'Cheeky' as he is incredibly bold and friendly especially when he wants some bird seed. The males of the Australian King Parrots have brilliant red head, red belly and green wings. He usually visits in the morning with his family and late afternoon and if I have forgotten to leave birdseed out near the kitchen herb garden, I will notice his flashes of red colour as he flies through the property trying to locate me and attract my attention with his whistling. I'm a bit concerned he is a 'stalker'

Barbara and Phil were visiting recently and 'Cheeky' ever curious visited them alot. He prefers the sunflower seeds the best of all the seeds! It was a delight reconnecting with Barbara and Phil and hearing their recent travel stories. They are both so adventurous!

My dear friend and neighbour Gareth has the best orchard with neat beds and rows of fresh home grown produce. I am more than happy to swap home baked cookies and cakes for some of his locally grown produce.

Kel took some photos of his purple broccoli and cabbage which I am happy to share and showcase.

Anyway I can't forget to mention the great gardening work that Lynn and Andre have done in working impressively, removing the weeds and restoring the top garden. The final results show  refreshed and renewed garden beds. They have both got great garden knowledge to share - thanks so much.

On a creative note I visited the art exhibition of Julian Meagher at the Edwina Corlette Gallery in Brisbane. Check out his website as he has some great images of orchids!

Renewing the retaining wall and an unexpected storm!

It has been a lovely week reconnecting with old friends, Leigh Ellwood and Stephen Carpenter who were up from Melbourne; staying beachfront at Currumbin on the Gold Coast. Both were enjoying the Queensland warmth and waves with their delightful children Gus and Harriet. Harriet drew me a charming picture that I am posting on the blog. It is always such a pleasure renewing friendships and enjoying shared conversation that has both delight and depth. They have recently bought a heritage country property in Victoria and showed me some great images on their iPad. Both Leigh and Stephen have such style -  surely their new country home will be filled with curiosity, adventure and individuality.

At 'Rosewood', the garden beds with their beds of massed clivias in bloom are certainly attracting lots of positive comments from visitors. I moved some of the clivias to the front path that leads up from the tennis court...and they are a nice welcoming feature. The azalea flowers are also bring splashes of colour in the garden.

 

Kel one of my best friends was over from Papua New Guinea and offered to help out in the garden. The retaining wall around the pergola in the lower pond really needed some refreshing as the timbers were rotting. The pergola has a very large wisteria vine that is in bloom. The retaining wall is behind a row of palms that I have underplanted with bromeliads.

I know masonry or rocks are probably the best things to use for retaining walls but my brother David had given me some old timber railway sleepers so the opportunity of recycling and using something to hand was there. Kel picked up Daniel on his way from the airport to help with a bit of muscle and the two of them set to work digging out the old timber which proved to be tough going as the palm roots made the digging hard.

Still the finished result is great ..thanks Kel and Daniel! - As the boys were finishing a fierce storm blew in from the west and strong gusts brought the old pergola crashing down. I was a bit incredulous as I surveyed the damage from the storm...but as my StepFather commented the next day...'A project for another week'...Good to be optimistic I say!

But there is always good news on the mountain; Warren and Gareth shared at dinner - that the herd of Wagyu beef cattle had their first calf...aptly named Tsunami...an unexpected event as there were concerns the Wagyu bull 'Wally' had been a bit slow in his siring duties! Congratulations Wally!

tree lopping

Warren organised Jeff and the team from the 'treeloppa' company to do some treelopping. They came and lopped off some dead branches of a big Monterey Pine over the driveway. It is an amazing tree and a long way from its native California. If you look closely in the photo posted you'll see one of the boys right up in the tree! They also took down a Jacaranda and Paulownia tree. The good news is now there is plenty of mulch!

On a previous weekend Di, Gabby and Relle helped out in the front garden to put down a layer of mulch. Now if I can only find a way to stop the chickens scratching up all the mulch I'll be happier!

I transplanted a whole lot of traditional agapanthus plants and moved them up to the border of the top garden where they will have a sunnier position. They will eventually spread out and make an attractive border feature.

Thanks girls for all your help and thanks to Relle who served up a refreshing ginger mint drink with fresh mint from the kitchen herb garden...and a special mention to Gabby who made a cherry clafoutis dessert - very yummy.

The garden restoration begins

This is the story of the renewal of an old garden and homestead in the mountains of Beechmont, Queensland. It is also the story of community.

New friendships forged through restoring the garden

Warren and Gareth helped to organise a whole group of friends and neighbours to help with the weeding and clearing up of the overgrown garden. The working bee included :

Dean & Tim - Michelle - Anthony, Nicole and Rose - John & Rex - and Lae. New friendships were forged as everyone mucked in and showed their individual and team strengths. Patience is important in order to discover some of Rosewood’s buried treasures such as seasonal bulbs – so it was seen as important not to use weedicide at first but to have a small army equipped with wheelbarrows, chain-saws, garden forks, shovels, matics and hand trowels to pull out weeds, trim and prune overgrown plants. Also gloves were so important for pulling out prickly weeds and sensible sunscreen to ward off the rays of the sun – ouch!

A big thanks to Warren and Gareth for organising the workers who included -Peter and Alec who were holidaying from Scotland; Daniel from Ethiopia who is studying here, Denis and Tim from Nerang; Delvae from Beechmont..my nephews and niece Leo, Sigi and Hope

The Entrance to Rosewood

Two large Bunya Pines flank the gates at the entrance to Rosewood and then the road weaves through a stand of remnant rainforest before you arrive at the property...Nature had started to reclaim the property and catsclaw weed has been growing rampant and is now in the the rainforest canopy





One of the first gardening tasks has been to remove the cat's claw creeper (Macfadyena unguis-cati). It is an aggressive climber which was once used as an ornamental in older-style Queensland gardens....Melissa Cooper who is a park ranger has been invaluable in her advice about slowly eradicating this creeper..and allowing the remnant forest to breathe again.