WONDERFUL, WILD TASMANIA

I have sat here with my fingers hovering over the keys for several minutes, wondering where to start describing what I have seen and experienced in the first few days of my stay in Hobart, Tasmania...... This photo is of Erica and I on a walk around the lake at Mt. Field in the cold drizzle, the mist blowing in and out of the valley and down the mountain again, totally engrossed in the beauty of the mosses and lichens, the pencil pines and pandanus, and the Tasmanian mountain pepper leaf bushes in their natural habitat. Earlier we were in a deep, damp valley filled with thousands of tree ferns under a thin canopy of tall trees reaching to the sky. Platypus and trout live in the crystal clear streams while tiny wrens and other birds fill the air with song.

This is the paradise I had almost forgotten existed, where people become insignificant and humbled by the wonder of nature.... but you'd better check your feet for leeches when you take your shoes off! And the Kurrajongs greet you in the carpark!

While it is 40C in Adelaide, try and think of a good reason why you are not here too!

 

 

Another day we drove up the Huon Valley, stopping here and there to buy cherries and nectarines and apricots from roadside stalls. But life is not all fun here, as logging of old-growth forests is still going on and trucks laden with the trunks of massive trees thunder down the main street of Huonville.

We were intrigued by this sign, also in Huonville .... Follow path to the book shop.... so we did and found a magical little green garden room filled to overflowing with second hand books. It was a challenge to remove any book from a pile lest the whole lot cascade to the floor! Somehow all 4 of us came out laden and excited with what we had found. My favourite is called "A Wild Herb Soup... The life of a French countrywoman" written originally in French by Emilie Carles who lived in alpine south eastern France in the early 1900's. My version is in tiny English print.

I am so lucky to be staying with my very good friend Erica, her husband Brian and delightful daughters Kristy and Emma. Two more welcoming and friendly teenage girls you could not meet. Emma was not with us the day we found the bookshop, but below is a photo of her magnificent gingerbread house creation. The other girl in the doorway of the bookshop is Jean, a lovely friend of Kristy's.

Emma ...

This little weatherboard house on 1 acre, with a creek and fertile soil, could be my next home!

Beautiful location.... at Cygnet, south of Hobart.

 

 

 

 

Seeing the Tasmanian mountain pepper (Tasmannia lanceolata) growing in the wild was so exciting. It is one of my favourite native herbs and it takes a lot of care to grow it in Adelaide. In this wild, cold and windy environment its pungency fills the air as you brush past it.

 

See more photos here.

2010 International Year of Biodiversity

Thank you to Patrick for this link.

UN Secretary General Welcome Message for the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity

We are so lucky here in Australia, in so many ways. In relation to biodiversity and things of natural wonder, much of our country is still in its pristine state and none more so than the Lake Eyre Basin of the inland , which covers 1/6 of Australia, an area about the size of France, Germany and Italy combined. The flood waters in eastern Australia last year have been making their way inland ever since, not out to sea,  and have filled Lake Eyre for the first time in 50 years or more.Thousands of people go to see it; it is like a pilgrimage. It defines Australians. Watching this on TV even, makes me feel something I cannot describe.... 

The ABC screened a documentary on it and it is now on iView. It is worth watching on this hot, dry day in South Australia.

http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/490862

SALISBURY WETLANDS

Water is a serious problem here in South Australia but one local council is doing something about it. In fact, they are leading the world in storm water treatment and re-use. Many years ago they began to use some dry and dusty land as a series of holding ponds for storm water runoff. It was then a rough and ready arrangement which has now grown to be a showcase for water conservation.

Stormwater is water that runs off surfaces such as roofs, roads, footpaths and driveways when it rains. Much of this water flows into stormwater drains and then into creeks and rivers, eventually making its way into the sea. About 160,000 million litres of polluted stormwater was being released into Gulf St Vincent each year, much of it into the Barker Inlet.

In the 1990's the City of Salisbury defined a vision that it would seek to eliminate the flow of polluted water into the marine environment of the Barker Inlet of Gulf St. Vincent. The Barker Inlet is a delicate marine environment of mangroves and sea grass meadows serving as a nursery for a majority of the State's fishing industry. However, years of neglect and polluted inflows have reduced the Barker Inlet to a delicate state.

The creation of wetlands to cleanse stormwater was Salisbury's key strategy to help the ecological rehabilitation of the Barker Inlet while providing cheaper water to local industry and other users. Nutrient and pollutant loads are typically reduced by up to 90 per cent and the treated water salinity is less than 250 mg/L. The system is designed to hold stormwater for around 10 days to ensure optimal treatment efficiency.

Stormwater is treated and harnessed in a series of more than 30 wetlands along urban stormwater paths to slow the flow and allow pollution to settle out. The wetlands cover an area of 260 hectares enhancing the landscape and creating habitat diversity.

All the wetland plants are propagated at the Council's nursery and they play an important role in the treatment of polluted stormwater. The nursery has developed a high level of expertise in propagating various wetland species, and it sells wetland plants to users all around Australia.

As drought hit our state, demands for water also increased and the council researched storing cleaned stormwater underground in aquifers for re-use later. Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) is the process of injecting water into a suitable underground aquifer for storage and later reuse, and it can be a means of artificially recharging depleted underground water supplies.

ASR is a modification of the natural system that has been occurring for millions of years. Natural recharge occurs by filtration of rainwater through the soil profile, past the vegetation root zone and down to permeable rocks known as aquifers.Aquifers can store large quantities of water without losses from evaporation and with reduced risk of contamination, both of which are problems associated with surface water storage areas such as reservoir.

In March there was an excellent talk given at the Rare Fruits Meeting, by Colin Pitman, the Director of Projects at the Salisbury Council. He explained that they have now mapped the whole of Adelaide and made plans for supplying enough water to Adelaide to make it independent of the River Murray. The wetlands and aquifer system is suited to Adelaide's winter rainfall and underground geology and can hold the best solution for all our water needs, relatively cheaply and will return a profit, as it does for the Salisbury Council. I would be very happy to dispense with our current, antiquated water authority and buy my water directly from such a system as this.

I have a CD of the talk which is inspiring and full of information. If anyone would like to borrow it please email me.

Last week I went for a walk at what is now called the Greenfields Wetlands and found it to be not only useful but full of wildlife and photo opportunities! It is amazing to think that what once a dry, barren and awful part of the outskirts of Adelaide, in a triangle between 2 major roads, is now home to thousands of birds, frogs, lizards and insects. It is worth the drive.... go and look for yourself. 

more photos here

 

	There are many bridges through the Melaleucas
	You can see the oxygenating of the water happening here as nature cleans the water
	If I had binoculars, I could see my house on the top of one of those hills, from here.

BABIES ARE SO BEAUTIFUL.....

Of course Chook's baby Rebecca is gorgeous but I am talking about the birth of new fruit that occurs all year round at my mother's place. I took these photos last Thursday and there are more fruit appearing every week, all year round.

Baby mangos by the  hundred...

....and figs...

....and nashis....more than ever before

 

There are also the baby apricots, plums, lemons, oranges, nectarines, peaches, pears and several varieties of apples. 

 

Granny Smith apples...

.....moorpark apricots...

...and twin mangos....cute

 

And at my place....here are some ripe boysenberries.....must be THE most difficult things to photograph...but the easiest things to grow and best to eat.....all warm and black and squishy, straight off the canes.

 

And look who came sauntering into our garden today..... an echidna! It seems to have walked straight through the mesh I put on the gate to keep the chooks out of the pool area..... another job to do.....but worth it to have this gorgeous creature visit us. No wonder the chooks were acting a bit odd!

A NOISY TRANQUILITY

Mt. Osmond is a noisy place but not in the ways you might think. It is the wildlife, you see, that screeches, grunts, chirps and laughs from before sunrise to after sunset and sometimes all through the night too. In winter I wrote about the wood ducks and previously I have mentioned the parrots, that make so much noise for several months of the year, that it is almost impossible to talk on the phone outside and at times drive me inside for some peace and quiet.

This time of the year it is the koalas, that roam the gum trees, sounding like a sick bear, with their deep, throaty growls sounding out across the tree tops, that are the most distinctive. And there are the crows, whose call was made to carry across the dry, flat plains of Australia, but are deafening when only a few metres from you! Now, in late spring, the sky is often filled with flocks of cockatoos - sometimes the black ones whose call truly takes the cake for the most raucous Australian bird, and sometimes the sulphur-crested cockatoos and less frequently, the pink-crested ones, all vying for the prize for maximum volume at the same time!

The kookaburra season seems to be over, but they are the real comedians, laughing across miles of scrub-land, as though they are telling hilarious jokes to one another, at full volume, but sometimes stopping just short of the punchline and reducing their mirth to a giggle.....I don't know why.....maybe the joke wasn't that great after all...

I have seen and heard all those creatures while I have been out in the garden this morning.... and I took a photo of the latest koala to wedge himself between some branches for a feed of manna gum leaves, and a few hours' sleep. To get a good shot, I got out my biggest old lens, for the first time since I got my new camera, and couldn't help zooming in on anything I could see.....check here for more photos.

Spring, Fun and Flat Stanley in Adelaide

What is it about spring that makes you want to get out side and have fun in the garden.
We are pulling out older plants, mulching with our compost, and planning where the tomatoes, basil and spring onions will go.

I have planted shiso seeds but find this wonderful versatile Asian herb is shooting up in the garden, where it had been planted last year. Last year I only used it in salads but this year it is going to appear everywhere as I have learnt more about it.
So shiso will appear in Asian soups, in stir frys, sushi and just fresh on a plate, with a bowl of steamed, maybe seasoned rice. The idea is you use the shiso leaf and wrap it around the rice, then eat it.

This year we are hoping to grow okra another versatile vegetable. I like it best slit down the middle, soaked in milk for a couple of minutes, then drained, rolled in flour and fried in a small amount of oil. But I am going to make a gumbo with it and also a south Indian curry.
I must put some coriander seed in a shady pot today and also freeze the coriander which is in the garden before it bolts to seed.

Now what to do with all the other seeds that are germinating nicely in this perfect spring weather.
It is so beautiful here today I must get outside soon.

Today I take my parent's for a drive, last week we went to Henley Beach and watched the wind and the waves but today we shall go to the Adelaide botanic gardens or to the rose garden at Urrbrae House and just sit and watch the flowers bloom and listen to the birds songs.

If you have not been to Adelaide, well let Flat Stanley take you for a guided tour of some parts of our lovely city.
It is 1 year tomorrow since Flat Stanley arrived in Adelaide from Atlanta and Foodshed Planet.

Pattie from Foodshed Planet's fun loving, creative young daughter had asked if her Flat Stanley from her school project could visit Australia. So Stanley arrived and Kate and I were very happy to show Stanley around our lovely city.

Click on to Flat Stanley to see the fun we had.

You will see some of the places we mention as well as our Adelaide Farmers Market, which is just 2 years old next week.
You will see our lovely Fern Avenue Community Garden, Warrawong Santuary and you will see the wattle, and blossoms and what's growing here at the moment when most of you will be enjoying the dappled colours of Autumn.

Wow it is only a year ago since he arrived and since new friendships were formed.

Now I am a Granny with a real life little boy to play and have fun with.
Pattie and her daughters have been riding their bikes everywhere and having all sorts of fun designing t shirts, having open gardening days with friends and painting wonderful bubble rooms.
And Kate well she is gardening her way around the planet and should appear in France soon.

So enjoy your day where ever you are.

SUNDAY IN THE GARDEN

	The baby noisy miner bird that I mentioned in a post yesterday is still learning how to fly and I managed to get a few shots of it resting in the peach tree. Deb's purple podded peas are flowering and some pods are almost ready to eat. This bok choy type plant, below, called Ching Chiang Pai Tsai, is my favourite of this type so far and so quick and easy to grow during the cool weather.
The parrots below are Rainbow Lorkeets and are very abundant in this part of the world. They make a constant noise all day long as they feed in the blue gum trees that are flowering around Mt Osmond at the moment. They are very acrobatic and it is hard to catch them being still enough to photograph. If I had only had my long lens on I could have zoomed right in....but I was trying to do gardening and just got distracted onto photos by the baby bird!

CORREAS AGAIN!

	I love our little native correas that are happy whether its hot and dry or cold and wet, in the shade or in the sun. They are originally an understorey plant, common under gum trees and wattles etc. Their flowers are a wonderful sight in the bush in early winter and there were several in flower when we went camping a few weeks ago.
I am recreating a patch of local bush down near the bottom of my block, amongst a few blue-gum trees. It is slow to fill in, with all the drought and heat in the last couple of years but eventually I will have it crammed with local plants, for the wildlife value and for my pleasure.
I recently saw some honey-eaters and pardalotes there, which I haven't seen for years before, because of the invasion of the noisy-miner birds. Grrr...that's the council's fault for clearing everything in sight!
	Of course there are lots of weeds down there too but that's OK because this is also the chooks biggest foraging area and, if the ground was bare, they would undermine the steep bank and cause terrible erosion, as they have elsewhere. For some of the summer I have to keep them off this area as it is so dry and devoid even of weeds. This also gives plants such as these correas time without the chooks.
Correas are actually edible and the flowers taste better than the leaves but I think the leaves would make a good substitute for bay leaves. The Belair Native Flora Nursery has lots and I always choose those grown from seed collected as close to where I live as I can and this is always written on the labels. Those that survived last summer are the ones I will plant more of during this winter.