:: evening warmth ::

...well, here we are...far away from Possum Bend. In Northern NSW, just out of a wee place..."the biggest little country town in Australia", Mullumbimby, to be precise. These gum trees, picking up the amber hues of yet another glowing golden sunset reside opposite the yurt which is currently our humble abode. Kindly arranged by our very good friend, Adam!
We have had numerous adventures the past two months, since leaving beautiful New Zealand.
Phoebe is now happily engaged in Sally's Class One at Shearwater Steiner School and A and I are beginning to make sense of this new life on this new chunk of Mother Earth.
Luke, sadly, had a much rougher time and became a very old boy in front of our eyes, in a matter of weeks. We will miss your 'gentlemanly' presence - although, every time we cast our gaze across to these trees we will think of you and your beautiful 'constancy' in our lives for so long... Rest well, Lukey xoxo.

The faithful subject...

Phoebe's latest strong interest is in taking photos....and Luke is one of her favourite subjects...

Poppy and Pansy Duck!

Our two, sweet, soft yellow bundles of joy, our Pekin x Aylesbury pair are progressing very well - they grow surprisingly faster than chicks!
the photo on the left is of Pansy at under a week, resting happily on my cousin, Anna's hand...with the ever-attendant "nana" Luke.
And on the right, Miss Phoebe is carefully perched up the ladder to her Apple tree, holding Miss(?!) Poppy (at about 3 weeks of age - much larger) 'just so' - we have been having lots of learning about how to handle these precious small creatures - for their own safety and their general wellbeing - ie a sense of security in how they are held, too! There are challenges every day...

Beach Rambling

I just came across this photo which seems to capture a certain rugged feeling I enjoy about our region - or is that raw? Luke and Aaron are on one of our 'scavenger hunts', which we relish - not quite as often as perhaps we could, though... it usually involves getting out to one of our local beaches - and driftwood, pumice, shells, smooth, flat, rounded pebbles... then creating with these gifts of nature. Many of the beaches have this dark gritty sand on the upper part of the Hawke Bay, then closer into Mahia, there is lovely softer, paler sand.

Mad Dog Luke

Not really sure (how could one, ever?!) what Luke was thinking here... one of our zero degrees mornings early last week...I mean, he had a room temperature bowl of filtered rain water right by his dog bed all night and still here he is trying to lick a frozen trough with sediment of goodness knows what, bugs and pine pollen...go figure! Luckily, he did NOT get stuck.

The beginnings of a New Pond in the Mandala

Here's a blow by blow of the creation of our new pond in the central bed of the Permaculture Mandala Garden.

We've simply (he he he! - I mean "Aaron! simply") dug out our shape and after removing rocks and sharp stuff, placed a 2m square piece of pond liner - the heavy-duty stuff over the space, filled it with stream water (innoculated with all the goodies that come out of stream or dam water!) et voila!

In a later blog, I will update with pics of the further aesthetic beautification of the pond - we are currently sourcing and accumulating various logs, and rocks, boulders (small!!) and driftwood to create potential dwelling spaces for frogs, lizards and all manner of hungry prey in the hope that they will gobble up our unwanted insects of the non-beneficial kind.

And, of course, Luke, our faithful friend looks on, approving the plans...

My babies are growing up so fast

So Sooty, Smudge, Ebony and the gang are now 3 weeks old! I looked at the calendar this morning and realised how fast they've grown - and they are so much bigger - and hoovering through their chick crumb.
They appear to be 2 types...there are 4 quite big plain black ones and the other 5 are a mix of black and white - possibly got some Plymouth Barred Rock in them - we shall see.
By the way, they are inside our house, given the temperatures outside at the moment. This is endless amusement for both Phoebe and Luke, of course. We have a concrete floor in our 'sunken lounge' and the chickens are living in one corner now, which we've blocked off and they have layers of cardboard, newspaper and sawdust to keep them sanitary and a warm light bulb going 24/7 to keep their tiny bodies warm until all their feathers are grown.

This pic shows an amazing animal our Luke is. Is he waiting for them to fatten up? Does he think he's Mum? Are they friends? We are still trying to work it out. For hours he stands on the edge of that ledge, peering over extremely keenly. Now, when he has FOOD in front of him that he can't get to yet, he does what dogs do - he salivates in long slimy dribbles...yet he will do this looking at the babies thing all night and no salivation. Twice he has fallen in, because he was watching so intently, and no casualties. And one evening, when we were out for about 5 hours, I think I forgot to shut the door between him and the chickens properly and he was there standing on the edge when we got home - and I had a panic and counted them quickly, feeling quite surprised to note that there were still 9 chickens cheeping happily from their pen!

It's a tough life being Luke...

Now - just in case anyone has been missing Luke, our beautiful bundle of raw energy in the form of an Australian Kelpie dog, and perhaps wondering whether he's okay here at Possum Bend, you know - will he be happy? will he settle in okay?

Well - here he is at about 8am today, completely ignoring my instructions for him to look up as I pointed the camera at him..."sorry, Mum - bit busy right now".... Happy Boy!

(We know - everyone LOVES Luke.)