Local Market Forces

I stumbled upon a haul of obscure SF paperbacks in a bookshop in Holland Park, as we were due to drive home in the tiny hire car I'd driven up from Lismore while the garage got on with fixing our car's gearbox. I ended up leaving the books at a friend's house in Brissie for collection upon my return. There are even a couple of Zelazny books I've never read before.
Back in Nimbin, there was plenty to clean up following the heavy rains - mudslips, flooded trenches and washed away logs, and a brief (but apparently Nimbin-wide) plague of native mice (antechinus).

Our log fire has been lit more or less constantly, as temperatures dropped to lows of 1°C and 2°C, and real frost has been crunching underfoot in the morning. Chopping the wood for the logfire is probably the most rustic part of our lifestyle in the bush here (as everything else in the house is electric or gas) but happily it warms me up both in the doing and through the resulting split logs. It is only as cold as this in winter when there are cloudless skies, so the days have been bright and wonderful, with the afternoons around the 22°C mark - more or less what I think of as "perfect" weather.
Probably because the temperatures only get down towards freezing just before midwinter, most of the deciduous trees in this region lose their leaves very late as well - often in mid-June, which means that the striking red and gold leaves appear at the same time as the bright blue sky days, as in this picture of The Channon's Sunday market. I have further developed my incipient obsession with SF literature by joining a local science fiction reading group. Neuromancer, Slaughterhouse Five, and the Tripods trilogy are the eclectic first three books read since I started going - I'm hoping the wide range continues, and hoping the group picks something I haven't read before soon, too.
Louis reminded us to attend the Djanbung Gardens open day on the third weekend in June - there were excellent walking tours, and Louis gave an interesting speech on globalisation and local consumption/trade patterns and possibilities. The following day, we engaged in two most excellent opportunities for local trade, by attending first the Dunoon Wide Garage sale, and then The Channon market. Home-made pumpkin soup was on sale as a winter warmer, and thus fortified, we trudged the length of Dunoon, scouting for interesting bargains and unusual nik-naks, while all around us ocker Aussies got into their utes and drove every thirty yard gap between people's stalls, loading their accumulated loot into the back and giving us strange looks for having the temerity to proceed on foot.
Naturally, I accumulated another handful of silver age SF books.

The Idles of March

There's nothing remarkable about these two views across Nimbin valley, But anyone who's visited our place in the past may be surprised to learn they were taken from the lounge window - the solid curtain of green is gone. There are a few more trees still to go in the front garden, but we're nearly done. All that will be left are seven or eight bangalow palms, two jacarandas, one large cocos palm, two eucalypts, an orange tree, a macadamia tree, an avocado tree, a mango tree, two frangipanis, two tree ferns, a (huge) japanese plum tree, two bamboo-like palms I can't name, and a few native shrubs. Once our tiny pond has been filled, there will be some small pond plants too. Frustratnigly, the branches stacked up from this week's chopping and sawing have re-filled the empty spot left after last week's wood-chipping session. Sisyphean.
Today has been a very long day. We got to the Channon market so early that we were the first customers at the Repentance Creek coffee stall. We hunted down the good fruit and veggies (and the best blackberry jam in New South Wales) and then caught up with Jonas and Tanya, who are back from an extended stay in Sydney, where they have family to care for Otto. Lucky buggers.
Otto is way bigger and looks (a) like a proper little bloke, and (b) scarily like Jonas. From The Channon we drove East to the Firewheel plant nursery, where they were holding an open day to talk about their rainforest regeneration projects - which are quite impressive considering they are only a side-project from their day job running the tree-nursery: They are clearing a length of creek on both sides, removing all the invasive trees and replanting with native trees and shrubs - already they have breeding koalas, platypodes and echidnas on the property, and the area around the creek will soon feel like the invaders were never there.
I have finally finished digging the seemingly endless drainage trench - now there's only block-laying, mortaring, back-filling and gravel-laying to do, and the rear wall of the downstairs will be dry even in the heaviest rains.
I have also spent a few hours up on the roof cleaning away twigs, leaves and debris - this has finally felt worthwhile, now that most of the overhanging trees are gone. C has continued the run of fixer-upper wooden furnishings as well; this week she sanded back and varnished up a battered old trestle-style blackboard, and it has taken pride of place in K's room alongside colourful chalks and crayons.
A note on the weather to wrap up this blog post: The contrast between the 8 week period from mid January to mid March in 2009, when compared to 2008, could hardly be more extreme. 2008's severe la Niña left us with over 700mm of rain in that period, whereas this year we've had a respectable 200mm. The latter makes for healthy plants and a pleasant summer, the former makes for plans to sell up and move elsewhere.

Picnics, Markets...Almost Springtime

The new look 2oz is here. The only content addition is my list of recently read books (by the amazing LibraryThing) under the clock in the left-hand column - everything else is as it was before (the archive at the bottom right has changed to the drop-down style, but all the previous posts are accessible as before). The three columns are pretty much full up already, and the idea, when I have time, is to keep the current look and feel but add a fourth column for links, photos, feeds and other content. By the way, I would love to hear from any regular readers (whether I know you or not) - the stats are showing several loyal readers in parts of the world that I have certainly never been to, and in which I don't think I know anyone - flick me a comment if you are one of those readers, especially if you have a blog of your own, and even better if you live somewhere more obscure than Nimbin!

Another long week, the second of four with 10 hours overtime. We headed over to Dunoon on August the second, and had a picnic lunch at Jonas and Tanya's. Their lawn is much less "bush" than ours, and the experience of sitting on a picnic blanket in the shade on a sunny day tucking into yummy food made me realise, that we don't really use a garden as we should.

We made it into Lismore on Tuesday, and went for our first skin cancer checkup. Australians have their skin checked like Europeans have their teeth checked - every 12 months is recommended, and sensible people go back to their skin specialist if ever they notice anything unusual. While in Lismore, we also finally got around to joining the library. They have a great scheme where the little ones get a free party-pack with book, DVD, and learning materials at at 4, 12 and 24 months, to make sure that they get the reading bug.

I have also, finally, started wielding the chainsaw to do more than just cut logs. With C's help, I cut down, and then cut up (" bucked" - see, I'm learning the lingo) two fair-sized trees that were blocking a lot of light to the raised beds in the garden. While digging over the raised beds in preparation for spring planting, we also dug up the potatoes that we planted a few months ago. It was hardly a bumper harvest - just enough for two portions of fried potatoes... but it was our first attempt and I'm confident we'll get 10 times as good a crop next year.

The weather in Northern Rivers has continued its run of perfect blue sky outdoorsy days (I am relatively confident that the end of this perfect run will coincide with the end of my overtime at work). This kind of weather makes it easy to dig the garden and cut down trees and sit on the deck drinking tea and coffee, but much harder to do indoor stuff - and by Friday, it is making desk work seem like torture. I will be gutted if the weather switches to cold and rainy just when the outdoor swimming pool opens in September.

Today we went to Channon market again, but much later in the day than we have in the past. The market stalls set up quite early in the morning, and pack away shortly after lunchtime. However, early afternoon is, in some ways, when things begin - drummers and dancers assemble around the chai tent, and by three o'clock the circle of drummers is 20 feet in diameter and there are a hundred dancers and spectators - it's an energising atmosphere, and something we should really turn up to every month. Maybe it's the trance-head in me coming out, but I still find that there is nothing as effective as an hour of repetitive beats to blow the cobwebs away and leave me ready to face the week.

Free Association

I'm pushed for time with this blog, so I'm going to scribble down the week's doings as they come back to me.
I put the car into the garage, and miraculously they did the bodywork same day and I picked it up that evening.
Fran has finished her painting of K - a photo will go on the blog once the fixative has dried.
The tree surgeon came and quoted on sorting out our invasive tree problem - they're Polonias, not Camphor Laurels - Stefan had already told me they might be Polonias - should've guessed he'd be on the money. All five trees cut, logged and chipped came in just above $1,500, so I reckon we'll go for it as it will sort out our garden and give us lots more breeze and sunlight in the winter months.

The channon market featured a lively samba band.








I was less lively for much of the week.









We've had Cockatoos and Wallabies around the garden as the sun has started to come back out.










Fran wanted to see Woodburn and Evans Head, so we drove down on Saturday - impressive piece of national park, and beaches that surpassed my expectations - though it was too rainy for swimming that day.




We spent this morning consuming unlikely quantities of caffeine and then wandering round the market and Nimbin art gallery with Fran - and I picked up a load of good SF books for 50 cents a pop, including some Harlan Ellison I've never seen before (slaver, slaver...)
Jonas and Tanya came round this afternoon with Otto - he's become huge and much more of a person in his own right... It's amazing how quickly new babies' personalities start to shine through!
In a final burst of constructive energy, I have used some free time this evening to go through the enormous pile of clothes which C has been intending to sell on eBay for the last 2 months, and take a picture of each one before bagging them up - so the enormous clothes drift no longer threatens to topple onto me while I'm sleeping and crush the air out of my lungs.
Things are afoot. News is imminent. Watch this space.
Keep watching.