Merewether Baths Surf House

 SOME LOCAL SECRETS are worth sharing.  Just underneath Surf House at Merewether Beach is a pizza and fish and chip casual eats spot where you can feed a family of four for under fifty dollars. 

Once I got a taste we ate here every week for about six weeks straight - so we enjoy a nod from the waitstaff and know where to sit to catch the perfect nor-easter on a Friday afternoon.

The new walkway takes you effortlessly to Surf House from the Ocean Baths, so it has become an established habit for use to trudge up with sand between out toes and eat.

There is a relaxed friendliness about eating pizza with your hands whilst the kids scuttle about over the rockpools and drip ice cream on themselves.

Here's a sentimental image of the baths changerooms - slated for demolition/removal in 2014, we will probably miss the mustard ugliness and awkward design of the building. 

Jacaranda Carpet

This morning the Jacarandas at the end of the street had carpeted
the grass with blooms.  It took a little coaxing to get Isla to
lie on the dew wet grass but she grudgingly agreed - maybe that's why she's not smiling!

Jacaranda blossom carpet the grass.

Have learned a lesson about warming up the models - this shoot
was impromtu - we had to put down our spoons during breakfast
and run up the street - before the blooms faded in the sun.

Sunday in Spring 2013

The 12 chickens are eager to get out for breakfast and lay their eggs

This is the steel chicken coop - it works really well and keeps them safe at night - plus it is simple to clean.

Here is one of the silver wyandottes I bought from the NSW show - can you tell she is a show bird?

Here is the new laying house for the chickens to lay their eggs
it is an old dog kennel I got from the side of the road.

Look at how the tree ferns shade the egg house!

You can see how the tree ferns are thriving -
they all shed some fronds in the extreme heat over the last week.

Merewether in Spring 2013

Spring is here with warm weather in the high 20's and not a drop of rain.  After the dry winds of August we needed watering about five times over the month to keep the ground from drying out completely.  With the 12 chickens roaming as a flock they have started to lay with the warmer weather and we are getting 9+ eggs each day.

In the Garden everything is showing signs of movement, especially the red cedar which is covered with new growth. 

I went and bought another dozen rough tree ferns (Cyathea australis) which I have found grow best in these conditions or perhaps are best suited to my garden management style.  Cyathea australis was first described in 1810 from a specimen collected in the Bass Strait.  It is hardy and will tolerate full sun so long as moisture is consistently available.  I prefer to establish them in the understory and let them find their own full sun as they emerge through the undergrowth.

I planted them throughout the garden in spots that I have previously overlooked, in 45cm square holes with 25 to 40 litres of well rotted cow manure as a growing medium. 

Then on top I built a well or contour bank to collect water and then covered this with sticks and leaf litter, then bricks or rocks as available.  I have to take such protective measures mainly to deter the chickens from scratching too vigorously around the new plantings, but also to act as a water retaining and mulch base to keep the moisture in.

15 months back I planted four Cyathea cooperi and they have grown well - the two getting the morning sun have done much better than the two getting the afternoon sun, all things being equal.  Nut the different growth rates will give some interest with different heights.

 The birdsnest fern is growing well, attaching itself to the tree after a good 18 months of growing.  It gets direct morning sun and filtered afternoon.  You can see where it has started to cover the mesh I used position it.  All I have put behind it is scrunched up leaves from the mulch - and these appear to be effective in giving some moisture base for the plant to grow from.

Finally, here are some of the flock scratching about in their natural habitat.  I can see four from left to right a New Hampshire, two silver wyandottes and a white leghorn.  Bring on the eggs I say!

Newcastle Live Sites

Every year we go to the Winter Heat Festival in Newcastle and every year we bump into Ben and his kids, and Clare and Ross. 

Goes to show there are a loyal band of followers of this mid winter event and that the energy of flames always draws people in.

This year, the event was alongside the Honeysuckle precinct and there was a definite gourmet edge to the stalls - we missed the little pancakes on a skewer - and trying to get a cool non-alcoholic drink was simply not possible. 

That said there was a stunning parade of bamboo and tissue paper marine creatures - held aloft by a dozens of primary school children.

Is worth visiting every year and we were very grateful for the lady handing out free glowsticks. 

Also, on asking a man where he bought the flashing halo head piece, he said there weren't any left, and then gave us his! 

So we were once again impressed with the good nature of the people of Newcastle.

Winter 2012

Welcome back! We have been busy (which isn't much of an excuse) but things have been evolving at a great rate since the last post (I can't believe it's been so long!). First of all, we have lost chickens through fox attacks and to be honest, a bit of mis-management on my part. It was so simple to have free ranging birds picking through the bush that it became a bit of a routine and sure enough I was letting the chooks out everyday. But to be honest it was too easy to be letting the chooks outside and expecting them to feed themselves. And with the busy Christmas season at our business, my attention was totally elsewhere when in early December first two, then three and finally the other three went missing over a week or so. Devastated, I abandoned the whole backyard sustainability project over the summer break. I didn't even water or plant any new plants or pull weeds. It all fell into disrepair. But I did rush out and but a half dozen laying hens at top dollar ($25) and, sure enough, much to my total embarrassment, the birds were taken too. Maybe by dogs, maybe by the fox again. Anyway, things hit a sort of rock bottom and it was a real turning point. I looked out the back and saw how overgrown and how it was such a waste of land to have the whole space just feeding weeds. So we bought another dozen pullets. Young egg laying hens at 16 weeks for $14 each. I told my wife we would get 8 but I brought home a dozen. It was like things were back to normal. God they are beautiful animals to watch... Now, about ten weeks after they have settled into living at Merewether we are enjoying their fruit. We are getting 8 or more eggs everyday and the landscape is completely devoid of weeds, insects and other things. The girls are confident walking around without shoes on! So let's share some more images and daily life...

Mini Citrus Orchard Planting

Oranges, lemons, limes and mandarins - how's that for a little suburban orchard?  Have bought a four citrus over the last week and planted most of them in the backyard - in a sunny, sloping position which was otherwise covered in weeds.  You might recall I planted native grasses all through the weeds to establish and outcompete the weeds, now I am adding an understory of citrus.

This is the Meyer Lemon, full of buds, I think I should remove most of these for the first season so it concentrates on getting good root growth instead of impressing us with fruit then falling over.

The Joppa Orange Citrus x aurantium Joppa is, (according to the label), a Californian juicy variety that has a fine flesh and a rich flavour.  Fruiting mid season, it grows well in coastal areas into a beautiful small tree 3m - 6m.  This is the discount plant a season old, looks like it has been moulting, should be right for spring.

The citrus will be productive because there is so much sun from the northerly aspect, but also because they will be growing in what has been a green waste dump for the past few decades.  So the soil is a deep dark organic humus crawling with life and especially legless lizards!

Can you see the three citrus?  Maybe not yet, but they are there, this is the space I want thick with citrus in the next few years so we can make jams and swap recipes etc like in the olden days.

It is a real shame to cut them up with a shovel, so I am making just one slice of the shovel, then working the soil with my hands to open it up.  The citrus just plop into the hole and then I cover the space with some of the bamboo mulch that I have everywhere.

The citrus I have planted includes a tahitian lime, a mandarin, a joppa orange and a meyer lemon.  I have my eye on some exhausted grafted citrus at a local nursery from last years stock, they are less than half price at $15, but bedraggled and a bit ugly with not many leaves.  But at least they are hardened to local conditions, and not green from being in a greenhouse.
Update: Have been back and bought another mandarin and another orange, this one a washington navel.

Newcastle Livesites Fire

Bush TV.  That's what they call sitting around a campfire, watching the tendrils of flame curl and flick as the wood slowly crumbles to ash. 

Newcastle Live Sites

The art installation burned slowly, with people six deep around it soaking in the warmth.

Tree stumps split down the centre burned from within

Makes for a mesmerising meditation, with the heat reddening your cheeks and the eucalyptus smell in your hair. Just silently watching the flames - or tonight listening to a string quartet play the theme to Romeo + Juliet. 

I was standing next to one of the people with a logo on his polo shirt, and overhead him talking about the installation, but I did not linger to note something to repeat here.  It reminded me to do an interview next time I get the opportunity.

The Pirate's Aft launching the lanterns

An almost balmy evening crowded with children and music and flames - makes for a worthwhile event on the local calendar.  Last year we wandered around Pacific Park with some mulled wine, this year we made floating lanterns and set them free on Civic Fountain Pond. 

Birthday Parties at Newcastle Foreshore

With the forecast predicting rain and cloud, we hastily re-scheduled the Birthday Party from the balmy but exposed Dixon Park Beach to the relatively sheltered Railway Sheds off Foreshore Park. And what a masterstroke it was! Excepting a band of fervent Star Wars re-enactmentors, the site was spacious, quiet and offered plenty of room for running, cycling and face painting.

Newcastle Promotion Vision

Is this enough? If it aint I guess you should GF?



or a not so successful us movie?



Your thoughts?
and another local favourite...


tell me what?
Here is the Newcastle Earthquake at 10.28am on 28 December? 5.5








Newcastle Fruit Baskets?
http://www.huntervalleyhampers.com.au/

Newcastle Musicians at Civic Theatre

Inspirational, take a moment and a deep inhale..



and the utterly powerful