Christmas in Yungaburra!

Well we had  a very nice Christmas in our new home!

Christmas in Yungaburra

Presents waiting

 I keep thinking every year that so much preparation and anticipation  goes to it and you only have to blink and everything  is over!

Christmas Eve lunch

Hurry up we're hungry!

 People come and go, presents that you spent working on, or even wrapping, for hours  are opened in a minute. Food that cooked for a whole day is eaten in an hour...

Waiting patiently for our presents

Is this one for me?

Well... Not as big but I'll settle for it!

Will I ever be able to open it???

You hardly have time to enjoy it…

When I was younger it seemed that Christmas was taking ages to come and last longer. Now I feel like there isn't enough hours in one day, to be able to enjoy it to the full.

I definitely didn't have enough time to finish decorating the tiramisu… Ah Ah! The strawberries and mint leaves are still sitting in the fridge… It was still very tasty though.

Yummy....

 Maybe it's relative to age, the older you get, the quicker time goes.  (It went very fast for this little fellow).

Mexican Tomato?

 And the next day everything is back to normal…

Same routine

 I hope you all had a Merry and safe Christmas, as we did!

Merry Christmas... Late!

 It won't be long until the next Christmas is upon us but let's enjoy the New Year 2012 for now.

Before Christmas

In the last few weeks leading to Christmas, we've been quite busy.

We've been extending the driveway a little bit in prevision of the wet season. Digging was the hard part. That soil is like concrete. But it's all done now.

Dug out!

Concreted

 I've also started to tidy up the garden, weeding and raking the leaves(26 overflowing wheelbarrows!) , transplanted bromeliads, blood lilies and other plants growing  where we couldn't see them, and put them at the entrance near the driveway. I've also sowed flower seeds, hmmm… I've never been good with seeds, but this time I've talked to them while putting them in the ground. Think it helps?

Beautiful blood lillies

 Svenne started the "platform project". The staircase  is up!

Staircaise to haven...?

 We have  to mow the lawn once a week now as showers we had lately make it grow overnight.  Pity we had to go over the beautiful flowers that pop up everywhere in the grass… It would have been rather nice to have them for Christmas!

Stunning clusters of these everywhere

 We had  a couple of curlews with their little chick in our backyard.

We had noticed they were nesting in the farmer's paddock, under the tree. But when it was time for  the cows to come  in and feed on the green grass, the curlews moved closer to our fence.

And one morning,  we saw them in our garden, taking turn to sit on the chick and go feeding.  We spent a long time watching them and feeding the parents when they came up to us.

Pictures are not easy to snap as they are very cautious. They went somewhere else now, but hopefully they will come back and visit.

Mum looks after you!

Keep up with us...

 Things we're not short of however, are green frogs. They are everywhere, large and small…

Small... sitting on a tomato

Big... sitting on the servery

 Birds...

Looking for a feed

Having a bath

 Stunning cloud formations...

Mum and a baby kissing???

Little dog sitting in the sky???

 And unfortunately geckos... And cane-toads...

Light ones...

Dark ones...

Ready to pop out of the drain

  

Oh well! We just have to learn to live with them!

Spring in Yungaburra!

Spring has made a huge difference in the garden.

Everything has grown quickly and vigorously.

Of course that means bugs are everywhere!

 

All the trees are flowering and are buzzing alive with bees. The birds are busy building their new nests right next to our bedroom window.

Beautiful birds

Beautiful nest

 This poor little fellow unfortunately didn't make it. Brought down from his nest with the wind; we tried to rescue it. The parents were feeding it for three days but mother nature had a different idea.

Poor little bird...

The vegetables, snow peas, bok choy, radishes, beans, spring onions, silver beets, lettuces, have to be picked every night and end up on the dinner table.

Harvest for one night

Tomatoes galore! Fresh, plump and juicy! Until you taste a freshly picked tomato you don't know the real flavour.

Green tomatoes

Ripe tomatoes

Raw, cooked, stuffed, sauces….We even eat them like apples during the day. Glorious tomatoes!

Cold stuffed tomatoes...

Hot stuffed tomatoes...

The strawberries... we eat  them as we pick, sweet and juicy!

The flowers have also appeared everywhere. Some we didn't know we had in the garden!

 

The curlews have also come back in our grounds for an intermittent feed of scrap and like it so much, that I think they're thinking of nesting there. That would be something!

Waiting to be fed

Testing for a nest???

After the occasional rainy days we had lately, everything is green again. The cassava cuttings I planted are looking very promising and so are the banana trees we planted. The new choko vines are rapidly climbing in the trees and we hope they'll bear as much fruits as when we first arrived.

Everything'sso green!

Next season's persimmons, oranges, mandarins, cumquats and avocadoes are getting bigger and the macadamia nut tree is now full of baby nuts. Yum… Can't wait until February/March!

Persimmons

Macadamia nuts

Avocado

Another project for the future is to build a gazebo right at the top corner, near the fence. We would then get an uninterrupted view of the lake, mountains and fields...

View from the proposed gazebo

How can we be so lucky to live in such a paradise?