Another new student at SCU

This little fella was outside my office at the university. Obviously a post-graduate student, even though he seems to have got his trees mixed up a little (you're supposed to eat eucalypt, lad, not Bangalow Palm)

Blue sky

This is what the world looks like when you are sitting holding your daughter's pony for her as she swims in the creek, and you look up.

The pony's name is Blue - because he has blue eyes.

Chinese wheelbarrow

The original was made in the Han Dynasty, somewhere between 206 BC and 220 AD. This version was made by Tess on Sunday afternoon on the back deck.

She used board, papier mache, poster paint (thank you Briony!), fimo and a good dose of concentration.

Myself, I really like the goose. A superb likeness. Good work, Tess!

How to hold a baby bandicoot

Very gently. Like this.

Morning mist

Worth getting up early for.

I'm asleep

Do not disturb.

Those were the days

This photo shows Tess riding her pony to school on her last day of primary school, last year (she now goes to the local high school). We often used the horses as transport to and from school. Here below is a snippet from my writings, jotted in 2005 (Cooper, alas, is no more as his soul crossed the rainbow bridge in 2007 and his body rests deep underground in the bottom paddock)

Rain

I decided to pick the girls up from school this afternoon, on the horse.
Rain bucketing down, the horse and I canter along the track to school.
Slick with sweat and water
we clop through the school gates, turn left at the girls’ toilets, and pull up under the covered play area, hooves loud on the concrete, the canopy redirecting the rain to fall in rivulets from the roof. The girls tumble out of the library, yelling “Cooooooper!!!!!!”.
With practiced ease, Tess tucks her bare foot on mine in the stirrup, grabs my hand and swings onto the horse’s rump in one fluid movement. I lift Yarrow onto the saddle in front of me.
“Let’s go home, Mum”
I turn the horse and we clop out of the school gates, together on the horse in the teeming rain.

Emily

Today's post is supplied by Yarrow.

Emily

by Yarrow

This picture is with me (Yarrow) and my sister Tess and my foster-sister Emily. Here we had made spiced biscuits, and made them into shapes of people. My mother asked me "What to you is so special about Emily?" Well here is a list of things that are special about her:

• She is loving
• She is caring
• She is fun
• She is imaginative
• She is patient
• She is giving
• She is funny
• She is pretty

And a whole lot of other things! And here is a list of things that aren't special about her:

• Ummmmm....

So Emily you are very special and we all love you!

River height after the rain

After one night of heavy rain ... very heavy rain ... the Wilsons River has risen from it's customary 1 or 2 metres deep to nearly 8 metres deep (not unusual here, really). Hmmm. If it goes over 8 metres it'll flood the bridge ... I'll have to go the long way round ... Hmm. Better leave work now and head home ...

Yarrow is on YouTube!

For years Yarrow has been playing guitar with the Northern Rivers Conservatorium Arts Centre. Not that she plays a lot now, but she's made some great and close friends through the Con. Recently they made an television advert, and Yarrow's in it! See if you can glimpse her two microsecond appearances. You can click on the YouTube picture above to view the advert. Of course, it's best with the sound on!

The url is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV2okosgU54

Fruits of the earth

Here is a photo of this week's unexpected harvest of pumpkins. We didn't plant them on purpose - they just decided to grow under the date palm near the pool. After I found Rascal playing football with some of them I decided to harvest the ripe ones rather than let him pulverise the rest of them (I'm such a spoilsport, I know).

The nice thing is that next year there will be another surprise crop growing in the same area. For now though I better go find some good recipes for pumpkin. Anyone got any suggestions?

Then and now: Tess and Yarrow

The top picture shows Yarrow (left, aged 3) and Tess (right, aged 5), not long before we left Amsterdam. We were living in the Galileiplantseon and the photo was taken in the dining room. The photo below shows Tess (left, aged 12) and Yarrow (right, aged 10) as they are now. What hasn't changed are their dark brown eyes, their lovely smiles and their love for each other!

A day on the Clarence

The Booyong Fettuccini-Sucking Championships

What To Do With Fettuccini Bolognaise? Well, if you're ten and twelve years old respectively, you just *must* take the opportunity to hold ...

The Booyong Fettuccini-Sucking Championships!!

The contestants must each take a strand of cooked fettuccini of equal length. The longer the fettuccini, the better.

The contestants must each hold one centimetre of fettuccini in their mouth and let the rest dangle down their chins.

This is serious. Don't smile. Smiling is not conducive to successful outcomes of the Championships.

An outsider not in the running for the Championships must count down from three and say "Go!" The outsider must attempt not to smile however hard this may seem to be.

At the word Go, the contestants must suck the fettuccini as quickly as possible into their mouth.

Remember: laughing on the part of the participants is catastrophic and not conducive to successful outcomes of the Championships.

Laughing helplessly and falling off one's chair and onto the floor is *particularly* not conducive to successful outcomes of the Championships.

Five rounds are generally sufficient to determine the Great Booyong Fettuccini-Sucking Champion, and to render the rest of the family absolutely feeble with laughter.

PS: Older siblings are of course, permitted to take part. They're generally hopeless at it anyway 'cos they just *lose it* :-)

Tess' recipe for Fettuccini Bolognaise

I believe every self-respecting 12 year old in general western family circumstances ought to be able to cook a healthy family meal. Tess and Yarrow both can; and here is Tess' lovely simple and successful recipe for Fettucini Bolognaise. She researched, developed, typed up, and cooked it all herself. And (big hurrah for Tess) she cleans up afterwards too!!

Fettuccini Bolognese

Utensils:
· Chopping board
· Sharp knife
· Large saucepan
· Large frypan
· Medium bowl
· Measuring cup
· Teaspoon
· Scrap bin

Ingredients:
· 1 lb. ground round beef (mince)
· 1 can whole tomatoes
· 1 can tomato sauce
· 2 med. onions
· 5 tsp. minced garlic
· 10 “cup” mushrooms
· 1 tin sweet corn
· Fresh oregano
· Fresh basil
· Fresh thyme
· Fresh ground pepper
· olive oil
· 500g spaghetti or fettuccini
· 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
· Extra virgin olive oil

Method:
1. Peel and chop onions, and mushrooms.
2. Put large frypan on burner and heat olive oil on medium high setting. Add onions, garlic and mushrooms.
3. Fry for 5 minutes or until onions turn clear and garlic starts to smell strong. Pour all ingredients into a bowl and reserve for later.
4. Return frypan to heat and add ground beef.
5. Fry until browned and break apart into small clumps.
6. Add tin of sweet corn (drained)
7. Return fried vegetables to the frypan.
8. Add whole tomatoes and chop them up.
9. Add tomato sauce, oregano, basil, thyme and ground pepper.
10. Mix ingredients well.
11. Cover frypan and turn heat down to simmer.
12. Simmer for 30 minutes.
13. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil.
14. Add spaghetti, a little at a time.
15. Stir and add extra virgin olive oil to avoid sticking.
16. Cook for 10 minutes or until just cooked through (no hard white centre).
17. Drain and run cool water through spaghetti.
18. Transfer to a bowl and add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and a half cup of grated Parmesan cheese.
19. Mix well.
20. Remove sauce from stove and pour into a bowl.

The real workhorse here

Here she is: our Massey Ferguson TE20 ... More than 50 years old and in fine fettle.

Did you know: A TE20 was the first vehicle ever to be driven to the South Pole, under Sir Edmund Hilary? If you'd like to read about it click on this link: http://www.fofh.co.uk/articles/pole.htm

And while we're on Friends of Ferguson heritage website, have a look at this article: http://www.fofh.co.uk/articles/interests.htm
... Describes my life to a T.

A much later (Feb 2010) PS: for the enthusiast, this Ferguson is a TEA-20, serial no. TE A 474606. It was made in Britain in 1948 and was exported to NSW soon thereafter where it was owned for many years by the Kirklands family of the Booyong, Nashua and Pearce's Creek area. It stayed with that family for many years. doing sterling work in the area. After 2000 it was purchased by Dirk and Tracey of Houghlahan's Creek Rd. Dirk did some amazing restoration work on it. I bought it in 2008.

Promise has freckles

Here's a photo of Moreton's Promise who is now two months old. She's in the cute, kind, cuddly phase of her youth (maybe though she's just a cute, kind, cuddly kinda horse. Who knows? Time will tell). We bred the filly to fulfil a promise to our Anjes who wanted a horse of her own (great choice of name, Anjes!).

For those who would like to know, she's a pure-bred Australian Stock Horse with double Abbey bloodlines. Her pedigree goes back to 1880 (keeping tabs on all those bloodlines is an amazing feat of administrative competence on the part of the ASH Society if you ask me).

I like the way the early morning sun catches the beautiful golden colour of her foal coat (which will change to a much darker liver chestnut in time); and the scattering of freckles on her face.

To do Rascal justice, just after this shot Promise tried to eat the camera, too ... ("Who knows, it might not be poisonous?").

Don't be fooled by his good looks ...

The one heading straight for you is 6 month old Rascal Darius, son of Xerxes the Arab stallion and the brumby mare Duchess. He's coming towards you because he wants to taste your t-shirt, consume the camera, shred your shoelaces and be patted. This week he has:

• Demolished 2 soccer balls ("Why kick them? Chewing holes in them is *so* much more fun")
• Fished out the pool toys from the pool: noodles, surfboard, fake crocodile; and bitten chunks out of them ("The crocodile tasted best!")
• Flung the swim flippers about until they were shredded ("That is *heaps* of fun. Where can I find more?")
• Shredded a saddlecloth ("Hey look, it's filled with cotton wool. Cute! Let me scatter this all over the stockyard for a fetching effect.")
• Eaten the front door mat ("Tastes kinda like hay - why waste it by wiping your feet on it? You humans are so silly.")
• Done a demolition job on the green tree-frog haven (I built it using the broken wheelbarrow and old sacking). The poor frogs were most put out and are now homeless. ("You don't need this roof, do you? Let me remove it for you, and tip the wheelbarrow over. There, now you're free.")
• Chewed the antenna off my car ("Look, if I pull it, it telescopes outwards. Hmm. How far can I go with it?")
• Pulled the cutter strings off the whipper-snipper ("Curious pink things, I'm sure they don't belong on a machine.")

Teenage colts: ya gotta love 'em.

These people belong to The MYTH too

Today's post is supplied again by Yarrow!

Hello everyone!!! How's things going? (I just woke up). This is a picture of Oce, Anjes and Kat (Oce's friend) in Sydney. Anjes is my half sister (but to me she is a full sister) and Oce and Kat are family too. Anjes comes here once a year and stays here for about 3-5 weeks. Oce and Kat come whenever they can come and I love it when they all do!!!!

Students today

I am responsible for a subject taught at undergraduate level at Southern Cross University, which has about 1200 students enrolled in it. What amazes me is the incredible diversity in the slices of life that these students show me. At any one time there may be huge things happening in their lives: a baby born here, a new job there; the sad death of a family member here, a near-accident there. And what truly strikes me is how different their lives are compared to a traditional perception of a ‘student’. Most of my students work; some of them full time, and yet they manage to pack in assignments in between commitments. Many of them we never see face-to-face as they travel for work and study by distance education, accessing their learning materials and tutors online (using a variety of sources. Also, I podcast most of my lectures, with varying degrees of success).

One such student is Mike. Apart from studying for a Bachelor of Business, he works as a professional surfer for the company Billabong, and as such, he is sent where the waves are to promote the company’s products and perform other sponsoring commitments. He has just returned from Los Angeles, and he is about to go to Tahiti to surf in the Billabong Pro. Under time pressure, he’s worried and stressed that he is late with submitting his essay and that he won’t be able to access internet, and might not be able to access the library databases for a suitable article to include in his essay. These are honest and real concerns and pressures in his life, and though he may never set foot in a classroom, he’s a real student in a real world.

He’s got some unreal photos though! That’s him on his board.

Here is a very thought-provoking YouTube video on students today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

Constables Tess and Yarrow

Today's post is supplied by Yarrow, aged 10:

This is me and my sister Tess pretending to be police officers. We were about 9 and 7 years old. That's me on the right there. We fined my mum for 'walking with a spanner' and we were about to arrest my dad for 'reading the newspaper'. It was very funny. This picture was taken by my dad before we arrested him. He also put it on a site on the internet for the world to see.

Love to everyone from Yarrow xxx

Rainy days

Rain falls in subtropical torrents on our verdant valley this morning, rivulets trickling down the hillside, filling the frog-happy billabong, swelling the river. Not only do we all here feel it's been a wet month - it has been! This month to date we've had 200% compared to our average amount of rain for March - April.

The sound of the rain thundering on the corrugated iron roof ... mixed with the curling song of the currawongs wheeling above the house, and a sudden skirl of lorikeets chittering past. These are the sounds this morning. Sky sounds.

New student at SCU

Here is a photo of one of the new season's university students assiduously reading the noticeboard. Obviously this is one of those bright, tenacious, flexible, Gen-Y type of students.

You can read more about Physignathus lesueurii, or Eastern Water Dragon, on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_water_dragon

Many thanks to my colleague Dale who took this lovely photo.

Wollumbin: the cloud catcher

With deep respect for the Bundjalung people of Northern NSW on whose land we walked, made music, built a hearth, and cooked our meal today!

We went for a wonderful picnic at Blackbutt Lookout, overlooking Wollumbin (some call it Mt Warning), in the Border Ranges National Park. The rain came but did not deter the culinary art of marshmallow toasting on an open fire. The billy was put to good use for a wonderful cup of tea: hot, sweet, and strong enough to trot a mouse over ....

More on Bundjalung nation and Wollumbin at http://www.bigvolcano.com.au/stories/minjung/aborigin.htm

By the way: a blackbutt is a tree, not what you get by sitting too close to the fire ...

Welcome to Moreton's Myth

What's in a name? The name for our farm was inspired by the huge and beautiful Moreton Bay Fig that graces the highest part of our hill here in the Northern Rivers of NSW.

The "myth" part of the name is a neat acronym of our names, suggested by an old friend, Pa Vader (Lisa's grandad), when Yarrow was born. He wrote on a little note 'And so now, the MYTH becomes a reality'. Clever!

In truth, we don't own the tree. The tree owns us.

Welcome to the blogspot for Moreton's Myth, where Mieke, Hans, Tess and Yarrow live.