Of Thrombolites and Giants

Our most wonderful friend G, who happily had his holidays the same time we had ours, came to stay for a few days.  After lots of loafing around and general relaxing, we decided to get out of the house and take a day trip to Lake Clifton to see the thrombolites.  We had heard about the thrombolites but didn't really know what to expect.  It is a bit of hike from our little patch of paradise but well worth the travel.  We were lucky to have a lovely, warm, sunny day for the visit to Lake Clifton which is such a pretty spot. They've built a wee jetty so you can walk out and get a really close look a the thrombolites without stepping on them and breaking them.

The thrombolites look like very large, oddly shaped rocks in the water.  

They are actually made up of lots and lots of living micro-organisms.  The ones at Lake Clifton are about 2000 years old.  But scientists believe thrombolites resemble the earliest forms of life on earth and date back 350 to 570 million years (depending which website you look at).  Thrombolites produce oxygen and scientists believe they made all subsequent life possible.  That includes us.  There aren't many examples so it's nice to have these ones nearby and so easily accessible. 

Even without the thrombolites, the walk around Lake Clifton is well worth doing if you're looking for something to fill in a few hours. And you can also squeeze in a visit to the wooden giant. He is a three kilometer return journey from the thrombolites. 

He is one of several giants created by Danish artist, Thomas Dambo.  He is called Jyttes.

Sadly I didn't get to see Jyttes.  We knew the walk was a 3 k round trip. An easy walk and we were enjoying the bush and chatting with each other on the way.  But we missed the path to the giant because a couple tending to their crying baby were blocking the sign.  And because we were chatting so much we'd walked almost 3 ks before we realised we were on the wrong path.  By the time we got back to the fork in the path we'd missed, I had huge blisters on both feet which felt a wee bit like they were on fire.  And we didn't know how far in the Jyttes was so I opted to hobble back to the car while R and G went on to see the giant.  Turns out my Skechers are rubbish for doing long walks in.  Note to self, get new joggers and carry band aids.  Never mind, I will go and see Jyttes another time. 

We had a great day out. I recommend it to anyone who is looking for something to do one weekend.

Holidays

Yay, we're on holidays.  For four whole weeks.  Which means I will have something to write about other than gardening.  Lucky huh.

This year we decided we'd start our holidays with a brief holiday in the Perth hills.  We hired a delightful little fibro and weatherboard cottage called Edenside, in the Bickley Valley.  Not too far from our old home (which we didn't go anywhere near for fear it would make us sad!!).  I suspect it was a group home originally. It was made up of four rooms and the bathroom and third bedroom were in the closed in verandah.  Edenside was comfortably fitted out and had everything we needed. Including a good supply of wood for the fire.  It sure was cold up there in the hills.  

 

I'm pretty sure at least one of my sisters will love the colour scheme in Edenside.  Apart from making the inside of the cottage so lovely, welcoming and comfortable, the owners have created lots of lovely places to sit an enjoy the sunshine.  We had a couple of gloriously sunny days and were able to spend time loafing on the front verandah with the paper and a cuppa.  From the back there were lovely views across the valley.

A perfect spot to enjoy a couple of glasses of wine, which we did, or a cuppa and pastries. In our case, it was hazelnut scrolls which we bought at The Little Home Bakery.

Don't they look just amazing!  The Little Home Bakery, for those of you who are lucky enough to live in Perth, can be found in (of all places) a factory unit in Morley.  It's a very unassuming place and it's fair to say that R was a tad suspicious about their claims to make sourdough when we first went in.  But, when he asked how old their starter was, they were happy to tell him that it's 15 years old.  They also talked about the different proofing and fermentation times they use for each of their styles of bread.  So, we walked away with scrolls and some pretty darned amazing bread!

One of the reasons we stayed at Edenside is that we planned to catch up with all our friends over lunch at La Fattoria, a ten-minute drive from the cottage.  La Fattoria offer a lunch they call Nonna's table.  The family hails from Sicily originally (three generations ago) and they're happy to invite you into their home (which is actually a lovely, decked area next door to their home) to share lunch.  There is a set menu (five courses) and they just bring you a range of dishes that are made from whatever is locally available and in season.  We've been wanting to try Nonna's table for years, so we were very excited to be able to do this and share the experience with our friends. 

On the menu was, for starters, a buckwheat, cheese stuffed pancake which was served with a really simply dressed rocket salad. Oh, I should just point out that I kept hoeing into the food before photographing it.  So, you'll see that lots of the dishes have already been attacked.  I'm not sure how interesting food photos are in any case. But here they are.  If you're not interested just skip past. 

  

Next came antipasto. On the platter were olives (Sicilian of course), roast capsicum, salt (for dipping), a range of cured meats (I suspect these were made inhouse), a seriously delicious cheese and....I can't remember that the "and" was, other than it was yum!

Next up was Pasta e Ceci. It was orecchiette with chickpeas, crumbled sausage, parsley oil and chillies and anchovy panagretto on the side (so you could add as much or as little as you liked).  And of course, extra parmesan.

I don't know about everyone else, but I was actually getting quite full by this stage of the proceedings.  But I managed to find a little more room for the main, which was amazing.  Main was Agrodolce Braised Chicken with cranberries and pinenuts.  This was served with lemon risotto cakes and winter pumpkin, fennel and cabbage salad dressed with toasted seeds and sage butter.  Oh, my goodness, that was one seriously good main.  They suggested placing the chicken, and a couple of spoons of the juices, on top of the rice cake.  The rice soaked up the juices and all of the flavours complemented each other perfectly.  This is the kind of food I love. Simple but packed full of flavour and texture. 

Dessert - Warm Sicilian Apple Budino with butterscotch sauce and pecan praline and whipped cream - was mercifully small.  I was just about done in by the time we got there.  It was also delightfully light and not at all rich. A perfect end to a perfect meal.

All up we got to spend a very pleasant few hours with our friends eating good food, drinking okay wine and chatting.  Just the way I like to spend an afternoon.

I've just remembered the "and".  They were anchovy and cauliflower patties. Light, fluffy and full of flavour! Yum.  Nonna's spring table includes lamb.  I wouldn't mind going back to try that!!

A Mixed Garden Bag

A lot of my blogs are about our garden and this one is no different.  If I've bored you with garden content, this is your queue to leave.  I guess we spend a lot of our spare time in our garden.  The rest of the week we're at work and who wants to hear about that.  No-one I suspect. I certainly don't want to even think about it when I'm not there, let alone write about it.

This year we had our first Yuzu fruit off our tree in its second year in.  Yay.    Yuzu is a citrus fruit that is grown predominantly in Japan, although it has its origins in China.  It is a very tasty and very juicy citrus.  And before you ask, it has a flavour all of its own. It is slightly sour like a lemon but that's about the only comparison I can make in relation to taste.  Like all citrus, I love the smell of a Yuzu.  

We picked three Yuzu which we figured was enough to be bothered juicing.  They're seriously juicy and even more pippy.  I've never seen so many pips come out of one piece of fruit.   The first two photos show the pips from one yuzu.

For comparison, these two photos show the pips from a lemon.

I think those Yuzu pips are going to annoy me loads when I attempt Yuzu marmalade next year.  Assuming we get enough Yuzus to make marmalade that is.

Two years ago, we planted a lot of tube stock native trees in our bottom pens.  They just sat there and did, well, not much at all really.  So, we were very excited when we went down to the pen for the first time in several months to find they'd all put on a huge amount of growth and several had grown up into small trees.  Even more excitingly, the Hakea had burst into flower.  Those flowers are so beautiful. I don't think anyone who sees a Hakea could say that Australian natives aren't very interesting or colourful.   The tree was loaded and the birds love it. Success!!

We also had quite a bit of success in our Summer veg patch this year.  After a four-legged creature, we suspect a rat, stripped every single capsicum from our plants, they went on to produce another crop. Phew.  We tried a variety called Candy Stripe. The fruit on the second crop was quite small but very tasty.  You can just see the stripes on this one.  The number of stripes varied from fruit to fruit. They look really pretty on the plant.  

The tomatoes were really late ripening this year, even though I planted them in plenty of time.  Which meant we ended up with loads of green tomatoes late in the season that didn't want to ripen.  That is to say, they would ripen off the vine but, unlike the earlier picked ones, they went a bit mushy.  

This was about the last time we picked any ripe ones from the bushes.  After this, we picked another full trug of green tomatoes.  I turned half of them into green tomato chutney. I don't know what I was expecting, but it tastes exactly the same as chutney made with ripe tomatoes.  I turned the rest into green tomato pickles using a recipe from a chef in Daylesford in the Barossa Valley.  We've not tasted those yet but I'm pretty sure we'll give them a try while we're on holidays.  

I perhaps should have moved from the natives in the bottom pen to the native garden but that's just not the way the photos fell. And sometimes moving the photos around in this blog is just too challenging for me.  So, there it is, natives, veg, natives.  

This is a native plant we got from the community native nursery in Busselton.  The community nurseries focus on plants that are local to the area the nursery is based in.  So, not really local to our area. But we are allegedly blessed with the type of soils that mean we can grow natives from anywhere in the State.  I'm not sure how true this is but tube stock natives are very affordable and we're always happy to give a new plant a try.  I can't remember what this plant is called but it is native to the coastal areas and a bit inland from Busselton.  We were really surprised to see it flower in its first season in the ground. It's a tall strappy plant that wavers around in the wind.  The flowers look magical. We were so pleased with our success that we've put two more in. 

This prostrate Grevillea has also flowered in its first season.  All the natives are bursting forth with flowers at the moment. It makes wandering around the garden a real delight.  

The next photo is of a winged wattle that has been in for three years now.  It sat and did nothing for the first two years. This year it put on a heap of growth and then burst out into flower.  It's about 40 cm and provides a real pop of cheerfulness in the winter gloom.

We love grevilleas and have planted them all over the place.  They're flowers are so beautiful.  I'm very allergic to grevilleas so I have to be careful not to let them touch my skin.  I get very itchy if they do but it's not enough to put me off planting more.  

 Well, that wasn't such a mixed bag after all. It was all about gardens really.    The good news (???) is that we're on holidays for the next four weeks and I might have something other than gardens to write about.  Cross you fingers but don't hold your breath. 

Acer Rubrum

When we first moved to our eight acres in this glorious part of the world, we planned to fill the paddock with an array of trees.  But we've scaled down our plans because our former neighbour is very pleased to have the use of the paddocks for his steers.  Steers and newly planted trees don't mix very well. So while the steers were in the bottom paddock, we decided to plant a maple tree in the top paddock.  But, before we got around to putting protecting it from the steers, there they were, munching happpily on the grass in the top paddock.  And on the plastic tag telling us what tree we had planted.  R managed to put the un-chewed bits together to get enough label to tell us it is an Acer Rubrum. 

So we decided to spend today putting up a fence.  I say we, but in reality R did most of the work. I held on to things and filled in holes and provided moral support mostly.  Some time ago, R purchased a post hole digger. It's fair to say this particular tool saved him hours of hard slog digging the holes by hand.  And what boy doesn't like a power tool right!

The digger in action

The first hole with the maple in the background

The digger does create quite a racket so we each have a set of "you can't possibly lose these" bright orange earmuffs to wear.   We put them down on the ground while we stopped for a drink and a piece of fruit.  Turns out, steers really like bright orange.  The biggest one started to make off with R's earmuffs.  No sooner had we retrieved the muffs, than he went for the bright yellow measuring tape. We could almost hear him muttering to himself, "Right, if I can't have the bright orange plastic thing, I'm having the yellow".  I had to chase him a bit to get that back.  There wasn't any more attractive plastic around so we settled back to our tea break.  But the steer had a very put out look on his face by then.  And he practically stomped over and started munching on the tree we were aiming to protect.  I swear, if he could have talked, he would have said, "So there, hmph!!".  I''m not sure how it happend, but I ended up with the steer slobbered ear muffs, which I discovered when I put them on. Yeuch.  Picture guilty steer sniggering in paddock. 

We finally got the pen finished.  Our neighbour tells us we still need to put some cross rails on to stop the steers pushing the fences over.  Thats a job for another day I think.  The posts for the pen were leftover from when the fence was replaced.  The rest is stuff we reclaimed from our local tip. It's amazing how much useful stuff one can find on a tip.  It makes us very happy to re-use and re-purpose stuff when we can.  So we're pleased with this small effort.

The steers did their best to look uninterested while we were putting the pen together.  But they stayed very nearby.  Obviously waiting to get hold of any plastic they could.  Cheeky!

The earmuff stealing steer.

That is our first effort of building some protection around a tree. We're just hoping it will hang in there until get to put the rails up.