A NEW YEAR BEGINS

January 2012 has started warmly without any worthwhile rain to cool the air, so the Family have been kept busy irrigating and weeding their vegetable crops. It was also the week when the ducks and geese had to be trained to walk to the dam to forage and swim. Shortly after Christmas three geese and four mature Muscovy female ducks were added to the waterfowl flock. Firstly I showed the boys how to escort the three geese to the dam and then returned for the ducks. The young ducklings were fat and lazy never having been outside the safety of their pen for exercise and needed frequent spelling, while they panted for breath. That evening the boys were required to enter the water behind the ducks and geese to show them the way out and then home. After two days of this all these waterfowl were accustomed to the routine and I could leave the boys to manage them morning and evening. The young ducklings quickly became stronger due to the daily exercise.

Geese and ducks

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MID SUMMER SOLSTICE

We have now passed the mid summer solstice which means that from this moment forward our summer days will offer less hours of sunlight, but here on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland we are only just entering the growing phase of our summer. In Australia December is officially the first month of summer, following the spring months of September, October and November. However, due to our altitude we can continue with winter frosts well into October, which means that I seldom plant any frost tender plants before that month.

Prior to leaving for a holiday in Hong Kong in October I planted the first vegetables and because we did not get a late frost we are now picking yellow butter beans, zucchini, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes.

Strawberries

We have also been harvesting strawberries from this bed on the lower terrace of our rear garden since the beginning of November.

By the time I returned from holiday I was able to transplant other seedling plants.

This year we are growing a huge vegetable garden. Why do I now need a huge garden? Who will do all the work? Who will eat all the vegetables or undertake the processing and preserving?

My life is undergoing a change that I believe is an answer to prayer in that it will allow me to live a lifestyle that I enjoy in my own home for many more years.

So today I am sharing with my readers our solution to the problems associated with growing older. Read the rest of this entry »

THE SUMMER BEGINS

I devoted the Spring months to writing posts concerning our Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies which reached their peak for 11th November.  During the past week poppy seed has been harvested, the dry poppy plants were slashed, the field was spread with feedlot manure as an organic fertilizer and then cultivated. Today we are enjoying rain to soak the soil of the field and later this month we will plant it with vegetable crops. I will show photos of these steps and further progress in a later post. Today I will put up a post about rosellas. This bushy plant can only be grown here during our warmer months and the fruit is much prized for jam making. I presently have about 20 rosella plants in our rear garden which I set out during November.  I took a two week break during October and went to visit with a son and his family in Hong Kong, where the it was then the autumn season. This family live in a highrise apartment at Kowloon.

Kowloon apartment block

This was not the first time I had stayed here and looked down from high above onto a community vegetable garden. I had requested entry to the garden on a previous visit, but been turned away. It was a private garden for Kowloon residents I was told.

Kowloon community garden

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A SEASON ENDS

Each year as the month of November comes to an end I am always amazed to discover some significant aspect has been added to our peaceful observance of the costs of war borne not only by those who leave their homeland, but their dependants who remain and wait.  As you saw in my previous post we were visited by Amanda McLeay of TVTen and that night our floral tribute to the fallen was shown wide and far across Queensland and northern New South Wales. The immediate result was that holiday makers travelling north, who had overnighted in towns like Uralla in NSW called in to photograph our Remembrance Field and to ask for a packet of Flanders poppy seed. Then I received a request from a soldier’s wife, who had seen the TV presentation, asking if her husband could be photgraphed with her and their children in the Remembrance Field prior to his departure for Afghanistan.  I was told that when our men and women of the Australian Defence Forces are about to be deployed overseas the Department arranges for them to receive a selection of family photographs taken in the venue of their choice. This young soldier has already served in East Timor and Iraq. Of course I agreed to this request.

A soldier's family

These photographs were taken on the 19th November by which time time we had experienced three weeks of hot weather and the poppies were running to seed. Read the rest of this entry »

A UNIQUE DAY

Today at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month it will also be the 11th year of this century. 11-11-11-2011

It was at 11.00am on the 11th of November 1918 that the Armistice Treaty was signed at Versailles. The guns fell silent across the battlefields of The Somme and the awful conflict of World War One ceased.

I quote the editorial of my local Border Post newspaper, written by Ewan Leighton:

It’s almost been a century since more than 60,000 of Australia’s finest died in World War One. Since that time, countless more have been killed in conflicts around the world. It is this time each year that communities across Australia come together to remember our fallen soliders, and to pay tribute to the price they paid for the life we live today. On Friday November 11 the Last Post will play through the Stanthorpe CBD. This significant date marks nine decades since the armistice that ended World War One. It is time not to remember the conflicts but to pay our respects to past and present soldiers werving overseas. It is hard to escape the violence that is war when we still have thousands of our best men and women risking their lives everyday. Younger generations don’t seem to realise the importance of Remembrance Day and the significance it holds for many Australian families. It’s important to ensure younger generations grasp the fact that thousands of our best men and women are risking their lives everyday. On a positive note, Rememembrance Day parade numbers appear to be on the rise both locally and nationally. On a local level residents should go and see the amazing poppy field cultivated by Fay Helwig at Glen Aplin. It is crucial for all Australians to take one minute out of their lives tomorrow to remember those who have given theirs – lest we forget.

Michael & Lauren 2003

Michael and Lauren are seen here raising the Australian Flag above our Remembrance Field at Glen Aplin in 2003. This year Michael graduated from the Brisbane Boy’s College yet I am sure he will still remember this special honour. Read the rest of this entry »

SEPTEMBER ENDS

As I have mentioned in previous posts I have undertaken an experiment this year using the Remembrance Field to test the usefulness of a product called SAP. On the first day of June we broadcast this  water soluble polymer as dry crystals across the field and turned over the soil. I knew that whenever it rained these crystals would soak up the moisture and expand into a clear jelly like substance. In dry periods they would act as a water reservoir in the soil allowing plant roots to access the moisture. Although I have been using this non-toxic product in my organic garden to assist with water retention for the growing of vegetables and flowers for three years this was the first time I have added it to the soil of the Remembrance Field. We measured only 23mm (it takes 25mm to measure one inch) of rain in June. The field was cultivated at the beginning of July, which proved to be a dry month with only 3mm of precipitation, yet there was sufficient moisture for the Flanders poppies to germinate. After recording that 3mm there was no more rain for five weeks. Then over three weeks we measured a total of 45mm in six small falls and the poppies grew rapidly.

Spring arrives

During the first week of September we welcomed Tina and Julia, two girls from Germany, who came to us as Willing Workers on Organic Farms. The white and pink flowering peach trees were the first blossom trees to herald the arrival of spring. The girls enjoyed working in the cool sunshine, saying our first week of spring weather was like a mid-summer’s day in northern Germany.

Two German girls

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A COLD WINTER ENDS

I will remember the winter of 2011 as being a cold and dry winter. It was the coldest winter on the Granite Belt for eleven years. Such cold winters are always good for the orchards as they ensure the apple trees get sufficient hours of winter chill, needed to produce blossom.  Despite a dry July in 2011 the Granite Belt farms and our garden continued to carry over moisture from the soaking the district received July 2010 through to the floods of January 2011. This will be the first year since we moved to the Granite Belt in 1992 that the gully flowing between our dams and down to the river has run continuously.

Patches amongst the daffodils

The first sign of spring is when the daffodils bloom in my garden. I grow a number of different varieties of daffodils which means that I will have a display of blooms for several weeks. Whenever I or my Wwoofers are working the garden my cat, Patches, keeps us company. the Wwoofers call her their supervisor. Following an August show of rain I decided that I must begin thinning the Flanders poppies in the Remembrance Field. Every year the poppies germinate thickly and it becomes necessary to thin the crop.

This year I am also conducting an experiment to see if it is possible to bring the Remembrance Field to flowering in November without watering the crop. Last year was an exceptionally wet spring when irrigation was not required, but normally in other years I have been obliged to irrigate the poppies a number of times. This winter in June I added water soluble gel crystals (polyacrylamide) to the soil prior to the final cultivation of the field. I kept my fingers crossed throughout July that the gel would act as a water reservoir and provide sufficient moisture in the soil to germinate the poppies.  See the post for 3rd July titled THE YEAR 2011 (12) Read the rest of this entry »

FIRE AS A TOOL

I grew up on a cattle property in the foothills of the Bunya Mountains north of Dalby in Queensland, where it was my father’s custom to burn off the old dry grass every spring prior to expected rain. Thus as children my sisters and I learned to light fires and, if necessary, to fight fires to keep them under control. We saw fire as a useful tool, but today many people fear fires due to the devastating bush-fires of recent years.

Ever since moving to the Granite Belt in 1992 we have made it a practice to burn off our grass land towards the end of winter to prevent a possible spring bushfire. At this time of year the air is cold and the ground damp so fires are more easily controlled than later when warm weather arrives. An account of the worst bushfire I have seen in our district is given in my book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine. That year the fire occurred in October when a strong Westerly wind brought down a wooden power pole on private land and grass was ignited. With a strong wind behind it the fire roared through the dry grass, crowned into the leaves of the eucalyptus trees, jumped the highway and sped through the ravines and across the hills to the east of us, destroying homes and taking the life of one woman. That night the same fire came upriver towards us barely kept under control by the volunteer Bush Fire Brigade, commonly known as ‘Bushies’. It was these men who decided the next day that because we had kept the land near our home clear that they should burn back from there to meet the fire. They were using fire as a tool to fight fire.

Also recounted in Wildflowers, wilderness and wine is the history of our friendship with Nick and Mary Jane Hese who first came to Das Helwig Haus B&B as guests in 1994. They became firm friends who offered us their assistance and knowing that Nick’s occupation was as a professional firefighter I enlisted his help the following August to burn our firebreaks. That day he arrived on his motor bike with his leather jacket sprinkled with snow. As not enough snow fell to wet the ground we were able to burn the land the next afternoon.

You will also find in Wildflowers, wilderness and wine an account of how Nick and Mary Jane later purchased their own land here on the Granite Belt where they often spend weekends. Once more Nick came this weekend to assist me with our burn-back.

Nick has lit the first fire

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KING LUDWIG’S RESTAURANT & BAR

When Eberhard and I established Das Helwig Haus B&B on the Granite Belt in 1993 we chose to give our business a German name, decorate the interior of our Australian homestead house in a German style and to provide German meals. There is a saying in tourism, “If you can’t be the first, be different.” This proved remarkably effective marketing as it brought us guests who were German born like my husband, Australians with German forebears and others who had holidayed in Germany and wanted to relive the experience.

Later after King Ludwig’s German Restaurant was established at Maleny many of our guests shared with us their memories of dining there. Although we were obliged to close Das Helwig Haus B&B three years ago as Eberhard is now 85 years of age, I have always had a desire to visit this Maleny restaurant. Last Saturday the opportunity presented.

http://www.kingludwigs.com.au

The blackboard said that the restaurant was fully booked, but we had made our reservation two days previously. A rowdy birthday party was underway in the main restaurant, where we declined to sit beside a fire, much preferring tables on the veranda which offered a view down over the Glasshouse Mountains towards Brisbane. After ordering our lunch, I left Eberhard ensconsed at a corner table and went outside to enjoy the view from the garden. Read the rest of this entry »

A DAY IN THE SUNSHINE

Towards the end of July the winter days are starting to lengthen, but here on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland we know we have at least another six weeks of cold and frosty weather before the sun will have any warmth. Thus it was a with great pleasure that Eberhard and I accepted an offer of a day in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane the State capital. A return trip, within the day, entails about eight hours of driving which meant that we decided to leave home about an hour before sunrise. Our driver wanted to spend some time looking over  land behind Nambour with the view of purchasing a block as a future house site. He also has an excellent camera so in this post I’ll be including not only photographs I took during our outing, but some of his shots.

Dawn over Warwick

As we dropped down off the high country of the Granite Belt we could see the valley fogs in in all the hollows.

Sunrise over Warwick

The sun was gilding the clouds as he snapped this photo showing fog over Warwick and blanketing  the course of the Condamine River. I commented that I had never previously driven this highway during winter at such an early hour to be able to witness such a site.

Highway fog

Approaching the intersection of the New England Highway where it branches, the left lane continuing on to Toowoomba and the right veering towards Brisbane, it was clear to see why this junction recently resulted in a fatal accident, as visibility was greatly reduced by the morning fog. Read the rest of this entry »