A couple of days after my last post about the Royal Easter Show, this delightful picture turned up in the newspaper showing a horse appearing at the show who had never seen rain before. The article did not specify where he was from but, even in New South Wales there are towns which see very little rain, like Tibooburra or Menindee, and in parts of the outback years can go by without any significant rainfall.
We have not ventured far afield this week but there has been plenty going on in our little township to keep us interested. First a 65ft prawn trawler sank in the bay, it was moored at the marina and was discovered one morning half underwater. The, already overworked, volunteers of the Rural Fire Service were called in to help and the hazardous chemical people came and set up a boom around the boat to stop diesel leaking out into the water. The area is home to several oyster farms as well as being a prime fishing area so luckily that aspect was made safe quite quickly. Not so refloating the thing though. The local marine repair company tried and failed over several days to get the trawler upright again, even temporarily sinking one of their own barges in the attempt! It seems they did not have the necessary equipment and were wasting their time so a big rescue organisation were eventually called in and it is now floating again. It doesn't look too good though, I would have thought a few days underwater would not be too much trouble for a boat but apparently that is not the case.
Meanwhile the local council have invested in an upgrade of our foreshore which involves replacement of jetties around the boat ramp and a new ocean pool with shark/jellyfish nets to take the place of the, rather tatty, old one. The pool is very popular with the local kids, some of whom get off the school bus and jump straight in still wearing their school uniforms on hot days. The uniforms here are just shorts and polo shirts, not blazers and ties, so not the end of the world.

As the old pool disappeared, the children were still jumping in off the remaining bits then there were a grim few days when the whole area was fenced off as the digging for the poles took place and they could only look longingly from the beach. Finally, as the new pool went in, they were sploshing around in it before the workmen and women had finished putting the nets up.

 Later on we spotted a procession of children with fishing rods heading in the direction of the pool, the way it is built now means they can sit on the edge and fish on the outside of it.

Ian had a Big Birthday this week and one of his gifts was a new fishing rod so I expect he will soon be joining them.
On a happy note to finish, the fires at the Tilligerry Habitat do not seem to have put off the wildlife, the plants are already growing back and this kookaburra did not seem to mind at all that the tree he had chosen to sit in was burnt to a crisp.

There was another early start for us this week as we set off at the crack of dawn on Friday to catch the train down to Sydney for the Royal Easter Show. We love a country show but this one knocks all the others into a cocked hat, it is sensational. Not only is this huge event impeccably organised and a brilliant showcase for everything that is impressive about country Australia but there is a nice big helping of the ridiculous too, which appeals to me no end.
The show is on for two weeks over Easter and, although most exhibits are on show for the duration, events like the wood chopping and the dog shows change every day. We realised we were in luck when we arrived at the fruit and vegetable displays just in time for the prize giving and things kept getting better. Last year the dogs on show on the day we visited were nearly all Labradors, pleasant but not much variety, this year we were treated to Old English Sheepdogs, English Terriers (never seen them before but they were very cute), Irish Wolfhounds, Deer Hounds, Airedales, Afghans, Salukis, Dogues Du Bordeaux and a variety of different Collies my sister in law Brenda would have loved. 
The best was yet to come though. As we entered the woodchop arena we saw it was set up for the tree felling competition! This is an event you don't get to see very often because it is not staged at the smaller shows (I'm guessing there are not too many wood choppers who specialise in it or maybe the event organisers just cannot afford the insurance) and, even at the Sydney show it is only on a couple of days and I have never seen it before. 

What happens is this; they erect 4.6 metre logs and the contestants chop out a chunk, insert a narrow plank, jump onto it and chop out the next chunk inserting another plank and jumping onto that. They carry on like this until they reach the top, then chop halfway through the top section, leap back down and start again on the other side. The first person to chop the top clean off their log is the winner. However, they are handicapped and counted in so the least able starts first and the others join in one at a time. When we were watching, the world champion was taking part and he started a full two minutes after the first contestant and still won! 

There are prizes for everything, including champion fleeces and eggs. The cakes and arts and crafts were the usual mix of staggeringly intricate and just plain weird (yes the biker is a cake)  and I was impressed as usual by the very young people handling rather large livestock. It really is very important for the livestock owners to do well in the show as to have an Easter Show Champion increases the value of the flock or herd enormously so all the animals go through the sort of grooming process we are only used to seeing at dog shows. The cow wash, in particular, was very busy as the owners made their cows and bulls pretty for the judges. 

Australia is currently experiencing a very long, hot, dry spell. We cannot really remember when we last had rain, it was certainly several weeks ago, and the temperature is hovering around 30 degrees which is higher than it would usually be in early autumn. When this happens, fire is never too far from Australian residents' thoughts, we all make sure we have taken sensible precautions like keeping our gutters clear and removing overhanging branches.
All towns have fire danger signs which serve as a reminder for everyone to be careful with cigarettes, barbecues etc, so it is astonishing that some people light fires deliberately as a way of getting their jollies.
This happened on Monday evening at the beautiful Tilligerry Habitat, where we volunteer. The smoke was spotted and firefighters got there in time to put out the flames, the koala who is there at the moment was well away from the affected area and we didn't spot any dead echidnas or lizards so everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Until it happened again at the same time the following evening!
Again the firefighters got there on time but another big black patch was left and one of the boardwalks had some damage. We all thought nobody could be stupid enough to try it a third time but on Sunday, when Ian and I were on duty we suddenly smelled smoke. Our hearts sank and Ian shot off on his bike to find out where it was coming from. He had only been gone a moment or two when he phoned to say the fire was quite big and right behind our plant nursery next to the information centre where we are based and is a straw bale building so I imagine it can't be terribly fire resistant. 
We called the firefighters, who are all volunteers and got the access gate unlocked ready for them. The fire was already too big for us to do anything about, the nature of bush fires is that the wind blows sparks from the main fire making lots of little ones and it is very easy to find yourself surrounded. The nursery manager turned up and put all the sprinklers on in the nursery and he and Ian set up hoses ready to defend the building if it came closer then we just had to wait for the emergency services with the roar of the fire in the background. 
Six fire trucks and three support vehicles turned up and managed to get the fire under control fairly quickly but it has left a huge black patch with no undergrowth. This is not as bad as it sounds or looks because Australian native bush has evolved to cope with fire and grows back quite quickly, the volunteers who work in the nursery have to bake some seeds at a very high heat to get them to germinate because they depend on fire to propagate. What is so dangerous is that the Habitat is right next door to a school and surrounded by housing, it has been warm and windy lately, so perfect bush fire conditions. I was shocked to hear that many bush fires are started deliberately, what a terrible thing to do! 
While all this was going on a visitor came to tell be he had just stopped an over enthusiastic tourist who he caught halfway up a tree trying to touch a koala! What is wrong with people?We are all keeping our fingers crossed for some rain this week, imagine that! I apologise for not getting better pictures of the fire but I was scared of getting told off by the firefighters.
On a happier note, our resident Lemon Tree Passage koala, Ella, is back. It turns out she did not need to be rescued as we feared as she has finally started ranging around a bit, not much but hopefully enough to get her daily quota of young leaves she needs to thrive.

Rainbow and Scaly
Breasted Lorikeets

Little Corellas

One of our favourite pastimes, when we are not working on the house, is going to look at houses for sale. This is not as sad as it sounds because real estate agents host open house viewings on Saturdays, where the house is opened up for half an hour for anyone to go and have a look. We get plenty of ideas for the renovations on our place when we do this but never miss an opportunity to have a nose around a really expensive property. This morning's trip out was to one such place, right on the waterfront in the koala park in a wonderful location. It was huge and splendid but the setting meant that, in order to enjoy the wonderful view, the residents would have to sacrifice their privacy as the koala park is a popular walk and an evening sitting on the veranda would be constantly interrupted by dog walkers and joggers passing by.

Galah

Pied Butcherbird

It got me to thinking how much we enjoy our, far more modest, little house. We can see the water through the trees from our balcony but one of the best things about it is that we are up in the treetops so the wildlife comes to us. There are plenty of bats circling in the evenings and, last night, Monty drove us nuts because he had spotted a possum in one of the trees, we occasionally hear a koala but best of all are the birds we can see without getting out of our chairs.
The Rainbow Lorikeets are our most frequent visitors and Ian feeds them by hand, they are sometimes joined by the smaller Scaly Breasted Lorikeets. Little Corellas (they are huge, not little at all) come by in a flock of about one hundred every evening, we try not to feed them because they are bullies and scare the other birds away, they will also start to eat your window frames and balcony if you stop feeding them once you have started. Beautiful pink and grey Galahs stop by too, I can never understand why, in Australia, a stupid person is called a Galah, they are gorgeous birds, but it is less bold birds we like to see the most.

Kookaburra

Eastern Koel

Pied Butcherbirds have taken a long while to get used to us but will come if there is bacon rind on the bird feeder, as will Australian Magpies, I'm not so keen on them as they are big with huge beaks but they sing with a lovely warbling sound. Bacon also attracts the occasional Kookaburra and it is always a treat to have one of those come to call.
There are other birds who will not come close while we are there but sit in the trees surrounding us such as the Eastern Koel, Tawny Frogmouth Owl, the slightly nutty Dollarbird who makes strange noises and flies in a very haphazard manner and, my absolute favourite, the adorable Eastern Rosella.

Dollarbird

Another little treat this week was to spot this nest a pair of Noisy Miners (I have spelled that correctly, a mynah is different) have built in one of our trees. It is very precarious and blows around terribly in the slightest wind. If you look closely you can see the second Miner sitting on the nest, it is Autumn now, so a bit strange they are nesting but apparently it can happen if the summer has been good.

Noisy Miner

Eastern Rosella

Tawny Frogmouth Owl