Our backyard is full of bird life. Wattle birds, magpies, parrots, cockatoos, galahs, currawongs, finches, willy wag tails, and blue wrens.

Nundle has had double its average winter rainfall and the birds know it. They are feeding on the abundance of seeds, fruit, and insects that comes with an exceptional season.

Up until a week ago the yard was a battle ground with two families of magpies and a family of currawongs defending their territories.

If a faction dared cross an invisible boundary it was swiftly swooped, lucky to avoid body contact.

We suspect a currawong decapitated a neighbouring baby magpie. Brutal.

We adopted a young magpie after it fell from its nest, high in one of the gum trees on our fence line. Or was it pushed? We'll never know.

Ten weeks later it now has a routine of sleeping in a large cage underneath our house of a night, before he/she is taken into the backyard for a feed of worms dug from the garden, crushed insect powder bought from the pet shop, or defrosted mince divided into daily magpie portions. During the day when we are not around to protect it from bombing birds, it has the use of our neighbour's abandoned aviary.

This morning the boys and I counted four cockatoos in the plum tree that nudges our house. The second storey kitchen window or the back door of the shop, at the same height as the tree canopy, are proving to be ideal bird watching positions.

September 2010 Nundle Writing Retreat

Thanks so much to all the writers who came along to our September Nundle Writing Retreat and for delving deep throughout the weekend to produce quality writing. Thanks also to our special guest, artist Kelly Jaffer, who shared some of her works, and our hosts Tarnya Turner at Nundle Public School, Kevin Blackwell at Magpie Manor and Judy Eather at Wombramurra Homestead who shared their gardens with us. We are about to mail out our spring newsletter so do look out for it (for those who didn't collect it at the recent retreat). MT

Wet feet

Who would have thought at the July writing retreat as we sat writing on the river bank and in the river bed that The Peel would be at risk of flooding just weeks later. The river didn't break its banks like it did in January, but it was certainly swollen with water.
Thank you so much to our July retreat participants. Nicola and I had a wonderful weekend of writing, and enjoyed seeing familiar faces and meeting new writers. We'd also like to thank our special guests, historian Geoff Cummins and musician Toni Swain, who provided the stimulus for two of our six writing exercises. We have started to post some of the work from the weekend on the website (just click on writers' work). Enjoy.

Another popular writing stimulus was the graffiti knitting tree in Captain Cook Park. Georgie, Vicki and Natasha even took up needles and added to the tree. Fleur sent me a colourful, variegated wool swatch in the post today and I look forward to adding it when the sun comes out.
Megan

Workshop

Our next workshop is nearly here. Megan and I have been working on some great places for inspiration and a very tasty menu. Remember, it's a bit cool here so bring along your winter woollies!

Graffiti Knitting at Nundle

It started at nine this morning with my four-year-old son and I struggling as we stretched to wrap swatches of knitting and crochet around the liquidamber tree in Captain Cook Park and ended with children, mothers and friends working with wool needles, knitting needles and crochet hooks to bring our graffiti knitting project to life. The result is just beautiful with contributions of knitting from many women in the community and friends of Nundle. My one-year-old son learnt to say pom pom as we looped donated pom poms onto twisted yarn, alternated with crocheted flowers and a sweet crochet basket that we dubbed the fairy swing. Friends bought along abandoned knitting projects, swatches knitted especially for the graffiti tree and first time samples by absolute beginners. Thank you everyone for having a sense of adventure and bringing colour to our park in winter. M

Frost Picture

I have managed to get a photo of the super frost. I'll leave the snow photo up on the previous post as it is so pretty.

Frosty Starts

Freezer-like conditions have prevailed here in Nundle over the last couple of days. We have been rising from toasty warm beds to be greeted by rolling white hills and pale blue skies. The frost is rather picturesque but is also playing major havoc with our pipes! This morning we had to do without both hot and cold water - this simply reinforced how reliant I am on my 7 am cup of coffee and shower to feel human. After chatting to a number of other locals I discovered quite a few of us were condemned to wander through the day in an uncaffinated and unwashed haze. Bring on the warmer weather! I haven't got a photo of the uber frost but thought I would post one taken during the last time it properly snowed in Nundle, transforming the village into something out of a fairytale.

Photos

Yoga shoes

Debra Miller's yoga classes at Murrurundi in the Upper Hunter Valley are so popular that she attracts people from many kilometres away. There are women who travel from Bunnan and Quirindi and today we travelled from Nundle (a 45 minute drive). It is worth it. Debra has such a gentle way that encourages you to have a go and when you are doing something completely wrong she tactfully corrects you. I expect to hurt tomorrow, but for now I'm enjoying my post yoga high and I'll try to make it last for as long as possible.

Bush Dancing Dag

It is so much easier to lure my husband onto the dance floor at a bush dance than any other occasion involving dancing. It is because when it comes to bush dancing every one is equal...as daggy as each other. How appropriate then that the Nundle Playgroup Bush Dance was held at The Dag Sheep Station with music by The Squatters. A girlfriend Kelly summed it up when she said the traditional folk music we danced to is timeless and inspires rollicking. There was much rollicking with parents dancing with children in their arms and children at their feet. Every face I met wore a beaming smile. Thanks John and Belinda of The Dag for a great night.

Something New

It is always refreshing that after 11 years of living in a place you can still discover something new. Today we went on a road trip with a difference, more a Sunday drive (except that it's Monday). We loaded the boys into the truck and explored the dirt forest roads in the range above Nundle. To make it interesting it has been drizzling with rain for a week so there was plenty of mud and water to splash through. A friend had told us about a magic spot by Swamp Creek so we set out to find it. While we didn't have fishing rods with us to lure in a trout as our friend did, we had a thermos of hot stove top coffee and left over birthday cake (Bec Schofield's decadent death by chocolate recipe) served with double cream and blackberry jam. How special. The vibrant green moss was luminous on the deep brown sodden bark of the pines and on the forest floor there was a gallery of fungi (we have to borrow a copy of What Fungi is That? from the Nundle Library so we know which variety to pick next time).
In the mood, we drove along the Two Mile Walk to an orchard planted by gold miners in the late 19th century. We had visited the orchard on foot twice previously, but some 10 years ago, so it was a treat to drive there. Although a little wild, the trees were thriving without a caretaker. Pears, apples, and plums had lost their leaves for winter, but the winter woodbyne was a resplendent gold. I'm about to pour over some albums containing photos of our previous visits, once in snow and in the full bloom of spring, to compare notes.

Warrah Writers' Workshop

Yesterday Megan and I braved the elements to join the Warrah Writers for one of their workshops. In the driving rain we bolted into the sanctuary of the Warrah Community Hall to listen to author Louisa Butler. In total 12 of us did a range of stimulating exercises with Louisa's guidance, concentrating particularly on characterisation and plotting. A number of the Warrah Wrtiers are working on their own manuscripts so found Louisa's advice very helpful. On the way home Megan and I discussed our plans for the next Nundle Writing Retreat workshop and we're feeling really inspired. It is also great fun planning the menu for both Saturday and Sunday. I have been playing around in the kitchen experimenting with tasty new recipes, also managing to master my mother's fabulous pavlova recipe. So pavlova will definitely be on the menu for July! I think homegrown lambshanks might also be order of the day. Will continue to keep you all posted...