Tiwi Tattler

Fri 24th May Bitte schon - you're welcome. Or if asked as a question: Bitter shon? then Can I help you? Another fine morning so we went for a walk to the Botanic Gardens which are only about 500m from our apartment,  on the grounds of  Karl-Franzens-University .  It was surprisingly chilly in the shadows so we had to keep looking for the sunny side of the path.  Unlike any other botanic gardens we have visited, these are very small and dominated by a climate controlled glass greenhouse that is home to exotic plants from 4 distinct climate zones: tropical, Mediterranean, temperate and cold. They are linked by wooden boardwalks or bridges and the conditions created by hot water or cool misting. The old glasshouse, from the early 20th century, is still standing and chock-a-block with potted plants that appear to be under some sort of research program. All this infrastructure means there is not much more space but they have lovely rock gardens interspersed with wha...

One of the last things to do before heading to the airport was to put that automatic reply in my work email. While it used to feel so satisfying, on this occasion I have to admit I did so with some sense of loss. I love my job and will miss so much that transpires in the farm over the next 4 weeks. I recently attended a one day Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Workshop and that has further inspired me with ways to enhance the experiences for students at our farm. One of the highlights for me was meeting a woman who helped set up the farm garden at Alawa Primary 12 years ago. Emma had so much knowledge to share about endemic food plants of the region and seasonal harvesting about which I am keen to learn more. I met up with her afterwards and offered a plot of ground in our native plants area for a workshop she is running in a few weeks. While it didn't turn out to be suitable, she did arrange for us to be nominated for sponsorship for National Tree Day through Greening Australia ...

How nice to be back in our Tiwi home. It will never make the feature pages of a magazine but it suits us just fine. We spend so much time on the back veranda it is hard to imagine how we ever lived without one. Fortunately our dog Ali is still with us to share it. At 15 she is a lot slower these days and still drives us mad as she sheds her coat, leaving clusters like tumbleweeds to blow into the corners as the overhead fans turn endlessly. But she's family, so forgiven. She still loves to go for a drive in the car with her head out the window and to walk through the nearby coastal reserve with us as we amble along bird watching.  The garden in particular needed quite a bit of work when we got back, but it felt good to be being so physical and at the end of each day we celebrated with a dip in the pool and enjoyed a sense of satisfaction at the progress we had made. We were soon down in Victoria reconnecting with family. It was so good to be back in the same country even th...