A Day at Nedrum

On Saturday we went for lunch with our friends Lorraine and Martin at their farm, Nedrum, near Rye Park.  They are establishing a trufflery to support themselves in their retirement!  This is where 1600 oak trees will be planted to produce the truffles.

Currently the property has a herd of approximately 40 Angus cattle.  Even in the rain, calves are cute!!  And I've always been fond of photographing cows!  (Kath can vouch for this!!)

The cattle have been having their feed supplemented with grain, but the birds seem to have been getting a goodly proportion.  I have never seen so many galahs in one spot before!!

We visited nearby Heathfield House, I dont have permission to show you pics of the inside, but it was built in 1918 and some of the stuff is 'original', with a lot from the '30's, it was amazing.  It boasts its own working tennis court, the club room is stacked with tennis memorabilia - a taste of the finer life in the middle of the sticks!!

There is a mob of 36 kangaroos, resident on the property, hard to see here, but you'll have to take my word for it!!  If you look hard you may see them, right in the middle of the pic!!

The garden at Nedrum is full of goodies, as is the Heathfield House garden.  Having been told the only lemon I could grow up here is Meyer, I gave up.... but here is a lemon that is plainly not a Meyer, thriving, took some fruit from the windfall and hope to strike a seedling or two for Mt Tanga's orchard.

The weather was bitterly cold, but the clouds were amazing, and we even had a triple rainbow, though it's hard to see here.

We enjoyed a delicious lunch of pork belly, roasted veggies and braised fennel, followed by meringue with strawberries and cream and all washed down with a goodly quantity of fine wine.  After our tour of the farm we warmed our cockles with irish coffees - all good :)  Will have to pull out all the stops for the return visit ;-D  These pics from the Nedrum garden:

Bert (at the back)  and Ernie (closer to the camera) - the alpacas - used to work as sheep guards and were very good at their job, but the sheep have gone and these guys are enjoying their retirement and new status of 'pets'.

Lose Lose!!

This morning, on my way to do my stint at Murrumbateman Field Days I met several roos!!  The first 4 encounters passed without incident, but when I met #5 and #6 it was a different story, they jumped out of the creek bed while I was crossing the causeway - I've got no choices on a causeway (bridge with no side rails) and #5 crashed into the side of my car taking out the side mirror.... not a good result for me or the roo!!

Wildlife on New Owners Day

Yesterday I attend a 'new owners day' at Accapacca, run by Jim and Connie Styles and Lavender Park's Ruth and Peter King.  Lots of good sound advice, and 'good practice' regimes and routines, practical demonstrations of toenail clipping, halter training, vaccinations and the whole nine yards!!  Came home with my head bursting with info and my belly bulging with excellent food!  Was so busy talking and taking notes that I didnt take any pics of the alpacas!!  I did meet an echidna crossing the road on my way there - stopped to make sure he made it safely to the other side - not a very co-operative subject when it came time for the photo shoot!!  LOL!!

One of the other attendees is a wildlife carer and she had 2 joeys with her.  One was very young and had a broken leg and was not looking all that flash, but this guy seemed to be doing much better and entertained us with his antics!!