At the Crystal Castle

Last time we drove through Mullumbimby, we saw signs to the Crystal Castle. It all looked a bit hippy, and we chuckled about it.

Well, now I've been there. It's gorgeous! Mum and I had a delightful visit there. There are beautiful gardens full of amazing plants, and pretty places to relax, think and contemplate.

We called these plants "Muppet Chickens".

Mum found this terrifying creature in her salad. Oh wait, it's a tiny cucumber. My curry was just excellent too.

Beautiful place to visit. If you felt you wanted to leave money on any of the statues, it was collected and sent to an orphanage they support.

They have a garden that supplies some of the food for the kitchen. And look, someone's left a pineapple on this plant.

Most important part of the visit, the wishing tree. You are invited to leave a message on the tree. Mum wrote a note to Peter, and sent it off on one of the high branches with fresh new growth.

In the garden of mushrooms

The winter weather has come to Melbourne, and our lawn is covered in little mushrooms!

Triffid finally picked

Look what just came in from the garden!

This is the only pumpkin on the plant. I'll try again though!

Triffid getting quite big

And there is an army of little ones following.

Triffid fruit getting ready to identify

Who can help identify this - a pumpkin, or a squash? Just want to get my recipe ready. It's growing fast.

The Birds

I biked to work this morning, so I set out really early. Nearly didn't make it out, though. These thug birds were ALL OVER the silver birch tree. They are sulphur crested cockatoos. They've started coming because we put out seed for the smaller parrots.

It was all a bit Hitchcockian. To add to the atmosphere, I swear one of them was repeatedly saying "Hello?"

And at the end of the day, this was all that was left.

The things we learn about triffids...

The triffid fruit is growing visibly...

And I learn that triffid plants (and pumpkins too) have both male and female flowers. This is clearly a female. That explains this...

... A generous lot of flowers with no fruit. These are the male flowers. Plenty of bees around, so I can let them sort themselves out. 

And the best bit ...

... I can see it all from my desk!

Triffid now significantly bigger

Locals comment that they are not worried at all.

A hero tangles with the triffid

Will he overcome the mighty triffid? Or will our hero be engulfed? Stay tuned.

Our hero is the dinosaur, by the way.

What happens to those who cross the triffid.

The beastly triffid overwhelms an innocent stick.

The triffid bears fruit!

My mystery plant has produced a fruit, still very small.

A triffid in my garden

A new plant has arisen in my garden - I think it's a triffid.

Or it could be a pumpkin, I suppose.

Beautiful pears on the way

These pears are well on the way. The gardens in Versailles maintain a huge number of heritage varieties that might not be cultivated otherwise.

The pear trees at Versailles

The trees at the Potager du Roi know how to behave. Aesthetically pleasing, and I expect the pruning makes it easier to harvest a crop of excellent fruit.

Our possum!

Jeff puts bird seed out for the birds. We get lorikeets, rosellas, corellas, and ... possums!

Feed the birds, $2 a bag!

Jeff has stepped up the bird feeding programme in the garden. As well as seed bells, he is hanging up apples (one of the local fruit shops offers big $2 bags of slightly second rate apples). Here we see the corellas and the rainbow lorikeets discussing who gets access to what.

And this apple got hung up at about dawn today. By 10.30 this is what it looked like!

That's funny...

... I don't remember planting tomatoes this year. This one plant popped up again from last year. And while we were away in Perth, our lovely house minder watered them and kept them happy!

Jeff's bird feeding pays off

Another nice interesting bird in the garden, thanks to Jeff's long term project of hanging bird bells. This one is a crimson rosella. When they are adults, they are lovely crimson and blue, but when they are immature, they are dull green. This one is right in between! So it's a teenager.

One thing I've learned about gardening...

... is that it's probably best to let carrots grow in rather a DEEP pot.

We got cockatoos!

Well, who's that in the garden? We seem to have some cockatoos visiting the bird bell! Jeff loves getting birds into the garden, so is is a real score.