The good news, the good news and the good news...

Firstly the best news of all is that we have new tickets home which leave here on the 10th (Monday). I offer huge and humble thanks to both Lindy in Whanganui and Myk in Nelson who both leapt to our rescue. I can't put into words how grateful we are for your pratical support, love and beams of white light. The humour went a long way to helping me keep my chin up too. Thank you both!

The next good news is that I made it to the NZ Embassy this morning wearing the best green shirt I could find, and yes, I got there on time and cast my vote. At dinner this evening I received news that all of the New Zealanders votes from Hanoi were already on their merry way to NZ for counting as special votes.

After voting Sky and I went out for lunch in the old quater overlooking Lake Hoan Kiem. We had to access the elevator through a shop that had floor to ceiling windows and glass doors. On the way out I reached for the door handle at the very same minute that Sky walked straight into the (very clean and therefore invisible) glass window. The look on her face was one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time and once she had figured out what had hit her (or rather what she hit) we both fell about laughing the poor shop staff didn't know what to make of us. We seriously walked nearly two blocks both doubled over hardly able to breath for laughing so much. Once we recovered sky's first comment was 'well they have clean glass don't they!' which set us off on another fit of laughter. The good news is that aside from a small bump on her head she is fine and in good humour.

The next good news is that we have just been at KOTO (Know One Teach One) restaurant with the NZ ambassodor, his wife and a whole crew of interesting New Zealanders working in Hanoi. KOTO is a project that has been running for nearly 10 years which houses, cares for, trains and provides jobs for young people that have been living on the street. It was fantastic, the food was delicious, the trainees and staff were great and the company was awesome. I got offered a job in an english speaking kindergarten (which I have to confess I am tempted by - I do miss working with little people) and we made great contacts to help establish education, aid and trade relationships between NZ and and minority groups that SPERI (Social Policy and Ecology Research Institute) are supporting. The ambassador and a manager of a local engineering company also gave me some good tips for making sure we get on our plane this monday.

I believe everything happens for a reason and I think that the day we had today and the contacts we made this evening are a good reason (although an expensive one) to still be in Vietnam. Not to mention the giggle I get whenever I recall Sky walking into the window!

The Bad news and the good news

For reasons that I will explain in full when I have bent my own head around it...Sky and I were not allowed on our flight home yesturday. After a manic 24 hours and much support from my loved ones back home and the very supportive SPERI staff, we are now in debt to said beloved (both here and in NZ) but do have new tickets home leaving Hanoi on the 10th. So we will be home a week later than first thought.

Although today (not to mention last night) has been very stressful I did get to see Hanoi off the back of a motorbike, which I decided is the best way! I would not trust myself driving in these conditions (Catba was no where near as busy) but I felt safe in the rear of Duan who did a supurb job of weaving, tooting and breaking in a hurry to get us across town to buy our tickets. I am definately going to invest in a wee bike when I get home. Sky and I had a giggle about what the populace of Whanganui would do if we loaded our bike up with our family and groceries and everything else we could strap on and drove around town tooting like we were in Hanoi. Just what would you think?

Juxaposed against the western tradition of driving around huge empty vehicles, in the face of energy descent, heavily laden mopeds and even better bicycles make alot of sense. Maybe we can start a new transportation craze in the (much longed for) land of the long white cloud!

In desparation when I could not contact anyone at home, I emailed the NZ Embassy in Hanoi to see if they could help. The bad news is that they could not help with our predicament but the good news is that they invited us to a dinner for New Zealanders in Hanoi tomorrow night. The other good news is that I can cast my vote at the embassy tomorrow, hopefully we will have some preliminary election results to talk about by then.

I had an idea for a culture jam that I was disappointed not to have time for, and the silver lining of our predicament gives me the time to do....
We are going to spend a day picking up rubbish and classifing it as we go. We are going to gift the valuable items we collect to the unsung heroes in Hanoi who make their living 'waste picking' - collecting recyclable materials for sale to depots.
We will compost the organic matter and then take what is left to the two wheeled bins on the corner for landfilling (our aim is to have as little of this possible).

I think that we may raise some eyebrows but hopefully we will be successful in raising this important issue in a positve and constructive way. Currently 90% of Hanois waste ends up in landfill.

Hanoi Tsunami 31/10/08

It rained all night last night and I woke to find Duan at the end of my bed plugging plastic bags under our door (to the balcony) to block off the rain which was pouring in under the door and had flooded the house! Luckily nothing was damaged although some items that had been on the floor were now a bit wet!

Over breakfast Duan thought that maybe Hanoi would be a bit flooded as the drainage system was not designed to cope with such high levels of rain. I set off to pick up my laundry from the office to discover that Hanoi was indeed in flood. The streets were aflow with water overflowing from the manky lake and some of the scenes were so unreal that I had to dash home to get my camera.

It was bizarre with people continuing on with their day like nothing was happening. The influx of motorbikes on the footpath which wasn’t as deep as the road made being a pedestrian in Hanoi even more dangerous and I was hit by side mirrors, baskets and boxes etc several times. Apparently Hanoi floods like this about 10 times a year so the locals were taking it in their stride.

When I ventured out again to check on Craig who was sick in the guesthouse down the road and get a pizza for dinner (sky’s request) I was wading through water that was over my knees. The pizza place had a white board managed by a staff member in an attempt to stop the water washing into the restaurant whenever a bus or large car actually managed to drive past creating what Craig aptly named the Hanoi Tsunami. I ordered an ice coffee (it is still hot despite the rain) to enjoy while I waited for our dinner and was entertained by the goings on outside and the staff sweeping water out from under my feet. It was quite surreal.

It hasn’t stopped raining all evening and I am not sure how high the water will be in the morning but we are hoping to wade out of here to catch a bus to Halong Bay to be tourists on Cat Ba Island for a couple of days before we board our flight home on the 5th. Wish us fair weather!

Thundering Hanoi 30/10/08

Hanoi has treated us to some more enormous thunder storms and there has been much rain. In between showers we managed to visit Ho Chi Minh Mueseum which was interesting although a little obscure. We were really keen to visit the Ho Chi Mausoleum but Ho Chi Minh has been sent to Russia for maintenance so the Mausoleum was closed for two months. I am kind of glad about this as it was a bit gruesome and I found out later that his request was for a quiet cremation. I think peoples wishes should be respected. It is a bit of a controversy here with many people thinking the same and also not being happy about the amount of money being spent to maintain both the Mausoleum and also Ho Chi Minh himself. Viet Nam is not a rich country and it does look and seem quite extravagant….

We got a bit sick of being haranged by every cyclo and taxi driver to take us places, one even reversed down the whole st shouting at us to get in. Also every shop keeper and stall holder would try their best to get us inside. I am sure there is some sort of tourist fatigue and I think we had it. We decided to walk away as quick as we could and after a fair distance, not being able to find any street signs we flagged down a cyclo driver and asked him to ride us back to the lake where we are staying. This was a hairraising experience with nothing between us and the traffic of midday Hanoi.

We made like locals and had a rest in the middle of the day before venturing out into the old quarter to find some silky gifts. After spending about an hour looking into every shop on Huang Gai (Silk St) we decided to avoid any shops that had doors as these were all very expensive. The doorless shops were much cheaper and also friendlier and we had a great time hunting out many beautiful silky treats for people.

Fond Farewells 29/10/08

Yesterday was a busy day indeed! Being my last day we had to work hard to fit in everything that we had planned to do but hadn’t quite managed yet….

We started with a waste audit in the morning and took the opportunity to send everyone off in different directions to pick up any inorganic rubbish they could find. We had 45 minutes to find as much rubbish as possible. Not much was found in the HEPA grounds but much was gathered from the banks of the river and also the public roadway which cuts though HEPA property. Many people use both the road and the river as an access for harvesting things from the rainforest. These people leave a lot of litter behind them.

When the groups came back to base outside the kitchen, we classified their findings into different types of waste and discussed why things were classified this way and what could be done with the materials. We found quite a few batteries that were in various forms of decomposition. There is nothing available to deal with these in Vietnam so we had no choice but to send them to the dump along with everything else (that couldn’t be reused or recycled, we wrapped them up as best as we could to at least contain the damage.

While we were looking at the waste from around Miriam and Craig’s house we found….. a baby snake! I was very excited to see a snake on my last day and even though it was a baby it was a deadly variety which was expertly handled and thrown off into the nearby bush (again glad it is my last day..) by Duan who is very experienced with such things.

In the afternoon we had planned to make a mini worm farm for Amalee to take care of so I could demonstrate how you could provide everything worms needed with recycled material. It really was a mini farm as we used a very small (500ml) ice cream container left over from Sky’s treat when we went into Vinh City earlier in the week.

Duan had been thinking ahead since my designing a worm farm session earlier in the week and had gathered some materials in readiness. So after an exciting time finding many compost worms in the kitchen banana circle (in the pouring tropical rain) we built this one together too. This is a practice model to learn about how to manage them effectively before moving onto a bigger scale system to cater for the needs of the whole HEPA property. The mini farm is under house 3 being cared for by Amalee and Rebecca and the larger model is under house 2 being cared for by the students with help from Robert. I will be offering advise from the other side of the world when they need it. Hopefully I have done my job well enough now that they won’t need my help, at least about wormfarming anyway.

Waste Audit and Worm farms complete, I was free to pack my bag and clean up our living space for the last three and a half weeks. I had to say goodbye to Rebecca and Amalee at dinner as the idea of us leaving had sent Amalee over the edge and Rebecca had to take her home before she got anymore upset. This was really hard and we all had a good cry. After dinner we all set off to house 2 where a farewell surprise had been prepared. I wasn’t sure what to expect but the staff had prepared a hilarious slide show containing many highlights of our time at HEPA. Someone cheeky had spliced in some similar pictures of animals in the same poses so it made me laugh and cry at the same time.

Vin lead a speech on behalf of the students which really made me cry and then they presented me with my very own ‘chopper’ a beautiful hand made tool for making mulch by hand. It is made by the mong people in Simacai in the far north of Vietnam and is such good quality that it will last me a life time. Joe would have loved it and I can’t wait to show it to everyone and use it at the community garden. I must remember not to leave it in my hand luggage though! I was so moved by this that before I knew it I was singing (at the front, by myself and in front of everyone!) Utai nga mai, nga waka…..Aue!

Then it was hugs all around and a quick dash to the car in the rain. Tu Kien is accompanying us to Hanoi, Huan was driving and Lauchy came along for the ride. I cried all the way to the next town. I am such a sook when it comes to saying goodbye.

We had time to spare after checking that the bus had room for us so Sky shouted us all a drink at a local café. We got back just in time to throw our luggage in the bottom and jump aboard. It was a sleeper bus with an interesting arrangement of ‘beds’ that were actually very comfortable and for $13 each it was a great deal for a trip to Hanoi (8 hours) and also a bed for the night. It was super clean and we even had to take our shoes off before boarding. Sky was most impressed with the sit down toilet! That was quite a treat for her…..

Halong Bay.... the long way around!

Well we are in Halong City at an expensive restaurant drinking lots of coffee to make use of their free internet. We can see the gorgeous islands of Halong Bay but alas we are stuck here for the night unless we feel like stumping up with US$100 (not likely) for a private boat. We missed the ferry due to a series of unfortunate (and in retrospect comical) events.

We farewelled Duan and Tu Kien from their house this morning as they were off to visit Duan's family for the weekend. We were undecided whether to brave the horrendous weather (see previous posts that I will load when I get access to a computer that will let me insert my flash drive) and risk a trip to Halong or stay home (in hanoi)and just relax and be cosy out of the rain.

We decided to risk it and head off into the rain to find a taxi. Luggage in tow we managed to find roads that were not past our knees flooded to cross and when it started to pour again we flagged down a taxi. This is the first event. We are now soaked to the skin, with wet luggage in tow. I thought I had managed to communicate via my vietnamese phrasebook and our map that we wanted to go to My Dinh bus station. Apparently we hadn't as he dropped us off in a place with no buses and pointed to the right further down the road. He wouldn't go any further as the flood water was too high.

Righto, I thought in my bravest Kiwi style. Let's go Sky. (Sky had stayed in doors all of yesturday watching a Simpsons Halloween Marathon instead of getting soaked with her mad mother out in the pouring rain taking photos) so the flood was new and exciting for her. She rolled up her pants, I hitched up my dress and off we set. I don't mind getting wet, I don't even mind getting wet in dirty water but it gets a bit treacherous when you are negotiating your way along third world, pot holed roads and paths when you can't see where you are putting your feet! We had a few close calls but managed to keep our luggage above water most of the time. After carrying on like this for a couple of Kilometers and still not finding any sign of a bus stop, we flagged down a taxi that was going in the opposite direction.

We were a bit bedraggled by this point and absolutely dripping wet but the taxi driver didn't mind as he already had about 10cm of water sloshing about on the floor of his car. Turns out he spoke good english and was an expert flood water driver so the ride was really fun and lightened our mood immensely. He delivered us to the bus stop and we only had to wade across one road to start hunting for our bus.

We couldn't find the entrance so made like locals and climbed through a spot where the bars had been stretched a little apart. I'm not sure I would have fitted through 7 weeks ago!

Anyway we were spotted by a local who asked us where we were going and ushered us to a bus that didn't have the corresponding signs I was looking for. They assured me it was going to halong and that it would cost 8 fingers held up - I took this to mean 80,000 and said no and went to walk away. Someone quickly whipped out a ticket and showed me 65,000 which is what I had been told. I double checked that it was going to ha long and then we climbed aboard. I checked with the driver that it was indeed 65,000 to which he hastily agreed, making a great joke about it with the locals although I couldn't tell what he was saying. It was only when we stopped half way and I spotted the very swish bus that we were supposed to be on that I figured that the 8 fingers meant 8,000 dong and I had insisted upon paying 65,000! Duh! Actually, despite it being a bit cramped it was a bargain for 80c and not a bad way to travel at all. At least I now know which bus to catch back to hanoi!

We didn't even get taken right to the city, we had to catch a further taxi and got accosted as soon as we arrived by someone who could give us a bed and book our boat and .....

We were totally skeptical and fatigued so I got rid of him by taking his card and telling him that we needed a look around first. It turns out that he is recommended by the few people I have asked so we may just go and spend the night there. I was keen for a beach sleep but the look on skys face was a definate "NO WAY IN HELL!" so beds indoors with air conditioning it is.....

Reflections on a powerful journey

We are leaving here on the overnight sleeper bus from Vinh city to Hanoi on the 29th which is only a few days away. I am in two minds about how I feel about this. While I am yearning to get back to Farrell, my own bed, my own garden and also the community one, my friends and family and also my work which I love; I am at the same time realising that I have just adjusted to life here. I can pick up and use chop sticks without having to think about it. I can converse better with the students between their new English and my new Vietnamese. I am into the daily rhythm although we still quite often miss breakfast (grin!) and also I have made many new friends who I will be sad to leave.

The PRI team consisting of myself (and Sky), Rebecca (and Amalee), Robert (Sink) has happily turned out to be a dynamic and highly skilled and effective and complimentary team with Lauchy, Craig (and Miriam and Kade) also contributing much to the success of our work here. I am going to miss them all greatly.

As I enter into the last few days of our stay at HEPA, I want to share some of the most powerful learnings I have had here.

1) I used to think that I lived a very modest, low carbon lifestyle (by western standards I do) but here I have been shown just how much of a 'consumer' I really am.
I am committed to implementing the lessons I have learnt here and applying them as best I can within the context of my home community. Hopefully inspiring others along the way. It is not about 'doing without' but rather about being creative and resourceful in building an abundant lifestyle that does not exploit either the planet or its inhabitants. Permaculture provides us with abundant tools for this purpose.

2) I used to think that I was part of an integrated and cohesive community (thinking on a city level) here I realise that my lifestyle is actually quite isolated and while I do enjoy my own company, having experienced a complete lack of it for the last 7 weeks, I realise how little I actually share with my wider community at home and also how little privacy I actually need. While I am craving some quite down time when I get home to assimilate and integrate the journey I have traveled (physically, mentally and spiritually) I have learnt alot about myself, my boundaries and how I relate with people and I am committed to upping my level of community living on every level.

3)Society is an incredibly interesting topic and here, eating, sleeping, working and playing together every moment of the day is a given. It actually is the most efficient use of resources, especially when it comes to cooking. I have always thought it is a bit crazy to have 14,000 individual households (based in Whanganui)each using energy to prepare meals at the same time and eating them alone. What better way to build community than to share food together more often? I work long hours at home and when I come home I don't have alot of spare energy to prepare food for our small family. I would however take an afternoon off to prepare with joy a feast for many families to take my turn at feeding people and in turn share meals prepared by other families. I am lucky to live in a community that does share a meal every week but even this requires each of us to prepare individual plates of food to share. HEPA has a full time cook who feeds everybody. This frees everybody up to work more hours in the garden or doing other work around the farm. Students take turns to help prepare food and also clean up after the meal. Everything is shared. Everything. I think Bill Mollison once said something like "It is only by what we share that we are able to access what we need to live sustainably." or something like that - I'll look it up for you later.

4) Sharing is another interesting thing. I like to share and I share alot but have been challenged here by how I think about what is 'mine'.
Everything here belongs to everybody and I have had very powerful reflections about how I relate to things I use with some sense of ownership. "My bed, my blanket, my mangoes in fridge,my ...." What exactly is ownership? What rights does it give me over anybody else? Why should my needs be greater than anybody elses? The other side of this has been sharing the little resources we have brough here - balsamic vinegar, Milk, olives etc - I share these willingly. Even more so after experiencing hardship and hunger (Sky more than me).

Overall I have had many powerful reflections about western living practises and attitudes. There is so little physical resource here, pretty harsh living conditions and yet there is such an abundance of community, culture and joy for life that is truly inspiring. I am deeply moved by the kindness and love of all of the vietnamese people that I have met and been living with. In light of the very difficult history of this small south east asian country, this is even more humbling.

It is true what they say 'Attitude changes everything' and we really do have the power to transform our world. As geoff says "You can solve all of the problems of the world in a garden." but only if you share it!

Fishy Aversions

I have discovered that my lifelong aversion to all things fishy is because I am allergic to it!

Paul Taylor (Mr Compost) first suggested that I could have an allergy at Zaytuna Farm after I shared my experiences of trying to eat fish and not being able to.

In Melbourne I accidentally got a mouthfull of Tuna (which was hastily spat out)and was covered in spots the next day. They were not very serious and didn't last long. I didn't really pay much attention to it.

For the last few days I have been getting gradually more covered in little blisters which at first I thought were insect bites. I have since discovered that 'Shrimp Soup' (61% shrimp) has been added to all of the 'vegetarian food' and we now think the blisters are hives.

I have been generally not very well (not much energy, no appetite etc) since I arrived in Vietnam which I had put down to climate adjustment.

I am now fasting for a day to give my body a chance to cope and expel the shrimps to see if that is what is going on.

Otherwise I am well and happy (although home sick) and last night we entertained ourselves with an evening of cultural exchange, complete with Kareoke machine!

We learnt a Black Thai dance backed by the absolutely beautiful singing of the Black Thai students. I led the group in a ever faster rendition of Upoko, Pakahiwi, Puku, Hope, Wai wai... which was fun and the Australian contingent taught us some new 'traditional' actions to Waltzing Matilda. Miriam sang us a traditional song from Slovakia and Khu Tah (Mong Student) demonstrated how to call to your love one (to arrange a raudeveux) across the mountains with a leaf whistle which is a language all in itself which of course the loved one can interpret and respond to across the gaping valleys. Many traditional songs were sung and then explained and we even tried to do a version of With or Without you - although none of us could really remember the words.

Sky started a few rounds of Chinese whispers and we did English, Vietnamese and also Mong versions which were all hilarious.

It really was a fantastic night and all of us had a great time and learnt much about each others cultures.

Today is a day of free time so I am making the most of the opportunity to ctach up on reading and also get our washing done - the hand washing novelty has worn off already!

My Garden in Springtime

I just had to add this extra post. Dani and Nelson loaded this picture of my garden as it is now. Thank you Dani and Nelson for loving my garden as much as I do. I am yearning to get my hands back into that soil now!

Chasing Buffalos and flooded rivers

That's right, when I got up there was a buffalo outside our house that was having a feast of the gardens here. Village Buffalo are hard to keep out of here. Sky and I chased it back out of the property at hight speed. I managed to get close enough to hit it on the bum to hurry it along!

I spent most of today doing research for the worm presentation that I did tonight. I also has some good communication with my darling sister (hi Penny) Trish and Myk (Permie pals) and Craig who is taking great care of Te Mana Park while I am away, having this news from home was sooooo good.

While I am having a great time here I am also counting down the sleeps (18) until I am back in my own community.

Geoff and Nadia left today to return to their farm in Australia. HEPA organized a farewell circle and more than a few tears were shed as good byes were made. Having spent every day of the last 6-7 weeks with them, it was an emotional goodbye although one thing Sky won’t miss is having live Leeches dropped on her by Geoff!

Andy Kenworthy, having completed his work here, also left today. We managed to catch a photo of the kiwi crew before he left.



Talking with Rebecca today, we were marveling at what an honor it is to have the opportunity to continue their work here in Vietnam. Robert (Sink), Rebecca and I have all been left with different aspects of the project here to work on with Geoff and Nadias back up email support. We will all work hard to rise up to the challenge of filling their large shoes!

My project is the worm farms here and developing relationships and links between NZ and Vietnam to offer internships for training Vietnamese farmers to come and learn English and extend their knowledge and practice of Permaculture.

The worm farming session went well although it was quite a challenge to teach via a translator and I didn’t quite get into the rhythm of it. So, not my usual dynamic teaching style but it seemed to work all the same. It is also hard to share a joke via a translator. Well, easy to share but getting the timing of the shared laughter requires real skill!

It stopped raining today and although it was still pretty mild temperature wise, I had promised Sky a swim so off we went with Thu, Lauchy, Sink and Phuong. Lachy and Phuong were jumping off the big rock and I climbed up too.

The River is very high and very fast after so much rain and I was too chicken to jump off the top (not being able to see where the rocks are) I climbed down to half way and jumped into the current. When I surfaced I was enjoying how fast I was being carried along until (too late) I realized that I was moving way too fast to get out of the current before going through the rapids and on down the River at high speed. The water was only about a meter deep but very rocky on the bottom and the river was moving so fast that there was no way I could stand up let alone stop.

I had a brief moment of panic until adrenalin kicked in and everything I have ever learnt about river safety flashed before my eyes. I spotted the calm edge further down the river and relaxed making sure I didn’t bash myself against any rocks. It was a pretty wild ride!

When I cleared the rapids and swam into the calm part of the River I turned around to see everyone way off into in distance. Lachy and Phuong were approaching at high speed over the rocks. The look on Phuongs’ face as he came into view made me leap to my feet so he could see I was safe. Looking back it is quite funny but at the time it was pretty dangerous and I gave them quite a fright. I apologized to him later as we did the dishes together.

Needless to say, I won’t be jumping off the big rock again until the River drops and slows down a bit!

email communications

Just a wee blog today to let everyone know that I am having trouble accessing my usual email from Vietnam so will be using my gmail account until I get home. So apologies to anyone who has sent me an email that I haven't responded too - I haven't been able to read them. I can however receive and respond to email at the following address

consciouslisa'at'gmail.com

Glad to be missing the election campaign (just been filled in by my sister) but even glader to be home just in the nick of time to vote!

Hot Baths and Illegal Logging

Yesturday we spent the day in a fundraising communication workshop run by NZs very own Andy Kenworthy. We went through a process of applying each of the Permaculture Principles to Fundraising Communication. It was fascinating and very effective at making sure we are all on the same page and also deepened the cultural unstandings between all of the parties.

Three new volunteers arrived last night, Lachy, Naiomi and Mark from Australia.

In the evening we went back to our house to back up Andys' photos onto my computer as his laptop died yesturday morning. He noticed a leech on my leg and it proved to be a difficult one to remove. We observed it for a while and it seemed dead keen on having another taste of me. Sky spent the rest of the night worried that leeches would get her from under our mosquito net.

Before we went to bed, Huan took us down to the local hot mineral bathes. They were big enough for Sky and I to share one and it was absolute bliss to soak in some naturally hot mineral water, wash our hair and soak our weary bones for a while. The temperature has been pretty mild lately and we have been getting lots of rain - thus the influx in the leech population.

On the way home in the 4 wheel drive we came across a group of people who were blocking the road. It was dark and as we came closer it became clear that they were stacking logs in the middle of the road for illegal sale. I reached for my camera straight away but luckily the car was full of people with more sense who stopped me just in time. It could have been a dangerous thing to do. They loggers quickly made just enough room for us to squeeze through. It was heart breaking and when we returned to HEPA Rebecca told us that she had heard the trees fall just across the river from us and watched them take the logs across the river at dusk. Each of the logs can fetch between 1 and 2 million dong ($100- $200) which is nothing in comparison to their real value as standing trees.

It would be easy to take the moral high ground about this but it is nothing that hasn't happened anywhere else in the world. Paula just sent me a note that this was happening on the Whanganui River back in the day. Everyone that has ever driven along the Whanganui River bank will know what an environmental disaster this has been. Maybe we can send pictures of the results of this activity has been so that people here are inspired and motivated to find other solutions to survive.

The nutrient cycle is much faster in the tropics and soil loss can happen incredibly fast if the tree cover is removed. This activity is supported by a whole ecosystem of buyers, traders and authorities that overlook the activities of the illegal timber trade. It is difficult to find a way to stop it, where do you begin?

Noisy Fertility

As I sit here cosy under our mosquito net, we are serenaded by the flowing of the nearby River and the multitude of night time Tropical insect and animal songs. There is a cacophony of mating going on out there, the tropics certainly are lush and fertile!

It is hot and balmy this evening. We had rain all of last night and some of today, the river is in flood (although not up to the banks yet – the rocky flats have disappeared under water) and the water has changed to the colour of the subsoil which shows how much is being washed away from the ever depleting forest being slowly felled tree by tree. Yesturday we were swimming in the river when two loggers came by dragging their prize from the forest (roughly hewn in two) over the stones with Water buffalo. Once they had cleared the rapids, they let the logs float freely down the river. One logger slowly made their way over the rocks with the buffalo and the other chased the logs down the opposite side of the River, freeing them with a large stick whenever they were caught up on large stones or snagged in the river bank. Later on in the day we saw more loggers riding slices of a huge tree down river. This was incredibly dangerous, both for the loggers and those of us refreshing ourselves in the water – we all had to make a hasty exit!

We had a live link up with the ecoshow in NZ yesterday. It made me yearn for home. To everyone who jumped up and down in front of the camera when it was my turn, I couldn’t tell who you were (you were a blur of kiwi mania) but it warmed my heart all the same. It was such a treat to make out familiar shapes in the audience and I really was wishing I could be there with you all. It left me quite melancholic for the rest of the day, missing you all and NZ terribly!

Ron asked me if I would recommend this experience to other Permaculture students. Something I neglected to share at the time was the value of the cultural exchange. I am able to share so much from NZ culture – both Maori and Pakeha (or gringo as Geoff calls us) and also I am learning so much about Vietnamese culture, history and language. I have learnt so many new words that they are going in one ear and out the other! Vietnamese is quite tricky to learn as there are 5 (or 6?) intonations so if you get the tone wrong you could be saying something completely different. Everyone is very tolerant of our foibles and it was a great lunch time joke when I said I was being careful as I didn’t want to tell anyone that their mother was a buffalo.

Also it is an experience of humility. I am embarrassed by my western lifestyle and while much of this week has been difficult adapting to the lifestyle, it has taught us much about how little we need to be truly happy and how much we take for granted in the west. This evening before coming to bed, I was squatted over a basin for over an hour doing our washing by hand. It is amazing how conservative and water conscious you become when you have to carry the water from the river. The rinse water becomes the wash water for the next batch and so on. It was actually quite hard work and has resulted in me making more of an effort to keep my clothes clean, not that I can do much about the sweat situation – did I mention it is hot here?

Much of today was spent indoors as it rained most of the day. We spent the afternoon reviewing the mindmap that Geoff, Nadia and Mrs Lanh have been working on for the last week. It was very interesting and I am very inspired by what has been achieved to date and even more inspired by what they are aspiring to over the next few years.

This evening I showed the students the Rainbow Valley Farm country calendar documentary. There was no sound but I have watched it so many times with every single one of my classes last year that I nearly know it verbatim, so I was able to talk about it as we went and paused it while Huan translated my narration. It always makes me feel immensely proud of Joe and Trish and their work over the last twenty years. It struck me tonight as I looked around that Joe would have been proud of me here in Vietnam sharing the passion that he helped to ignite and kindle in me (I will let Trish speak for herself!) I am deeply humbled by the opportunity to be here. The students loved it and were very inspired by the top soil that Joe and Trish created and asked many questions about they do things on the farm.

We have to be up, scrubbed and presentable at 5am tomorrow as we are all going on a field trip tomorrow to visit other project sites. So gooooood night Vietnam!

Goooood Morning Vietnam

We have been here quite a few days now and there is so much to share, I don't know where to start!

We actually caught both of our flights to get here which is a good start. I am very grateful to Tony who delivered us all to the Airport from Melbourne University. It was a bit hairy when my alarm went off but had been turned down so when I looked at the clock at 7:40am and I was supposed to be in the car at 7:30 I nearly had a heart failure (given our track record of catching planes!) I had -10mins to get our bags down the stairs into the car, my washing out of the machine (which had stopped mysteriously in the night so I had to pack dripping wet clothes into my luggage!) and sort out all of those last minute things that inevitably crop up. I am grateful to Sakina and Brenna who did the last day of catering, Tony who did everything(!!) Trinity college that may be scratching their heads at the washing machine full of wet towels and sheets, Lisa and/or Raelene whoever is doing the last two days of catering maths for me.....

Vietnam is so beautiful, Andy Kenworthy summed it up nicely as we were swimming (in the clearest water I have ever swam in) surrounded by rainforest cloaked hills and stunning riverside geological formations. "It doesn't seem real without the cheesy soundtrack and an old man (David Attenborough styles) whispering in the background" Well we are here and I am awe struck!

Sky is finding the heat very uncomfortable and has become wilted and lethargic. Swimming revives her so I am trying to get her into the river as often as possible. The diet is also quite an adjustment, I am feeling really good with the absense of bread Sky was not impressed when her jellybean rations were infested by some rather large ants. We both nearly scremed the house down.

Geoff and Nadia saw a Tarantula in the forest yesturday, we have not been so lucky but have been lucky enough to not encounter any snakes yet, especially seeing as this is a busy season for them. Everything here is large, including the insects which is quite freaky. I am very grateful for the tight weave mosquito net over our bed.

The cities, although interesting are way to stressful for me - even crossing the street is an act of faith. The advice we got was not to look and just step on out. Sky and I linked arms, took a breath and braved stepping out into the oncoming traffic. Sure enough we made it to the other side without being ploughed down by a moped loaded high with people, chickens or other interesting vehicles.

HEPA (human ecology preservation area) is stunning. The staff and students are so friendly and welcoming. The work they are doing is phenomenal and I am very inspired for projects to do when I get home. The whole system is only 2 years old but everything grows so fast here that it is looking lush and productive already.

I am doing a worm session for the students on Friday night and Robert (Sink) and I are adding English translations into some of the students normal lessons. I came back from a tour around one of the farms with Geoff and Nadia to discover that one of the sentences the students had learnt was "Lisa has missed the lesson!"

The money photos are me and sky as millionaires! We are each holding 5 200,000 Dong notes. My vague calculations are that NZ$1 = 10,000 Dong, it takes a wee while to be able to calculate the currency exchange accurately.

At the Hanoi markets (which were also very stressful) I put my new haggling skills into practise. I brought a light cotton dress for Sky and was very proud to haggle the cendor down from 100,000 to 90,000. When I sat down over lunch to actually work out how much things were costing - Skys' dress went from $10 to $9. In conjunction with the fact that the average vietnamese person earns between $1 and $2 dollars per day, I decided not to haggle anymore.

The photo of birds on the motorbike was taken as the birds are actually alive waiting for a restaurant to buy them.

Farewell to Melbourne

I can't believe another two weeks have flown by! In a few short hours (still to pack our bags - I can always sleep on the plane!) we will be flying off to Viet Nam.

I managed to sneak off to Ceres today to have a quick squiz around. It really was quick, I only had time to dash around quickly taking photos. I stuffed my bag full of flyers and brought two great resources for when I get home. One on ethical shopping and the other on starting community food projects, both of which are right up my alley!

I am pretty sure there was a picture of Tessa on the wall of the fabulous new info centre - were you there in 1996 Tess?

Tomorrow is the last day of the PDC here and today the students presented their design projects and tonight we had the party.

Sky and I did a skit on traveling in the Melbourne Trams. Sky also made up a joke:

What do you get if you cross a Permaculturist with something fast and hungry?
A Permavulture!

My favorite preformance of the evening was Bill's Whale story. Not many people have been on the other side of a whales throat, and he lived to tell the tale!

Coming in a close 2nd was the Permaculturally adapted lumberjack song (complete with Austrian outfits) which was hilarious and also harmonious.

Then there was the Gyno Kinetic Phobia therapy designed to cure Bill of his phobia of women falling on him. I'm not sure if it worked but it was certainly fun and involved the whole audience - the women descending on Bill like a storm of screaming banshees (led by Sky) and Bill being protected by his guild of Men. No women, children or Mollisons were harmed during the therapy!

Then there were poems, songs, stories, water dances, fairy recipes and the list goes on. PDC parties are always a hoot!

I don't have time to post the photos tonight as I really do need to go and pack our bags! Your in for a treat when I do though.

Half way through our trip already!

Flaming Flemebae, Gelato....a day of icecream it two of its international forms

That was Skys spelling of french as I am not even going to try!

Today Brenna (who was totally gobsmacked that I didn't know what gelati was) whisked us away from class to get some. I have to say that my selection of Bacio (chocolate and hazelnut) White Bacio (white chocolate and hazelnut) and boysenberry was truly delicious. Where have I been all my life? David from the course had ordered some too but I ended up wearing the melts of it before we got it back to him, distracted as I was by my own tub.

I am enjoying this PDC immensly. Bill is teaching the morning and boy, can he tell a good story. I can't wait to share some of his experiences with people when I get home. The personal anecdotal stories are the ones that people remember and Bill has at least one story to back up every word he has ever written. He has had over 80 years of observation and considered thought about the world, it is a great treat to be here sharing his stories.

In the evening we (sky and I) set off to find
some dinner. Brenna had told us about a great italian cafe on Lygon st which is not far from where we are staying.

I had always thought that Auckland was bad for not having st signs but Melbourne is even worse! By the time we gave up looking for Lygon St (we passed it as it had no signs) we had been walking for an hour and a half. We really had our minds set on pasta but settled for a traditional french creperie for dinner as we both had sore feet. Sky had been wanting flaming food for many years so when we saw other guests having some she didn't even have to ask, the look on her face said it all!

So 2 savory crepes and one flaming 1 with ice cream later, we set off to find our way home. Having no map with us, we had to rely on the directions of our lovely waitress. She was spot on and luckily this end of Lygon St actually had a sign so we were able to find many,many cute italian places to eat.

I noted some land marks so we can find our way back to them another time.

Actually, not being much of a city girl, Melbourne is much easier to get around at night time (most of the 3.8 million people are at home) and we were able to really figure out how to get around at our own pace.

Guerilla Composting

I was shocked to discover this morning, (when trying to find a local compost heap for the organic scraps I had separated from yesterdays course waste) that there is in fact NO COMPOSTING BEING DONE HERE AT ALL!

Even the weeds plucked from the immaculate gardens here are all sent to landfill. (Read with a gasp of horror!) Well, you can take a waste reduction educator away from her work for a while but you can’t make her send organic matter to landfill!

Not when I know that the bucket of food scraps I collected today could generate at least 20kgs of greenhouse gas if left to fester away in the anaerobic environment of a landfill. Not to mention the nasty toxic leachate it turns into –with the potential to contaminate land and underground water reserves. Don’t even get me started on the impacts of soil degradation and erosion…..

So, I cooked up a plan (with Sky as my willing assistant) to start a secret compost somewhere on site to deal with the organic scraps. I discovered just in time that this blog is being read by locals (hello!) so decided to move my guerilla compost off site so as not to be evicted. When relaying this story to Bill he shared his experience of getting in trouble here last year for donating some liquid nitrogen to a local tree….

Anyway, after going out for a lovely meal at Zum Zum (where I offered a bored Sky 10 cents for every word she could make out of PERMACULTURE and 20 cents for each word if she could come up with over 25 – she came up with over 30!)
We searched our room and luggage for anything resembling a spade or similar digging implement for our late night composting mission.

The best we could come up with was a couple of travel spoons which were not very big. We took our bucket, spoons, dark glasses and camera for a brisk walk around Melbourne depositing some juicey organic matter into every little spoon dug trench and hole we made. We felt both virtuous and naughty all at the same time!

NB No soil was harmed during the making of this blog.

Day 1 of the Melbourne PDC

Wow, this place is amazing and Bill Mollison is hilarious. I am in love with Melbourne already. Arriving late at night last night, we didn't really get to see anything. Trinity college is like something right out of the pages of Harry Potter and the dining hall is from Hogswort I am sure of it. I'll attach some pictures of us having breakfast there tomorrow, especially for River and Sage and Romy, you guys won't believe it!!!

I am doing the morning and afternoon teas for the course along with Sakina who is arriving tomorrow sometime. I spent this morning listening to Bill introduce himself before being whisked of on a recce around Melbourne by Brenna who did this job last year. It's a tough job, I have to go around picking up lush food from the local bakaries and cafes and have it set out ready for the breaks.

Today we had gorgeous french baggettes (I accidentally sunk my teeth into a tuna one, before dashing out to spit it out and rinse out my mouth). 2 apples later and I was still rinseing my mouth out! In the afternoon we had a selection of the most delicious italian biscuits I have ever tasted (I had to test them out naturally) I have a sneaking suspician that I may just regain the 2kg I lost working on the farm. I'll have to head off in a different direction each evening to explore Melbourne on foot for an hour or so.

Sky and I have our own room overlooking the green and all of the gorgeous stone buildings. I am not going to pick up or even touch a university prospectus or Whanganui may loose us forever. I have always wanted to go to a university like this.

We are currently in the Library above the lecture hall where the PDC is being held. I am going to dash back down now and catch the last few minutes of class.

So far we have missed two out of three planes...

Yep, that's right, we missed our flight from Brisbane to Melbourne yesturday!  Having woken before the crack of dawn to finish packing our bags, Abdullah, Sky and I jumped on board with Chris who was being our Taxi driver for the morning, delivering us to Robina in the Gold Coast to catch a Train to the Airport.

It was the kind of journey that had me praying in the back seat, a truly hair raising experience!  Sky found another Tick on herself but luckily it hadn't bitten into her yet and we flicked it out the window.  Half way along the journey, (once I realised that we were going to miss the earlier train) the car started to have a definite vibration that got gradually worse until we were forced to pull over, thinking we had a flat tyre.  The tyres all looked fine and each of us had a different idea as to what was wrong.  Having no minutes to spare we got back on the road and made our way slowly to Robina with 10 minutes to spare before the Airport train left.  We thanked Chris for the ride and wished him well fixing the car and getting back to the farm safely.

By this stage I was trying not to panic and did the maths as we waited for the Train.  It was 9:43, the train leaves at 9:53, arrives at the Airport at 11:34, our plane leaves at 11:50 - we were going to make it by the hair of our chinny chin chin.  We got to the airport station and ran for it, dragging our collection of large and heavy luggage behind us.  We got to check in to be greeted by a large line.  I sweet talked our way to the front only to be told that check in had closed and we had missed our flight!  

Qantus very kindly put us on another flight later in the day and due to sky having packed her shoes into our check in luggage, we nearly weren't allowed on this flight either.  Luckily there was a store at the airport and we were allowed onto our flight after showing off Sky's new thongs to the flight crew.

This was actually a blessing in disguise as it now gave us time to relax, eat some ridiculously expensive airport food and show Abdullah (who was catching a later flight) where he needed to be and help him read the relevant signs etc.  Being from Jordan and looking quite middle eastern, guess who was picked for the 'random' screening for explosive powder.  Just lucky a) he had not been making any bombs and b) that Abdullah is an organic farmer as traces of nitrate fertilizer would have raised suspicions and had him carried off for further examination! 

We had a few hours to wait in Melbourne Airport so we had some more ridiculously expensive food and also found a shower which was great as I was still hot and sweaty from the mad airport dash earlier in the day.  I have always said I don't see the point of running unless someone is chasing you, I now extend that reasoning to catching public transport, especially airplanes.  Not that it did us any good!

We stayed at Trinity College (University of Mebourne) last night and very shortly we will be off to the course to meet the legendary Bill Mollison.  I can't wait, I am going to listen very carefully to everything he has to say so I can fill you all in when I get home.

Carbon Farming

Darren is an active broad acre keyline designer and over the last few days he has been completely blowing my mind answering all of the questions I have about effective carbon sequestration.  I have long thought that the carbon neutral programs available are a bit of a joke and while planting trees is something we should all be doing, they take too long to really help us sequester carbon now.  

Soil is a much more immediate and effective method of doing this and Darren has provided me with heaps of resources for pursuing this area of interest.  Not only does increasing the amount of soil carbon sequester carbon, it increases the water holding capacity of the soil and also increases soil organic matter and helps rebuild soil.

So between studying soil biota and now carbon farming, I am going to be a  very busy girl indeed.

Spot the Kiwi girl

It is an interesting experience to be the one with an accent.  I empathise with you more Deirdre as I am having to repeat myself alot so people can understand me.  It is still novel at the moment and is proving to be quite a conversation starter, I am not sure I would have the patience to live in another english speaking country if I had to do it long term!  Words especially the e and i sounds  are the worst.  The best so far has been when I asked for a bendy spatular.  A bindy spatular?  and Wedges/widges?  People had no idea what I was talking about.

Tonight Sky and I went done to the pub to have dinner with Janet, our friend from the Tauranga Rudolf Steiner School who is now the Principal of the School in Byron Bay which is only 45 minutes drive from the farm.  While out we saw Colete, a friendly local who is  doing the Permaculture course that Robyn Francis runs she informed me that there were a few parties in the neighbourhood.  I was planning an early night to really make the most of my sleep in tomorrow.  Cleaning up after dinner, Lachy, Sink and myself decided that we should go out.  We rang Colete and made plans to pick her up later.  Most of the people on the farm were going off site for the night and the day off tomorrow to watch the rugby.  I'm allergic to rugby but got some good mileage out of the fact that the All Blacks won!

So bottle of wine in hand we set off to party all beit in our tired state.  We didn't know exactly where we were going but knew the general vacinity.  We found the party easily enough as they had some beautiful fire sculptures leading the way.  

Being a long term pyromanic myself, I was fascinated by them.  We walked down the driveway and before we had even met anyone, stopped off to examine the sculptures and how they had been made.  Lachy and I deduced that they were old dry posts that had chainsaw cuts down towards the base.  they were burning from the inside out and the effect was stunning.  I wanted to see if they were dug into the ground so gave it a quick tap with my foot.  They weren't and sculpture toppled over.  The look on Lachy's face was hilarious and mine must have been similar.  I quickly looked around waiting to be evicted from the party for willful damage.  No one was coming.  I tried to leverage the sculture back upright from the base but it was too heavy.  Luckily my ceramics training has given my hands good resistance to heat and with a couple of sticks I was able to lift it back up, no harm done.  By this time someone had come along to see what we were up to.  I threw the glowing sticks into the air towards a giant bonfire pile.  "Don't do that, we didn't get permission to light it" too late, the glowing sticks are flying through the air.  Luckily it didn't set the bonfire alight and I made a grand impressionable entrance.  All before the bottle of said wine was even opened!

I met lots and lots of PDC grads and had a great night.  

A day off at last....

It was my intention this morning to sleep until at least lunch time but not too late as we wanted to visit the legendary channon market.  So when Sky woke me up and told me that it was lunch time, I leapt out of bed and got dressed.  I was not very impressed to discover that it was just after 8:30am!  

It was bliss to actually relax over breakfast in front of the damn and take time over my morning coffee.  It is a scorcher of a day and after breakfast Sky, Judy and I set off to walk to the market.  It wasn't long before we had all worked up a sweat so we were very relieved to be picked up by some other students who were driving.  

The Channon Market was huge and packed with people.  We brought some good aussie hats as soon as we got there.  To quench our thirst we had some sugar cane juice with lime and ginger.  It was so delicious that I had another one, while Sky opted for the Nimbin berry ice cream.  That too was delicious.  I brought some fruit leather that resembled the Rainbow Valley Farm logo but it didn't taste anywhere near as good as it looked.  Lucky we took a photo of it to send to Trish.

Sky spent the rest of her money doing backflips on the bouncy bungy thingy and then we had to dash back to the gate to meet our ride home.  We were there for 3 hours and didn't even get to see all of the stalls!

We swam and lazed about for the rest of the day until Darren Doherty (guest teacher) arrived and we took him back to the market.   Sky stayed behind to catch tadpoles under the watchful eye of Judy and I had time to wander around the stalls I missed the first time.  We scored a trailer load of crushed sugarcane (minus the juice) to feed to the stock and use as mulch.

On our return home Darren rang home to let his family know he had arrived safely.  The sage advice of his wife Lisa was "don't flirt or everyone will think your wife is a haggis"  I have been giggling about it ever since.  I can confirm that Lisa is no haggis and Darren has been no flirt (just in case your reading this Lisa!).  

The evenings entertainment was a game of chinese whispers instigated by Sky which proved to be hilarious.  Themes mostly revolving around poo, compost and worms in true permaculture style.

Concussed kingfishers, Microbes and Djungbung Gardens

We had a very exciting day today.  This morning as we were preparing breakfast a Kingfisher smashed itself into the kitchen window.  It lay on the ground dazed and confused until Nadia carefully picked it up and took it to a post near the damn to gather its wits again.  It was in shock for quite a while and decided it was more comfortable on Nadias hand than  anywhere else.  Australian Kingfishers are quite different to the ones I ahve seen in NZ.  They are a deep and silky Indigo Blue with long black beaks and a brown/yellow breast.  I got some great shots of it so will post them here soon.  

This afternoon Paul Taylor (Mr Compost Tea) was a guest teacher on the PDC.  We had planned to go to Djungbung Gardens to visit Robyn Francis but put off the the trip to later in the day so I could attend Pauls' session.  I have decided that microbes definitely do it for me.  Between Fungi and Bacteria we have some powerful allies in our quest to build sustainable and healthy soil systems.  Even when we are working in completely degraded ecosystems, with microbes on our side we have the power to return these damaged ecosystems to their former glory.  

Paul is very inspiring and he and his wife Judy both love New Zealand so hopefully we can get them over more often to run some workshops.  I am very excited to come home and get a brewer going.  It brings a whole new tangent to guerilla gardening.  Instead of late night public plantings that usually don't last long before they are damaged or removed I can mix up a brew of compost tea and wander the streets late at night flinging the microbial soup far and wide to nourish and support soils everywhere.  The impacts of increased soil life are astounding and this is definitely the field I am interested in pursuing.  

Later in the day Sky and I went to visit Robyn who lives in Nimbin.  Despite popular opinion neither of us were offered any drugs and while it definitely had a hippie flavor to the township we didn't encounter even a whiff of anything illegal or untoward.  It was just after 5pm how ever and the only shop still open was the organic store which was small but comprehensive.  I am amazed that small, even tiny settlements here can sustain at least one organic shop and Whanganui with a population of over 40,000 can't even support one.  At least we have a good market which does give us easy access to organic and local produce.  

Anyway, back to Djungbung Gardens.  Robyn is a very inspiring teacher who works all over the world but mostly at Djungbung gardens, her little 5 acre piece of paradise.  It was great to see her again and to quickly wander around her place (it was just getting dark) seeing incredible and innovative projects all around.  The main building is passive solar designed and built of earthbrick.  It is very beautiful.  I'll post photos (as soon as I work out how to) when we go back later in the week - we forgot our camera today.

We met some of her many students and had a fine dinner of local pizza around the fire.  It was great to have a night off working and to relax with friendly and interesting people from around the world who are all gathered to study Permaculture.  Sky loved it but couldn't quite get the gobble down with the turkeys.  I however discovered that I am quite conversant with turkeys - take from that what you will!

Huntsmen spiders as big as my hand and ants nest in my gumboot!

We arose before dawn again this morning and as I was helping to milk the cows that morning Geoff passed me some gumboots as it had been raining all night (94mm) and there is mud everywhere.  Pre caffeine and blurry eyed I put my bare foot in to be met by something nasty.  I whipped it off and tipped it upside down and there was an explosion of around a billion large ants running in every direction.  Nadia was right in front of me and we were both as shocked as each other.  Geoff is adament that it was unintentional, although funny and reminded me that I should ALWAYS give my gumboots a good bash before I put my feet in.  Lesson learnt and it certainly woke me up in a hurry!  Lachy helped me set up for milking and I managed to milk Rose with no problems, mmmm fresh raw milk what a treat!  

Sky and I both swam in the dam today and it was surprisingly warm or at least not as freezing as we expected.  Everyone else thinks that we only think its warm because we are from New Zealand.

Meet George, he/she lives in the composting toilet room.  He/she is rather large - in fact the biggest spider I have ever seen in my entire life!  Nadia assures us that it is not poisonous and that it does a very good job of hunting out the less desirable (!!!) creatures that loiter in the vicinity.

Today was spent getting the place spick and span ready for the PDC on Sunday.  36 students are enrolled and everyone was buzzing around with long lists of jobs to do.  Nadia did a beautiful red earth and lime wash paint job on the inside of the composting toilet room.  The floor for the student camp bathroom and dining room was poured.  Everything was cleaned and tidied.  Still plenty to do tomorrow but everyone is pretty excited.

Resident kitchen frogs

This morning Nadia was showing me around the kitchen and its various systems.  I was going to make scrambled eggs for everyone for breakfast and she directed me to the best wok which was hanging on the wall of the 'wet room' in the kitchen.  I pulled it of the hook and flipped it over to discover a large green frog.  It gave me quite a fright and I in turn gave Nadia a fright.  Having been away from her kitchen for weeks and weeks she had forgotten about the pair of green tree frogs who had taken up residence in the 'wet room'.  I think it is very generous of Nadia to forsake her favorite wok as a habitat for frogs. The other frog of the pair lives in the drain of the sink!  Sky has taken to finding food for them and regularly delivers live ants in the general area so they can have easy access to fresh prey.

Down on the farm

During my late night wanderings last night to find our dinner, I found the Brisbane Museum.  Sky and I both thought that would be a good way to spend our morning in Brisbane before catching a bus to Byron Bay.  

Well, maybe we have been spoiled by living in the same place as the Whanganui Regional Museum where you can loose yourself for days and still not see everything.  We were not impressed with the Brisbane Museum at all.  

The building itself is magnificent, built as the town hall it is full of incredibly ornate architectural details and the entrance room is indeed awe inspiring with its vast height and beautiful domed ceilings.  If architecture excites you then it is worth a visit.  There are two exhibition rooms, neither were very inspiring or interesting and we were through in 5 mins!  The most interesting exhibit in the whole place was a small box containing an unknown object.  Visitors were invited to write their ideas for what it was and where it had come from into a book.  It made for hilarious reading, both for the ideas and the creative spelling and use of english.

Sky dressed in a black jacket, jeans and her new 'cowboy' boots given to her by Aunty Penny before we left was wilting in the unfamiliar heat and humidity.  So we hunted out some 'thongs' (not the g-string variety) and other more appropriate clothing to fill the rest of the morning.  

I found an amazing tree not far from our hotel that looked like some sort of acacia but had a eucalyptus sort of trunk and form.  It was dropping very hard seed pods everywhere so I pocketed some to show Geoff who new immediately what they were and reeled off a very long botanical name that I can't remember, it's common name is Leopard Tree, very popular as a street tree in Australia although we only found one.

We caught a bus from Brisbane to Byron Bay and I noticed a few Permaculture properties along the way.  Identifiable by the plantings on contour, lots of stored water, copious tagasaste and other useful support species.  There were very few plants I could identify along the way.  This will be useful to help me learn and remember species rather than specific plants as each climate zone has its own variations.

We had an hour hour or so to wander around Byron Bay.  It is very funky with quite a few organic shops for such a small town.  Our favorite was 'Fundamental Food' where we brought dried Goji berries and other snack essentials.  Sky also stocked up on lollies (not organic ones) to ration out to herself over the next few weeks where we won't see a shop.

Zaytana  Farm is about 30 minutes drive away from Byron Bay and we were picked up by Erin the farm manager.  Nadia and Geoff had just returned from America that morning and were tired and jet lagged.  We arrived just in time to share a meal and then they went off to Bed.  Lauchy and Singh are the current interns on the farm so they gave us a quick tour.  

A PDC is starting here on the farm on Sunday so it is all go completing a shower block for the student camp ground and finishing the pour on the new outside verander area.  Tomorrow I am being woken at 6:30 so I can make friends with the two house cows so I will be able to help with the milking while we are here.