Mark just pointed out that we have not written a blog post since Lulu was born. Sadly, according to this version of our life she does not exist! I thought I’d better fix that so starting from today I am going to be trawling through my emails and doing a bit of retrospective posting.

We have a gregarious, fun and willful 13 month old who is the love of our lives. We have already had so many adventures and we continue to learn everyday. Continue reading…

Summer is the season for Brazilian Cherries and there are bushes of them all over Brisbane just bursting with fruit. The bright red cherries contrast beautifully against the dark green leaves so they are very easy to spot.  I have seen them along the train line and other public areas.  On a morning walk in December we came across a bush laden with them out the front of Wynnum North State School. Continue reading…

The last two times we have been up the mountain it has been cold and wintery – perfect weather for a nice big fire. Growth has slowed down significantly and the insects are hibernating. It is beautiful.
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On Saturday we added three new members to our urban farm – Jean, Hazel and Nola. Our feathered friends were rescued from a battery farm just before they would have been sent to slaughter. If you have not already been shocked by programs like Jamie Oliver’s Fowl Dinners about the factory production of chickens then hopefully some information here might convert you. The battery farm we got our hens from sends 10,000 birds to slaughter ever 3 months and unfortunately only 100 were rescued in our batch (approx 1%).
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On Saturday the 28th of March we celebrated Earth Hour with a great bunch of friends and some wonderful food.  We had a delicious BBQ (including North Carolina pulled pork) and then took a roady up to the top of Balmoral Hill to watch the city go dark. Unfortunately there were many lights still on; especially disappointing were all the big wealthy houses immediately around us still glowing bright. On a positive note, there were several other people partying in the dark and our friends all got into the spirit of the event. We came home and continued to eat, drink and be merry by candle light until after 11pm. Continue reading…

This Christmas Mark and I decided to give each other bikes. Three months down the track I got a swanky new bike for my 30th Birthday (Mark got one too). We did look at getting second-hand bikes from www.gumtree.com.au and Bicycle Revolution but there are just not that many good bikes available. There are more second-hand dealers popping up and I recommend you check them out first because you might just find what you are after.

After a bit of research we decided that we primarily want to ride our bikes on roads and paths around the city, and I want to cycle to work. We looked at hybrid bikes, but decided against them because of the extra weight of the suspension and the energy it wastes. We both ended up getting skinny-tired commuter bikes by Specialized. The bikes have given us more freedom and are allowing us to get out and explore Brisbane. This weekend we went for a 30km ride along the river to Toowong, across to the West End, and back home.

I have started cycling to work which is about a 7km ride each way. My employer is currently paying for me to park at the King George Cycle Centre, which is a brilliant secure facility with lockers, showers, towels and other creature comforts to make cycling life easy.

Since our last update we have been enjoying making our new home more green and trying out some of the great environmental initiatives here in Brisbane. Although we don’t have a backyard we just couldn’t bear throwing our scraps in the rubbish bin any longer so we have gone ahead and bought a Bokashi bin. A Bokashi bin is like a compost bin except that instead of decomposing your waste it ferments it using anaerobic bacteria. This is great for flats because it doesn’t smell. The QLD government is currently offering a 50% rebate for these bins along with a $200 rebate on water efficient appliances, so we have applied for both of these (we bought a water-efficient washer last month). So now with our recycling and our compost bins we will produce very little landfill waste. Through its fermentation process, the Bokashi bin also creates a great liquid plant food which we will use to get our herb garden up and running. We are hoping to give the solid waste it creates to a local farmer who we have been put in touch with through Food Connect. Continue reading…