Digital postcards and stories for Landcare

How simple can it be to share a story about Landcare in your area.... get a few words together (max about 70) a photo and you can make your own Landcare digital postcards.

Here is one that I have made for my Landcare district - Central Tablelands Landcare - which covers the Orange - Bathurst district of NSW.


We have also recorded some PlaceStories of our group activities in the "Central Tablelands Landcare" project,

Check out some of the other postcards and placestories being created by the Digital Landcare community...

Slashed feed-in tariff for solar power in NSW

Not sure if you heard the news..... but in NSW the gross feed in tariffs for solar power have just been reviewed and reduced from 60 cents to 20 cents a kilowatt hour!!

We have our solar array generating and feeding into the grid already so our 60 cents a kilowatt hour is locked in until 2016.... although I think there is a 300 megawatt cap.  However, if you were considering installing solar power but haven't signed an agreement yet you will be stuck with 20 cents per kilowatt hour - which for most will make the installation of solar panels an unappealing and non-viable choice.

A range of news articles have been published on the topic - here are some if you would like to read more.

Slashed feed-in tariff makes solar hot water even more attractive - Government - News - Southern Courier

New South Wales is slashing the gross feed-in tariff for its solar bonus scheme because it is costing too much - Sydney Morning Herald.

Power blame game heats up (TheAustralian Article)

Simple creative fun

We journeyed into Sydney last weekend to catch up at a work reunion... we are lucky enough to have an Auntie and Uncle in the Blue Mountains who looked after the kids while the adults travelled down to Cronulla for a ferry cruise.

I just wanted to share with you the creations the kids created with Uncle A... aren't they wonderful... no wonder the kids always want to visit Uncle A and Auntie C... we have a plane a bus and a racing car.

This of course is following on from our middle child's obsession about collecting things for next years Waste to Art competition run in our council area by Netwaste.  He has been carefully stockpiling all sorts of waste - from lolly wrappers to foil to bottle tops.

Wild spring weather..

I had been really enjoying the onset of warmer spring weather over the last week or so..

The apples are blossuming...

The red currant fruit is setting...

And the fresh greens in the garden are finally starting to grow enough so that we can harvest them for meals..

And then came a few wild days... first came the rain and wind....

 Then the wind and snow...

The snow came late for the wildflowers in one of our local reserves... (Creamy Candlesticks - Stackhousia monogyna) 

Making the most of spring snow with some friends at the Pinnacle Picnic ground on the slopes of Mt Canobolas

Missing my walks and rides with the kids

Over the holidays I managed to injure myself and needed stitches in the front of my shin.  Not the best spot as it is known to be one of the worst spots to heal... so here I am nearing two weeks after the accident... still with the stitches in and on my second round of antibiotics.... and getting bored of sitting down with my leg up while the rest of the family do things like skiing.

But one of the things I am also missing is walking our littlest to preschool...

And riding with the boys to pick up the littlest from daycare - especially now that the days are getting warmer and longer..

I neglected to mention that it is Ride to Work Day!  Hope you all got on your bikes... I wish I could have..

Finding a use for man made snow

Never thought I would say that it was good to have man made snow on the ski slopes.....  but for the last half of the week Dad and Grandma have been up with the kids playing on the last of the man made snow after the closing of the official ski season last week ... the man made snow was still over a metre deep, well groomed and made an excellent playing area for the kids that was close to the car.

I have injured my leg and are resting off the mountain much to my frustration...... snuck up to take some photos though and to take in the fresh spring alpine air...

Holiday treasure hunt

We have been away from the blog over the last week as we were attending a family wedding in Sydney.   The extended family booked accomodation on Cockatoo Island - with views of the harbour and the Sydney Harbour Bridge and all sorts of natural historty and other historical things to explore - we all had lots of fun on the island.

By the second day on the island the boys were asking for more activities to do and a treasure hunt was suggested...... so a treasure hunt list was created and the search began.

The list -

• orange leaf
• blue flower
• round small pebble
• feather
• long leaf
• round leaf
• seed pod
• Y shaped stick
• white flower
• smelly leaf
• purple and white leaf
• heart shaped leaf

Getting the treasure hunt list checked off first was our littlest - who had collected things with a little help from Grandma

Dad helped our youngest boy....

And our eldest got to do the treasure hunt all on his own...

It was lots of fun for all involved... including Dad and Grandma...

After we checked the lists off all items had to be returned to where they came from... that was almost as much fun as the initial treasure hunt...