Transition, a turtle, bush tucker, a minister and some soul…

…are just some of what we experienced on the weekend.

Saturday was quiet - just the Transition Newcastle Ideas cafe.

Sunday was a tad busier. It started with the Koorogang Island Open Day, which included an obligatory face painting..

...meeting some reptiles, including a Shingleback lizard,

a turtle, and even a crocodile.

There was also local bush tucker to be enjoyed, including the gorgeous Finger Limes (I've enjoyed these in the past in Gin and tonic - lovely!).

Mountain Devil (Lambertia formosa) flowers were a treasured childhood bush treat for me. Like the Worimi people, I used to pull off the flowers, and suck out the sweet nectar. I'm keen to try Lilly Pilly berries (Koorabakh or Acmena smithii) soaked in honey as a marinade for Kangaroo meat. We're lucky enough to have a large Lilly Pilly hedge. The gorgeous soft purple Flax Lily berries (Paroo or Dianella) were surprisingly sweet and tasty and i'm keen to include these in a native 'bush tucker' front garden I have planned. These Lomandra longifolia (Karawun or Spiny-headed Mat Rush) fruit were apparently roasted by the Worimi people and used as a snack food or ground to make a bread. Their leaves were also used to weave baskets or make rope. This is another plant I'm keen to include in my garden as i'd love to try basket weaving.

And of course, as i've said a few times before, nothing impresses me more than a compost loo.

Then there was a meeting in the park with a minister and a councillor announcing a state government contribution of $40,000 towards the development of a new Master Plan for our park. Yay!

We then finished the day chillin out listening to some

Soul. 

 
But of course.... as payback for all that fun, i've had an absolutely CRAP day today. Dad and I excitingly opened the bee hive to see how they are settling in, and the smoke attracted one of our neighbors. He hadn't even noticed we had bees - but now that he knows - to put it politely - he's not happy (he was raving about me killing people!?). I managed to delay his ranting so that we could finish dealing with the bees and we have a 'back fence' meeting scheduled for 8pm tonight. To top it all off - I then had an absolutely crap bumbling radio interview about the above mentioned funding for our park. I hate radio interviews!!!

Wish me luck for tonight's back fence meeting.

Edited to add: The bees are going. I'm not happy. Not one person was stung and not one neighbour noticed the whole time they were here. Sometimes urban living sucks!