Back Home in Bellingen

After 4 years with no fixed abode, sailing around the Mediterranean and doing lots of land travel throughout Europe and Asia, we have returned to our house in Bellingen.  We have exchanged the sparkling azure blues of the Mediterranean for the jungle green of Bellingen.  Bellingen really is achingly beautiful; a lush, verdant oasis of fecundity with purple jacarandas, scarlet flame trees and green, green everywhere.

Jacaranda tree in full bloom

View of the property from Little Boggy Trail (our house is out of the picture about 1 km to the left)

That lush fecundity has its drawbacks.  Four years ago we did a massive clearance of all the scrub trees around the house and paddocks.  (See the blog post: https://shamballacyc.blogspot.com/2015/01/renovations-and-excavations.html)  We have returned to the jungle exerting its dominance over us mere arrogant humans- to think we could ever dominate nature.  The area around the dam, cleared four years ago is now surrounded by 10 meter trees and the ubiquitous hated lantana.

The dam below the house today

The dam four years ago after clearing

Those trees beside the house were not there four years ago

All our possessions were stored in a 20ft shipping container.  Sadly this jungle environment is just too humid and most of the furniture was covered in a thin coat of green mould and the Manchester was decidedly musty.  The next few weeks were spent washing, polishing and airing to get everything back to a liveable standard.  We will have to rethink our packing strategy.  Sealed cardboard boxes simply absorb the ambient moisture and keep the environment humid. 

Unpacking the container

Airing out on the verandah

 Bob and I must have really missed gardening while living on Songster.  One of the first things we found ourselves doing, before even half of the shipping container was empty, was to plant flowers and veggies.

The petunias are thriving on the verandah

Tomatoes, kale and lots of herbs

The boys came up from Canberra to see the old homestead.  We had a lovely time at the Bellingen Markets, the beach and walking through Dorrigo National Park.

Pat towering above his parents at Dorrigo lookout

Pete at Urunga beach

Pat in his newly acquired hippie clothes purchased at the markets communing with nature

Playing with tiny sand crabs

Between the unpacking, cleaning and polishing we have taken time to reacquaint ourselves with the gorgeous natural environment of Shamballa and our many friends in the area.  It is good to be back.

Tall straight gum trees (Blue gums?)

Boggy Creek Road

The entrance to our driveway

A magnificient staghorn fern

Termite mound - the monoliths of the insect world