Week 1 April 2001: An anniversary this week. I retired six years ago this week from the Botany Department of the University of New England. The actual retirement date was 1st April. My work colleagues felt that this was an appropriate date for my retirement. Retirement is very satisfying. Because we have absorbing interests we have plenty to keep minds and bodies active, a necessary requirement for any retiree. Working on the web site, writing newspaper and magazine articles, our radio programme and groveling in the gravel (sorry gardening) are some of our activities that make life both interesting and exciting.
28 mm of rain this week. Still working on the garden bed near our power pole. We have removed enough rock from this garden to build an abbreviated version of the Great Wall of China. Both large and small rocks will find homes in other parts of our garden.
A beautiful sunset this week. This is one advantage of living on a windswept hill with a westerly view. We have a number of Yallaroo sunset photographs. Will include some of them on the site in the future.
Visited the gardens at Armidale airport in order to answer a question about eucalypt identification raised in our radio programme. There are a number of smooth-barked eucs, in the gardens that have been coppiced. The main trunk has been cut off about 45 cm above the ground. This has encouraged the plants to develop multiple stems and adopt shrub growth habit rather than develop into a single-trunked tree. This is a useful way to treat eucs, which may be outgrowing their place in the garden. Unfortunately we couldn’t give a positive identification because there were no buds and fruits. They may be the New England Mallee (E. approximans).
Saw a Swamp Wallaby near the house this morning. They are very shy animals and we don’t often see them. Swamp Wallabies have dark brown coats and are usually solitary animals.
Saw a Little Grebe on our Big Dam and a juvenile Eastern Spinebill feeding on Eremophila flowers. Its parents would have nested somewhere in the garden. We were also pleased to sight a White-naped Honeyeater in the Stringybark near the house. This is a new species at Yallaroo and takes our bird count to nearly 80.