Sunday, March 24, 2013

mullbery trees.

Mulberry trees scientifically known as Morus were very valuable  in early civilizations.
They were great fruit trees because of there delicious berry's and were good for feeding the animals like cows, sheep and silk worms they were also easy to grow from seed or cutting and were very hardy making them very useful. 



 The silk trade was important in the ancient civilizations in great demand for fabrics and rug's.  The caravans of camels that traveled the silk road from Turkey to China brought world civilizations in contact eachother, to trade valuable products back and forth and the more silk worms the more silk the more commerce and goods.


The black mulberry is native to S.W. Asia, and it was imported to Britan in the 17th century to help the silkworm the black mulberry is above,the red mulberry is native to Eastern N.America,The white mulberry is native to an east Asian species.



I really enjoy climbing the trees, and our trees are covered in lichen, and the fruits are delicious to eat.

collage of lichen images
http://www.anbg.gov.au/lichen/


Friday, March 22, 2013

Living in a tent


My brother and I have been living in a tent, it's a big tent it has three rooms.
 We have had some good adventures in that tent, and we can set it up well now with two big tarps, one the roof  and one beneath the tent. We have had some wet and windy weather, and we have had to make some adjustments to make sure it stays safe and dry in the wind it blows around, and I can hear the tarp blowing and flapping and see the walls moving .


Waking up in  the tent I straight away know what the weathers doing and sometimes it's cold, and I want to stay in my bed and on the days it's warm, and I quickly run inside or else I get really hot.  My mum told me there was an owl perched above me, and he was a boobook, we also have lots of frogs once a little frog got into my brothers room it was really funny . the insects like the tent as well and we found a cocoon on the outside of the tent, and there was also a big huntsmen spider on one of the tarps last week. I like lying in bed and seeing things on the roof in silhouette. 


We have been living in the tent while our new bedrooms are being built in the house.

                                                             

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Clarence in flood




Recently we got lots of rain and were flooded in and we couldn't get in to Copmanhurst to go to the little shop. The water was higher than we have ever seen it and it was awesome. 


We  like a nice flood, our house never goes under but one of our neighbors homes that never goes under actually flooded up to the rafters this time.


 Its amazing how high it is this time and our poodle liked it because all the dog owners walked past our house and that's nice and cute.


.We had water all around us it was nice because you can walk out of the door and see water everywhere. The water was covered  in spiders and insects, I had to save some Grasshoppers from the spiders because they were being eaten and we just couldn't have that so I saved them.
We set up  a rain gauge that I got for Christmas and it got 134 mills in less than 24 hours.


 The river rose faster than ever before here and also at Lilydale.
 THE MIGHTY MIGHTY Clarence river
 flooded over Lilydale bridge and Rogans bridge.


 Grafton had areas that were being evacuated , areas behind the levee bank that are normally safe, but because the first flood was rising so fast and moving so quickly  the authorities wanted people to safe

   
We have actually had three floods now in five weeks the 2nd and 3rd were much smaller than the 1st but the 3rd was really just localized flooding water running off from the paddocks plus all the dams creeks and reservoirs were full because their was much water around.