Kangaroo Valley nursery

Hey!

  It's weird only having limited access to the Internet.  I've gotten used to being able to go online everyday and even when I was living at the Greenbrae house with no Internet, I could go to the Safeway, Whole Foods or Starbucks parking lot and access free wifi. 

Anyway, I walked into Kangaroo Valley township today, Sunday, as it was my day off.  It was a pleasant 3 km walk (1.8 miles) each way.  The rain showers kept me cool, wet, but cool.  The town had lots of lodging options, several cafes and restaurants, a fudge/ice cream store, a lolly (candy) shop, 2 art galleries and several  novelty shops.  And a nursery!!

Of course, I went into the nursery.  The proprietor, Darrin, was really nice.  He propagates much of his stock, especially the trees in little tube pots.  Although he does use nursery cans, he likes the plastic bags when he's potting up bare root trees.  It's a pain or a two person job to actually get the trees into the bags, but afterwards, they are much more stable.  Even strong winds won't knock the trees over.  As my former colleagues at Sloat know,  trees in nursery cans DO fall over.  (Again and again, until you just leave them down.  And thank customers for pointing out that some of our trees have fallen over.)  

The nursery carries a wide range of Aussie natives, trees, shrubs and perennials. He had a succulent section, herbs, veggies, and a few flats of annuals.  The pear sculpture made of horseshoes is $824.  Nice!   They use different things for mulch out here, including sugar cane.

As soon as I say a couple of sentences, it's obvious that I'm not Australian.  Several people have asked if I'm from the Philipines.  Or when I say I'm American, they ask if I'm Hawaiian.   I tell people that I'm Chinese American and grew up in San Francisco, which has the largest Chinese population outside of China.  (Hong Kong and Taiwan, excluded.)   I guess Aussies think that America is mostly white, like Australia. 

As I've said before, after you get out of Sydney, it's mostly rural.  Well, this is rural.  The towns are small.  If you blink while you're driving through, you'll miss it.   Lots of cattle and open space.  People have to be self sufficient out here.  More about that next time.

G'day,

Cyn