Spring has arrived at Mangana Mission and has seen the return of the prodigal son- Mike from Scotland.
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| Relaxing in the spa after a hard day trail making |
Mike has taken up the mantle of being our first ever returnee! This may have been as a result of my desperate email begging his return to help get the property ready for our first big party or maybe it was just the power of the Mangana Vortex!
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| Mangana Mission Stage and Amphitheatre |
Either way his return was a time of much joy and has resulted in several tons of gravel being moved from up the hill and now laid upon the Mangana Mission Paths. These are not only a landscaping feature but also provide a means for Kate to visit the entire property on her scooter. ( to ensure that the crew are hard at work!)
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| Andre standing beside the Mangana Monolith |
Thankfully about half of the paths are now complete- we now have a trail all the way up the hill to Scotty's Cabin as well as one across the front formal garden to where the Chicken Hilton will reside and one to the stream near to the Mandela Berry Garden. It has been a challenging job however the results are wonderful.We now await the next delivery of gravel to allow another major project to be completed!
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| Mangana Rock Feature Beside Trail in Front Garden |
The hot houses are packed to capacity with vegetables waiting to be planted as well as over 300 grape cuttings that we plan to plant in the vineyard in November.
The Mangana Muster Party that was planned for the 25th September was rescheduled to the 16th October. The organisers happened to forget that the 25th September clashed with a major Australian Cultural Event- THE GRAND FINAL! Thankfully Jason and The Mayor were on the ball and pointed out the challenging clash of dates! We look forwards to an update of the party on our next blog.
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| Mike planting the first crop of broad beans. |
The stage and amphitheatre are now complete after some rather tense times- moving 3 logs that weighed about 1 ton each into position with the help of the Delica and a couple of crow bars. I was fearful that Mike would end up returning to Melbourne being 4 metres tall by .5cm wide! With a great deal of care and diligence the job was completed safely and another feature is now in place for future events.
The period ahead looks quite promising with Gemma and Sean coming from the UK next month, followed by Janelle from Taiwan and then Cara from Canada to see the year out.
There may be some others that we don't know of yet but time will reveal all.
Kate has been having an Art Frenzy spending hours up in the Scotty's Cabin Art Room putting together pieces for an exhibition in Launceston.
Thankfully all of our original plans appear to be coming to fruition. We set ourselves a 3 year plan to regenerate the property and complete all of the major projects by December 2010 and thanks to all of our Helpers and WWOOFERs the dream seems to be becoming a reality! Warm and Sincere Thanks to you all.
Love and Light,
Andre' & Kate
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