Riversdale - the house - has been almost completely rebuilt from the ground up and she’s fresh and sparkling and filled with Christmas cheer, albeit a bit early but that’s the way we feel so not only will you be enticed to spend money on wonderful plants when you come to visit Sunday but you will be able to get into the Christmas spirit inside as well.

Well apart from the fact that you can finally after several months go inside, really the focus is on the Rare Plants and Garden Fair this Sunday, November 4. We have a record number of stalls and people are still asking if they can set up even though they’ve missed out on the publicity.  

You can imagine the work that’s gone on and the preparation. We’ve all been very busy little bees here and although we haven’t had much rain all that thunder and lightning along with some showers has made the most amazing difference.

I think this is going to be our best spring ever – and - talking about bees, Jane Suttle from the beekeepers will be speaking at the fair as will Michael Bligh, Goulburn’s own very famous landscape architect and I will take you around the garden and tell you about its history and some of the magic things we’ve discovered.

Visitors from all around the region flock to the fair.

Affordable Garden Ornaments, Australian Geranium Society, Australian Plant Society, Bev Hatch Steel Garden Structures, D&M Ice Cream, Garry Reid Rare Plants, Goulburn Community Garden, Goulburn District Beekeepers, Goulburn Growing Abilities, Goulburn Handweavers and Spinners, Parksbourne Produce, Q Nursery, Retro Beans n Brew Coffee, Roses and Friends, Sheree Chapman Rare Succulents, Strange World Carnivores, Tablelands Trees and Shrubs Yarralaw Spring Wines, Yellow House Perennials, Michael Bligh Landscaping and of course, our own plants and our own jams.

There will also be a honey seller and our barbecue going and the Visitors Information van will be here too. Just so you can breathe easy, there is lots of parking in the paddock.

See you Sunday sometime between 10am and 2pm. This is a major fundraiser for us so there is a charge to get in but it will be well worth it. 

You know that old chestnut – ‘spring has sprung the grass is riz I wonder where the birdies is.’ 

Well, we know where our friend the koel is; he’s back from New Guinea and in the weeping cypress at Riversdale and I wish his mate would hurry up and get here too.

He’s driving us crazy calling for her but the other bird news is not so good. We have three young kookaburras left here by their parents who have cottoned on fairly quickly to the fact that they will be fed mince if they’re really cute like the magpies and butcher birds.

But one of them must have been caught in a trap or got by a fox or dog, its feet are shattered and it can’t perch so I don’t know how long he’ll be around for AND -  we are sad - Butchy has disappeared, he of the wonky wing caused by a fight with a currawong about six years ago when we found kittens in the hollow of the tree near the stables. (That’s another story - ask us on Sunday).

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