Its been ages since i wrote here!
But i have something interesting to write at least.

Had my 2nd greenplan sale yesterday. I did pretty well i think, my many hours of staying up late, one sleepless night, writing up information on 108 different species we have really payed off, i got a complement from a customer, to my supervisor, and my supervisor told me. He seemed really happy with my performance.

I think i stuffed up though...One customer wanted something fast growing to make a good screen, and i recommended a Syzigium, only to realise i read the wrong line and its actually SLOW growing!!

Shit....i feel really bad...giving misleading information... :(

"And before you laugh at the name, Blackbutt Ridge is named after the trees that grow there, blackbutts, a bluey sort of timber, very nice and common to my area. Some idiots think its named after aboriginies, twits."

Well, cait is quite right. the Blackbutt, 'Eucalyptus pilularis' (MYRTACEAE) is one of the commonest and most widespread eucalypts in the wollongong area.


blackbutt grows to a large over 30m tall with an ascending branching habit.

As the common name implies the flaky bark on the lower part of the trunk is often blackened from bushfires.

with anders.

This time we went to Gibsons walking track in Austinmer.

SO AWESOME, such a beautiful walk, heaps of Bangalow palms, a nice section of rainforest, and awesome views overlooking wollongong.

We got attacket by leeches of course, but im quite used to them by now and dont freak out when i get one on my leg or in my shoe.

Something really exciting happened. Anders said he's been trying to re locate a very rare tree called the White hazelwood, that he found in the same area 5 years ago but hadnt been able to find again.

He said he has a feeling it's around somewhere. A 6th sense if you would like to call it that. We had a few false alarms and found trees that were same genus but different species.

Just about to give up, and alas - there it was, 30 meters east off the track. It was quite exciting! Since he didnt have a GPS on him he had to sort of record all the details by estimation so he can locate it again.

He's currently revising a book "Native trees of wollongong" by Leon Fuller, going through it and polishing off a few mistakes in the book, and adding a number of other trees that he thinks are important to put into the 3rd edition. He's just gotta take some pictures and hopefully get it published.

During our trek he helped me with keying out some plants, i collected a few leaves and pressed them in my book, wrote the names down, and hopefully will remember them for next time.

We also collected some seed, native frangipanni and bangalow palm seed.
Woah im so lucky to have him as my sort of tutor.

In case no one noticed on the woods.....

I WENT SEED COLLECTING AT WORK!

All my begging and bugging and persistance finally payed off...my supervisor let me go, what a champ.

I went with my mentor - Debby. She's taken over Anders job for a couple of months and playing the 'technical officer'

We went to a number of places - Austinmer and Thirroul to collect some Banksia integrifolia and Melaleuca hypericafolia.

We had morning tea at Austy beach - it was amazing.
Then we were off to Mt Keira Scout Camp - to collect some Cissus hypoglauca, Omalanthus, Celastrus australis, and Diosperous australis (All rainforest spp)

We had lunch at the scout camp in the rainforest, under a massive fig thats at least 300 years old. It was beautiful, like paradise. We went past this cute little outdoor open stone chapel smack bang in the middle of the rainforest. I want to get married there!

After that we went to Mt Keira lookout and Robsons lookout for some Banksia serrata and Turpentine seed. Had to stand on the roof of the car to reach the fruit! We checked out the awesome view from the top, looking down at the city from up there is spectacular.

And the best thing about it - we got payed for our whole day field trip, Deb's lucky cos she gets to do it every week.
Amazing. Never thought i'd ever be in a job where they payed me for bushwalking and doing the thing i love.

I just hope I get to go again. Being in the nursery all the time can get a bit dull at times.

This was one of those days that I'll never forget.

So, as I was saying on the woods, I went for 5 or 6 hour bushwalk with the legendary Anders.

He's probably one of the most inspirational people i've ever met. We literally went through dozens and dozens of plant names that i cannot possibly remember. I only remember 7 of them, which is better than nothing!

Anyways, this is how the day went...

I picked him up at his house round 10. We drove to Otford where i left my car, and we began the trek through Royal National Park.

This trek is the same hike i did when I was in year 9 with my geography class, Mr. Hopkins. I told anders that id like to go back there because its such a beautiful spot.

So anyways, we did quite a bit of hiking. Took a detour off the track, went up this steepish slope to check out what was around the cliffline. We found this huge boulder that had dozens of orchids growing on it. The amazing thing is there were about 3 or 4 different types of orchids on this one boulder.

The only orchid i remember is Catspiss orchid, (how could you forget that name) because the flower of it smells like Cats piss. I had a sniff of it and it was putrid. LOL.

He also showed me an endangered vine, called Whip vine. The stems kind of look like bamboo, but really polished.

I tasted a couple of things as well, bush tucker that the aboriginals survived on.

He has a compass in his head. When we took the detour he decided to leave his pack behind and then wed come back for it later. We walked around for quite a while and then he lead me back to the place where he left it. Incredible.

I had about 5 leeches attack me - 3 of them got through my skin. Eugh i got home and found 2 more in my shoe!!
My socks were all bloody and it kept bleeding for a while.

It was awesome, I havent been for a good walk like that for AGES. I hope we go somewhere next week. He was meant to call me today and maybe go for a little trek to Mt Keira, but hasnt contacted me yet, so maybe not. :(

You guys will never guess what happened last night.

Well i went out to a friend from work to her place and we had a couple of drinks and stuff.

Then we went to Bally pub and met up with the other girls there.

Anyways, I was pretty intoxicated by then so i on the spot there decided to walk to Anders' house (Anders is the guy i wrote about with the drug problem and that yeah)
I looked his name up in the phonebook a while ago so i knew where his house was.

It took me about half an hour to find it - the place is really well hidden with all shrubs and vegetation around it - i swear you can only just see the front door.

So i knocked on the door - and he answered it, and i blurted out - "Wanna come out to the pub? Erin and Jillaine are there too"
lol it musta been a shock to him - since i only probably talked to him a couple of times before he got fired and stuff.

Anyways - he invited me in and i sat down on the couch and we had a couple of ciggys and just talked.
I swear - he is one of the most inspirational people i have ever met. And i even told him that lol.
It was so refreshing to speak to someone that kind of thinks the way i do. I had no idea we would have so much in common. He is environmentally minded in every way - he even agrees with me that the nursery should recycle its water instead of dumping all the gunk and shit into the creek.

The first person who actually agrees with me on the idea. He has actually been trying to get a better system in for years. I told him the good news that there are now plans of putting in a septic system and stuff.

I also told him that ive been looking after his plants and watering them every day. Hes really greatful for that.

Anyways, eventually we started trekking to the pub. We shouted each other drinks and socialised a little with jillaine, deb and erin.

I talked to him quite a bit - told him bout my stupid social situation at work - told him that ive never been very social to begin with - told him that ive never been a group person - told him that no matter where i am i never seem to fully fit in.

He said to me, "I know exactly how you feel. I've felt like an outcast all my life."
Thats all i can remember, but boy - he is such an interesting person to talk to. Hes so intelligent and smart and a really nice bloke.
I swear if there wasnt 20 years between us i would probably ask him out.

After that we went back to Jillaines for a bit & listened to some music.

Anyways - theres more. I lost my jacket at the pub, and just before we dropped anders off at home, i asked if he could go look for it in the morning. (he lives right near the pub) I asked for his number and i said id give him a call to see if hes found it.

I got home - and i realised i had lost my phone as well. So I called him up to see if id have left it at his place, but nope it wasnt there. Before I hung up - he said, "For the past 20 minutes since you guys dropped me off I have not stopped thinking about everything we talked about tonight"

This morning i drove to the pub and thankfully i found my phone and jacket. About half an hour ago Anders called me up to just chat - and possibly organise a bushwalk. So yay im pretty excited about that - ive been wanting to go on a bushwalk for ages but no one to go with. :)

So it looks like we have a bit of a connection thing happening - these are the beginnings of a friendship that I'm a little scared to enter. I know I am swimming in dangerous waters. If i become good friends with him i will always be worried sick about him. What if something happens to him like say an overdose or something.

But all in all - i am glad it has turned out this way. Maybe if we do become good friends i might be able to help him out.
I think he is a generally lonely person; which is sad, because he is so well known within the illawarra and even sydney.

He rediscovered a type of grevillea that was considered extinct 30 years ago!!!!

Something a bit freaky happened yesterday!

Lilly was over, my mum was home, anyways there was a knock on the door and mum answered, and alas it was cops!!!

She called me over, and i thought - Oh shit what have I done, what have they caught me doing??? LOL

I had half a heart attack, then they asked if my dad lives here - and then nearly had a full heart attack - we thought something bad happened like an accident or something..

But anyways, turns out my dad forgot to pay for his petrol that morning!! So I called him up and handed the phone to the female officer, lol.

I thought it was hillarious, such a relief it was something so minor!!!

Having my licence is great! I can now get away from home anytime.
I was out and about almost all weekend.

Friday night I went out with belynda for a bit. Saturday i drove to warrawong and stayed at lilly's till about 7.00pm. We then went out to the Brewery but it wasnt that great.

I was a bit bored, too many people and not enough seats, dodgy music and too loud. I wanted to go home at 9.00pm!
I sat through it though, with great difficulty. I wanted to ditch the place and go to the oxford.

I saw a really nice looking bloke though, lilly reckons he was 'too scraggy looking'
I didnt think he was scraggy looking - just cos his hair was longish and had facial hair - but he reminded me of someone from LOTR, one of the men with blonde hair (i forget his name) but yeah he was quite attractive,nice smile, and a nice looking aura, and standing talking to a guy with a top hat! They looked eccentric and really stood out from the rest of the common crowd.

Anyways. Yesh today I drove to Cait's and we did a bit of shopping. I bought a snorkel and a mask, still have to get flippers though.
I also bought the From Hell DVD, i LOVE that movie - and now i can get some screen caps.

I been spending way too much money though, so i better start saving, starting thursday!

i got to catch up with Belynda today. We had a couple of smirnoffs at the pub.

I bought in my cd player to work today - and played metallica! No one was in today except for Deonne but she didnt mind - i also played some beatles, simon and garfunkel, and black sabbath.

It was a quiet day, as everyone is at tafe on fridays.

Anyways - i broke the bladder and gotta go pee - lol.

Eeek!

The first Greenplan sale is on this friday that i will be helping out with.
Im a bit scared because my knowledge is not that great when it comes to recommending certain types of plants to customers.

If someone sets down some standards that they want 'something that grows up to 4 metres, something hardy and tolerates saline soils, attracts birds and is a good wind buffer' i will have no idea what to say.

Im really freaking out about friday. Help.