Wameron36

G'day, Was just wondering whether anyone has had much experience in trying to make a tea out of this plant? Or at least any further knowledge on doing so? I've bee having a little trouble sleeping recently and noticed one of these guys only within a few hundred metres of the house, so would be interested in trying a tea from the leaves for the sedative effects. I've had a search through the internet but can't really find anything on the dose for tea, like how many leaves would be used. Also read a few notes on people just chewing the leaves for similar effects. Again, what sort of quantity of leaves would be sufficient? Any information or experiences would be great Thanks

I find them from time to time and know where one large vine is growing. Also been pretty curious about the similarities to rheedii, as well as having a go at rendering them edible. For now though, I just like to make myself necklaces and earrings with them. Big and shiny, very pretty!

In Townsville it's pretty sweet, there's a few good places close to town. Fredericks peak is an awesome bloody spot, a lot of hard sport routes being up there! Then there's some great bouldering nearby as well, up at Harveys Marbles, over on Magnetic Island or down in Bowen. Bowen is something spectacular! Awesome bouldering along such a beautiful piece of coast. It's all right on the beach with crystal clear water along side. I'm up in Cairns for a few weeks doing some work at the moment, and there's not as much of a climbing community here, but I think that's mostly due to the lack of places. In Barron Gorge/falls area is suppose to be a fair bit, but I've not been there myself. Hoping I can meet some climbers up here to take us out since I don't have any ropes. But I've been bouldering up a place called Emerald Ck, real close to where I'm staying in Mareeba and there's a lot of cool problems that I've found! And again, it's so incredibly beautiful there! Only problem is, most of the really cool boulders outside of the creek line itself is a very large grained, crumbly granite. You find something that looks like a really cool problem, have a feel of the holds and they all just fall off... At least inside the creek area most of the rock has been cleaned up slowly when from countless floods over the thousands of years.

Hell yeah man, nice work on the V8! Not sure which gym it was, but some friends went down to Sydney the other week to have a play in one of the bouldering competitions. Originally I was planning on heading down too, just for the fun of it and to check out a big gym since ours is pretty tiny and basic, though a change in circumstances and a one new car later - I'm poor again. So didn't make it

I'm bumping this thread back! Any one still climbing or any others gotten into it since? Haven't had any real bad experiences so far, luckily. Though a few months back I had a bit of a fall that, while I didn't get hurt, shook me up a bit. Was leading a super crimpy 23, clipped the draw in one of the bolts then fell as I was about to clip the rope. There was a tree right next to the route and I decided to try grab one of the branches and catch myself. That didn't quite work and instead I flipped upside down, fell into another branch and broke it then nearly swung straight into the wall. Wasn't a massive fall, probably about 4m. But that scared the shit out of me and had me on edge for the rest of the day. Beside that though, it's been all good and I'm totally hooked! Managed to send a couple of AWESOME v5 problems in the last week on two trips, which was a sweet achievement for me! I'm really keen to head down south at some point and check out the climbing there, would love to visit the Grampians, Arapiles and all of those areas. Will be travelling north at the end of next year so I'm pretty excited for the potential climbing up around the Northern Territory and West Australia around the Kimberly and all of those beautiful escarpments and gorges out that way. Need to get into some trad climbing first though!

Some nice photos there mate. Looks like an interesting little spot to explore...

Folk metal man... Brings me back to highschool - I use to love these guys! Their music was so epic. Would make you want to run around punching things with energy you never felt before, whilst simultaneously crying tears of joy and pure happiness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yom8nNqmxvQ

Just in the last few weeks my heavy spark has been ignited again, this is awesome timing! I think Parkway Drive's always going to be my top spot - Something about his vocals get me all gooey inside... Used to listen to a lot more, but a few off the top of my head that I still listen to regularly are Meshuggah, Gojira, Lamb of god, Tool... Started listening to a group called Tesseract recently who I'm really enjoying, really good mix of harsh vocals with some just nice clean vocals as well. Not really metal, but anyone listen to Dead Letter Circus? The guys singing is just awesome.

Pretty! The smell of these is quite lovely also Do the flowers vary from plant to plant a bit? Both plants of mine had a dark centre with a red/orange patch, which I can't see in yours.

Very impressive work! One of my good mates does a lot of carving also, and I know just how long and how much effort goes into such pieces, so can really appreciate what you're doing!

I've not been bitten yet fortunately. Although the bite of the australian tarantulas isn't suppose to be too bad. Very painful, as the fangs can get quite large, but won't kill you. Might make you a bit nauseous and throw up, but nothing serious. Dogs and cats however are very prone to their bites and most of the time ends up being fatal.

Don't do it! They'll take over your life. You start with one then end up with hundreds! Oh wait, you guys a plant heads. You know this already... But seriously, they're fascinating. Watching them simply walk around and web up the tank is really cool. Feeding is always fun too! Although, like I said, they are addicting. I started with one then quickly built up a large collection. Then started breeding them, and that increases the numbers dramatically! Especially when you'l get around 100-300 spiderlings from an egg sac. I've slowly sold most off again now due to other commitments, but still keep around 10 of my favourites. Then there's centipedes. Now they're creepy, but incredible!

The green scorpion is always a good place, or check the for sale section on www.inverts.com.au Try and avoid most pet shops as they most often do not look after them right, keeping them in unsuitable enclosures. The pet shop here is one of those examples, Poisonshroom. Especially with the tarantulas, which should be give plenty of substrate to burrow or at least some sort of structure to make a chamber to hide in as well as a humid tank. I know it doesn't really sell the animal as well if it's tucked away hiding in it's burrow the entire time, but it doesn't send the right message to uneducated people who buy them and keep them in similar conditions. There's also the issue of the source of the animals, which even if obtained legally through a collector with a permit, often these people do wipe out local populations of species. Plus they are generally sold with totally wrong species names. Trying to purchase captive bred critters is always good.

An equation for finding the side lengths of triangles that have these properties: m^2 - n^2 : 2mn : m^2 + n^2 Where: m and n are any perfect integer and m>n For the side of length 2mn, any perfect integer chosen for m or n will result in 2mn being even for the fact that you're multiplying by 2, an even number, and hence the product, 2mn, has to be even. Then to find the area, this side length is multiplied by the other side length (m^2 - n^2). Since 2mn is even, multiplying it by m^2 - n^2, we get an even product. This is then divided by 2. Any even number divided by 2 will also be even. And therefore the area is even! And since the area is even, whatever set of factors it is a product of, whether that's the longest side or anything else, it's still going to be an even product.

A right angle triangle with perfect integer sides and hypotemus - Sides of length 3, 4 & 5 for example. So the area would be: A = (3*4)/2 = 6 '... the area is not an odd product of the longest side.' The area in this case is even, so no matter what it is a product of, it's still even... and is not an odd product... and not an odd product of the longest side (which is 5). Other examples of these triangles: sides of length 5, 12, 13 ----> A = (5*12)/2 = 30 .... An even number. So if it's a product of the longest side it's still an even number. Sides of length 8, 15, 17 ----> A = (8*15)/2 = 60... which is even. And therefore an even product... Not sure if that's what the whole idea is though??? If it is, not sure if just showing examples is proving it though.

Never made jam, though I would love to try. Have made a cordial type drink from some before though - That was pretty tasty!

Glad to hear you guys had a good time. If there's a next time I'll have to try make it for sure!

I've made teas from dried shredded bark of this which had a pleasant cinnamon taste to it. Noticeable sedation also, aiding with falling asleep. The tap roots of young plants are also mentioned to be eaten as a food source

I was under the assumption that Full Moon party was on that weekend also, though as it turns out it was on the 17th May, which was the Friday just gone... So it looks like you'll have a nice peaceful island now

I don't want to eat one because the taste is horrible and lingers in your mouth and if you leave the fruit in your bag they rot and make the bag inhabitable for even the most foulest creature... Terrible things. Terrible, terrible tasting things. But good for you!! Not a grab for seeds, plenty around here already. Just had to reiterate - Gross! haha

Mine have also started flowering this week. They're opening up and looking beautiful. I'm in Townsville. Both plants are nearly 2 years old and still in pots, roots heading into the ground though. One flowered towards the end of last year also. Though I moved house and lost a lot of that plant since it had grown all between the fence in some tight crevices. It's slowly building up again though. The other plant was on tiles at that point and so never really took off, but now that it's been moved and onto dirt at the new place it's gone nuts!

I'm in Townsville and would be pretty keen also, depending on work/uni and such... I work every weekend, but if something is close enough by I'd be happy to pop around at least! Though I'm thinking of heading slightly south on the weekend of the 25/26th May to a festival near Airlie - http://www.facebook.com/events/456353634399854/?ref=14 - so that date's possibly out for me. It might be a bit further north than most, but is anyone thinking of heading up to Bushweek near Cooktown in June?

I've got a vine at the moment that I received as a seedling, it's within 1-2 YO now, though flowered and set seed not long after the year mark. The plant's had no special treatment from me, lives in a 30cm pot (though had put roots into the ground), kept the water up and that was is. Never fed it apart from the occasional slow release fertelizer. So I guess the conditions just must have been right

Hi all! Something I have been meaning to try for a little while are the seeds from the water lilies that could apparently be used to make a sort of flour. I'm often collecting flowers from these to use as tea, but never collected any seed pods. So I went for a bit of a kayack and found myself two big seed pods from what I believe are Nymphaea gigantea. Took them home and pull them apart, scraping all the seeds from within. The structure of the pod is quite cool. Imagine a mandarin with segments that were fused together, but within each segment were tons of little seeds. I then spread the seeds out and let them dry for a couple of days. To actually grind the seeds into a flour I tried two methods: mortar and pestle and a coffee grinder. The first lot were done with a mortar and pestle. This did work quite well but the outer shells and small material that surrounded each seed did not grind down very well. The ground, inside material was sifted out easily to produce a fine white flour. I would be happy to keep the shells and such mixed in with it also. The seeds: http://www.flickr.com/photos/61438015@N05/8549373357/'> http://www.flickr.com/photos/61438015@N05/8549373357/'>IMG_7643 by http://www.flickr.com/people/61438015@N05/'>Wameron, on Flickr In the process of grinding and sifting: http://www.flickr.com/photos/61438015@N05/8549372055/'> http://www.flickr.com/photos/61438015@N05/8549372055/'>IMG_7641 by http://www.flickr.com/people/61438015@N05/'>Wameron, on Flickr The sifted, ground, white flour: http://www.flickr.com/photos/61438015@N05/8550473446/'> http://www.flickr.com/photos/61438015@N05/8550473446/'>IMG_7647 by http://www.flickr.com/people/61438015@N05/'>Wameron, on Flickr Next I tried using a coffee grinder to see how well it would work at producing a flour. The rest of the seeds were put in, as well as the un-ground shells from the previous lot, and buzzed for a little while. This worked really well, turning it all into a fine, slightly darker coloured flour. You can see the difference in colour in the two sides of flour in this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/61438015@N05/8549375827/'> http://www.flickr.com/photos/61438015@N05/8549375827/'>IMG_7650 by http://www.flickr.com/people/61438015@N05/'>Wameron, on Flickr Here's an image showing the total amount of flour that was produced from 2 seed pods. This was roughly 2/3 of a cup. Smelt exactly like plain white flour you'd buy from the shop: http://www.flickr.com/photos/61438015@N05/8550475632/'> http://www.flickr.com/photos/61438015@N05/8550475632/'>IMG_7653 by http://www.flickr.com/people/61438015@N05/'>Wameron, on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/61438015@N05/8549378079/'> http://www.flickr.com/photos/61438015@N05/8549378079/'>IMG_7654 by http://www.flickr.com/people/61438015@N05/'>Wameron, on Flickr I also had a very small amount of seeds (roughly a tbsp) from some saw sedge (Gahnia spp.) I had collected a while ago. Using the mortar and pestle this were also ground into a flour. These seeds were much harder and tended to shoot out from the sides. I also found they contained a fir amount of moisture inside, which you can see by the darker base in the mortar. The flour from these was also a fair amount courser due ot the harder outer shells. http://www.flickr.com/photos/61438015@N05/8549379399/'> http://www.flickr.com/photos/61438015@N05/8549379399/'>IMG_7655 by http://www.flickr.com/people/61438015@N05/'>Wameron, on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/61438015@N05/8550479580/'> http://www.flickr.com/photos/61438015@N05/8550479580/'>IMG_7662 by http://www.flickr.com/people/61438015@N05/'>Wameron, on Flickr Sometime within the next few days I will make a small johny cake with each to try it out. Likely plain water lily seed, and the sedge seed will be mixed 50:50 with plain flour to add a little more volume. So I'll give that a shot, and report back how they turn out! Cheers, Cameron

Definitely edible! Tastey too ;) Tend to find them growing in the sand or in disturbed patches along creeks around here.