01-29-2020: Japanese Garden

This morning we walked around Lou’s neighborhood. There is a chemist (pharmacy) at the end of the main neighborhood street that we visited so Lou could get a prescription filled. We then walked down to Brisbane Water to enjoy the view. The street down to the water was lovely as there are huge gum trees that attract all sorts of birds. Also, one of the residents feeds the birds so we watched a bunch of crested cockatoos on the railing. Cockatoos are squawky birds; they make such a ruckus coming and going. The Rainbow Lorikeet are beautiful when you see them fly by.

I wish that I could attach an olfactory clip. Everywhere around the neighborhood the jasmine was beginning to bloom and the smell is ambrosial.

At the chemist shop we chatted with Suzanne and told her about our day at Mt. Penang. She recommended a Japanese garden to us and Lou knew exactly where it was, so after lunch, off we went to the Japanese garden in East Gosford.

The Edogawa Commemorative Garden is a beautiful peaceful space located in the Gosford Regional Gallery precinct.   Gosford formed a Sister City Agreement with Edogawa, Japan in 1988. A gift from Edogawa, the Garden was officially opened in September 1994 and has been designed in accordance with the original principles of the Japanese Heian (700AD) period. Extending over 4,000m2 (just about one acre), the garden is based on a traditional ‘shuyu’ (strolling style) garden, incorporating Japanese features. With meandering pathways, a roofed Japanese pavilion overlooking the Koi pond, raked dry stone garden and traditional Japanese teahouse, the garden offers a tranquil setting in which to relax and enjoy art and nature. It is a beautiful layout in really a very small space, but it doesn’t seem small.

The Japanese garden is really wonderful. It is a very small space, but it feels so relaxing, soothing and so much larger than it is. There are all sorts of decorative Japanese ornaments along meandering pathways.

The Koi Pavilion would have traditionally been used to catch fish. Today it is a viewing platform to watch, feed and appreciate the beautiful Koi carp. The pavilion design is reminiscent of the style of building used for festivities in ancient times. The Koi were huge and beautifully colored.

The Dragon’s Tail waterfall takes its name from the movement of water to and fro across the rocks as it tumbles into the pool that feeds the lotus pond. It refers to the imagery of chi or living spirit that inhabits all living things.

Dragon’s Tail Falls

There are several lantern-type sculptures throughout the garden. The large kotaji lantern is said to bring good luck and fortune to young couples in love. With one leg in the water and one on land, it represents the bridge between two worlds.

Turtle Island is comprised of large hand-selected rocks. The turtle is raising his head from the water. Turtles are said to fly into Japanese gardens on the backs of cranes. A crane in the garden represents one thousand years of good luck whilst turtles symbolize ten thousand years of longevity and good luck. Turtle Island represents the isle of the blessed, an ancient symbol of good fortune, where the soul travels to and resides after death.

Turtle Island

There is a dry stone garden or Karesansui. Three stones are displayed in a sea of raked gravel. The rocks represent islands within the ocean of life and are a modern interpretation of the traditional sanzon arrangement of three rocks symbolizing heaven, earth and man. Heaven, represented by the tallest rock, is adjacent to earth, the horizontal rock. Man is shown as a diagonal rock, separate from the others representing modern man’s quest for meaning and relationship within his environment.

Dry Stone Garden or Karesansui

In a Japanese garden, the changing seasons are illustrated with plantings to highlight the passing of time – the cycle of birth, death and re-birth. In spring and summer the lotus and water lilies bloom in the koi pond and the wisteria is in full fragrant bloom. In autumn the maples and cherries turn orange and gold. In winter the beautiful hedge of camellias bloom behind the dry stone garden. I could imagine what the garden looked like in the different seasons, especially in springtime. Many of the smaller shrubs are azaleas and so the garden would explode in color when the azaleas were in bloom. Even though we didn’t see much color at this time of year, the garden was just beautiful.

After the garden, we wandered through the galleries. There were some really interesting paintings, a few quite powerful by Chris Bates, a local artist. Her exhibition, Slipping Away, is a poetic suite of paintings lamenting the looming devastation of climate change. Harnessing the power of art for social change, this series was conceived to counter the threat of inaction on the environment. Her paintings contrast the great beauty of natural elements with menacing suggestions of ecological disaster. Some of her paintings really punched you in the gut.

We enjoyed our time at the garden and gallery and returned home to rest before going to dinner with Alex and Gloria. They picked us up and we went to the Central Coast Leagues Club. Licensed and registered clubs are not-for-profit, member-based organizations that exist to provide infrastructure and services for the community, and further a core purpose, such as the promotion of sporting activities or veterans’ welfare.    This club is somewhat similar to where we went to meet Alan and Marianne, but was fancier. It, too, is a casino and gaming club, but the draw for us was a spectacular buffet. There was every kind of food you could imagine. Alex said the buffet is available every night, 365 days per year. I don’t know how this would be profitable, but I guess the food production is offset by the casino. We stuffed ourselves on the most amazing selection of food and goodies.

Alex and Gloria
The 5 of us at the club

After dinner we went back to Alex and Gloria’s beautiful home and sat out on the veranda enjoying the quiet evening and the jasmine-scented air. Christine and Gloria are two peas in a pod and they enjoy each other so much. They laugh and laugh. Alex gets in the act, too. We had a delightful evening.

Another fantastic day! We’re off on another trip on Friday. Thursday will be a day of rest, laundry and getting ready to head north to Lou’s brother Tony’s place near Coff’s Harbor. Tony saved his house but lost 80% of his timber in a bush fire. It will be interesting to see what that area looks like as it was hit hard by fire.

01-27/28-2020: Copacabana Beach and Mt. Penang Gardens

Beach and gardens! What could be better than that??!! Two of our most favorite things.

On Monday, the “official” observance of Australia Day since the 26th was on a Sunday, we went to our favorite beach to date, Copacabana Beach. It is a beautiful beach. The surf was just right for wave jumping, big enough but not too big, and the water was clean. Christine and I had a good time while Lou and Banjo watched from down the beach. Several beaches do allow dogs, but not Copacabana, so Banjo didn’t get a swim in today. After Christine and I tired ourselves out, we gave Lou a chance to get wet. As you can see from the photos below, even on a holiday there was plenty of empty space on the beach.

After our swim, Lou drove us around the hills near the beach to see some of the houses. Of course, a water view is what everyone wants and so the houses get built higher and higher and many are perched right on the cliff. The roads are very steep and narrow and one gets easily lost, the streets being like a rabbit’s warren, but up high on the hills.

On Tuesday we went to Mt. Penang Gardens. In researching activities on the Central Coast, I had found information on this garden. Readers of this blog know that Christine and I look for gardens to visit. Lou knew where the garden is located, but he had never been there. It worked out perfectly to go today. Lou had called his doctor’s office to get an appointment as he needed some medication renewals. He called the office at about 8:45 and the receptionist asked if a 10:45 appointment (today!) was good. Imagine that, same morning appointment.

After the appointment we went up a steep hill to Mt. Penang Garden. The garden website has this description. “Opened in November 2003, Mt. Penang Gardens is considered an enduring and radical contribution to public garden design in Australia. Its distinctive design by Anton James sets it apart from the traditional botanical garden. His garden within a garden produces an understated landscape that is less manicured and in a constant state of being. It continues to evolve today. Individual ‘gardens’ are set on and around a large sculptural plateau and walled spaces, abstract pergolas, fountains, ponds, cascades and a 35-meter cantilevered steel footbridge. Along with waterways and stunning summer aquatic gardens, you’ll find that over 70% of the plants are native to Australia. Marvel at the creative ways in which modern landscapes and Australian native flora blend together to produce amazing seasonal displays.”

Entrance to the gardens

The gardens cover about 20 acres and while the plants have been affected by the drought, there are many ponds and a 3-tiered water lily garden that provides a sense of lushness in contrast to the very parched earth in many of the beds. And today is exceptionally hot and humid so it was uncomfortable to be in the sun for very long. However, there were many areas of shade, with benches, to rest and some cooling breezes.

Since it is the middle of summer, and we’re in the midst of a drought, not many of the plants were blooming. But there was plenty to see, especially the beautiful lilies, pink being my very favorite.

The walkway around the gardens is called the Discovery Trail and goes through 12 themed garden rooms based upon a particular plant species, predominantly Australian native, a horticultural theme or specific micro climate.

One of the red flowering gum trees was full of squawking birds and I went up to the tree to see if I could identify some of the birds. I was able to snap this picture of a beautiful bird.

Rainbow Lorikeet

There was an obelisk at the top of a small cascading pool.

My favorite part of the gardens was a small stand of trees, called narrow-leaved bottle tree, which is a native to Queensland, the state just north of New South Wales. The bottle tree is a deciduous succulent, an interesting combination, and is drought resistant making it a good choice for its native habitat. Aboriginal people made use of the trees through eating the roots of young plants and by consuming secretions from the trunk that were induced by wounds. Fiber obtained from the species was used to make nets. The leaves have also been used for fodder, and Queensland farmers often leave bottle trees as a potential food source when land is cleared. During drought conditions, whole trees have been felled to feed stock. The soft edible pulp inside the trunk is exposed by removing the bark. So not only is the bottle tree a really neat-looking tree, it is very versatile.

Another part of the gardens was a sculpture garden. The outdoor sculpture exhibition is on perpetual display at Mt. Penang Gardens. The exhibit was created in 1987 by a group of international sculptors at waterside Wondabyne, so collectively the sculptures are referred to as the Wondabyne Sculptures. These large artworks were carved from Gosford sandstone and were handed over to the people of Australia as a bicentennial gift from the artists. The sculptures are depictions of peace and harmony.

After walking around the garden, we had lunch in the waterside cafe. Poor Christine was quite overheated and stood in front of a fan to try and cool off while waiting for our lunch.

Waterside cafe

On our way back to Lou’s we stopped by Alex and Gloria’s house to return car keys. We had borrowed Gloria’s car for our trip to Margaret’s. Alex and Gloria had just returned from their month-long holiday on their sailing yacht and were unloading the boat. Alex is selling the boat and so everything from 35 years of ownership has to be removed from the boat, a very daunting task. We think he will be purchasing a 56-foot cabin cruiser, which will provide them with a much easier boat to use.

The house is phenomenal! It is right on the Brisbane Water with a wharf-type dock for the boat. The views are spectacular as is the house itself. The house is new, having taken 18 months to build to Alex’s specifications and they have resided in the house since November, 2018. It was supposed to be a down-sized house from their previous mansion, but golly, this house is huge and amazing.

We sat out on the veranda and had a beverage and talked with Alex and Gloria. Gloria said she was happy we came by because it enabled her to have a rest from toting stuff from the boat to the house. We really enjoy Alex and Gloria and it was a pleasant way to spend the late afternoon.

Another wonderful day Down Under!

01-26-2020: Australia Day

January 26th is Australia Day, a national holiday marking the arrival of the British First Fleet of ships into Sydney Cove in 1788 and the raising of the British flag claiming Australia. The holiday has also been referred to as Anniversary Day and Founders Day. The holiday is somewhat controversial, like our Columbus Day, and some refer to the day as Australian Natives’ Association Day (ANA), Invasion Day, or National Day of Mourning. Present day celebrations reflect the diverse society and landscape of the nation and are marked by community and family events, reflections on Australian history, official community awards and citizenship ceremonies welcoming new members of the Australian community. In reading about the history of Australia Day, I found it very interesting that Britain came exploring for a new place to place their convicts after the loss of the Thirteen Colonies. I had forgotten that the southern colony, now Georgia, had been established as a penal colony, and that Britain had plans for establishing other penal colonies in the colonies. It is interesting to see how the indigenous people of Australia are, or are not, embraced. As you might expect, that spectrum is similar to our racial divide in America. Aboriginal people, often called Abos, have populated Australia for 65,000 years and they have a very rich culture that is spiritually based and maintained through oral tradition. It does appear that Australians are trying to be inclusive in showing acceptance and respect for First Peoples of Australia.

Christine and I went to church with Louis this morning. He is currently responsible for setting up the sound system and the Powerpoint slides for the order of service and music, which causes him great anxiety. He also sings in the choir, so Christine was really keen on hearing him. The church, Holy Cross Parish, is a new building, very modern, light and airy. However, it was very hot and humid and everyone was rather uncomfortable. What I found nice was that windows and doors were open so we heard all kinds of bird songs during the service, which I really enjoyed.

Holy Cross Church

In keeping with Australia Day, the start of the service was this affirmation: “We would like to acknowledge the Darkinjung and Guringai people who are the traditional owners of this land. We would also like to pay respect to the elders’ past and present of the Darkinjung and Guringai and extend that respect to other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People present.” The Darkinjung and Guringai refers to the local land councils in the area, major landowners on the Central Coast, participating in formal joint management of some areas of state forest in the region. They represents over 450 local Aboriginal residents. The Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council are self-appointed caretakers of the Central Coast of NSW Australia.

After church, because it was so hot and very humid, we spent the afternoon at Lou’s, again watching tennis, and preparing for our evening guests, Bradley Calleija, Alex and Gloria’s youngest son, his wife Fiona and two of their three children, Lachlan and Jemma. Christine and I had met Bradley many years ago on Cape Cod and so we were really keen on seeing him again.

Lachlan, Jemma and Fiona

We had a lovely evening. Jemma is a delightful child, full of life. She had a great time playing with Banjo, especially feeding him chips, including from between her toes so Banjo licked her feet which delighted her immensely. Lachlan was impressive as he participated in a discussion of politics at the dinner table. Almost all our conversations with everyone in here in Australia eventually turns to President Trump. Fiona, a legal secretary, is a lovely young woman and obviously a wonderful mother. And Bradley is always smiling and laughing and is very positive. He has a good personality for his job, working for the local council as a building inspector and handler of issues related to people not being compliant with building codes. They make a beautiful family.

Lachlan, Brad, Jemma, Fiona and Christine
A great smiling family

Happy Australia Day!

01-25-2020: Bouddi Coastal Walk 2

After returning to Lou’s from Margaret’s we had a couple of low-key days doing laundry, reorganizing stuff, and resting. The weather has been crazy for the past several days. All along the east coast and down south to Melbourne we’ve witnessed drought, intense heat (104 degrees here on Thursday), frightening thunder and lightening storms, terrible flooding as a result of heavy rains, very damaging golf ball-sized hail, and dust storms. The dust storms around the area, including at Margaret’s, have taken a toll on the environment due to the mud it caused when rained on, especially in Melbourne where the Yarra River that runs through city center turned a bright red-brown due to all the dust residue that covered every surface. The lightening has touched off more bush fires, one very near to Lou’s. Fortunately, these were quickly acted upon and are under control. But it has been wild and crazy on the weather front.

One afternoon Lou took us to Avoca Beach for a swim. It’s a lovely beach and we played in the surf for a bit. This beach allows dogs on the beach so Banjo was able to get into the water and he enjoyed running around.

We are spending our evenings watching tennis. The matches have been very exciting and Christine, Lou and I agonizing practically over every point with loud ohs, wows, grunts and sighs. We tire ourselves out just watching.

After a couple of days of not doing much, I felt a need to get some walking in. I suggested to Christine another leg of the Bouddi Coastal Walk. We looked at the map, and after much deliberation, we decided to walk down the trail we came up on our first walk, go around Maitland Bay, go up the headland and then work our way up the Mt. Bouddi Spur Trail to the Dingeldei Picnic Area where Lou could pick us up. We knew if would be a rather strenuous walk but I wanted to give it a go.

Lou dropped us off at the Maitland Bay Info Center car park and off we went. Within one minute, Christine wanted to turn around and go back because we invaded by “mozzies,” mosquitoes in Aussie vernacular. We were covered by tiny, black insects. They were smaller than our mosquitoes, but they drew blood when biting. It was awful. I suggested we keep going because I thought getting closer to the ocean would provide a breeze and some relief. I cut off a couple of tree branches to use as mozzie brooms. Christine sped off down the trail trying to get away from the mozzies. Every person we passed coming up had something to say about the mozzies. We think the recent rain with the very high humidity the day we walked caused the outbreak, but it was really awful.

It was hard to enjoy the walk through the bush, but I did take some photos of the great trees and foliage.

We got down to Maitland Beach, a very nice beach. One needs to be quite motivated to swim there because there is no car park anywhere near the beach. One has to hike down that steep track and then after a day on the beach, you have to hike all the way back up. Not an easy thing, for sure.

As we were walking down the beach to pick up the coastal walk trail we came to exposed sandstone. It was so interesting because the exposed rock showed some of the interesting patterns called Leisgang rings, but these were vertical and not horizontal as we saw on our first walk.

At the far end of Maitland Beach is some other rock formations.

At the end of the beach the coastal walk heads uphill. What a lot of steps to get up to the headland.

Steps, steps, steps

After going up and up, we finally came to a beautiful spot with great views of the coastline. We sat enjoying the breeze for a while and cooled off.

We then found the trail again and headed up more steps. We walked quite a way trying to locate the spur trail that would take us up to the pickup spot. We eventually found it and headed back into the bush.

The Mt. Bouddi Spur trail is nearly straight uphill all with steps, not cement formed steps, but logs placed along the trail. Many of those steps are double height, so it’s a real effort to pull one’s body up them. It was exhausting, and it kept going up and up. We eventually got to a more level place and the trail through the bush was quite lovely, but again the mozzies and our exhaustion made it difficult to enjoy.

We finally made it to the top and the pickup spot. Lou was sitting in his car. He said he tried to sit outside but that the mozzies nearly ate him alive. So he was sympathetic when we described our ordeal with the mozzies. Christine and I were really red-faced from the effort so Lou took us to the ocean for a swim. We went to MacMasters Beach. The surf was quite rough. Christine got knocked down, which rattled her, so she skipped playing in the surf. Unfortunately, the surf had churned up great clumps of seaweed so it was rather difficult to keep from getting tangled up. After a few times of getting crunched by the surf, twice losing my sand shoe (which both times turned up to be found and returned to me), I decided to forego any further wave jumping. But the swim cooled us off and that was lovely.

Home we went to spend another evening watching incredible tennis matches at the Aussie Open.

01-21/22-2020: An End to Our Visit in Rylstone

The Cubby House where we stayed at Margaret’s

Tuesday we spent the day at the farm enjoying being in the lovely country and doing some work around the farm. I went with Margaret to the feed store to pick up hay and goat pellets. Its always interesting to me to look in shops to compare with what we see in the States. This place was very much like an Agway.

Christine stayed at the farm and met two of Clare’s friends who had come by. In the big shed there is quite an entertainment center with pool table, table tennis, Foosball and other fun things. The girls had a pool tournament and Christine enjoyed watching some of the competition.

After lunch I went up to the old cottage to see if I could help Lou and Ray. The main job was to dig out a rotten 4×4 base rim. Ray worked for an hour to try and get it out and finally succeeded. Like most farms, there are lots of spare part and timber stored in and around outbuildings. While we didn’t find proper 4x4s, we found 4x3s that worked. Then Lou and Ray started butting up weatherboard (we call it clapboard) on the bare side. Again, salvaged parts were used. Renovating this cottage will be quite a project, but it will make of lovely home if it can be completed.

Ray hard at work

One of the challenges in working within a goat paddock, which is where the old cottage is, was Brown Sugar, the large billy goat. He was very attracted to Ray and wiggled his tongue and snorted. He actually butted me and practically threw me off my feet. He finally went up on the veranda in the shade.

Lou and Brown Sugar

We had a nice dinner, Lou did a roast pork. Margaret had a cleaning job in the morning, so we ate earlier than we had been so she didn’t have such a late night. We watched a bit of the Australian Open and everyone turned in. We’ve been on the go so much and working around the farm that everyone was exhausted and didn’t mind an early turn-in. I loved standing out on the veranda in the evening watching the sunset and listening to all the marvelous night sounds of the farm and around the countryside.

Sunset on the farm

Wednesday was our last morning on the farm. I helped Lou gather all the tools and equipment that were used up at the cottage. On a farm, it’s always important that tools and equipment have a place of their own, a place for everything and everything in its place as they say. So we spent quit a bit of time bringing things back to the shed. There must still be fire in the area because we saw a couple of helicopters coming to collect water from the swimming hole.

Helicopter with water bucket handing below

I noticed a unicycle under the carport and learned that Clare is its rider. I asked her to show me how she rides it. She’s an expert and rode around the carport and out into the drive. She had to be careful because her little goat Neo wanted to get into the act. Clare has been mothering Neo because her mother would not and so Clare is essentially hand-raising the little cutey. Clare also brought out some juggling balls and she and I had a go. I’m rusty, but Clare did well. I then said she should try riding her unicycle and juggling, and by golly, she did it.

After Clare’s demonstration, I decided to give it a go. It’s very difficult. I couldn’t even get up on it. Christine came over to help steady me. She had her hands wrapped around my right arm. I managed to go forward a rotation of the wheel or two but then lost my balance and pitched forward. Christine had my arm gripped so tightly, and didn’t let go, so that when I hit the ground she came with me flat out. I thought she was injured at first, but she was actually laughing her head off at the ridiculousness of the calamity. Fortunately, neither of us was injured.

Then we got involved in games of table tennis when Margaret returned from her job. She’s a good player and she beat me in our first game. Then Christine got in the act, but her challenge to Margaret was simply to see how many times the ball could be hit back and forth, no scoring. Then I challenged Margaret to a rematch and I managed to win. Clare played with her mother, and although I thought Clare was the better player, Margaret managed to win. It was a lot of fun.

We had lunch and then it was time to bid farewell to the Chadwicks. We hated to leave. Margaret gave us going away gifts. For Christine the mathematician, a small calculator, and for me, the handywoman, a little tape measure. But the really nice gift was a book titled “The Lady Bushranger, the Life of Elizabeth Jessie Hickman.” This is the story of a local woman who was somewhat of a legend in the area. She had a rough life and is rumored to have killed a husband. She was raised in a circus, and was reportedly the leader of an outlaw gang. Christine had learned a little about her at the Kandos Museum. Afterward, Margaret had searched in several bookshops for her biogaphy to no avail. After her cleaning job this morning, she drove back to the Kando Museum and purchased the book. We’re very touched by this and I’m sure we’ll enjoy reading about Mrs. Hickman especially since she lived in the area of Rylstone and Kandos in the early 20th century and we’ll be able to visualize the countryside and places described in the book.

Our final moments together

Our drive back to the central coast was remarkable. On the drive to Rylstone last Friday we hadn’t been able to see much of the scenery due to the heavy fog. Driving up and over the Blue Mountains was both beautiful and tragic. Some of the vistas are quite spectacular across the Capertee Valley, the deepest canyon and 2nd largest valley in New South Wales.

But while the rock formations and long-distance views should have been beautiful, what we saw all through the Blue Mountain National Park was scorched earth and charred trees. For miles and miles this is all we saw.

Coming through the town of Lithgow, we observed burned out areas right in people’s backyards. The fire came right down to the edge of the town. It must have been quite frightening for the people.

We dropped Ray off at his home in Kellyville, and made our way back up the central coast to Lou’s in Bensville. Just coming over the mountain into the Brisbane Water area Lou pulled in to a scenic lookout. We were treated to a wonderful view, which was so much different than what we had been seeing throughout the Blue Mountains.

Brisbane Water

It actually was lovely to be “home” (at Lou’s) again. We unpacked and had dinner and watched Serena and Roger Federer play in the Aussie Open. It was good to hit the bed that night.

01-20-2020: Sofala and Bathurst

Before leaving on our adventure today I had to go and see the new kids. Last night I was a little concerned about one of them that seemed very lethargic. But I need not have worried because this morning, both kids were bouncing around in their pen under the watchful eye of Ace, their mom.

They are so cute!

Christine and Linda, one day old

We then set off for Bathurst, the closest major city near Rylstone, about 60 miles away. It was a lovely drive through the countryside of rolling hills. Unfortunately, the drought is affecting everything, especially the trees. Their foliage looks almost like our autumn trees, mostly orange in color. Everything is very thirsty.

Our first stop was in Sofala, population 208. Sofala began in 1851 as a result of the gold rush. Louis commented that he thought the place looked like a movie set for a western. We wandered down the main street looking in windows and marveling at the ornate wrought iron railings.

As you may have noticed in some of the photos, the storm clouds were significant while we were in Sofala. We heard thunder and felt a few drops of rain. Later, as we were arriving in Bathurst we saw that there had been a significant storm with some flooding and power outages. The weather has been crazy up and down the east coast of Australia. With drought and high temperatures, we’re now in a period of torrential rainfall causing significant flooding. There have been hail storms with golf ball sized hailstones causing a lot of damage. Although there had been some rain in bush fire areas, enough to assist the firefighters in controlling many of the fires, there hasn’t been any rainfall in Margaret’s area.

From Sofala we went to Bathurst, a city of about 36,000. It, too, came about as a result of the gold rush. It is the oldest inland city in Australia. Margaret and Ray stopped in a Bunnings, similar to Home Depot, to get some plumbing parts. We then had lunch at an outdoor cafe, and then on to visit the Australia Fossil and Mineral Museum which is housed in a heritage building, a public school dating back to 1874.

The museum features some of the finest and rarest examples of minerals from around the world and scientifically significant fossils from Australia. It contained wonderful displays containing the most interesting and beautiful minerals. These types of displays are almost too much to take in. I also marveled at some of the fossils. Complete creatures were contained in the sedimentary rock.

The museum also contained a life-size skeleton of a tyrannosaurus rex.

The fossil collection was really cool. Complete creatures were seen encased in sedimentary rock.

And Christine’s favorite shape is a creature called an ammonite, which is an extinct cousin of the nautilus.

After the museum, we went up to Mount Panorama, a famous racetrack where the Bathurst 1000 is held every year. This was quite amazing because when there isn’t any racing, anyone can drive their car around the track, and what a track it is. I think of racetracks as ovals. This one was serpentine all up and down the mountain with hairpin turns that were hair-raising, especially on the downhill part of the track. The track is just shy of 4 miles long and it has a vertical lift of 571 feet. From the top of the mountain, one gets a fabulous view of the Bathurst plains.

All of us in the play set at Mount Panorama
Bathurst Plains from Mount Panorama

After driving the track circuit, we headed back into Bathurst for some ice cream. This shot I think is hilarious.

Ice cream in the park
Daniel, Clare, Margaret, Ray, Linda, Christine, and Lou

After our ice cream, we wandered around some of the historic sights of Bathurst. Christine and I really felt like we could have been in a place in England. It had an old, stately feel about it. We wandered through two lovely parks, Machattie Park and Kings Parade, containing some monuments and typical park things like a bandstand and a duck pond.

Walking back to the car we noted some wall paintings. Elton John has a stop on his worldwide farewell tour in Bathurst next month, so these paintings were Elton advertisements.

We made the 90-minute drive back to Margaret’s, all exhausted from our long day of touring. We had a very late dinner, nearly 10:00 pm. We had the Australian Open tennis on the TV. Neat to be in Australia during the tennis tournament.

What a great day we had, jam packed with interesting things.

01-19-2020: A Visit to Mudgee

We went to church at St. Malachy’s this morning. Father Owen was quite thrilled that he had visitors from America. He said we had traveled the farthest ever to hear his homily. He had the congregation applaud in greeting. Upon leaving and shaking hands with Father Owen, he invited himself to Margaret’s for a cuppa. He was quite interested to know how everyone was related and asked a lot of questions about Malta and how the family got to America and Australia. Margaret said that was his modus operandi in inviting himself into the homes of parishioners after the service for a cuppa.

We then went back to Rylstone to visit the Cottage Museum, which is only open on Sundays. The building had been moved to its current location, totally renovated, and now houses a lovely little museum and the historic district office. There was a nice collection of old photos and items showing the history of Rylstone. I was quite impressed with the actual interior size of the cottage. There was one large room, kitchen and a smaller room that likely served as a bedroom. Another small room served as the office. The ceilings are very high, giving the rooms a large feeling. It didn’t appear that large from the outside.

The Cottage Museum

After the museum, we drove to Lue where there is a bonsai studio. Unfortunately, it was closed. We then decided to drive to Mudgee for a late lunch. The drive is about 55 km from Rylstone to Mudgee, but the drive was interesting and beautiful, albeit brown and parched.

Map of the Rylstone, Kandos and M

This area is of great pastures, stands of timber, rolling hills and encircled by mountains in the distance. The current biggest industry is wine production. As we got closer to Mudgee we saw lots of green vineyards and huge fields of hay that were green due to large irrigation systems. The contrast of the brown pastures to the bright green hay fields was quite eye-popping. Also, the location is in a river valley, the Cudgegong River, and so the area is quite fertile.

Mudgee is a lovely town of about 12,000 people. It got going with the first English settlers arriving in the 1820s. The town was formed around 1850. Shortly after its founding there was a population explosion due to a gold rush. Gold was discovered near Mudgee and the town became a mining town, providing lodging and supplies to people who arrived to strike it rich. Other mining was also done, predominantly coal. In addition to mining and wine production, the agriculture of the area is of cattle, sheep, wheat, alfalfa, olives, fruit, tomatoes, corn, honey and dairy products.

The town itself is very quaint. There are many heritage buildings along the wide streets. Many of the buildings are two story buildings having large second story balconies with beautiful wrought iron railings. Christine and I both commented that this reminded us of buildings in New Orleans.

We had a late lunch in Mudgee and Margaret, Clare and Daniel did a bit of shopping. The drive home was again beautiful. We went a different route and passed a huge reservoir, Lake Windamere, which was created by damming up the Cudgegong River. We want to stop and take photos of the view, but there were no shoulders on the road, so Christine had to snap a picture from the moving car.

End of Lake Windameer

I think the reservoir was a source for water in fighting some of the bush fires. The helicopters and planes loaded up with water from the reservoir.

Upon arriving back at home, when Clare went to feed the goats she noticed one missing. She went in search of Ace, the missing goat, and found her having given birth to twin kids. It was nearly dark so Margaret and Clare drove out into the paddock to pick up Ace and her new babies. Margaret had said earlier that there was a possibility that a goat would give birth while we were here. She also said that if the birth was a twin birth they would name the kids Christine and Linda.

Clare with our new namesakes, Christine and Linda

We naturally were thrilled, and the new kids are so cute. We think they must have been born just a few hours ago.

So, the end of another great day!

01-18-2020: Rylstone

Margaret, Daniel and Clare live in Rylstone, a small agricultural town in an area of New South Wales called the central tablelands of the mid-western region of the state. The community population is around 700. It is increasingly a tourist draw for its scenic, peaceful location and growing arts community. With the Blue Mountains and several national parks nearby, holiday goers have plenty to see and do in this area. Currently, the drought has turned all the lush pastures and fields to brown, and Louis keeps saying he can’t believe how brown it is and if we were to see it in normal conditions we would be amazed at how beautifully lush and green everything is.

When I opened the curtain this morning, this was looking at me.

Still a thrill to see kangaroos up close in the wild

After breakfast, Margaret, Clare, Banjo, Christine and I took a walking tour of the town. There are several heritage sites in town, equivalent to our national historic landmarks, and from many signs posted on buildings we learned a fair amount about the history of the town.

Europeans, predominantly English, Scots, and Irish were some of the first settlers. The town plan was laid out in 1846 with formal establishment of the town coming in 1885. The arrival of the railroad in the 1880s helped to firmly establish Rylstone. This area is rich in minerals and coal and the railroad enabled the mines to ship their coal to cities. There is also sandstone in the area and several of the heritage buildings were constructed using sandstone. It was also interesting to see that a couple of buildings along the main street were in a mission style. Apparently, some Californians came to the area and they used their architectural influence.

Lou, Ray and Daniel came into town and met us for lunch. The guys have been working on an old shed positioning gutters to capture rainwater into a large tank. With the drought it is even more important that any water collection system is in good working order so that when it does rain every drop available can be captured. Today, although the sky is looking threatening, only spits of rain have occurred.

After lunch, we drove 7 km to the neighboring town of Kandos to visit the Kandos Museum. Kandos is a town which was created in 1913 to exploit the limestone in the area. It became a huge producer of cement through the Kandos Portland Cement Company. As a result of the cement production Kandos got the nickname “The Town That Built Sydney.” The town is having to revitalize itself since the closure of the cement factory in 2011 and like Rylstone, it is becoming an “artsy” town drawing in holiday goers.

The Kandos Museum was interesting. I didn’t know anything about how cement is produced and learned that it is quite a multi-stepped process involving coal, ironstone and gypsum. The mines and the equipment used to haul and crush the materials are enormous. Right inside the front entrance was an old company ambulance and on its side was painted a Maltese Cross, which we all were excited to see. The museum had all kinds of tools, gizmos, gauges, gadgets all related to cement manufacturing. It also contained all kinds of memorabilia from decades gone by, typewriters, calculators, clothing, record players, projectors, war-related items, etc. It was quite the collection of stuff.

Kandos Cement Ambulance with Maltese Cross

I was intrigued by a collection of advertising post cards showing places around the world where Kandos Portland Cement had been used. These included Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Mount Vernon, Virginia, and Old South Church in Boston. There were also displays about the cement bags used over time. Initially, the jute bags were collected and used in house construction with the jute lining the walls and then cemented over. Also, there was a display of paper cement bags being formed into clothing, handbags and other useful items. I really enjoyed our visit to the Kandos Museum.

I am fascinated by the cottage houses with the tin roofs. I think this style of home is called the Queenslander cottage. I think they are lovely and it is the style of the original home on Margaret’s property that hopefully one day will be renovated. The house is a box with a large veranda wrapped around. They are typically built a bit above the ground to give good airflow underneath to aid in cooling. And I love the tin roof.

We returned home, had a little rest, and then dinner. After dinner we were treated to presentations by Clare and Daniel. Clare is a very talented artist, seamstress, costume and make-up artist, and cake decorator among other talents. She showed us many of the things she has created and it was quite impressive. Daniel also displayed his work. He draws and paints, makes clothes, and he also spent a year compiling photos and material for his senior yearbook. What he managed to collect and produce was amazing. Daniel has many, many talents and I think he is finding it difficult to figure out just what he will do with his life. At nearly 20, he has yet to focus on a vocation. It will be interesting to see what he will wind up doing.

So, another fun, interesting day.

01-17-2020: Off to Rylstone

After our wonderful day on the boat with Gloria and Alex, we spent a couple of days doing normal stuff. Wednesday (1-15-20) I did a couple of loads of wash in the morning. In the afternoon, Lou took us to Umina Beach where we played in the waves for a while. There was just enough surf to make it fun, but not dangerous. There are so many wonderful beaches in the area and I’m sure we’ll get to several of the over the next few weeks.

In the evening, we went to the Ourimba RSL Club in Lisarow to have dinner with Lou’s sister Marianne and her husband Alan. We arrived later than expected due to a road closure and a very long roundabout detour. The terrain all around the central coast is full of windy, twisty roads going up, over, and down hills. This detour, however, took us through some beautiful residential areas which I like because I’m a snoop and like seeing where and how people live.

It was nice catching up with Marianne and Alan. Unfortunately, Alan is in the early stages of dementia and has aged quite a bit since we last saw him 10 years ago. He is a shell of the large, vibrant, boisterous man I remember.
Dementia is such a devastating disease to both the victim and the loved ones around him or her. Marianne is doing the best she can for Alan. It was a nice dinner and great to see them.

Alan and Marianne with us

Thursday was a very low-key day. The most activity I had was taking Banjo for a walk down to Brisbane Water. One of the things Lou asked us to bring with us was rain. It hasn’t rained for a very long time in this drought-stricken country. Well, we did bring rain and so starting today, and forecast for the next several days, is rain. This will be so helpful to the firefighters in trying to control the many bush fires still raging. The very thirsty ground will get some relief as will all the dying vegetation. Everything is brown and rather wilted. We also spent the day planning for our drive inland to visit Lou’s youngest sister Margaret. We go on Friday and will stay with Margaret and her two children, Daniel and Clare, until Wednesday. Lou always takes lots of food to Margaret’s and so we had shopped at Aldi’s yesterday, filling up a shopping cart with meats, pizza, veggies, desserts and other staples.

Friday morning, we packed up the car. Lou borrowed Gloria’s car, which is larger than Lou’s. It’s a good thing because we filled up every available space with food and luggage. Banjo was snuggled in between Christine and me in the second row of seats.  Just as we left Lou’s, it started to rain. It was a good soaking rain and no one minded the rain at all. Blessed rain! We headed towards a Sydney suburb called Kellyville to pick up Lou’s brother Ray who was coming with us to Margaret’s. I said he’d better pack light because there isn’t any more room in the boot.

Just as we got on the freeway we became stuck in a backup. The delay was about 45 minutes. It was raining, so it was probably good that everyone was at a crawl. We eventually made it to Ray’s. His wife Roma popped in while we were there. Ray introduced us to the reptile and fish menagerie in their house. And then off we went heading for Rylstone.

The drive to Rylstone from Ray’s is about 3 hours, a little over 200 km (125 miles) but with weather conditions it took nearly 5 hours. Daniel had given Lou information on road closures due to the fires, but we weren’t really affected by that. What we were affected by was the weather. With the rainy weather, going up into the Blue Mountains meant fog, and very thick
fog. Visibility was extremely poor and Lou had to creep along with eyes locked on the center line to be sure he didn’t veer off the two-lane windy road. In going through the Blue Mountains, two national parks bordered the road, the Blue Ridge National Park on our left and the Wollemi National Park on our right. This area was totally blackened by the fire. Due to the fog, we couldn’t see much of the damage. In fog-free areas what we saw was the destructive power of fire. The earth was absolutely scorched bare, the tree trunks were entirely charred and there was either no foliage on the trees or it was totally burned and brown. We saw a few homes and outbuildings entirely burned, but it was amazing to see how many houses had been saved. The fire damaged trees at times were right up to the houses and you could see how the fire went right around the buildings. Firefighters and homeowners clearly worked very hard to save houses.

We stopped for lunch at a place called the Fruit Bowl in Bilpin. This area is an apple-growing area. We saw many totally burned out orchards. The Fruit Bowl itself was spared, but the fire swept right over the building. It burned much of their orchard. At this time of the year the orchards are covered in nylon netting to protect the young growth on the trees. Those orchards not being totally burned looked very eerie with with partially burned netting hanging down around the trees like shrouds. It was kind of spooky.

Netting over orchards

Once over the Blue Mountains the fog cleared and we made much better time. But the fire devastation was seen everywhere. The Army has been called out to assist in felling trees. With the trees burned so badly, the danger of falling trees, especially along the roads, is very high.

We finally arrived at Margaret’s at 4:45 p.m. Margaret owns 16 acres having a house, guest cottage, the original cottage built on the property decades ago, a large shed and many other out buildings. There are goats and chickens galore. Margaret runs a farmstay guest house in the cottage in addition to driving a school bus and having a cleaning business. She is amazing in all that she does.

We met the goats and chooks. The goats are cared for by Clare and Margaret. Currently, some newly born kids are being bottle fed. As it was getting dusk, the kangaroos started showing up around the fields. Since the ponds are essentially dried up, Margaret has been setting out buckets of water for them and so they come up very close to the house. Of course, we were gaga over seeing kangaroos so close.

First kangaroo sighting

Margaret fixed a wonderful salmon dinner and we sat around the table afterwards with Daniel who showed us his gem collection. He buys gems from e-Bay for a dollar, some of which are probably very valuable. He’s got all sorts and sizes of gems including rubies, sapphires, topaz and emeralds. One day he’ll have his collection appraised. Seems like a good investment to me.

Margaret, Daniel, Clare and Christine

We’re very happy to be at Margaret’s. It will be an interesting few days.

01-14-2020: Yachting

Monday evening Lou received a phone call from his sister Gloria. She and her husband Alex are on holiday for a month on their boat. Gloria invited us to spend the day with them on their boat. This is a great honor and Christine is especially thrilled. Water and boats are always on her bucket list. One of our top ten memorable lifetime events was on New Year’s Eve 1997 when Gloria and Alex had us on their yacht for the Sydney fireworks. We were moored near the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge and were treated to a spectacular fireworks display. Then on New Year’s Day Alex toured us around Sydney Harbour. It was magical!

We arranged to be picked up at the dock in Patonga, about 30 minutes from Lou’s House. We arrived there just as Alex was getting moored out in the bay.

L’Etruscan moored at Patonga

He then motored in on his dinghy to pick us up.

Once in the dinghy, no easy feat with the wind and water bouncing the dinghy around, our next challenge was climbing up to the boat from the dinghy. There is a tiny ladder hanging over the side of the boat so it took some effort to haul oneself up the ladder from the dinghy and on to the deck. But what a thrill to be on the yacht.

She’s a wonderful older yacht with beautiful timber (wood) all throughout. She’s 56 feet in length. The galley has been renovated to provide Gloria and Alex with better cooking/clean facilities and Christine couldn’t get over the fact that there was a freezer on board as well as 2 refrigerators. Below deck is a bit cramped, but it has sleeping space for about 8, a toilet and shower and a bit of lounge space. It is a very traditional, classic sailing vessel. And she’s really beautiful.

Alex motored from Patonga to Refuge Bay. We had been to Refuge Bay on our first Aussie trip back in 1994 on Lou’s boat. It’s a very popular little bay that has a tiny little beach. A really big attraction is a waterfall from the rock cliff there. With the drought, there was only a little trickle of water coming over the cliff edge. We had a very nice swim at the beach.

Beach and location of waterfall at Refuge Bay

Back on the boat Alex fired up the barbie, which hangs off the railing of the deck, and cooked steak and sausages for lunch. Gloria prepared a fantastic lunch for us which we ate below deck at the dining table.

We then motored out of Refuge Bay and headed to Cottage Point. Once there, we stopped at a cafe at the small marina there and had coffee and scones. Each coming and going involved getting into the dinghy down the little ladder, out of the dinghy at the dock, back in the dinghy, and back up the ladder to the boat. We got much better the third time around. The other challenge is for Gloria who is responsible for catching the mooring rope with a boat hook. With the wind and the approach of the yacht, hooking the mooring line is no easy feat, and then pulling the line through the cleat and around the bollard.

From Cottage Point we motored up the Coal and Candle Creek. The Ku-Ringa-Gai Chase National Park was on both sides of the rather narrow creek. We could see remnants of fire damage from years ago, but fortunately, there have been no fires here this year. We turned around at the Akuna Marina and headed back to Refuge Bay.

Back at Refuge Bay we chatted for a long while and then we had dinner, feasting on the leftovers from lunch. It was getting late and Alex wanted to get us back to Patonga before total darkness. As we approached Patonga everyone was a little nervous about depth because the tide was out and Alex didn’t want to get stuck. But all was well and we moored with a couple of meters of depth to spare.

Here is a little map of our adventure today.

We had an absolutely fabulous day. Christine was in 7th heaven, just beaming all day. It was great to spend time with Gloria and Alex. Christine and Gloria have a special bond because Christine remembers Gloria from their youth in Malta. It was so kind of them to offer a day on the yacht. Another lifetime memorable event. Thanks so much Alex and Gloria!

L’Etruscan
Alex and Gloria