01-26/29-2025

On Sunday, Lou’s sister Marianne arrived in her caravan. She has a very nice rig in which she travels around with her dog Bella. Marianne is a golfer and so she travels to golfing outings with her friends. Marianne lost her husband in March, 2024 after several years of Alzheimer’s, and so she is working on establishing her own life now. Marianne is the cousin with whom we’ve spent the least time and it is nice being able to spend a couple of days with her so we can get to know her better. She’s the next to last sibling of 10 and is closest in age to Margaret, the youngest.

Of course, we all wanted to see the inside of her rig and silly me, I forgot to take photos of the inside. But it is a really tidy layout with queen size bed over the cab, a nice size refrigerator, cook top and oven, bathroom and separate shower. It has solar panels on the roof so she can go off grid. It seems very comfortable with all the comforts of home. Marianne says it’s perfect for one and could work well for two.

Sunday evening we went to a Thai restaurant here in Rylstone. For such a tiny town, it has several food choices, Thai, Mexican, Vietnamese and a couple of traditional Aussie/American places. The Thai restaurant was really nice. We sat outside in a covered patio area. The food was good and we had a lovely evening.

Monday morning I walked down to the cafe with Lou. Lou loves starting his day this way. He says it limbers him up. He had a knee replacement a few years ago (at my urging). Unfortunately, there was a delay from the time he had the replacement to when his physiotherapy started and as a result, he did not get the best results from the replacement. He has to work hard to keep his leg moving. The morning walk to the cafe does help.

Here’s a couple of photos near and on the main street in Rylstone, which is not very busy at 7:30 in the morning. Lou situates himself at an outside table near the cafe’s door and he greets everyone who comes in for their coffee.

On the walk home, we pass by a couple of beautiful little cottages that I just love. I’m struck by the smallness of most houses. Traveling around, the houses are typically one story, brick, with a front veranda. They are very charming.

Later I spent some time trying to get more bird photos from his aviary and bird cages.

I think my favorites are the cockatiels. These 4 stick together and they shuffle back and forth across the perch as a unit. And I think they look like they have rouged their cheeks. They are so cute.

We’ve had very hot weather the past couple of days, in the mid-to-upper 90s. Monday afternoon was a great day to go to the public pool in Kandos, a sister town to Rylstone just about 5 miles south. Lou, Marianne, Christine and I enjoyed a wonderful swim. When we arrived, we had the whole pool to ourselves. The Kandos pool is an Olympic-sized pool. It cost $3 for “pensioners” to enter.

Lou made one of his famous baked dinners Monday evening. This involves roast pork and lots of baked veggies. Everything was delicious. Margaret and Clare joined Marianne, Lou, Christine and me for dinner.

After dinner, everyone but Lou played Uno for a while. Christine then got tired and so Margaret, Marianne, Clare and I switched to a game I just learned called Phase 10. The Caruana siblings are quite competitive and there was a lot of trash talk during the game, which had Christine in stitches so she ended up videoing us for a while to document the table talk. It was a very fun evening and we appreciated getting to know Marianne, who has a wonderful sense of humor.

Tuesday morning Marianne packed up her van. She has a place for everything and everything in its place. She was very methodical in how she packed up. We were sad to see her go. She’s going back to the Central Coast to her home for a few days, then off on another caravan trip.

For the rest of the day we all stayed in the house in air conditioning. It was nearly 100 degrees with very high humidity making it very uncomfortable to do anything outdoors.

Wednesday was Mudgee day. Lou went to the insurance agent to inquire about a claim on the damage to his clothesline and bird aviary from the wind storm. The clothesline took a second big hit from wind and got even more mangled. These clotheslines are quite expensive, so even with a $500 deductible, it makes sense for him to file a claim. The company will send an adjuster out to view the damage. Hopefully, he’ll get some replacement money.

We met Lou’s friend Angela (the sacristan) and her husband Raymond for coffee. Angela is such a pip! She is very opinionated, and very funny. I’ll have to get a photo of her as a reminder.

With shopping done, it was back home for the rest of the day. I cooked dinner, my “shrimp goop” dinner. I think Lou liked it. And then we settled in to watch an episode of Married at First Sight. The Aussie version started a new season on Monday. I got hooked on this stupid show the last time we were here. It’s totally ridiculous, and I’m really hooked.

01-25-2025: Family Gathering

On Saturday we are planning another long drive to the Glenbawn Dam where several of the Caruana clan are camping and caravanning. The plan was to leave at 9:30am and to arrive at the Glenbawn Dam for lunch. Friday night, though, Margaret received an unexpected booking in her Cubby House Farmstay unit, so Saturday morning she had to quickly get everything ready. She likes to present a nice tidy environment, which means she wanted to do some mowing around the property. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get her riding mower working. When she then tried her weed whacker, it fell apart. Then she couldn’t get her push mower started. So, she called Lou for help and we attached his trailer to his car, loaded up his riding mower into the trailer, and off he went to Margaret’s to help out. They worked on the lawn for quite a while. Lou eventually came back to his house about 11:30. Christine and I were concerned about leaving so late and having a long drive to get to the dam. We actually felt like it wasn’t worth the long day for a very short visit, but Margaret was determined to get us there. At 12:34 we were all in the car and off we went.

Up the Bylong Valley Way we went, which is now becoming very familiar to us. We stopped in the little town of Sandy Hollow to eat the sandwiches we packed, knowing that we weren’t going to be eating lunch with the family, and then on our way we continued.

I have been raving about the beautiful countryside. That all changed near Muswellbrook. This is a mining and quarry area and I couldn’t believe my eyes seeing miles of pit mines and quarries. I couldn’t get any good pictures because of the berms around the quarries, but the landscape was lunar-like.

I borrowed this image from the internet showing what a coal pit mine looks like. What an ugly thing it is to see.

It was quite shocking to see all this.

We arrived at the Glenbawn Dam at about 3:30pm. We found the caravan park where the family was camping. It took a little figuring out how to get into the park. We had to enter a gate and drive about 5 kms to where we had to buy a day pass. Then we retraced our route back to the area where everyone was camping.

The Glenbawn Dam was completed in 1957 and is a major embankment dam across the Hunter River. The lake formed by the dam is about 280 feet deep and impounds 750,000 megaliters of water, which is about 1-1/2 times larger than Sydney Harbor. The dam is a popular location for boating and water skiing and fishing, both by boat and from shore, and clearly is a favorite spot for caravans as we saw loads of campers all along the shore.

Lou’s brother Len and his wife Sandy were there in their caravan. Their daughter Jodie and her family were nearby in their caravan. Lou’s sister Marianne was in her caravan. Lou’s sister-in-law Marilyn, who is Lou’s brother Michael’s widow ( Michael is who Christine calls her twin cousin because they were born 9 days apart in Malta) and her daughter Sandy Lee were in their caravan, and Marilyn’s son Luke and his family were also there in their caravan. So it was a big Caruana clan gather. Even though we arrived late in the afternoon, we are so glad that Margaret stuck to her guns and got us there.

We sat around initially catching up with Marianne, Len and Sandy. Marilyn was out on the water on a jet ski.

Everyone then got into their swimmers (except me) and went into the water.

Getting into the water was a bit tricky because the bottom near the shoreline is mud, as you will note the brown water in the photos. Once past the mud, the water is clear and beautiful. Christine enjoyed her swim. She was hanging onto a floating mat for a while chatting with several of the family.

After the swim, we sat around and had drinks and snacks.

Margaret wanted to leave at 5:30pm for the long drive home, but naturally, that didn’t happen. We managed to get ourselves together for departure at 6:30. Before leaving, we took a group photo. Clare is our selfie master. She always does a great job getting everyone and herself in the photo.

In this photo are Len, Margaret, Sandy Lee, Lou, Kate (Luke’s wife), me, Charlotte and Jessica (two of Luke’s kids), Marilyn, Luke, Christine, Sandy, Marianne, Bella (Marianne’s dog), and Clare. It was a long way to come for a short afternoon, but we had a great time catching up with everyone. We’re so glad we did it.

Once again, driver Margaret, outdid herself after her hectic morning. I think she’s been on the road nearly every day for two weeks, traveling thousands of kilometers, all for our benefit. What a gift she has given us in chauffeuring us around.

We made a rest stop in the tiny town of Bylong, which we have done on previous trips through the Bylong Valley. It’s always good to get out and stretch our legs. Margaret is really good at stopping about every 2 hours for a break. We were treated to a lovely sunset during this rest stop.

We got back to Lou’s about 9:30. A quick visit with some of the clan, but well worth it. It was great seeing everyone.

01-24-2025: Hunter Valley Gardens

The last time we visited, Lou had talked about taking us to the Hunter Valley Gardens, but we never managed to find time to make the trip. But now, we are going to Hunter Valley Gardens today. Margaret, now having driven us several thousand kilometers already, is retracing the first part of the route we took to Tony and Liz’s up the Bylong Valley Way.

We are getting familiar with this route and we love seeing the changing landscape. After the first descent from the mountains, you enter the Bylong Valley, a very beautiful, lush valley of green pasture land. Cattle and sheep are the main agricultural products from this area.

Eventually, we got to the Hunter Valley region, which is one of Australia’s best known wine regions. As we were nearing the Hunter Valley Gardens, we drove past several very large vineyards and wineries. I recognized a couple of the winery names, having consumed some Australian wines in the past.

We arrived at the garden’s village and looked around for a place to have lunch. We sat out on a veranda under cover of an umbrella and had a nice lunch before taking in the gardens. My smashed avocado toast looked like a garden.

Hunter Valley Gardens opened in 2003 and spans fourteen hectares of land, containing ten differently themed gardens, and at Christmas time has the largest display of decorations in the world. It was very strange to be in 85 degree heat, strolling around a lovely garden that had the most Christmas decorations I have every seen. The Christmas display comes down on January 26, so it was in its final days. We did not spend the money for the nighttime garden entry to see the decorative lights because we would have had to stay the night someplace, but it must be one heck of a sensory overload because all the various gardens were totally decked out in decorative fixtures and lights.

Here are a number of photos from the oriental garden, my favorite section.

Here are some photos of some of the Christmas displays.

There was a storybook section for kids showing many themes from various stories. That was fun to wander through.

There was a wonderful rose garden. It smelled heavenly! It had over a hundred varieties of roses, all very nicely labeled showing the name and the country of origin.

We were very fortunate with the weather. It was a fair day, not too hot, with cloud cover eliminating the hot sun most of the afternoon so it was comfortable walking around the gardens. The gardens started shooing visitors out at 4:3pm in preparation for those holding tickets to the nighttime Christmas display. We had walked several kilometers, so we were ready to call it a day at the garden.

Here are a few more photos.

Not too far from the gardens, Margaret pulled into a winery which we had noted earlier.

Christine actually has a bottle of Tyrrell’s wine sitting in her office at home. Someone had given it to her to save for a special celebration related to her business, but we’ve never opened it. This vineyard and winery is in a really beautiful setting.

After that stop, we headed back to Rylstone. Again, it was a beautiful drive in the dusk. The sun was reflecting off some of the sandstone cliffs and everything looked golden.

What a great day we had visiting the Hunter Valley Gardens and driving through the Hunter Valley winery area.

01-23-2025: Bathurst

Margaret is a professional driver, drives a school bus, and has to have periodic medical checkups. Today, she had an ophthalmology appointment in Bathurst for a vision exam for her license. Bathurst is about a 90-minute drive from Rylstone and is a city of nearly 50,000. One of the things we thought we would do is visit the Bathurst Rail Museum after her eye exam.

Bathurst was one of the original developments after the Great Divide was traversed in 1813, so it is one of the oldest cities in New South Wales, having been founded in 1815. It has a big heritage section with walks around the city. The area around Bathurst was populated during the Australian gold rush which started in 1851. During our last visit, we had visited Sofala, a very old gold mining town, and Hill End, where we went to a museum all about the gold rush days. Daniel also took us panning for gold. We stopped in Sofala on the way home, so I’ll talk more about that later in this post.

While Margaret was at her appointment, the rest of us went to Machattie Park, a very lovely spot. Machattie Park, built in 1890, is an historically significant example of a late 19th century Victorian country town park. It exhibits the principal elements typical of the Victorian period in terms of the form and layout and is particularly valuable because of the quality of the decorative features. It has a great many old trees lining the walkways. There is also a conservatory housing various tropical plants and a begonia house, which unfortunately was closed.

I took this photo because I thought this tree trunk looked like an elephant’s leg.

Clare noticed something that really got our attention. A few things were flying into the tops of some trees. On closer inspection, she discovered a whole bunch of grey-headed flying foxes hanging upside down from the branches. Flying foxes are very large bats! They are very important pollinators in the region and are generally nocturnal, so for Clare to have noticed a couple of them flying was lucky. If you look very closely in these photos, you’ll notice black blobs on the branches. These are the flying foxes.

One of the gardeners walked by and I thanked him for his work in keeping the park so beautiful. He stopped and talked with us for a while. He was quite familiar with New York in that as a horticulturalist, we had studied material from Cornell. He was quite knowledgeable and was also well versed on the current weather conditions in New York, so we talked cold and snow.

For lunch we went to a small restaurant called Rockabilly Cafe. It was all decked out in Elvis memorabilia. It had red booths and chrome-based tables. It’s so surprising to me how much American culture is saturated into things here.

Here’s some photos of Bathurst.

We found out that the Rail Museum is closed on Thursdays, so we drove around some of the residential areas. Clare went to a place where she could buy leather which she needs for a costume she is making. She was thrilled to be able to buy large hide skins and also lots of small leftover pieces.

Margaret drove out to a Scottish baronial manor house called Abercrombie House. Unfortunately, it was already closed, so we couldn’t go in. There were several historical signs, though, that we could read about the history of this magnificent home. This place is currently a family residence of the Morgans. I can’t imagine how much money they have spent renovating and restoring the building. It was quite rundown when they purchased it in 1969. I see from their website that you can get high tea there on Sundays which I imagine is an experience.

We headed back to Rylstone. We did make a stop at Sofala to use the facilities. One of the thing that really impresses me is that all towns seem to have public toilets. There are not many superhighways in Australia so most traveling is done on secondary roads passing through towns and villages. We never lacked for a toilet in all our travels, even in the middle of nowhere.

Sofala is considered Australia’s oldest surviving gold mining town. It’s a tiny little town, population of less than 200, and when we drove down one of the few streets, all the locals were sitting outside the pub enjoying a drink. They gave us a look as we drove by. I can’t imagine what it’s like to live in a little historic town with tourists stopping all the time.

We drove up to the Western Goldfields Museum, which we thought was closed since it was 6:00pm. Margaret went up to the house where the museum is housed and found the curator lying down on the lounge in his home. Margaret asked if the museum was open and the fellow jumped up and said he’s always open. The curator’s name is R.A. Wigglesworth, and what a character he is. He has amassed a private collection of the most interesting stuff. Of course, there was some gold to be seen, which was locked up in a two huge safes.

I was so fascinated by the exhibits of old medical equipment. I asked Mr. Wigglesworth why he had collected these medical instruments and he said as an engineer and is interested in how tools were made and what they were used for.

He also had the most amazing collection of locks and handcuffs. I asked why he was collecting these, he said he was a locksmith by trade and so anything to do with locks fascinated him.

He had all sorts of stuff in this relatively small room and it was fun perusing his collections. He rattled off all kinds of information about his collections with absolute zeal.

We were struck by the fact that Mr. Wigglesworth had received a reply from King Charles and Queen Camilla after he wrote a one sentence congratulations note on their coronation, which was proudly exhibited.

Mr. Wigglesworth walked us around his property where he had constructed some pools. He has already created a plaque that is on a large boulder where he wishes to be buried. In reading the plaque, you can see that he is quite the character.

So our visit to the Western Goldfields Museum was a lot of fun. We were all glad to have visited and to have met Mr. Wigglesworth.

It was a nice day touring Bathurst and Sofala. And the drive was lovely and scenic.

01-21/22-2025: Goats and Mudgee

When we were at Tony and Liz’s, Lou had received a call from Daniel (Margaret’s son). Daniel was looking after Lou’s birds and Banjo while we were gone. Apparently, a huge storm with high winds blew through the Rylstone area. Daniel reported that the outside aviary had been damaged and there was a section that was open. Of course, that spells disaster because the birds could fly out and away. There are about 25 birds in that aviary and it would be horrible to lose any. Daniel did a bit of a repair to block the biggest hole. We were all worried that some of the birds might have already escaped. Lou wouldn’t know until we got home on Monday. A friend of Lou’s, Angela (the sacristan) sent him a couple of photos, which kind of made us all worry more.

Fortunately, we don’t think Lou lost any birds. The open area was at the bottom of the aviary and the birds don’t generally go to the bottom of the cage. Lou was able to fix most of the damage. The yard clothes line need pushing around, but we got it so that it can be used.

On Tuesday, Lou and Margaret had physiotherapy appointments in Lithgow. We decided to stay home. There was one problem, though. The electric company notified everyone on Lou’s street that the power would be off from 8:00am to 5:00pm while they installed a new transformer down the road. Margaret didn’t get that message, so Lou asked her if we could hang out at her place while they went to Lithgow. We packed up our computers and other devices and Lou drove us over to Margaret’s.

It’s fun being at Margaret’s because there are a lot of goats there. Five years ago when we visited, a goat had twins during our stay and Clare named them Christine and Linda. They are now great grandmothers themselves and have birthed many kids. I thought I recognized them out in the paddock.

I asked Clare later if the above were Christine and Linda. Clare names all her goats and knows each one very well. She said Christine was in the rear. The one in the center is Neo. She was just a kid when we were here in 2020 and Neo ran around with Clare just like a little puppy dog. I’m going to try and get a photo of Christine and Linda while we’re here, which I’ll post along with a photo of them as newborns.

In the last week, 2 goats have given birth, one having triplets. They grow so quickly and within a couple of days they are bouncing all over the place. They are so adorable.

Much of the mid-day we watched tennis. Christine won’t be happy to have this photo posted, but I couldn’t resist showing how she relaxes.

And by now, you know what we do on Wednesday. Lou and I went to Mudgee with Margaret and her rider, Regina. Everyone saves up all their errands from the week to do in Mudgee. We sort of scatter and meet back up at the allotted pick up time. Lou and I sat at an outdoor cafe having a cappuccino watching everyone go by for a while. I love the main streets with second floor verandas covering the sidewalk so you can stay out of the hot sun.

One of the things I love to see is the wonderful wrought iron railings and adornments on the houses. It’s really beautiful with ornate scroll work, patterns and designs. It’s everywhere, especially on the heritage buildings around town.

Here’s the Mudgee clock tower and St. Mary’s Catholic Church.

With our shopping done, we headed home. Tonight was my night to cook dinner and so I made what I call Asian pork and beans. It’s pork tenderloin cut into strips, green beans, and a sauce made of apricot jam, tamari and sesame oil served over rice. I think Lou liked it because he had a second helping.

Naturally, we ended the day watching the night matches at the Australian Open.

I leave you with one photo of the countryside, which I just adore seeing. It is so beautiful with the craggy sandstone cliffs, the rolling hills, and the pasture land. The sky is wonderful in this shot.

01-20-2025: Back to Rylstone

All too soon it was time to head back to Lou’s. We had breakfast, packed up, had lots of hugs with Tony and Liz, and said farewell. Always sad to leave Krishanda. The only good part was the weather. It was fair and sunny, much better for driving.

We headed back down the Banana Coast and encountered a bit of traffic through Coff’s Harbor. Coff’s is growing rapidly and is a holiday location, so there is a lot of traffic. A bypass around Coff’s is underway, but that will take years to complete. It is a beautiful area with a nice climate.

Clare and Margaret wanted to make a stop at the Slim Dusty museum in Kempsey, which was on the way home. Slim Dusty was a very famous and popular country music singer in Australia. He had a career of over 60 years, made over 100 albums and won loads of awards. He sang about bush life and his lyrics are really great. He married another country singer, who performed with him and managed his career. I liked hearing his music and found it nice to listen to.

There was also a small gallery in the center, Nulla Nulla, and the exhibit was photos of Aboriginal men who had been taken (stolen) by the government as children and placed in schools. It is heartbreaking to me to see and read about this abuse of children, the same as was done to American Indians in the U.S. and the indigenous people in Canada, the sole purpose being to eradicate the culture and identify of these indigenous people.

Another stop we made was in Port Macquarie, another growing city on the coast. The area is known for its beaches, its nature reserves, and its penal colony history. After having lunch, we found the town beach, a very beautiful area. We watched surfers for a while and then walked along one of the breakwaters, which was really an art gallery. All of the huge stones used in the construction of the breakwater have been painted by people, families on holiday, memorials, cute sayings, great designs and all kinds of artwork.

The town beach is just one of many, many beautiful beaches in the area. I wanted so much to get in the surf and play in the waves.

After a long afternoon on the road, we stopped in a little town, Denman, for dinner. After driving around the few streets in the town, we finally came across the Denman Hotel. It had a restaurant sign. Lou asked if they were still serving and with an affirmative answer we sat down in the dining room of the hotel. To our surprise, the menu was quite inviting. Clare, Margaret and Christine had the fish of the day, which was Atlantic Salmon, and it was very good. Lou had a nice steak and I had Spring Rolls. So with full stomachs, back in the car we went for the 90 minute drive to Rylstone.

By now, it was dark and part of the drive was up and down the craggy sandstone cliffs with hairpin turns. Margaret did a super job including avoiding a couple of kangaroos, one that was just sitting in the middle of the road as we approached.

It was nearly 10:30pm by the time we got home. We were all exhausted. But it was a great weekend at Krishanda and the long drive for me is fascinating. My head swivels from side to side not wanting to miss any of the wonderful scenery.

01-18/19-2025: Krishanda Park

The name Tony and Liz have given to their property is Krishanda Park, from the names of their 3 children Kristen, Shane, and Linda. Each time we visit, we absolutely marvel at the beauty of the place and we call it a resort.

They own about 100 acres. They built their house from a shed and have spent decades working to beautify the place with plants and trees they they have cultivated and grown in their greenhouse. The many variety of palms around the house and pool really give it that resort look and feel. The other wonderful area is a huge gazebo they built on top of their huge water tank, which is an outdoor kitchen complete with grill, dishwasher and all the accoutrements necessary to layout table settings and feed lots of people. In the center of the gazebo is a huge table with a very large lazy Susan in the center. Here’s a bunch of photos of their beautiful property.

During our visit in 2023, we met Jack, a young wallaby that Kristen had rescued after the mother abandoned the little joey. She raised it for a while, and then brought it out to her parents. Liz has continued to bottle feed Jack, even though he’s now 5 and should be off the bottle. He comes nearly every day. Liz feeds him a bottle of milk and a carrot. If the screen door is open, Jack comes right into the house and eats the dogs’ food. I was sitting in their lounge watching tennis and Jack hopped in and startled me. What a surprise to see a wallaby in the lounge.

Tony and Liz have 19 head of cattle and two have given birth over the past week. The calves are really cute. The newest one is still unsteady on her feet, but the older one frolics across the paddock and kicks up her heels. Very cute!

Although there were some periods of sunshine, most of the time it was pouring rain. Both nights, the rain was so hard that it woke everyone up beating against the metal roof. Nobody went into the pool during our stay.

During our visit in 2020, there had been the terrible bushfires all over the eastern side of the continent. Tony was successful in preventing his house from burning and he was able, along with the help of his grandson, a firefighter in Tasmania, to keep the fire damage at a minimum around his property. Good management practices of keeping brush clear and bushwhacking throughout the woodlots saved the day, that and having several dams (ponds) around the property so that he had a ready source of water to fight the fires. If you look back at some of my Australia posts from January/February 2020, you’ll see photos of the devastation of bushfires and some from Tony’s property. I’m happy to say that during a tour around the property with Tony, everything looked lush and green. Although there are many burned out trees still evident, it is amazing how the forest takes care of itself.

I saw this lizard while driving around the property with Tony. It was a big one!

We got a scare when Tony reported finding a dead wallaby on the property. It possibly had been hit by a car and dragged along for a while. It was then attacked by wild dogs that ate the head. Liz would be able to identify Jack from a torn ear he has, but that identification wasn’t possible due to the missing head. We were worried that the dead wallaby might be Jack. We all waited anxiously for Jack to appear and the next day he did. We were all relieved. Kangaroo and wallaby strikes by cars are a very common problem, just like hitting deer in New York. They do tremendous damage to a vehicle because these animals are very solid. But for now, Jack comes for a bottle, which Liz gladly supplies whenever he hops into her kitchen.

Saturday evening we drove into Coff’s Harbor for dinner at a place called the Jetty Beach House. Tony and Liz’s two girls, Linda’s husband and one of her sons with his girlfriend, met us for dinner. It was a nice evening.

On the coast there were gale force winds. The surf was pounding. It was quite dramatic watching the weather from the Jetty Beach House.

Saturday evening we watched tennis, of course. Liz is a fan and she keeps up a running commentary. Margaret and Clare played cards. Tony and Lou caught up on the news with each other.

Sunday started off rainy, but in the early afternoon the rain cleared and the sun came out. Linda came out for lunch. She had recently been to Malta and other places in Europe and was a riot telling stories about their travels. She is so funny, and she’s gotten the gift of gab from her mother.

Christine and I went for a walk down the driveway. We just love being at Krishanda. We passed by Bert and Ernie, Tony’s huge moving solar panels that track the sun’s movement.

Lou, Margaret and Clare drove into Coff’s Harbor late Sunday afternoon. They intended to walk along the jetty at the harbor, but a big storm blew up with strong winds and rain. They went to the Big Banana, a popular tourist destination. This area is called the banana coast as there are lots of banana plantations up and down the hills just inland from the coast.

We had dinner, enjoyed each other’s company, watched tennis, and turned in. Tomorrow we head back to Rylstone.

01-15/16/17-2025: Down Days and a Long Drive

You’ve probably been wondering what’s been going on here Down Under since I haven’t posted in many days. Well, I’ll start catching up.

Wednesday is go to Mudgee day for shopping. Margaret picked us up and off we went. It’s a lovely drive and I thoroughly enjoy the scenery. It was a very hot day and we were all red-faced moving around the town. Lou and I met with the architect about the church ramp. Lou showed her the photos of the modular aluminum ramps I had found along with the photos I took of the church entrance. After considerable discussion, Barbara, the architect, agreed that it might be possible to use this kind of ramp. The big question is the total rise and would we have sufficient length on the walkway for the ramp. We had forgotten that total rise includes both the rise of the steps, but also the added rise from the walkway that does have a bit of a slope down toward the street. At any rate, with Barbara’s agreement, I think we have a more cost effective solution and Lou will contact the company that makes the ramps and start the process.

Mudgee is a nice little town with many heritage buildings. Here’s a picture of the town hall. Funny to see the Christmas decorations still up, especially when it is so hot.

One of the shopping stops for me was back to the pharmacy to get cold medicine. I can’t seem to shake this cold. After conferring with the pharmacist, I bought more AM/PM cold tablets and a different kind of cough syrup. I’ve been buying Robitussin, but the pharmacist convinced me otherwise and said I need to take 20ml of it with 20ml of hot water. And I will tell you it tastes absolutely terrible! But hopefully, it will do the trick.

We had to wait quite a while after shopping as Margaret was getting her car serviced. She had to wait a long time for the ride to come and then wait for her to pick up her car and come and get us. We were sweltering. But eventually, we were in an air conditioned car headed back to Rylstone.

Wednesday evening we went to the Rylstone Club for dinner. Originally, the club was for returning soldiers after WWII, sort of like our VFWs, but anyone can join. The club in Rylstone has a bowls green and a golf course, which Lou’s sister Marianne calls “rough,” meaning difficult to play with gritty greens (not green at all) and difficult turf to play in. The golf course is what we walk by on our walk to the cafe each morning. Someday, I want to watch a bowls session at the club, which is like bocci. While we were at the club, big storms swirled around with tremendous lightening and thunder, and finally heavy rain. We had to make a dash to the car.

Thursday, Margaret and Lou had appointments and so they took off early to Castle Hill, Windsor and Richmond. It’s a long drive and I wasn’t up for going. I laid on the couch watching tennis most of the day and napped all afternoon. This darn cold is wearing me out.

Friday, we packed up for a weekend away at Lou’s brother Tony and his wife Liz at their beautiful home in Nana Glen, also hometown of the actor Russell Crowe. It’s a very long drive, about 8 hours, and the weather forecast for the drive and the entire weekend was pretty dismal. The coast from Sydney northward has been battered by high winds and rain for days. There’s been significant flooding and damage from the wind. But we set off anyway and had fair weather for the first couple of hours.

I love driving through the countryside. It’s amazing to go from farmland, to sandstone cliffs, to rolling hills.

The driving is quite challenging through the mountains, which are the western edge of the Dividing Range, lots of hairpin turns both up and down. We eventually got to the major highway, the Pacific Coast Highway, and finally the rains came. Margaret is an excellent driver and she steered us through lots, and lots, of rain.

We left the Pacific Highway at Coff’s Harbor and made our way to Nana Glen and arrived at Tony and Liz’s at about 7:00pm. We were all happy to finally get there.

More about Tony and Liz’s lovely property in the next post.

01-14-2025: Ferntree Gully

It’s Tuesday and I can’t believe we’ve already been here a week. Time flies! Lou and I walked to the cafe this morning. The cockatoos were making a racket around the golf course. They don’t stay in one place for very long, but I managed to get a picture of a few sitting in the top of a pine tree.

Another bird that fascinates me, because of its throaty, sort of trill-like call, is the pied currawong. It’s native to Australia and is like a large crow with a few white patches. It has such a distinctive sound and I always pause to listen to it. Pull up a YouTube video of the pied currawong and take a listen.

Lou and I then drove to Kandos to pick up sound equipment from the church there. The Catholic churches in Kandos and Rylstone share a priest and equipment. The Sunday service is in Kandos the first and second Sundays of the month and in Rylstone the third and fourth Sundays. Lou’s friend Angela is the sacristan at both churches and between the two of them, I think they do all that needs to be done taking care of things.

The weather has been difficult to judge because the forecast has been for storms and rain, but so far, in Rylstone, we have watched storm clouds swirl past us without getting any rain. The iffy forecast has kept us from doing much, fearing we’d get soaked, but this afternoon we decided to chance it and go for an adventure to Ferntree Gully.

In past visits, I had seen signs for Ferntree Gully and had read a little about it. It’s a nature reserve just 16 kms from Rylstone. This was on my list of things to do this visit. So with Margaret and Clare, off we went.

The reserve protects an area of unique rainforest and western plant communities. The gully is a ravine that was formed through the rocks by rushing water. The track takes you down to the floor of the ravine. It turned out to be a bit more than we bargained for. You might not be able to see it, but in the lower left of the trail map it says, “some sections of the walk involve a fair degree of difficulty . . .” They weren’t kidding!

We did the gully walk and came back on the overlook loop. It was a beautiful area, but if the steps down didn’t wear you out, the scrambling over rocks and boulders on the way down to the gully floor did.

It was very cooling heading down into the gully. As we got lower into the ravine, the rock walls began to close in and the temperature dropped considerably, a good thing because it was hot and sunny when we started. It was quite a steep descent down into the ravine.

As we neared the bottom of the gully it was remarkable to see the patterns made by rushing water over the centuries. The sandstone was scooped out and rubbed smooth by water.

It was pretty narrow moving through the ravine. It was interesting to see tree roots clinging to the sandstone from trees standing at the top of the ravine walls. Once we were on the floor of the gully, the track was much easier to walk. Christine, with her non-flexible ankles, really had a difficult time picking her way through the rocks and boulders. Clare was so helpful in offering guidance on foot placement and extending a supportive hand during the descent.

On the floor of the gully is a boardwalk through protected rainforest vegetation. At the end of the boardwalk was a bench and we rested for a bit. During that time, Louis felt his shirt pocket for his prescription glasses, which he had taken off at the start of the hike, and they weren’t there. Somewhere along the way they apparently had fallen out of his pocket. Bummer! We talked about splitting up and having a couple of us retrace our steps back up the descent looking for the glasses and the others continuing on up the overlook track. We decided against that and continued on.

Of course, when you are at the bottom of a deep ravine, the only way back out is up. And so we started our climb up out of the ravine. First there were about a hundred steps. And then the boulders and rocks lodged into the gully from rushing water needed to be traversed. It was difficult for everyone, but especially for Christine. Having to step up and heave one’s body over and across large rocks was not easy.

While sitting in the rocky depression in the photo above, Christine’s cellphone slid out of her pocket, unbeknownst to anyone, and fell into a crevice. As I was helping her get up and pushing her over those rocks, a bluish color caught my eye and I reached down into a crevice to see what it was. It was Christine’s cellphone! I had no idea, nor did she, that the phone had fallen out of her pocket. Boy, were we lucky to have retrieved it. Margaret said it would have been a really expensive hike between Lou’s glasses and Christine’s cellphone, had we not retrieved the cellphone.

The hike back up took its toll on everyone. Lou, with his knee replacement, and Christine, with her inflexibility and fear of heights and trails on rocky edges, took the brunt of the strain. Lou said he was really pleased with himself that he did as well as he did. Christine had some dizzy spells, I think from heat exhaustion, and so for the last half kilometer we had to support Christine to keep her upright. At one point, she said, “I’m never going on another hike!”

We reached one of the overlooks and it was quite a site to see how far down we had hiked.

Once back at the car park, Lou, Christine and I waited while Clare and Margaret set off down the track we had hiked down. They wanted to look for Lou’s glasses. While we were waiting for them, we tried to cool off. I put a wet handkerchief around Christine’s neck and I poured a bottle of tank water over Lou’s head, which he greatly appreciated.

After about 30 minutes, Margaret and Clare were heard coming back up the track. Clare was about 30 feet from us and we were looking at her for some sign about the glasses. I thought she was going to shake her head, but then she leaned down and picked something off the ground. Lou’s glasses! They were right at the start of the hiking track and only 30 feet away from where we were sitting. None of us could believe it. We had all walked right past them lying there on the ground coming back to the car park. It was downright miraculous that Clare saw them.

So our adventure at Ferntree Gully came to and end. It really was a wonderful hike with many interesting and beautiful things to see. It was just a little challenging for Christine, but she made it in spite of the rough terrain and I was proud of her for hanging in there.

Back at Lou’s, showers were in order as we were hot and sweaty. Refreshed from our showers, we went to Margaret’s for dinner. She roasted a chicken and had lots of veggies. It was a delicious meal, and Daniel joined us. It was the first time we’ve seen Daniel since we’ve been here. He’s doing well and is working at Woolies managing online ordering and delivery. Clare brought out the cards after dinner, but we were too tired from our hike to play so we begged off.

Back at Lou’s we all were in bed fairly quickly. It was quite a hike today. I imagine we’ll be a little sore tomorrow from all the scrambling over boulders we did.

01-11/13-2025: Low Key Days

Saturday and Sunday were spent relaxing. My cold doesn’t seem to be getting better, so I haven’t been too chipper. So hanging out at Lou’s was just the right activity, although we did work on plans for a wheelchair ramp at his Rylstone church, St. Malachy’s. The sacristan, Angela, has a friend who professionally does planning and designing for building accessibility. She, Angela and Lou met and she sketched out some initial thoughts. Later, Angela, Lou and I went to the church to take some measurements based on the sketch. I thought the design was more than what was necessary and we debated pros and cons.

I wandered around Lou’s property enjoying the warm weather. Lou is really happy here and it makes us happy, too.

We watched some of the early round tennis matches of the Australian Open. We get a kick out of watching the AO in Australia.

Sunday we stayed home while Lou went to church and then a birthday party for his neighbor. Margaret and Clare came for dinner. Lou roasted a leg of lamb and it was really good. After dinner we played Uno, always a fun game. Christine was really tired and was having a hard time staying awake. We called it a night and went to bed.

Monday was another day of just hanging out. Lou and I walked to the cafe in the morning. It’s a really nice way to start the day. Of course, I don’t really need a cappuccino (full cream) every day, but hey, why not??!! Since we walk nearly 2 miles round trip, I can rationalize that it’s okay.

In the late morning, Lou said let’s go to the dam for a coffee. Christine didn’t want to go, so Lou and I set off. The countryside is so beautiful with rolling hills and the craggy mountains off in the distance. The dam is the Windemere and it is a very big dam that forms the Windemere Lake, which is a reservoir. It was nice to see on the welcome sign to the park that the reservoir is 90% full. The LA fires have been getting a lot of TV coverage here in Australia. We’re horrified to see the devastation and makes one sensitive to how full reservoirs are.

In Aussie speak, a dam is a body of water. Margaret calls her small ponds on her property dams, which really confused me initially. Lou pulled in to the Cudgegong Waters Park, which is a caravan park. It has a lovely little cafe overlooking the lake (or dam). I couldn’t rationalize the second cappuccino of the morning, nor the huge slice of carrot cake, but it was delicious.

On the drive home, I asked Lou to stop so I could take a photo of the landscape. It is so beautiful.

Once home, I did a little research on wheelchair ramps and found a company that makes modular aluminum ramps. I did some screenshots of various ramps in different settings and put together some information for Lou to show Angela. I think a straight on modular ramp right up the 3 steps into the church is better than what the designer suggested, and certainly more cost effective. We’ll see what happens.

Lou and Christine went to the beautiful outdoor pool in Kandos. It’s an Olympic-size pool. Christine did her laps while Louis paddled around. I’m glad Christine got a swim in. There were very few people using the pool in the late afternoon, so I think that should be a good time for a regular swim for Christine

We watched more tennis after dinner and then off to bed. I hope this darn cold finally gives up and goes away.