Lou has lots of birds and so he spends a lot of time preparing food and feeding his birds. They are beautiful birds and I enjoy watching them, although many of them don’t take kindly to me standing up close to their cages. Over the next few weeks you may see many bird photos. Some of their colors are fantastic.
Wednesday is go to Mudgee day. Rylstone is a small town of about 1,000 people. The closest larger city is Mudgee, a town of about 11,500 people. This area is in the Mid-Western Regional Council, which I think corresponds to our county governmental areas. Mudgee is the largest town in the Regional Council. It’s about 35 miles from Rylstone and is a 45 minute drive.
Margaret drives some ladies to Mudgee for their shopping on Wednesdays. Lou and I went along to do our grocery shopping. Mudgee has 3 grocery chains so you can get whatever you need. Woolworth’s, referred to as Woolies, is the largest, I think. Margaret’s son Daniel works at Woolies, which means the family gets an employee discount. You save up shopping, errands, medical appointments and whatever, to do during your weekly trip and so we all scattered to do whatever needed to be done.
When we got back to Lou’s, I was totally wiped out. I’m getting quite a bad cold and with the jet lag, I was feeling pretty lousy. I fell into bed and slept like a log for 3 hours. With my head congestion, I guess I was snoring loudly because Christine said she heard me all the way down the hall into the main room of the house. When I got up, I did take a COVID test, just in case. But with all the sneezing and coughing that was happening during our flight, I’m not surprised I contracted something. Christine came with a bad cough, but fortunately, she seems better. Hopefully, this cold won’t last long.
On Thursday, we took the traditional morning walk to the local cafe for a cappuccino. Lou and Banjo (his lovely dog) do this every morning. It’s nearly 2 miles round trip, a nice morning walk. This morning we met 2 of Lou’s friends, Arthur and Gary. Gary and I engaged in quite a conversation about world affairs, including “justified” war. It was a very deep discussion, but after about 30 minutes, I kept giving Lou the eye with a slight head bob, indicating I was ready to leave. I imagine Gary would have carried on for possibly hours. He definitely knew his history.
We walked back to Lou’s via a route along the Cudgegong River and across the golf course. The screeching cockatoos were flying around making a lot of racket. They are beautiful birds, but really noisy.
I helped Lou pickup some Christmas tree forms from the church and then helped unloaded the trailer he, Margaret and Clare loaded up last night with the nativity display.
Back at the house, we helped Lou begin dismantling his Christmas decorations. Lou has a huge 3-bay shed back behind his house and all the church decorations and his own decorations get stored in the shed. Lou has a lot of Christmas decorations! He loves decorating his house. You can see some of the decorations below.
We’ll try to finish up the dismantling, packing and storing of his decorations tomorrow.
Lou took us to the bistro at the Globe Hotel for dinner. Surprisingly, this little town of Rylstone has two hotels. The Globe has been here and operating since 1855. When we got back home, I was knackered and headed to bed immediately. My cold is bad and I’m feeling unwell. Lou gave me whatever cold medicine he had, which is helping some. Christine’s cough is getting better each day, so that’s good. I hope I don’t reinfect her with my germs. Maybe I’ll feel better tomorrow.