Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 16 April 2017

LINDY   He is fine thank you. We are heeding the vets advice which is no walks for a few days.  He certainly didn't act as if he was frightened as his tail continued to wag. Think he knew he would be looked after.

Hello. Both of us hope that Benson will make a full  recovery. Good luck with replacement phone, Linda. Have heard from J since his test at Christie's this morning; it was an induced 'hyper' this time, instead of the induced 'hypo' they have used before. Apparently they think he may be producing too much growth hormone whereas he used to have too little!

EE   thank you both. You really wouldn't know there had been anything wrong with Benson. Hope things get sorted out with J one way or another.

We went to Vue this afternoon to see "Their finest" We didn't stay long as the sound was painfully loud.

Hello all

I am up to date with all your doings and thank you for all the posts. I'm not feeling very chatty and know you will understand. It happens from time to time... Hope to stop lurking soon. I'll have more to talk about, surely, when in Denmark:-)

Heather - We understand. {{HUGS}}

Dibnlib-  Am going to see that film next week. I know what you mean about the sound levels, there have often been times when I've been tempted to walk out of cinemas as it causes me some discomfort and of course, it's distracting.

Eagle-Eye -  Nice to hear an update from you. I hope that OG has continued to improve. Hope, too, that J will not continue to grow too fast! Has he read Alice Through the Looking Glass!!

Here are some of the snaps I took when visiting our family just before Easter. Little Matthew is such a contented child.

Not quite a salute, just brushing the sun out of his eyes! Note big brother, busy in the background.

Not bothered by the dogs presence at all...

Trip saga cont. Day 7/ Drive through Maldon to Dunolly where we had 1 hour free. I toured churches and main street. Next a brief stop to see the impressive ruins of a Tarangulla church burnt out 2000. It seemed a long drive to St Arnaud. A drive around sights before we were left to our own. In first cafe I grabbed a pie (unusually pork & apple!) and a coffee for lunch while I walked the streets, capturing more churches. I was tiring and spent some time just sitting in the park watching the ducks. We returned early pm to Castlemaine for a free afternoon. I captured more old buildings and hunted bookshops. One had a sign stating a charge of $5 for browsing – I left quickly.

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Next day to Pennywight Cemetery, mostly unmarked graves and mostly children from the goldmining days. On to inspect remains of Garfield water wheel. The wheel itself, long gone, was 72 ft in diameter. Water from nearby reservoir used to drive a quartz crushing battery. We paused at former Taradale Anglican church, now a wedding venue. Coffee break in Malmsbury. Out of town we passed the former Racecourse Hotel. Sad.

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Arriving in Kyneton, we had a long drive around town to view sights too far to walk in our lunch break. First I captured churches, the Anglican & Catholic were open, lovely windows. I found a bakery/cafe, ordered lunch but they forgot my order. So they gave it to me as takeaway, once again I was eating in the street, to the horror of one of my fellow passengers. Too bad.

Drove on through Barfold, Redesdale, Mia Mia to Heathcote. I didn’t see the Pink Cliffs, a so-called 5 min walk. Well, I walked 5 mins and it was much further, turned back, managed to take wrong path, could see bus across bushland but had to retrace steps as who knows what was in between. Miners washed away the topsoil to expose gold-bearing sediment. The quartz contained gold and iron oxides, the latter stained the sediments pink or orange. The colouring was natural but the exposure of sediments was man-made. Video here.

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Afternoon tea stop in Heathcote where I bought a sandwich for my evening meal as I knew I would be too tired to trek out later. An arboretum of liquidambers has been planted along the creek. They were just starting to show their autumn colours. (Note: a creek in Aussieland is a stream, often dry; not a coastal inlet as in some parts of the world.) Returning to motel by 5 pm, I showered and ate my meal in my bed in my pjs! To be continued. Today I posted pics of the Tarnagulla church ruins and if you scroll back some “pages” you will find pics of Maldon.

Evening all:

AQ: Finally! Started following your trail and must say Trentham Falls look very pretty. Did you have tea at Mrs. Marples Tea Room?  There were interesting mosaic-like arrangement on the sidewalk at the intersections of Market Street & Trentham Road.  I was Googling Irishtown and saw a house for sale (and under contract) for $300+K Oz(about $220K US). So would people buy there as a weekend escape from Melbourne?  I also noticed that R. Penney's Castlemain Bakery Building (1880) was for sale for $790KOz.  Saw an old derelict church on Castlemaine Street in Fryerstown (just by the road - red brick - sad to see the remnants of a community that must've been thriving at some point).  Tieve Tara Gardens look absolutely beautiful. Too bad the house was lost in that fire.  I was looking for more info about W. Christian (the garden website doesn't hint at his occupation - gold miner perhaps?) but I did find a description from a 1903 handbook saying the town "was lighted by kerosene" and that there was a "large coffee palace" on the side of Mount Macedon." It apparently was a tourist center through most of the 20th century. I see the town father's rejected a 2014 plan for a tourism/hotel complex at Hanging Rock. There are more people living there now than ever!  I saw "Picnic..." and thought it was a true story for the longest time.   Enough for tonight. I'll pick up Part Two of your saga tomorrow.  Fascinating!  :-)

dibnlib: Glad Benson is doing better.

Heather: No worries. Do enjoy your trip to Denmark.

Lindybird: That Matthew is one sunny little fellow.

EE: Don't know about Lindybird's Alice Through the Looking Glass. I was thinking more along the lines of Jack in the Beanstalk when you mentioned J's treatment!  Only a couple more sleeps until OG sees the physio and hopefully gets news of going home.

Busy in the garden the last two days, but oh my, how things grow around here. Tomorrow I'm going to an Earth Day gathering downtown in support of Science , given that The Orange Menace is threatening budget cuts for  research projects of all kinds.  Every day there's yet another opportunity to roll our eyes at the cluelessness of our fearless leader and friends. They don't believe in Science and now apparently they aren't sure about their Geography either.  Earlier this week, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions was railing about the judge who issued an injunction against Trump's latest travel ban, saying. “I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the president of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and Constitutional power,”  Ahem, Mr. Sessions, were you perchance referring to Federal District Court Judge Derrick Watson of Hawaii - the 50th of these United States (not exactly "a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific." which conjures images of someone in a grass skirt under a coconut tree. )  Session's remark prompted someone in New Mexico (our very beautiful 47th State) to worry that maybe the folks in DC wouldn't realize New Mexico was also part of the US and would start building a wall around it.  Sigh.  

LINDY   Please let me know what you think about the film. We may give it another go if it moves to a larger screen. Yesterday it was in the smallest of 8 and OH really couldn't cope when they showed a trailer of "Andre Rieu" and the sound was excruciating.