Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 16 April 2017

Here's today's pic:

Dragged myself to shops t0 replenish frui/veg, etc. Interesting encounter, I’ll explain another time. I slept 3 hours after lunch. Still coughing, nasty bugs have found a home deep down.

Trip saga cont. We had 2 days visiting Bendigo and I shall combine them. An above-ground tour of Central Deborah Gold Mine, operated 1939-1954, very interesting, not over-much info & we kept moving. Mine is closed but there were men below “measuring”, so we heard the signals, and met the girl keeping track. A few troughs of water, rock, etc laced with gold for those who wished to try panning as the first gold diggers did. Bendigo was the world’s richest & biggest gold field until gold was discovered at Kalgoorlie in WA in early 1890s. Some 700,000 kilograms of gold was extracted from the Bendigo region 1851-1954, currently this would be worth about $30 billion. The goldfield covered an area roughly 30 kms long and 12 kms wide. Thousands of diggers sought alluvial gold, and many found it. Later in 1860s companies sank deep shafts & dug tunnels to extract the gold from the quartz reefs. There were more than 5,000 registered gold mines in Bendigo.

From there we caught the Heritage Tram for a ride across Bendigo. To our surprise, the tram was one of the old Adelaide trams from our city-Glenelg tramway, purchased for $1. (No wonder our state is a financial mess, as they say, we couldn’t run a chook raffle.) Another tour was of the Bendigo Pottery, Aussieland’s oldest working pottery. First a demo of a vase made on a wheel, then a tour of their museum with the old kilns and finally the display of goods. A tour of the Bendigo Town Hall, built in 3 stages. Obvious that there was plenty of gold as the main hall was highly decorated. Another “ärranged” part of our trip was a walk up View St passing impressive buildings, ending at the Art Gallery, where I lunched in their cafe before wandering through galleries.

Between the arranged tours we had lots of free time over both days. One time I walked up Forest St capturing churches, then to the stunning Catholic Cathedral, built 1895, completed 1977, most of windows are clear glass making the interior so light & bright. The tall spire high on a hill can be seen across Bendigo. As I said, stunning. A slow walk back to city centre to find lunch (this was day 1). Revived, I ventured in different direction to find the Anglican Cathedral. It too was open, though guarded by a young man. An impressive collection of Ferguson & Urie stained glass windows had my camera busy. St Killan’s wooden church was delightful. It was lovely to see so many churches open, rare in Adelaide.

A colony of fruit bats invaded Bendigo a few years ago. Workmen doing something nearby disturbed them and on both days the quiet(?) restful(?) Rosalind Park was all a twitter with very active bats. Both days we were glad to see our bus at 4.30 and rest. Our driver detoured on way back to Castlemaine to stop at a cairn erected to mark the “geographical centre” of Victoria at Mandurang. To be continued. Sorry, pics on flickr not keeping up with saga

AQ  thanks for that great description of your tour.

Not so adventurous for us, but we are off to Brodie later on and from there we will go to Logie steading for lunch, a all and a browse. Wee haven't been there for a couple of years and hear they have done a lot of work in that time.

We're back home after a good journey.

The apple tree outside my kitchen window is in full flower, and the clematis on the back of the house is bursting into bloom, too. My OH has already mown the lawn and now gone off to the allotment.

I was writing this when the phone rang, of course I got out of my chair to hear that it was just a pesky sales call, but alas, after I put down the phone I thought "Where is my mobile, I've not seen it since we got home.........."

---------  I have left it in Wales.....  Blah!

OG says "Only 5 more sleeps until x-ray and consultant's verdict: getting  apprehensive.  J going to Manchester for glucose tolerance  test on Friday: a surprise appointment.  He will be travelling by train.  Posts for new front fence at home have been put in today: very pleased with  man doing job.  EE will now have to order rope the right length.  Good to see people on here.  Best wishes to all."

Quick look in.

Lindybird: Lovely butterfly that. Wish it were only my tooth that was fraying at the edges!

AQ: Have copy/pasted latest chapter to Word doc.  Please feel better soon.

OG: Hope you're getting updates from EE. Any "breaking news" from Annan?

dibnlib: Hope lunch was good.

Hi to Lurkers!

Off to sort out the world....

Fingers crossed for OG. Thanks, Eagle-eye.  And thanks for your good wishes:  OG is in my thoughts daily. I hope her long incarceration will soon be over and she can be home again, even though I realise that there will still be a long time of recovery.

ForestBoar - hope the extension work gets underway on time for you. Let's hope the financial problems will sort themselves out for you.

Dibnlib - We were 2 adults and 2 children growing up in our family home and only 1 loo. If we got desparate we used to go outside and round the back of the old wash house and , well, you can guess.But of course that is when we were kids. Still only 1 bathroom of sorts(renovation work taking an age has stopped due to house going to auction tomorrow).  Hope dental appointment went well.

OG - hope it will all be favourable for you. Hope J gets on with his appointment.  Thank you EE for keeping us updated. Glad to see you can now finish the fence.

AQ - thank you for your resume of your trip.

EE   Hope there is a good outcome from the consultant.

LINDY    I rarely use my mobile either to phone out or receive, but would hate it if I didn't have it.

We had a great day,Our visit to Logie was great. The gallery is super. We then went to Findhorn and had the usual great fish and chips at The Kimberley. OH walked Benson but as my heel was playing up I didn't join him, but Findhorn is a lovely place to sit anyway. We then went to Brodie for coffee and a quick look around. I always buy smoked duck there. I have a great recipe for smoked duck and peach salad. We took Benson for a walk and then the problems started. He stopped for a sniff while we walked a little way ahead, turned to look back and it was obvious he was in some distress. He kept trying to clear something from either his nose or throat without success. OH has just left for a visit to the vet. Hope they can do something tonight. OH rather thinks they will keep him in overnight and flush his nose through under anaesthetic in the morning.He must have been in some discomfort, but his tail was wagging as usual, typical Cocker.