Friday 27th August, 2010

Feeling right at home

Yesterday, as soon as we got to the caravan it was as though we had never left it. We felt right at home. I haven’t slept so well since we moved out of the van into the house. Not even now we have our new bed.
 The estimate of a lunchtime departure was right on target, unfortunately. It would have been good to have left earlier but at least we are on our way. What a relief to get out of the city again! The freeway going north is ablaze with bright yellow wattle. 1st August is Wattle day but they are looking beautiful even now, and different varieties will come into bloom progressively throughout the year – virtually all year.

There has been a lot of rain through this northern New South Wales area and things are looking so green. Nature takes no notice of the calendar as we know, and in spite of spring not starting officially until September, it has already been spring for a fortnight. The magnolias are in bloom, the blossom trees are bursting out, azaelias are blazing with colour and everything is full of life. It is still cold at night and during the day a cold wind is taking the chill factor waaaaaaay down. But if you can stay out of the wind, Sydney temperatures today were 20deg and we were actually too warm in the car.

We stopped mid- afternoon to buy something to eat in a little town – can’t remember the name. We were parked outside an antique shop with some delightful and tempting things for sale – boy, did my mouth water at the sight of a beautiful marble-topped washstand with tiled back! And just beside it was a lovely old building occupied downstairs by a hairdressing salon. Peter took some photos of the building for me – can’t you see this as a lovely quarter scale mini project? I stood against the verandah post for one of the photos then he took some like this. It took him quite a few minutes to get several shots, partly because we were on a main highway so he had to wait for a break in the traffic going both ways, and partly because he was constantly being swooped by a magpie!

Fortunately it didn’t make contact even with its wings let alone pecking him, but I was a bit anxious for Peter – that maggie was quite determined to ‘protect’ his area! In spring Magpies become very territorial, swooping people who venture into an area near their nest. They might buffet you with their wings or even peck you with their very strong beaks as they pass by. I’ve googled a photo for those of you who aren’t Aussies to show you what Magpies look like. They are 38-44cms when mature, and become very tame around households, quite often coming to be fed tidbits of meat and such. Their beautiful carolling songs make up for their unpleasant habits during nesting time though!

We hit a lot of traffic before and in the Hunter Valley and the caravan parks were full. We pulled in to one hoping for a spot and while I was waiting in the car, Eastern Rosellas were swooping around the car. They are really pretty birds, I googled photos of them too. They are medium-sized parrots, around 32cm or 13inches long and are characterised by their white cheek patches. The females are similar to the males but perhaps a bit duller. When they fly you see these brilliant flashes of colour. I used to see lots of them in Sydney but don’t see them where we live now.

Nathan was really disappointed that there were no vacancies there because there were two figures outside the office, one of a full-size mare and one of a foal. I wish I had taken a photo for him but there wasn’t really time before Peter came back to the car. I was in the driver’s seat in the meanwhile in case the car and caravan needed to be moved to let other traffic through.

Finally we went on to Scone, which isn’t that much further on and calls itself the ‘Horse Capital of Australia’. It is considerably larger than the previous town, which surprised us. First caravan park we came to was full but the second one had a spot and we are all settled ready for another good night’s sleep.