This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Author Archives: wendyviney


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2019 Life and Travels December

This became a really social month – much more so than our old norm.

With the neighbours from each side, sampled one of the Thai restaurants in town. Bendigo is so well endowed with interesting and great places to eat. It was such a hot month. The restaurant was quite crowded and the A/C was barely coping. Maneuvering neighbour’s wheelchair to our table was a challenge – it is a rather crammed place. But the food was great, for those that like Thai. Not all of our neighbours do, it turned out.

The older Bendigo grandson departed for Europe, with a touring hockey playing group. They would play matches in France, Spain and England, returning in time for the new school year.

Mid-month we hosted a family get together. Son and family from Melbourne. Extended Bendigo family. Friend M, who came up early to help me prepare the food, assisted by daughter and partner’s mother and aunt. Plenty of lovely food: afternoon nibbles included John’s order of party pies! Cold meats, seafood, salads. Usual fruit salad and trifle for dessert, with the addition of a cheesecake  turned into a birthday cake for me – present from daughter-in-law.

Part of the party spread

My birthday “cake”

It was a great afternoon and night, though too hot – the Perspex panels inset in the patio roof allow too much sun in at certain times of the day!

Three generations

The guests returned for brunch on Sunday morning: juices, leftover fruit salad, avocado and fetta on sourdough toast, bacon, French toast, waffles with maple syrup and icecream, plenty of brewed coffee.  With a cake, we made an early birthday celebration for grand daughter, who would turn 18 next month.

Grand daughter’s birthday cake

Guests, except for M, had all departed by mid-afternoon. What a great weekend it had been. M stayed an extra few days, then departed back home, for her round of festive season celebrations – the annual party for the unit complex where she lives., then came back here for Xmas itself.

Daughter and family had Xmas Day with her partner’s extended family, as happens every two years, so it was just the three of us for my Xmas lunch of roast turkey thigh and vegies, with Xmas pudding dessert. But we enjoyed it together. Then went to the neighbours’ for late afternoon drinks.

One of my step daughters came to stay a night after Xmas. That was a fraught visit, as she was attempting to deal with much nastiness and acrimony from the break up of what had been an abusive marriage. Clearly, the divorce was going to be a really difficult time for her, especially with children being used as weapons against her. Times like that, one feels quite powerless.

Son, wife and his children drove from Melbourne to Narooma on Xmas Day, to visit with her mother there. M went home on 30th. We hoped she was seriously considering the benefits of moving up here!

Friend M at the family party

Our New Year’s Eve was quiet – and sad. I was becoming quite worried about son and family, in Narooma, with bushfires spreading in that area.


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2019 Life and Travels November

NOVEMBER 2019

This year had seen our first full spring time in Bendigo and along with it some rewards for the hard work put into the new garden.

It was becoming obvious that callistemons – bottlebrushes – were one plant type that liked the conditions in this area. There were some brilliant flower displays by them in gardens around town, and in my backyard. I would definitely be planting more of these.

Huge display from a small bush

At the same time, I was starting to think that grevilleas were not so happy here. Surprising because I’d thought they were really adaptable. But the ones planted last autumn looked to be battling. My concept for this new garden was that of a bird-attracting one, so a variety of flowering native bushes was key to that.

Another bottlebrush

John was harvesting – an excellent crop of broad beans. I know these are not to everyone’s taste, but we both love them, harvested young, before the beans get too big and floury. According to our farmer next door neighbour, they are stock feed…

Broad beans

The garlic crop was also a good one. Back earlier in the year, John had found a source for garlic that was suited to our local conditions. He planted about 120 cloves in one of the new raised beds, and they all grew. We eat a lot of garlic! This year we would also be giving away a lot of garlic…

Harvesting the garlic crop

Couey turned 9 this month, making her definitely middle aged.

Grand daughter completed her Year 12 exams. Celebrated the end of school with a private “schoolies” week away with friends at Phillip Island. Now the wait for results and tertiary offers drags on.

Late one afternoon, received a somewhat frantic phone call for help, from neighbour . I went in there to find that she had tripped over a hose in the yard and hurt her ankle. Her husband had heard her call out and helped her inside, but neither was quite sure how bad it was, or what to do next. I didn’t like the look of the rapid swelling, so ambulance was called and arrived very promptly. The ankle turned out to be fractured, so a time in plaster was to ensue, complete with crutches and wheelchair. I lent her the crutches and shower chair we had stored from John’s various medical misadventures. For a lady over a decade younger than me, and very active, it was going to be a frustrating time.

We were both enjoying having neighbours on each side that had become friends too, despite our being somewhat older than them all. Back in Melbourne we’d never developed such friendly relationships: the residents on each side were either very much younger than us, had nothing at all in common, or were downright anti-social (as in the ones subject to an early morning raid by the drug squad). Country folk are different, it seems.


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2019 Life and Travels October

OCTOBER 2019

With school holidays, the Melbourne grandchildren arrived by train to stay for a week. I took granddaughter to see the aboriginal batik art exhibition, but she spent most of the stay in her room, studying for her coming Year 12 exams.

By the Bendigo Art Gallery

Grandson enjoyed woodwork with John,  helping him build a little garden for my succulents, against a sunny side wall of the house.

A new garden bed

He also had to spend quite a bit of time with me, re-doing a Geography type assignment that his teacher had rejected. It was definitely a problem that he seemed to have little idea of the skills of research, collation and planning – don’t think his school is serving that one very well. He would like to do well, but doesn’t know how to do so.

At the same time, there was an element of karma that I found quietly amusing. The boy’s father had driven me to distraction when he was a student, always leaving work till the last minute, submitting any old thing and then doing poorly. Now father was so frustrated that his son was doing exactly the same thing. Welcome to my world…  The kid got an A for the resubmitted work. One of the few times I wished I was still in Melbourne – but then, doubted I’d have enough contact with the boy to make a real difference.

Son and wife drove up to collect the offspring. Enjoyed having them here to lunch.

Daughter’s partner and her sister went off to Vietnam on a cycling tour, for a couple of weeks. There are so many wonderfully adventurous holidays available these days.

More grandma obligations saw me attend three hockey finals games to watch oldest grandson play, in both Under 16 and Mens B Grade teams. It is not a game I comprehend, so I never know if all that running back and forth by grandson produces admirable outcomes. One of his teams was Runners Up. The impressive new Bendigo hockey grounds are in a bit of a frost hollow, I think. Maybe the suburb location – Garden Gully – is a clue? The Gully part…The last final, a morning one, saw me absolutely freezing for the duration. Went deaf in one ear, from the cold,  for 24 hours after – and then began knitting myself a big scarf and woollen gloves, in preparation for next season!

Bendigo Hockey Centre

At the end of the month, I came down with a really nasty flu type bug, unlike anything I’d ever had before.  Started as a tickly cough, then a massive headache developed, then generally feeling afflicted. Took to bed for a week – most unusual for me. The persistent cough was really annoying. At one stage wondered if I’d broken ribs coughing! Just about everyone in daughter’s family had it. I wondered if the travellers had brought back some bug from Vietnam? Whatever it was really wiped me out – was weeks before any sort of normal energy levels returned. It was an effort just to get out of bed every morning, let alone do normal things like gardening.

Just as I was seeing some signs of recovery, John went down with it. In his case a chest infection ensued and he needed medication. He too took ages to fully recover.

Springtime sunset


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2019 Life and Travels September

SEPTEMBER 2019

Welcomed our first spring time in Central Victoria. Driving from our home on the western edge of Bendigo, into town, became an even greater joy with the flowering of the local wild wattle varieties. Usually scrubby, nondescript roadside bushes burst into yellow, for a few weeks. The same happened in the surrounds of the local oval, scene of our dog walking.

This became a riot of yellow in spring

It was rather a relief when the moptop trees began shooting again, from the dead-seeming stumps that they were through winter. We were still learning about these strange trees and had been told that they should be cut right back each autumn, which we had duly done – and hoped we weren’t killing the things.

Moptops in winter mode, pear tree in early spring mode

Having worked hard for nearly a year in the gardens, to remove large areas of plastic weed mat, and eradicate lots of unwanted spear grass, I was now able to spread trailer loads of euca mulch – and hope this would serve to discourage any more weeds.

Spreading new mulch

A sense of grandma duty took me to the biennial drama production of the 7 year-old’s school. This was a big undertaking, involving every child, in the Junior Aladdin show. Actually enjoyed it much more than I’d expected to. Grandson’s role was a standing-around one, attired in a vaguely Middle Eastern costume.

Much more interesting, however, was the Ulumbarra Theatre venue itself, built around the original Sandhurst Jail. Bendigo was once called Sandhurst. In one foyer/corridor area, we walked past some of the old cells, and the materials of the new parts of the theatre merge with the stone sections of the jail. This was built in the early 1860’s and operated until 2004. Ulumbarra Theatre opened in 2015. I thought it was an interesting and innovative use of an historic building.

The Sandhurst Jail entrance area of Ulumbarra Theatre

Main entrance to Ulumbarra Theatre

Less fun was the head cold that was a legacy of mixing with lots of little kids – germbags, all!

Friend M headed overseas again, this time to tour Bhutan and significant Buddhist sites of Northern India with a Buddhist friend.


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2019 Life and Travels August

AUGUST 2019

After the brief interlude that was our aborted trip north, settled back into making changes about the place, to put our stamp on it.

John wanted more space for his vegie growing. The gravelled area in the back yard – perhaps intended to be a lawn – was crying out for a more productive use. Solution – raised planter boxes. Their construction was easy for the woodworker, then he carted in some trailer loads of soil and mushroom compost. The height of the new beds would make it easier for ageing bodies to do the garden work.

New garden box beds – all planted and thriving

Two new gas bottles for Bus were bought. John fitted one, and that all seemed to function normally. He put the other new bottle aside for future use – for something. It was good to know the problem had been so easily fixed, though I admitted to a lingering slight distrust of it all, now.

John’s brother turned 90 and hosted a dinner to celebrate at a Melbourne club. Since it was an evening event, necessitating an overnight stay down there, I elected to stay home with the dog! John stayed with friend M at Croydon.

Friend M came to visit again, and we went one day to view an exhibition at the marvellous Bendigo Art Gallery. This gallery was making a real name for itself staging unusual and special exhibitions. Back in 2016 there had been the unique Marilyn Monroe feature one. In 2019, the special exhibition was portraits of British royalty; the British theme extended to city decorations and events. A tram, painted with the Union Jack was lifted into the town centre, to be a temporary café and promo. We had been going home one evening, after a meal at the wonderful Malayan Orchid restaurant near the town centre, and found it hard to believe, as we came around a corner, that we were actually seeing a red, white and blue flag painted tram, swinging on the end of a crane. One of those “How much wine did we have to drink?” moments…

Apart from the blockbuster exhibitions that only happen every two or three years, the gallery has a regularly changing program of smaller features, ensuring there is often something of interest to visit.

The display that M and I wanted to see was of batik style printing on silk fabric done by aboriginal artists of Central Australia.

There was an outline of the development of this form of art in the central desert, since about 1950. The display was excellent.


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2019 Life and Travels July 23

TUESDAY JULY 23     TOCUMWAL TO HOME     205kms

Tocumwal morning

Left the park at 10am, then refuelled at the servo in town. $152.9cpl.

Between the GPS and me, the route we took home seemed a zig-zag one, but avoided Shepparton, going via Kyabram. South of there we spied  an unexpected, and incongruous, sight – a paddock containing a mob of camels!

We just had to stop at Elmore, for John to sample the bakery treats from there: pie and pastie. I snagged a salad sandwich.

Reached home in good time to do the usual unpack of foodstuffs and the electronic gear. I was even able to get started on the washing.

Neighbour was surprised to see us arrive home so soon.

It was good to be home again – home here still being such a novelty.

TRIP STATISTICS

Kms travelled: 976

Fuel Cost: $284.57

Accommodation cost: $391-80


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2019 Life and Travels July 22

MONDAY JULY 22     WALLENDBEEN TO TOCUMWAL      350kms

After a really cold night, we woke to sunshine and blue sky.

Breakfasted with our friends, who were planning to head back to Canberra later today, and left their place at 10.15am.

A comfortable overnight stop

Knowing the proximity of the larger centre, Cootamundra, to our friends’ intended retirement home, we paid more than usual attention as we travelled south through there. It seemed a sizeable centre, with interesting old flour mill buildings.

Wagga appeared to be growing fast, from what we observed as we took the ring route that avoided the town centre.

Took the Narrandera road west, then turned off that at Collingullie onto a road that would take us directly to Jerilderie. This was a way we hadn’t gone before; not a major road but perfectly fine for our rig.

Stopped at Lockhart for lunch, pulling in at a park by the swimming pool, where there was also a toilet block. Pleasant spot for our purpose. I made sandwiches from the makings I had in Bus.

John decided to let Couey off the leash for a little run on the grass. But the great swamp dog sniffed a distant puddle of water and took off for a wallow in that, coming back muddy, smelly, but oh-so-happy. I wasn’t.

Lockhart park

After Lockhart, the country became flatter with less natural vegetation and more obvious farm activity. For quite a while, trees were almost a novelty.

Trees!

At Jerilderie, joined the Newell Highway, a very familiar route. Decided to stop for the day at Tocumwal, where we had stayed on previous occasions.

Took an en-suite site at the caravan park, costing $37.80, after chain discount.

Tocumwal site

This is a park that has a dedicated, fenced, dog exercise run – something I’d love to see more parks adopt. So, after setting up, dog got a nice ball throw session in the run.

The carvavan park dog run

Lazed about for the rest of the afternoon.

Tea was a concoction made in the frypan, from mince and some vegies – kind of a stir fry, but without rice.

Had we realized then that this was to be the last night we would spend in Bus, probably would have made a bigger occasion of it.


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2019 Life and Travels July 21

SUNDAY JULY 21     YOUNG TO WALLENDBEEN     35kms

No rush to get up and going this morning, as we were only going such a short way.

Fuelled up Bus at the servo conveniently located by the caravan park. $149.9cpl.

Headed south out of town, along the Olympic Way, through the quaintly named hamlet of Wombat, to Wallendbeen. Cherry orchards, grazing and cropping country, lots of granite outcrops and rocks along the way.

The little township of Wallendbeen, located by the Sydney-Melbourne railway, is sandwiched between that rail line and the modern Olympic Way highway, so we had to turn off and trundle through the village to reach the destination of our friends’ home.

For the last several decades, careers had determined that these friends lived in Canberra, but a few years ago, they had purchased a cottage here. Initially, this was to be a weekender, but they had plans to eventually retire here. Less than two hours’ drive from their Canberra home, it was an ideal semi-rural weekend retreat in a quaint village.

Wallendbeen ruins

Clearly, the village had once been functioning as a larger centre than it is today. A common tale for so many rural settlements, sadly. The settlement grew as a service centre on what had started as a large pastoral run, from the mid 1800’s. The railway arrived in the 1870’s and with it a rail passenger service. A large silo complex was built for movement of the grain grown in the district. Today, those silos would be perfect for some new silo art!

Some art work would really brighten this up

It has been decades since passenger trains stopped in Wallendbeen; the Sydney-Melbourne trains and long goods trains just go straight through. With today’s car travel and larger service centres in nearby Young and Cootamundra, the only business still operating in town was the hotel.

Parked Bus out front of our friends’ place, hooked up to power with a long lead and had a great catch up, over lunch.

After lunch, we all went walking. Firstly, along a beautiful tree-lined track to the cemetery – old, historic.

The track to the cemetery

Wallendbeen cemetery

Browsed among some interesting old gravestones.

The cemetery track passed by a paddock containing some cattle. Being curious critters, these all came to the fence, perhaps to see if we had food to offer. Our big, brave cattle dog was having none of it – forget the “cattle” part! Big, brave, stick-retrieving, yes – sticks are much more her scale. She resolutely ignored the cows, much to the amusement of H and C. Not even a bark.

Cattle – what cattle?

Our walk continued around the village, so we could see it all, then adjourned to the hotel. This seemed to be flourishing – had clearly modernized its offering to bring in travellers as well as locals. We supported it with some happy hour drinks before wandering back to the cottage for tea.

Old General Store

Wallendbeen Hotel

H told us that there was a Rest Stop at the town park, by the highway, that was an overnight stop for RV travellers – toilets, a little picnic shelter, but no other facilities, apart from being very quiet and pleasant.

Some interesting walking around the village

Exercise and fresh country air led to an early night, and a good night’s sleep. This was one place I felt quite secure, even private, sleeping on a nature strip in front of a house!


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2019 Life and Travels July 20

SATURDAY JULY 20     YOUNG

The usual start to the day – early for me, later for John.

Eventually headed off. First to shops, to buy food for tea that was suitable for electric frypan one-pan cooking. Decided on steaks. Bought some wine for tomorrow’s hosts. Bought rolls to fill for lunch, and a Saturday paper.

Young

After lunch back at Bus, it was back in the car because there was one remaining local feature that I wanted to visit: the Lambing Flat Tribute Garden and Chinaman’s Dam, on the edge of town. Here, we found a pleasant walk through the oriental styled garden by the dam. Wandered about and explored this for a while, on what was the nicest weather day since we’d been here.

Lambing Flat Tribute Gardens

Dog had to wait in car while we walked, so rewarded her with a trip to the usual exercise area.

Then cruised around some more of the streets of town, having a final look about.

Old railway station Young – now Information Centre

It had been a pleasant stay here, worth the time spent. I guess travellers who made more use of each day and were inclined to pack more into their days, could have seen all that we did in half the time, but I was glad that this was not just another town we’d passed through without staying.

Cherry orchards near Young

Tea was the steaks bought this morning, with a few fried mushrooms and slices of potato – and a side salad, though John didn’t see the need for the latter.

The ubiquitous country town grain silos


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2019 Life and Travels July 19

FRIDAY JULY 19     YOUNG

John had an “in” day yesterday. Today was my turn – definitely “out”.

I planned an explore to the south, and a more substantial drive than the one a couple of days ago.

Retraced the same way to Murringo, which was no problem because it was such an interesting area.

East of Young – Mopetty Road

SE from Murringo, to Boorowa, which we’d passed through on a previous trip from Canberra to Cowra.

Turned SW, on a minor road, to Cunningar and the Burley Griffin Way. This took us to the town of Harden, another one of the many settlements in this region that dates back over 150 years. Harden is on the Sydney to Melbourne rail route. We drove along side streets and found the railway station, but it was not the impressive building I was hoping to find, but very utilitarian.

More importantly, on another side street, we found Jacksons Bakery Café – and it was lunch time, well and truly. The eat-in section was rather old-world – very pleasantly so. There looked to be an outdoor garden dining area also, but not for investigation today. John indulged himself in a pepper pie and a pastie, and pronounced them both excellent. I had a generously filled salad roll. We both had coffees too.

Harden

Back in the car again, explored a few more of the Harden side streets, then went on to nearby Murrumburrah, almost a part of Harden it seemed. Nothing to see there, really, but we turned off the main road at that point and took a series of minor roads back to Young, through attractive farming country. It was easy to see why this whole area was so attractive to the early settlers, spreading out from the established settled limits, looking for land to claim.

Sydney to Melbourne rail line near Harden

Given our usual late start this morning, it was well into the afternoon by the time we got back to Young. Went straight to the dog exercise area to reward Couey for being a good dog – vehicle travel is not something she enjoys, spending the whole time on the floor behind the driver’s seat – stretched right at the limit if her harness, which can’t be comfortable. How did we come by a cattle dog that doesn’t like moving vehicles and can’t eat bones?

That had been a lovely circuit drive, though I’m sure that lunch was the highlight for the driver!

Only a light tea after that – biscuits and cheese.

Our travels around Young