It is February 1986 and my daughter, five years and two months of age, is in her brand-new uniform and ready to walk across the adjacent school oval and spend her first full day at Monash Primary school.
And at the end of that first school year, there she was (far right, front row), an experienced schoolie, ready for the annual summer holidays before starting her second year in the ACT's education system.
Just looking at those photos makes me feel very creaky, indeed!!
From Yamba to Canberra took two days - broken overnight at Coonabarabran. That was about seven hours from Yamba, via the Pacific Highway to Grafton, Armidale Road & Waterfall Way to Armidale, the New England Highway to Tamworth and then the Oxley Highway to Coonabarabran.
The next day saw us drive to Canberra via the Newell Highway to Dubbo & the Mitchell Highway to Wellington and Molong.
From Molong we took the minor roads down through Canowindra to Cowra and thence the Lachlan Valley Way via Boorowa to the Hume Highway south of Yass, then the Barton Highway to Canberra.
That was another seven hours.
The change in the environment is amazing: we left the greenery of the coastal fringe, with its sugar cane and dairy farms, climbed through sub-tropical rain forest to the New England Plateau, then to the open expanses, wheat and sheep of the Central Western Plains.
The return journey was via the "normal" route: Federal Highway to Goulburn, Hume Highway to Sydney and then the Pacific Highway to Yamba.
Video highlights were recorded, edited and uploaded to You Tube. Here are the links and I suggest that, as they are in 1080HD, it would be best to play direct from YT and not through this blog:-
Below are several photos - most of which are included in the videos.
They will enlarge when clicked.
This map - an extract from Google Maps - shows the route we followed from Yamba to Coonabarabran - the extent of the first day's drive.
The Armidale Road, from Grafton to the junction of Waterfall Way, a few kms past Ebor, was the "worst", but only because it was twisty between Nymboida and the top of the range. The surface was fine.
The major highways - Waterfall Way, the New England, the Oxley, the Mitchell and the Newell - were excellent and allowed for fast, safe driving, with sparse traffic. Even the semi's were separated by several kms.
The above shot was taken when we stopped for morning tea and a "behind the bushes" comfort stop!
Somewhere between Nymboida and Ebor.
The reserve at Ebor Falls (above) has picnic facilities, including water on tap and toilets.
It's just a very short walk from the parking area to the Top (or Upper) Falls and then a short walk down an unpaved walking track to the Lower (or Bottom) Falls.
These must be quite spectacular when there has been good rainfall.
The Mathew Flinders Motor Inn at Coonabarabran was very comfortable and has a very nice on-site restaurant.
This made for a comfortable, relaxed evening after a long drive: we were able to unpack the car, have a rest, have a shower and then stroll across to the restaurant for dinner and a few glasses of wine. Most enjoyable....and the staff are lovely.
Decor straight from the 1970s but clean, neat and tidy.
It would be a crying shame if the management/owners ever decided to "modernise". This is heritage stuff and should be kept - Mission Brown, Burnt Orange and all!
The above map shows the route on Day 2, from Coonabarabran down through Dubbo, Wellington, Molong, Cowra and then to Canberra.
Cameron Park, in Wellington, provided a convenient and shady spot to have morning tea.
The temperature on this morning was up in the high 20s so it was nice to sit in the shade in this peaceful spot.
That's the main road in the background.
On the Saturday night in Canberra we had dinner at the Vikings Club, Chisholm, and the last time I saw the sun setting over the Brindabella Mountain range was in May 2014....nearly 18 month's ago.
So I had to snap this shot with my phone.
Finally, my gorgeous grand-daughter Matilda, just turned nine years old earlier this month.
She's grown up a bit since her fifth birthday!
When we moved into our Canberra home (1985) the front door was accompanied on one side by two translucent, yellow, glass panels. Very 1970s.
Well, the feature went well with the Mission Brown window frames and roof tiles.
Again....very 1970s, and a decor enhanced (?!) by the dark-red laminated bench-tops in the kitchen and bathrooms.
My wife had just taken up an interest in stained glass/lead-lighting....creating her own from various designs.
This was proper, legitimate lead-lighting work, not the faux stuff that can be bought now, where decals and paint are applied and the "lead" is actually a stick-on rib of plastic material.
Her first attempt, a panel of about 2 feet by 18 inches, is still in our garage.
The learning process continued and finally she felt confident enough (1986) to "go public" and decided to create two panels to replace the yucky yellow items at the front entry.
We can't take them with us, unfortunately, but last night I turned the porch light on and, for the first time in almost 30 years, took some photos with the lead-light panels back-lit.
They are reproduced below, one above the other, as they appear in real life.
I'm going to miss them but my wife has resumed her interest in lead-lighting and copper-foiling and intends getting back into it after we settle in Yamba, so maybe one day our new home will feature some of her work.
It has been a very cold day, with temperatures hovering around the 10 degree mark and accompanied by a constant pattering of rain. Nothing like Yamba, where it has been sunny and around 20 degrees. AAAAAGH!!
Our last garage sale is being held this weekend and today was pretty good, with a constant flow of people between 7:45 AM and 4:00 PM, when we closed shop for the day.
Tomorrow might be a waste of time as there's not much left but you never know; one man's trash is another's treasure.
The house is becoming more empty as we continue to pack. There is more space in each room and in some there are echoes because soft furnishings have gone.
A few shots.......
Firstly, the dining room now features just the table and chairs whereas for almost thirty years there was a wall-to-wall shelving unit across that back wall and on the left, under the A/C unit, was a framed picture.
The lounge-room now stores (temporarily) a three-drawer filing cabinet from the study and the top half of one section of a Parker shelving/cupboard unit.
Prior to the sale there were two 2-seat leather lounges and a coffee table in here plus a large rug and a TV unit.
The living room looks particularly attractive with its expensive cardboard-box coffee tables.
Beyond, in the alcove where a round table and four chairs once sat, another fine suite of cardboard boxes allows for gracious casual dining!
The two lounge suites have been bought by the new owners and will provide us with about the only bit of comfort right up to D-Day.
Finally, my study.
Once the location of a full-width desk, the fine shelving unit (seen disassembled), a comfortable office chair and with the walls resplendent in framed posters and paintings, it now looks like the hastily-assembled quarters of a war correspondent in the Middle East.
Five months almost to the day from when we first advertised our home for sale, contracts were exchanged last week (16th. April) and the agent's poster outside our home now sports a "Sold" sticker.
Settlement date is 30 days from the exchange and that means we have to vacate by midday on the 16th. of May.
It's a funny feeling knowing that in less than a month's time someone else will be living in what we have called home for almost thirty years.
But with autumn temperatures here in Canberra of 17 degrees maximum and 2 degrees minimum for today/tonight and Yamba being 25 degrees and 17 degrees respectively then I know where I want to be come winter!
This morning I did my regular 1.6 kilometre walk and took a photo of the autumn colours now becoming more prevalent each day.
We will miss this aspect of the seasons when we move; deciduous trees are not common on the far north coast and the change from summer to autumn goes almost unnoticed.
Our house found a buyer yesterday and we are anticipating being in Yamba after Easter - and that means before spending another winter in Canberra.
As much as I've loved this place for three decades this coming June, I am looking forward to spending my final years, however many or few they may be, in the warmer climes of Yamba.....where every day is just another day in paradise.
Just a short walk from where I live is the Goodwin retirement village - a fairly new complex (construction finished about two years ago) that caters to those who have retired and provides nursing care for the more elderly.
Adjoining the centre is a large pond which, although decorative, has the prime purpose of trapping sediment and refuse before it is washed down the stormwater channels and into the Murrumbidgee River, just a few kilometres away.
Up until a few weeks ago there were, among the native water-fowl who make their homes on this pond, three white ducks.....those domestic ducks that we associate with farmyards the world over and, most likely, the same type that gave the Disney studios the idea to produce Donald, Daisy and Huey, Duey & Louie!
However, on one walk I noticed that one of the ducks had gone missing and assumed that the poor unfortunate bird had become a meal for a fox - and we get quite a few of those around here in the open paddocks.
So imagine my surprise when I was walking past the pond yesterday and saw that Daisy had returned with a family of eleven new fluffy yellow ducklings!
The other two adults - whom I assume are males (Huey & Dewy? Maybe the mother is Louise, not Daisy!) were not too far away and actually quacked loudly as I approached the bank of the pond. So they must have been keeping a protective eye on the new arrivals too.
Back in the 2000s, the National Heart Foundation, in conjunction with the ACT government, surveyed and marked a 2-kilometre walk around several streets and pathways in the suburb of Monash, where I live.
During the past year I have walked it - sometimes extending it to 3 kilometres - several times a week, although I must admit to not doing the walk when it is raining.
Last May I videoed the "extended" version and you can view it here. My recommendation, however, is that you click on the You Tube icon and then view it in larger format and High Definition (HD).
It runs for about 9 minutes.
The colours of the Persian Witch-hazel are utterly brilliant this year - so vivid as to be almost unbelievable.
This tree currently has pride of place with its autumn display in the front garden now that the English Elm has lost just about all her leaves.
Immediately outside one of the front windows (and 90 degrees from the window that displays the Persian Witch-hazel) is our sole Crabapple tree.
Two years ago I harvested the fruit and made Crabapple jelly - six full buckets of Crabapples gave me less than a dozen small jars (250 -300 grams) of the jelly.
The process was so tedious that last year and again this autumn I decided to let the birds have their fill, so we've seen King Parrots, Cockatoos and Currawongs make the most of the crop.
The Currawongs are the keenest.
They come down - usually in groups of 8 or 10 - and go for the fruit that has fallen onto the ground.
They swallow them whole and must have nitric acid in their stomachs in order to digest them!
They are as tart as a bushel of unripe lemons and if you pluck a ripe one (all red) and nibble it then you'll end up with grimace to end all grimaces.
Maybe next year I'll be masochistic enough to have another go at the Crabapple jelly but in the meantime the birds can have their way with them.
I mentioned the Cockatoos.
Here are three of them going for the parrot food that my wife puts out each day.
She doesn't like the cockies getting to it - she makes it available for the King Parrots but you can't stand out there shooing the cockies away.
Rosie, our 18-month old cat, has found a lovely sunny spot on these crisp, clear autumn mornings.
For about an hour she wedges herself into the gap between the side window at the front door and the indoor pot-plant basket and soaks up the rays!
When the sun moves away, so does she - off to another window to follow the warmth down the northern side of the house.
It is now the start of the last month of what has been a very dry Autumn for 2013.
But the colours of the deciduous trees and shrubs in our garden have been magnificent this year and this past week the English Elm has finally decided that enough is enough and over a three-day period she has dropped most of her leaves.
I did a quick (2 minute) video on May 1st., which you can view here or, if you click on the You Tube in the bottom right-hand corner, you can view in a larger format on You Tube's page.
Why has the Canberra Times (masthead shown above) dropped the use of the words "yesterday", "today" and "tomorrow" when reporting on matters and events?
I've noticed that this practice has been in operation for some time. I find it annoying and, in some cases, confusing.
For example - I will buy a newspaper this morning (Wednesday 3rd. April 2013) and when reading through it I will notice the following peculiarities:-
Reports relating to something which occurred yesterday will say "Tuesday" instead of "yesterday".
Items concerning something which will be happening tomorrow will say "Thursday" in lieu of "tomorrow".
Most annoying of all, however, is that the newspaper does not refer to "today" when informing us of a matter relating to this very day of issue but they will say "Wednesday"!
This third practice caused confusion yesterday - yes, Canberra Times, YESTERDAY, not "Tuesday" - to whit:-
The paper had an item regarding the closing of the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition at the National Gallery.
The report stated that it was closing on "Tuesday" yet the paper in which the article was printed was Tuesday's (2nd. April) edition.
So which "Tuesday" was one to conclude that the exhibition was closing?
Next Tuesday (9th. April) would have been the natural assumption. After all, if it was closing on Tuesday 2nd. then surely the term "today" would have been used, would it not?
But no - we now have a newspaper which has removed the three basic words relating to the passage of time and which have been in use for centuries.
I couldn't believe it when I looked at the calendar a couple of days ago and realised that in another week or so's time I will have been out of the workforce for six months.
The time has flown and the reason is that I am one of those very fortunate people who have a multitude of interests and hobbies - so many that I don't have the time to subscribe to them all.
Not for one minute have I been bored and the days just seem to flow from one into the next so fast that I sometimes have trouble keeping up.
My radio program on the local community FM radio station (Valley FM 89.5) occupies six hours each week and that isn't including the time I spend researching and preparing music and associated "stuff" for each broadcast.
A couple of days each week is spent in the yard and garden, carrying out the normal maintenance as well as a few projects that have been undertaken during this past summer.
The first was the creation of an enclosure for my wife's three Chinese Silkie chooks.
A pre-fab coop was bought, in "flat-pack" format, and when it arrived from Brisbane I assembled it.
Then I built a picket fence & gate between the end of one side of the garage and the back fence (seen in the photo below), which was painted after completion.
The other major job was the demolition and filling-in of the fishpond, which had been a feature of the garden in the backyard for many years but which had just become a maintenance chore, particularly the surrounding garden. It also hindered the access to the Photinea hedge for trimming.
So the pond went and was filled in with rubble and then two trailer-loads of crushed blue metal and is now in the last stage of work, with paving slabs having been laid (the photo below shows the preparatory work for the slab base).
I am just needing to get a load of garden soil to surround the paved area, which will then be home to the barbecue.
During the very hot weather that we experienced here in Canberra over January I hibernated into the cool of the air-conditioning and continued - in a somewhat random manner - working on my life's story that I have been writing for the past few months.
This continues to be an interesting project but one that I only do when the mood strikes me rather than as a regular exercise on a fixed itinerary.
I have coffee with old workmates on a regular basis - catching up and keeping in touch.
One such friendship goes back to 1998, when I worked for a company associated with the production and publishing of digital information for the legal profession.
I've joined the Canberra branch of the Australian Railway Historical Society and in the cooler months I want to become involved with helping them out in a voluntary capacity.
Before moving to Canberra in 1984 I had joined the Zig-Zag Railway near Lithgow but never had a chance to become involved as we upped roots and moved down here.
I have always maintained an interest in all things train-related, so am looking forward to helping out when I can.
Then there is my return to painting figurines, which was a prime hobby way back in the late 1970s - early-1980s.
I have had a resurgence of interest but, like my memoirs, only do so when the mood strikes rather than as a regular commitment.
If you have to do something to a timetable then it doesn't remain a pleasure, it becomes a chore and one might as well be back in the regular workforce, having to work for a living!
To all the above I can add reading, computing (browsing, emailing, playing simulations, researching music tracks), catching up with the occasional rented DVD movie, letter-writing (on my 1970s IBM Selectric typewriter) and domestic chores and each day is full, from around six-thirty AM until I conk out around eleven PM.
How did I ever find the time for even half of these activities when I was working?!!
Well, Mr. Obama has finally set foot in Canberra after two previously-cancelled trips and the usual semi-load of American hyper-crap has been dumped on us.
In a similar fashion to the Bush visit in 2003, we have a permanent - noisy - fighter aircraft circling the ACT for the next 24 hours, just to guard against sneak attacks on the American embassy.
Why can't they simply have an aircraft sitting on the ramp at Fairbairn, fuelled up and ready to go at a moment's notice?
There are 300+ security personnel here!
THREE HUNDRED!!!
At selected intersections throughout the capital sit black, unmarked and unregistered vans.
Why?
Perhaps the most insidious thing is that mobile phone reception around Parliament House/American Embassy has been disrupted.
Like many other Canberrans who don't give a toss about this visit, I will be glad to hear Airforce One depart tomorrow afternoon.
I had the pleasure of wandering through the campus last Saturday (20th. August) taking some photos as part of my job.
It was a cool, late-winter's morning but the sun broke through the cloud cover most of the time, illuminating the blossom trees and the buildings.
Here's a four-minute slide show of a selection of those pix, set to music, that you might enjoy.
I have tried to provide a counterpoint to the more modern architectural styles of recently-constructed buildings (towards the end of the clip) by starting with some of the original cottages, now offices and schools in their own right.
I hope that you find it enjoyable.
The soundtrack, by-the-way, is "Don't Let Me be Lonely Tonight", by Percy Faith.
Click on the YouTube script in the bottom right-hand corner to view on YouTube and in a larger size.
This is the last month of Autumn for 2011 and today was a beautiful sunny, blue-sky, no wind kind of day. The trees in our front yard have reached the peak of their colours; from now on they will lose their leaves very quickly and in a week or so their branches will be bare.
So I armed myself with my camera (Sony DSC 717) and ventured into the shrubbery, accompanied by several birds who were plucking the last of the fruit off the Crab-apple tree.
Above is a YouTube montage of those shots set to "Yellow Days", chosen because I thought it was an appropriate piece to use.
You can watch it in a larger format by clicking on the YouTube wording in the bottom right-hand side of the little screen above.
That saying has really hit home over the past week; we have had rain for five days in a row - something unheard of here in the Canberra region over the past decade.
The thing is....everything is so green. Grass is growing so fast that it needs to be cut again as soon as the mowing is done!
Shrubs, bushes and trees have more new growth on them than we have seen in years and flowers have gone berserk.
On my way to work each day I pass this garden at the junction of three streets near Ainslie shops. I have never seen it so dense with the rambling roses. In fact, I never realised that it was a rose garden until recently!
About 50 kms south of Canberra is the village of Michelago. There's not much there and I would imagine that most residents would commute into Canberra for work. The railway line to Cooma used to pass through Michelago....well, it still does but no trains run on it. About 15 years back the old railway station was restored.
An annual fair was held at Michelago to which a steam train would operate from Canberra.
On the way back to Canberra from Cooma the other day I decided to stop and see how the place was going and was saddened to discover that the station and its surrounds had fallen into disrepair and was unkempt.
(Click on images for full-size view)
A very sad sight, with the station buildings not maintained, the track overgrown and the surrounding gardens and park gone to hell, with picnic tables and bench seats barely visible in the undergrowth.
What's happened to Michelago? The whole place looks dowdy, uncared for and forgotten.
There used to be an air of civic pride there a decade ago, so what has brought about this decay?
As a promotion for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, several very large sculptures were crafted out of stainless-steel and mounted on Centrepoint Tower in the retail heart of Sydney.
There were three figures: an athlete in the starting blocks, a gymnast and a basketball player in a wheelchair (representing the disabled Olympians).
At least two of these creations are viewable at the AIS.
The basketballer sits outside the entrance to the Visitor's Centre and the gymnast is a little further down the road, outside the entrance to the two indoor swimming pools.
I had reason to visit the AIS this morning as part of my job and took the following photos, which I thought I'd share here.
Please note that if you click on the small image then a full-size version will open up.
This is the main entrance to the campus and is the first thing that the visitor sees when alighting from a coach or walking up the path from the carpark............
Just to the left, and slightly behind me, is the basket-baller.......
But that shot doesn't really do her justice.....and gives no idea of the scale of the structure.
The next shot does, however...............
You can gauge the size of the figure by the two people walking towards the camera just at the base of the mound on which the sculpture is located.
In addition, the traditional bronze sculpture of the two figures on the plinth - one doing a handstand on the other's up-stretched arm - whilst larger than life, are dwarfed by the stainless-steel figure.
The next shot is of the bronze.......
This sculpture has been in place for many years and is a favourite of all those who view it.
As mentioned above, further along is the gymnast, outside the pool complex........
Here she is in a close-up.
A beautiful creation, very nicely detailed, even down to her hair being tied into a bun........
I'll close this blog entry with my favourite shot taken today.
A storm was building in the west and I captured it as the background to the basket-baller.
(The giant anchoring/tensioning arms in the background support the roof of the Arena, an indoor-event building which hosts basketball and also other forms of entertainment.)
