Yamba - Our new home town.

We have now been in Yamba for almost a fortnight, having arrived on the afternoon of Sunday 18th. of May.
Our new home has been vacated (yesterday evening) by the previous owners and next week the painter will be going in to give the eight-year old interior walls and ceilings a fresh coat before we move in.
So until the 13th. or 14th. of June we are in rented accommodation - a town-house not very far from our new address.

Yamba lighthouse and pilot station, taken from the TLC FM studios in the old lighthouse replica

The past fifteen days have seen beautiful weather - unusually warm, with blue skies and soft breezes. Not at all what we would be experiencing in Canberra and even unseasonal for this coastal area. This is, after all, supposed to be almost the end of autumn. But nobody is complaining!

Last weekend the regular "last-Sunday-of-the-month" markets were held in Ford Park and it was another balmy day  - a superb morning.

I have to pinch myself now and then to make sure I'm not dreaming that I'm living this lifestyle!

The stained-glass panels

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.

Canberra - 14 days and counting

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.

As it was in 2004.....

Fourteen days to go.