At last - the final furnishings are in!

Two weeks ago the new dining suite was delivered.
This features solid-timber construction of Australian hardwoods and the dining table is extendable to provide a six-place setting. We bought the full complement of six chairs.
It is very nice to now be able to dine at a proper table instead of an outdoor utility table with plastic chairs!

Then last Monday the final pieces of furniture arrived.
The lounge had been orderd on June 1st. but because we chose a leather colour that was not in stock we had to wait for delivery from the factory.

Suffice to say that it is very comfortable, with two recliners and the three-seat settee, which means I can snooze on it in the afternoons!

We kept one of the temporary bean-bags - Rosie the cat loves it.

The Palm Lakes Ponds and the Vespa comes home.

(Note that all photos enlarge when clicked)

A fortnight ago we had some really good rainfall, which fell steadily over a couple of days.
The result here at Palm Lakes (Oyster Cove) was the saturation of the low-lying area in the "forest", to the extent that a series of ponds were evident for several days.

The water table in this location is very close to the surface and it doesn't take long for the ponds to develop.

Here's a photo of the same location when it is normally dry........

Today I picked up the Vespa (GT200) from being serviced/carby repairs at Crossroads Motorcycles in Grafton.
It was a superb day - clear sunny sky, gentle breeze and just a perfect spring day all round.
I rode home via the Grafton-Lawrence Road and then through Maclean - a marvellous run of some 63 kilometres past canefields and dairy paddocks, with the Clarence River off to the right until Lawrence, where we crossed the river by vehicular ferry and continued to Maclean and then Yamba with the river on our left.

So the scooter has now rejoined the Red Fleet and will be used often now that it is running properly.

We stopped in Maclean for coffee and a sandwich and I clicked the following shots:-

First up is the historic post office building with original Post Master's residence and, next to it, the police station. Both buildings still continue in their roles today.

In the middle of a round-about just to the right of the above photo sits an original derrick once used to load/unload the barges that plied the river.

A shot of the Honda Jazz and the Vespa, parked neatly as we strolled off for a cuppa.
My wife was driving the Jazz, in which we travelled from Yamba to pick up the Vespa.
As I was removing my helmet and gloves, a local lady asked if she could take the scooter home because she thought it was "cute"! Any thoughts I may have harboured of striking a macho pose went out the window!

This evening we fired up the b-b-q and dined casually.

It's a hard life but we put up with it!

At work!

It's not "work", just a very enjoyable pastime.

I present a radio program twice a week - two hours on Monday afternoon from 4 - 6 PM and then four hours on Wednesday from noon until 4:00 PM - on our local community radio, TLC 100.3 FM.

So here's a photo of yours truly at the console yesterday, as hits from the 1960s were pouring out into the ether (and streaming on the internet).

By-the-way,  our station premises..........

A little bit of Lismore

We paid a visit to Lismore yesterday - a trip of about 90 km (80 minutes) from Yamba and a very pleasant drive.

One thing we noticed in the part of the town we visited - one of the older parts - was the number of original homes that had been restored or otherwise very well maintained.

(All photos enlarge when clicked)

It wasn't until we noticed the houses across the road from the address we were visiting that our eyes opened up and we saw that they were everywhere, with the great majority in very nice condition and beautifully presented.

Great examples of how to keep an old town (established around 1855) looking really lovely with the original dwellings.

Panasonic Lumix TZ40 - Panorama function

I hadn't used this clever function until a week or so back so yesterday, when at the little lighthouse in which 2TLC FM 100.3 is located, I switched it on and took the following pic.....

If you click it then it should come up in a larger size.

The object at the left of picture is the water reservoir for Yamba, the operating lighthouse is in the left-background, just beyond the pilot station building. The ochre-coloured house is a holiday residence, once part of the original lighthouse complex and the white building is the replica lighthouse, home to the community radio station.

Palm Lakes - Oyster Cove - Coffs Harbour airport

A few photographs which take in the Palm Lakes/Oyster Cove location, the front of our new home and a run down to Coffs Harbour airport yesterday.
All photos enlarge to full size when clicked.

The view across the water of Oyster Cove (a backwater of the Clarence River, off Shallow Channel and Oyster Channel) towards the homes that were built about 17 years ago as part of Stage 1 of the original development.

A pathway through the "forest" which forms part of the resort and links to a pedestrian-access gate (just behind me in this photo). and then to Orion Drive.

Photo taken at about 8:30 AM, with the sun rising into a clear blue winter's sky.
Some of the original homes of Stage 1 seen on the right.

The front aspect of our new home (the structure is eight years old and we bought from the original owners) with the attached garage and the bum of the Honda Jazz showing.

Another view of the front, taken from outside the garage.
Front door and sliding door to living area beyond, both off the covered verandah.
The hedge is a combination of camellia and azalea....apparently very pretty when in flower.

The contents of the 1.5-car garage.
1990 MX5 on the left and Jazz on the right.
The Vespa GT200 (also red!) was in Grafton being serviced.
Beyond the  end wall of the garage is a covered alcove surrounded by lattice which provides a shaded outdoor living area in summer but which can really be used at any time of the year due to the mild winters.

An old brick church under the shade of a gigantic spreading Morton Bay Fig tree, on the Pacific Highway near Ulmarra.

Here's a short (45 seconds) video-clip as we passed through Ulmarra, just a kilometre on from the location in the photograph above:-

An Embraer ("Whitehaven Beach") of Virgin Australia ready to depart Coffs Harbour for Sydney yesterday afternoon.
I was at the airport awaiting the arrival of my sister on a QantasLink Dash 8 from Sydney.
Coffs is a pretty little airport and is serviced by Qantas, Virgin and Tiger.

More furniture has been added.

All photographs enlarge when clicked.

We have furnished nearly 3/4 of the villa and only have the lounge and dining suites to arrive (about six weeks away) in order to complete the fitting-out.

The most recent addition was my desk & L-return for the study.

Like many furniture items these days, these arrived as a "flat-pack" and had to be assembled.
In this case that only took about 40 minutes and I was able to put the two pieces together unassisted.

The style and colour of the desk was chosen to blend in with that of the 1970s Chiswell unit that we brought up from Canberra.
All that I need to get is a comfortable office chair to replace the temporary white plastic outdoor item!

The week before last we took delivery of the second of two entertainment units for the living room.
One was pre-assembled (thank Heavens!) and is home to the TV unit, DVD player and surround-sound audio amplifier. It had been delivered earlier in the week.

It has two drawers and two glass shelves and weighs a tonne! Once in position that is where it stays for the rest of its days!
The other unit was a flat-pack job and required assembly from a multitude of parts.
It took me more than two hours to assemble this item. You wouldn't think so when looking at it but with two cupboards, two drawers, partitions and shelving, believe me when I say it was a long process.
This unit now houses our DVDs and LPs.

On the same day that the above flat-pack was delivered, so was the double bed for the second bedroom.

This was also a flat-pack but consisted of just the head, foot, slats for the base and the side frames and was the easiest and fastest of the lot to assemble.
It didn't take long for our cat to discover a comfortable spot on the "zebra" blanket.

So there we are......nearly fully furnished.
Roll on the lounge and dining furniture. At least it's all pre-assembled!

Those "Moving In" blues!

(All photos enlarge when clicked)

On the 6th. of June, after the painter had finished doing the walls and ceilings, we moved in the first items of new furniture, which we had bought "locally" - the nest of tables from a furniture store here in Yamba and the arching floor lamp from Harvey Norman in Ballina.
These were the only items belonging to us when this photo was taken. The removalist was to arrive a week later.

On the 12th. of June they turned up and unloaded SEVENTY-THREE boxes!!
I thought we'd packed about 46 but no, the total was almost double that number.

Two weeks have passed since that day and we still have 13 boxes to unpack.
Most of those contain books, magazines, CDs, LPs and DVDs plus a smattering of miscellaneous stuff not needed on a daily basis.
Once all the boxes are emptied I will be putting them up for sale on the internet.

We are still awaiting the delivery of furniture that we have ordered over the past three weeks.
The items include a dining suite, a lounge suite, a bedroom suite, an entertainment unit and an office desk for the study.
So we are making do with a couple of bean-bags, cushions, a collapsible picnic table, some plastic garden chairs and empty packing boxes as desks and bedside tables.

Packing-up a household, moving it 900+ kilometres and then unpacking it into the new home should only ever be done once as a maximum and preferably never!

However, the BIG positives, which far outweigh the pain of the moving process, are the location, the weather, the people and the overall ambiance of Yamba and the region.

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On a walk along the breakwall a couple of weeks ago I spotted a lone fisherman accompanied by his dog.
It was a lovely scene - very peaceful. Just a bloke and his mate fishing for Blackfish.

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Rosie the cat settled into her new home pretty smoothly after we picked her up from the cattery on June the 17th.
We hadn't seen her for exactly a month but she remembered us and within a few days had eased into the new situation, even finding the best sunny spots in which to snooze and grab some vitamin D.

It's a hard life, being a cat!

On guard!

Just across the road from Waves Fitness Centre here in Yamba is a grassed area  adjacent a sports ground and it is hemmed by ti-tree (or"tea tree" or "paperbark") bush.
(Click on the link and you'll get a Streetview. Rotate it and you'll see the location to which I refer).

The other day a large male 'roo was sunning himself right on the edge of the scrub.
But he wasn't relaxing; he was quite alert. Notice his ears (checking for sounds behind) and also the way he is holding his head.

You wouldn't want to come across this big bloke unexpectedly - he could be dangerous if surprised.

I was about 50 metres away when I took this shot, using the full zoom of the Lumix TZ40, resting it on the roof of my car to reduce unsteadiness.

TLC FM 100.3 Yamba

Yamba is home to the studios of The Lower Clarence community radio station, TLC FM 100.3, a station which must sit in arguably the most picturesque location of any radio station, anywhere!

I've mentioned before in this blog that the studios occupy the replica of the original lighthouse building, which sat here from the late 1800s until 1955, when it was demolished.

The two photos below show what the replica looked like well prior to completion (left) and then as it is today (right).

The view from this spot is delightful.
Here is a short video made from just outside the studio. It is in high definition and 16:9 ratio, so watching it directly on YouTube may be preferable............

Incidentally, my "Baby Boomer Radio" program has moved (along with me!) from Canberra to Yamba and may now be heard on TLCFM every Wednesday afternoon between midday and 4:00 PM.
I have a separate blog devoted to the program - just click on Baby Boomer Radio to access it - where you can find information about the show.