I love standing in the middle of a forest. I don’t know why, but I find it so relaxing. This pine forest is in the Barrington Tops State Forest. It was down the rode from my friend Eric the echidna.
On my bucket list is camping in a forest for a few days. This area would be perfect as it is surrounded by many walking trails. As there is only one road in or out, the number of people around to spoil the solitude is also limited.
For me, forests are the perfect place to connect with nature and hug a tree.
Echidnas, also known as spiny ant eaters, live alone in the Australian bush. The only time they are with other echidnas is during mating seasons. Echidnas are egg laying mammals like a platypus and have a pouch like a kangaroo. Their bodies are covered in spines like porcupines, which are actually hairs. They also have no teeth but have a long sticky tongue. A puggle is a baby echidna.
We found this little cutie in his natural habitat at Barrington Tops Nation Park. He walked across the road in front of us so we decided to stop and chat to him. He didn’t seem to be phased by us at all and just waddled past. Slowly but very confidently.
Echidnas are always exciting to watch. This one I named Eric.
I love Dr Seuss. My first Dr Seuss book, Green Eggs and Ham was first published two years before I was born. So, you could say that I grew up with him.
Last year, I visited both the Sydney and Melbourne galleries of The Art of Dr Seuss. The Melbourne shop, welcomed us warmly and we spent 1 1/2 hours absorbing the world and admiring the drawing and sketches from our favourite books.
As an adult my favourite book is Oh, The Places You’ll Go! The Melbourne gallery had several pieces that I would purchase if I ever won the lottery. In the meantime, I will dream.
Have you ever been going for a day trip and accidentally found somewhere you’ll never forget? For me, this was Cabargo on the South Coast of New South Wales.
This historic village began in the late 1860’s. It’s unique main street is lined with turn of the century buildings. The shop owners today make and sell crafts and artworks that in many cases are similar to what they would have sold over 150 years ago.
We were first drawn to Cabargo when we saw the train cafe. It was lunch time when we drove through and this unique eatery didn’t disappoint. You could choose to eat inside or out. For us the choice was obvious. The train carriage was similar to the ones I had grown up with. So after lunch I enjoyed walking down memory lane remembering my childhood.
Unfortunately, Cabargo’s train cafe and the its unique main street are no longer. They were all destroyed in the bush fire that ravaged the village last New Year’s Eve. Cabargo became a community devastated by loss, not only of its buildings but also a father and his son who died protecting their property.
Growing up in Newcastle in the 1970’s, BHP was the biggest employer in the area. BHP opened in Newcastle in 1915 and closed it’s doors forever on the 30th September, 1999. At one stage, BHP employed 1 in 10 people in Newcastle. Everyone knew someone who worked there. No-one could imagine life in Newcastle without the BHP. However, 84 years later, the blast furnaces stopped. And Newcastle lost the smog and pollution almost immediately.
Last September, Newcastle celebrated the 20th anniversary of the closure of BHP with a special weekend. To celebrate we were able to visit The Muster Point. A memorial sculpture made of steel and bronze, 8 metres wide and 12 metres high completed just before the BHP closed it’s doors. On top of the sculpture is a cross to honour the lives lost over the years, in what was a very dangerous workplace.
Also at The Muster Point was one of BHP’s old managers. He was there to meet and greet old employees and others coming together to remember and celebrate all things Newcastle steelworks. His stories told of life working at BHP during those times. And he explained that for many of the employees, BHP was part of their family and sometimes their only family. For this reason, it was important to look out for the welfare of his staff. An example he used was arranging reading and writing lessons for some of the workers when he realised that they couldn’t do either. These were the little things that those of us who hadn’t worked at Big Harry’s Place ( the local nickname), had never considered.
We also visited Delprat’s cottage, which was built on site so Guillaume Deprat could supervise the steelworks construction even when he was home. The heritage society has done a great job creating a museum during the renovations. They are attempting to recreate the cottage as close as possible to the original building.
Delprat was a big fan of body strength. On of his favourite ways to exercise and improve his strength was with gymnastic rings. To ensure he could always exercise, he had a set of gymnastics ring hung in his bedroom. This allowed him to do two jobs at once – practise his moves and supervise his steelworks.
Due to technical complications I am 3 days late to start this years A-Z challenge but I will start anyway and see how we go. Here’s hoping we can catch up by next week.
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Beer is important in both Australian and Japanese cultures. So, it’s no surprise that when we went to Japan for my son and daughter-in-law’s wedding, our families bonded at the Asahi Beer Factory in Osaka.
The free tour was interesting and taught us how beer is made, bottled and packaged. I loved the colourful display of old beer cans and bottles from around the world.
However, the real fun came when the brewery tour ended and the beer drinking started. We had 20 minutes to drink 3 freshly brewed beers of our choice if we dared. Challenge accepted. No problem.
