Tag: Walks

Coffee Catch-Up #38

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If we were having coffee today we can go to a coffee shop and sit down or you could come to my home. New South Wales is now open for anyone who can prove their vaccination status. In fact people were so excited last Monday when we opened up that they spent over 100 million dollars in 24 hours – going to the pub or eating out, having their haircut and going shopping. Some even lined up at midnight to do so. My week however hasn’t involved me doing much different although I did enjoy coffee sitting in the café today. Gyms have also reopened. From tomorrow we have even more freedoms. Now one of the few things we can’t do is travel from Sydney to the regions or reverse.

If we were having coffee I would tell you about the fun map of Newcastle I found today. It is on the side of the old Maritime museum and incorporates Newcastle’s history over the years. It isn’t to scale but was very detailed and reminded me of many things that I had forgotten.

If we were having coffee I would tell you my osteoarthritis flared up for the first time this week. I was diagnosed with a small amount of it in my hip 2 years ago but I’m guessing it has gotten worse. For no reason I woke up on Tuesday morning in a lot of pain and with a fever. In this day and age of course having a fever means you need a covid test which was negative. So with rest and pain relief it returned to normal. Eventually I will be able to have a new scan and see how much it has deteriorated but at present that will have to wait as our doctors live in Sydney and we cannot travel there yet.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I walked past Cooks Hill Spoonville on my walk this morning. I was excited to see that the family of spoons had grown.

If we were having coffee I would ask you what is happening in your world.

Thanks to Natalie for hosting #weekendcoffeeshare.

Coffee Catch-Up # 37

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If we were having coffee we would be either be still walking with our coffee or drinking it in a local park if you are double vaxxed. New South Wales is beginning to get excited as Monday week 11th October is when we are due to have less restrictions if we have had 2 doses of any vaccine. By the middle of November our international borders will also open as we will have reached 80 % double vaxxed. Todays coffee I really enjoyed as if was very smooth and creamy.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how excited I was to see a huge mulberry tree fully laden with fruit on my walk last week. This sight brought back strong memories of my childhood. I can remember having silk worms as a pet briefly and watching them make silk. It is strange but silkworms only eat mulberry leaves which is tricky during winter when leaves are scarce. I can also remember loving mulberry pies. They were fun but messy to make. Getting the purple stains out of your fingers was also a challenge. As mulberry trees are so high harvesting the berries from the top is a big challenge.

The dark berries are ready to eat.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that October is Mental Health awareness month. And what better way to draw attention to it than with a massive blow up elephant in the room. I love him. When I first started working in mental health 40 years ago it was never a common topic of conversation. Mental health really was the elephant in the room that no-one talked about. Fortunately this is no longer the case and I for one hope it stays like that.

If we were having coffee I would asked you who you thought our next Premier would be after the shock resignation of Gladys on Friday. It definitely feels weird to be leaderless during such a difficult time in our state’s history. I’m no expert in politics but my guess is the current Treasurer.

If we were having coffee I would have asked you if you enjoyed a coffee on Friday for International Coffee Day. I did and again it was a good one. I also wrote a post to celebrate in which I discussed the virtues of coffee with an acrostic poem using my favourite coffee style, cappuccino. If your interested I have attached post here.

If we were having coffee I would ask you what is happening in your world.

Thanks to Natalie for hosting #weekendcoffeeshare

Merewether Aquarium

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For many years, I have walked past the pedestrian underpass leading to Merewether Beach. As I had a walked past on the beach side, I had vaguely noticed that the outside was painted and was welcoming people to come inside. But I never did.

Last Sunday on my weekly local exploration walk however I found myself using the underpasss from the other side to get to the beach. It was then that I remembered it was called Merewether Aquarium. I couldn’t believe the difference.

The Merewether Aquarium was created by local artist, Mister Trevor Dickinson in 2014. An aquarium is a great description of the underpass as the artist has even painted a turtle and a shark on the roof of the underpass so it feels like you are in the viewing tunnel of a big aquarium.

The paintings on either side of the aquarium walls are fun and full of quirky details and hidden messages. Some of my favourites were:

  • The local Merewether bus
  • The artist himelf as a diver
  • Newcastle’s local 4 times World Champion Surfer – Mark Richards
  • Merewether Ocean Baths building
  • Merwether Surfhouse
  • The diving blocks from the ocean baths
  • The local hotel
  • Humpback whales that swim up and down the coast from May to November
  • Lifeguard vehicles

I also love the black lines painted regularly giving the impression you are looking through glass.

Blogging From A-Z: T is Tongariro River

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T2020

The Tongariro River is on New Zealand’s North Island at Turangi. Known for it’s fly fishing, it is New Zealand’s most fished river. Tongariro is also classified as one of the best trout fishing rivers in the world. 75% of the catch is rainbow trout and 25% brown trout. While the fishermen in the river made it look easy, we unfortunately didn’t get to try it.

White water rafting is the another outdoor sport the river is known for. This we did get to try and it was amazing. Our raft had people from all around the world, none whom had tried white water rafting before. From memory, we went on a grade 3 rapid trip and some of the rapids were very scary. Even though the guides who steer the rafts are very experienced, the problem is that the river is constantly shifting so they are constantly looking out for new obstacles and dangers.

I actually feel in love with this river as my husband and I were following the Tongariro River trail. This walk took several hours but was well worth it to see so many of its different parts. I wasn’t expecting the river to be as different as it was to our Australian rivers. On our walk my favourite thing was seeing all the fly fishermen working their sport with such grace. It was just like a painting or a scene from a movie.