Not a very productive week

This week hasn't seen much accomplished, although stitches have been knitted and sewn...songs have been sung and plinked....the backing pieces for Arboretum have had one selvedge trimmed ready to be joined into a bigger piece....and, of course, words have been read.  Reading is my escape from the reality of our lives these days.

Never mind.

It is still midwinter.  I chuckle at those optimists who say "now that the winter solstice has passed we can look forward to longer warmer days" - well, yes, you can.  However, that doesn't happen instantly; scientists tell us it takes several weeks to notice much difference, and even then it's gradual.  We have had a few fairly cool days, and mornings with light frost, but so far (touch wood) it has been a fairly mild winter.

With that in mind, let's see if we can find some winter pics.

Back in 2009 we hitched up our caravan and headed for Nundle, a small village less than an hour south-east of Tamworth.  By then we had planned to move here the following year anyway, and we knew that once we did there was a very slim chance that we would take the van to Nundle - so we stopped there first.  Back in the mid-1800s Nundle, as well as many other towns, was the scene of a gold rush.  A steep drive from Nundle takes us to Hanging Rock, once the scene of a thriving settlement, but today just a few houses and a community hall.

This is one of the two Sheba Dams at Hanging Rock - and you cannot tell from this photo how cold it was.  It was a very still day with no wind, but the air was so crisp and chilly that we didn't stay out of the car for long.  The temperature was probably a low single digit.  In summer this is a popular camping spot, people even swim in the dams....but I wouldn't be dibbling my fingers in the water on a cold day!

Taken the same day, and yes, it was very cold.  Snow is not unknown at Hanging Rock because of its altitude.

At the top of that steep climb, before arriving in the village itself, is a path to a lookout overlooking the valley below.  That's Nundle in the distance on the right.

It's hard to imagine how busy and bustling those towns were in their heyday with a population of several thousand, but that is the story of so many gold mining towns, isn't it?  Some still thrived after the gold was gone, some stagnated with a few optimists hanging on, and some have disappeared completely.

Several years ago I read a book, "The Wallabadah Manuscript".  It was written when the author was getting on in years - dictated to his daughter, who wrote it down - and in it, he describes a shipment of gold taken on horseback from Nundle to Tamworth.  These days it's an easy 45-minute drive on a sealed road, but back in the 1850s it would have been a track through the bush which would have taken much longer.  The policeman leading the horse containing the gold, it seems, stopped at every farm along the way to slake his thirst; of course in those days it was safer to drink beer than water, so that's what he did.  He eventually fell off the horse somewhere, the horse continued on to Tamworth and arrived with the gold but with no rider.  As a result the policeman lost his job, something which doesn't come as a total surprise.

"Invitations to the ceremony only.

When the circle of friends on both sides is very extensive, it has become customary of late to send invitations to such as are not called to the wedding breakfast, to attend the ceremony at church.  This stands in the place of issuing cards.  No one must think of calling on the newly-married couple who has not received an invitation to the ceremony at church, or cards after their establishment in their new home."

I wonder if that is still done?  More than 30 years ago our younger son was involved in gymnastics, and two of the coaches married - the girls' coach married the boys' coach.  Kevin and I were invited to the wedding as were many of the parents, but all the kids - and there was quite a large number - were invited to just the church ceremony.  They still felt as though they were part of the day, and I don't blame the happy couple for not wanting to feed a horde of hungry teenagers.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer