Heading Off Again

We had no sooner returned home from the Isle of Man before we headed off again with our caravan.  (Yes, I will get around to posting about the overseas trip, but will do the latest one first, while it is still fresh in my mind.)

The weather was drizzly and dreary when we left home and we were looking forward to heading to warmer climates.

Firstly, we had to make a small detour to the little town of Rylstone, about an hour away from home, for me to go shopping.  Rylstone has a rather lovely wool shop called “Convent and Chapel”. I wanted to find some merino 4ply sock wool to knit another boomerang scarf.  I have a scarf in autumn colours that is really versatile, but has no warmth.  This yarn is from an Irish company “Hedgehog Fibres”. They dyed this wool especially for the Rylstone shop and it is appropriately named “Mudgee Moods” (Mudgee is the town just up the road).  

As I was hoping to possibly make a start on the project while we were away, they also kindly would it into a cake for me.  This gives a better idea of what it will look like knitted up.  Isn’t it pretty.  Just what I was hoping to find. Spoiler alert, no, I didn’t make a start.

Our destination was Coonabarabran, so that I could attend a Free Motion Quilting Class at the Crafters Cottage with Chooky on the following day.  I have completed a similar class many years ago, even before blogging, but have done nothing with it.  This was a great refresher and has given me the confidence to try something other than pantographs on Monique, even though the class was on our domestic machines.

The next day saw us head further north, crossing the border into Queensland.

We had a night camped in the yard of Bird on the Border.  We had a very pleasant evening together and it was fun to see her new sewing room and quilting setup.

After leaving Jenny’s, we were in holiday mode, travelling on country roads and seeing the occasional oversize loads along the way.

As well as cotton bales in the paddocks.

Our next stop was Dalby.  We have stayed overnight here before, but never had a good look around.

There are some lovely old buildings.

We were interested to read that there is the only monument dedicated to an insect located on the banks of the Myall Creek, so we to hunt it out.  It is for the cactoblastis cactorum moth that was introduced in the 1920s to combat the prickly pear plants that had infested much of south east Queensland.  The plants had been introduced from South America, firstly on the First Fleet in 1788 as a host for cochineal insects and then as a garden plant. In ten years, the prickly pear was pretty much under control.  A very successful case of  biological control, unlike the cane toad, but that is another story.

Many farmers walked off their land, as they were unable to control the weed.  There is still quite a bit of prickly pear growing, but nothing like it was back then. The cochineal beetle has also been introduced in more recent times to help eradicate the pest.  We did see some sick plants that had been affected by it.  I came across this article from the National Museum about the history of the infestation and found it really interesting.

We called in at the Information Centre to get some brochures and found a nice little coffee shop to sit and peruse them, prior to having a day of playing the tourist.  We decided that a little road trip to the village of Bell would fit the bill.

The scenery on the drive out there was beautiful, showing off the very fertile Darling Downs to its best advantage.

Bell is tiny, but for such a small place, we spent a rather lovely couple of hours poking around.

The main drawcard to visit is the Catholic Church.  The exterior is just a sweet little weatherboard building, much like churches in many small country towns, albeit well maintained.

There is even a Bell’s bell.

Notice the bells painted on the steps.  How lovely.

The surprise is the interior, which is decorated with beautiful murals, completed by Meg Cullen, a local parishioner.

To the side of the church is a Biblical Garden.  This was also established by Megg Cullen with the assistance of other parishioners.

This includes many plants that are mentioned in the bible, along with other hardy plants suitable to the climate.  It is beautifully maintained.

A feature is a series of mosaics of biblical scenes and Mary MacKillop.

After having a nice wander around it was time for lunch.  The coffee shop and pub (pictured above) were both closed, but we had been told that you could buy food at the general store, where we bought delicious burgers and milkshakes to eat in the nice little park.

Next on the agenda was to have a look around the old Railway precinct.  This was opened as a Centenary of Federation Project back in 2000.  The mural was rather faded.  Once again it was nicely maintained. 

The Bell area was settled in the 1870s as agricultural land, with the railway reaching Bell in 1906, at which time the town was surveyed and named after a local landholding family.  There were three trains a week, for passengers, stock and freight.  The line closed in the early 1990s, after which a committee was established to create the current precinct. 

Finally, the RSL Club celebrated its centenary in 2019 and has some murals painted on the building, which I’m guessing were completed for that event.  Another nice tidy building.

We really enjoyed our time exploring an area that wasn’t touristy and nice and quiet.

On the way back to Dalby we drove through a short sharp storm, so had been lucky with our day of wandering.