The Rest of December

What else has been going on in December?  

We’ll start with the weather.  What a mixed bag.  There has been days up into the high 30s C, down to the low 20s C, storms, heavy rain, and no rain to speak of for the last couple of weeks.  There have been lots of windy days, resulting in a largish bushfire in remote country not far from here.  Thankfully, it is now nearly out.

We had an evening out. The background is that last year, while watching the cricket, we kept seeing ads for Australian Idol.  We don’t normally watch that style of show, but did this time.  Surprisingly to us, we both really enjoyed it.  There wasn’t the nastiness that seems to be the norm in reality TV.  The ultimate winner was a fellow by the name of Dylan Wright.  Well, at the beginning of December he had a show here in Bathurst, so we thought we would go along.

The venue was “Keystone 1889”.  This is the old Masonic Hall.  

After the Masons sold it, it became “Carrington House” and was a function centre for many years.  You can see where the inspiration for both names comes from.

The interior is lovely.

It was an intimate event with only a smallish audience. The support act was a young local girl who has been touring with Troy Casser Daley.  She was rather good.

Dylan performed solo and with his best mate.  They put on a really nice show.

He was happy to do the meet and greet with all the attendees.

It was a really enjoyable night and we hare happy we went along.

The vege garden is getting into full production.

The onions have been harvested and are curing in the shed.

We are getting plenty of beans, even enough to include in our Christmas dinner, small tomatoes and zucchinis.  

Our hydrangeas are putting on a show.  Mick bought the one in the pot at the church fete.  It is a beauty.

The dahlias are also starting to flower.

The golden rain tree out the front is also looking a picture.

Mick has been very busy down at the bowling club.  They had their annual tournament at the beginning of the month, so he helped lots in getting the grounds looking their best.

The main green keeper is currently on holidays, so Mick has had a crash course in maintaining the greens, mowing, rolling and watering.  He is down there nearly every day at present, and loving it.

Oh, and I made a cherry pie.  

So good.

And that about wraps up December, and 2024.  

Taking Monique to the Spa - Part 2

After visiting the Crookwell open gardens we headed across to Taralga, where we had booked a room for the night at the local pub.  It’s a lovely old building that has been undergoing some serious renovations.  Our room was freshly furnished.  We opted to go “Shared bathroom” rather than ensuite.  They can often be a bit dodgy, but this pub actually had two fully self contained bathrooms for the ladies.  You can’t get much better than that.

Once we were settled in we went for a bit of a walk up the street.

It was a lovely evening, so we enjoyed our dinner out on the pub verandah.  We felt it was rather hot during the night, and were somewhat surprised that the minimum temperature was only down to 21C!! We are not used to anything over 10C at this stage of the season, especially as Taralga is traditionally cooler than home.

The following morning we got away nice and early to deliver Monique for her service.

While there we were able to see the nice collection of vintage machines.

Centre stage was the rare East German machine we gave him.  It is the black one to the left of the green Elna Supermatic.

We now had time to kill, so went in search of a cafe to partake of “second breakfast”.  We were rather pleased with the one we found.  It just happened that we parked the car right in front of a patchwork shop….. and I didn’t go in.  Very strong of me.

With Mick being a bit of a cricket tragic, we decided to go and have a look at the Don Bradman Cricket Museum, housed beside the Bradman Oval.  

Don grew up in Bowral and played his early games with the local club on these grounds.

They even have his first cricket bat on display.

Another section talked about the evolution of cricket from a game played by shepherds in the 1300s by throwing a rock into a hole to what we now know.  This is a bat from the 1700s. Just a tad different from the modern version.

It was also interesting to learn that bowling over armed was developed by ladies, as they couldn’t bowl underarm, as they were hindered by their hooped skirts.

The museum also covered more recent developments in the game, in particular Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket of the 1970s.

They had  a large display of magazine ads from the time.  They were fun to have a look at.

Finally, there was a portrait gallery of more recent cricketers.

Outside, Mick posed with the statue of “The Don”.

So much detail.

It was about then that we heard that Monique was ready to collect and take home.  We just had a quick bite to eat in Goulburn for a late lunch and drove straight home via Oberon.  Yes, the road was rough.

It worked out that we had a very enjoyable couple of days away.