Crossing the Border

When we left Narrabri the following morning the sky was crystal clear looking towards Mount Kaputar.  That would be right.

Anyway, we travelled further north and had a nice morning tea and wander around Moree.  There are some lovely old buildings.  This is just a small taste.

From there it was time to cross the border at Goondiwindi.

A walk up and down the street was required and I noticed a couple of quite new murals down a lane.

We stayed a couple of nights with Jenny (Bird on the Border) and her hubby Bernie.

We had a lovely evening that first night sitting outside and enjoying pizza from the wood fired pizza oven.

The following day, we were given a guided tour of the town.  We have travelled through countless times, but generally have just stayed in the very central area.  There is a bush botanical gardens and a nice water park.  There is also a quirky row of sculptures.  I’ll just share a few.

Notice the little table setting underneath the large one and compare the sizes.  Rather fun.

Dinner that night was cooked by Bernie and was delicious.  Gail, who comes to Scrub Stitchin’ with Jenny, joined us.  Of course, I once again forgot to take a photo.

Bernie discovered that it would be Mick’s birthday in a couple of days and decided he needed a birthday cake, which was a rather lovely gesture and a rather delicious cake.  Mick was thrilled.

All too soon, it was time to get on the road again.  It was such a pleasure to spend time with good friends.

Starting to Head North

Once Mick had finished his bowls it was time to head north on our latest adventure.  When we travel with the caravan, we generally have a rough plan of where and when we will go.  This is always subject to change.

The first day was wet, so we didn't stop and look at things as much as usual.  Not only that, it was all places we knew quite well - Forbes, Parkes, Narromine and then onto Gilgandra. 

While walking up the street in Parkes we had a chuckle at this fun creation.

We did call in at the butcher's at Narromine to buy some meat for tea and were surprised at the beautiful tiles.

It turns out that the Butcher's shop was opened in 1902 and the tiles were imported from England.  The cow tiles look like new.

The current butcher is only a young fellow, who has been working there since he was an apprentice and now owns it.

We free camped at Gilgandra and it rained gently all night. The following morning we went for a walk and noticed this fun mural.

Then it was time to venture further north.  There is a little village off to the side of the road, Armatree, which we've never been to see.  This was our opportunity.  It is famous for its pub and we noticed that there is good camping areas to its rear.  We may look at camping there in the future.  There was a rather new sculpture in the park, which we had to take a photo of. 

From there it was on to Coonamble, where we enjoyed catching up with Chooky and Mr Chooky for morning tea.  Of course, with all the chatter, we forgot to take a photo.

Plan A of our trip was to camp at the Pilliga Bore Baths for a couple of nights, but due to the rain, that wasn't going to be a terribly smart idea, as the ground tends to get rather sticky and boggy when wet.  Therefore, we went to Plan B, that was to travel on to Narrabri and have a couple of nights there instead.

So, what to do while there?  The obvious choice was to drive out ot Mt Kaputar, the highest point in the area, from where you can see 10% of New South Wales on a good day.

We headed off nice and early.  As you can see, the top of the mount was shrouded in mist when we left, but we hoped it would clear by the time we got there, as it is 52kms east of Narrabri.

As we got closer the trees created a lovely tunnel.

Once you enter the National Park the road turns to gravel.  There are various rock formations along the way.

As you start to climb, the road returns to bitumen and is narrow, windy and steep.  We passed a sign saying we were at 914 metres above sea level and then kept climbing.  The summit is at 1,510 metres above sea level.

One spot had a lovely collection of grass trees beside the road.

By the time we were nearing the summit, we realised that we were not going to see anything, as we had entered that layer of low cloud.  It was all rather moody.  We made the decision to turn around and return to Narrabri.

We had visited the summit back in 2014.  You can read my blog post from the time here.  The photo of the two of us in my blog header is the one we took of ourselves at the summit on that day.

We did manage to snap this photo of the view once we returned below the clouds.

So, what to do next?

We had heard of a place called Lake Yarrie, to the south west of Narrabri, so headed out there.  It is only a small, shallow lake, but such a pretty setting.  The water level is currently quite low, but at times people take their boats out on it.

It has camping sites all around the lake, and even power for some of them.  We enjoyed our picnic lunch there and had a nice walk around.  Another potential camp site for future reference.

On the way back to town we did our final touristy thing, visiting the Australia Telescope.  As you enter, on several signs, they instruct you to turn off your phone, wifi and bluetooth.

They say this set up is like the Parkes Telescope x 6.  There are six dishes.  (You can't fit them all in the photo.) One is fixed and is 5kms away from the centre.  The other five are close together and on tracks.  They can be positioned up to 3km apart.  The array of the six smaller dishes creates the same effectiveness as a 6km diametre dish. It is so sensitive that they say they could pick up a mobile phone call on Pluto.

It was all very interesting, but way above my understanding.

Oh, and as we returned to Narrabri, we noticed that it was as clear as a bell over Mt Kaputar.  We should have waited till after lunch to venture out there.  Oh well, there will be another time.

And that completed the next couple of days of our trip.  More soon.

We’re Off Again

About a week and a half ago we headed off with the van again.  Our first day was a big one…..travelling 110kms to Cowra, where we stayed for three nights.

We stayed in a lovely caravan park, right in town and beside the river.  Very convenient to everything.  The autumn coloured leaves looked so nice in the afternoon light.

The reason we were there was that Mick was playing in a bowls tournament.  His club had won the local Pennants comp and were representing the area in the Zone competition.  

There were eight clubs competing, with each club fielding three teams.  They were divided into two groups. They each played two games on Saturday and one on Sunday morning.  The winner of each group would then go on to play a final to determine which club would represent the Zone at the State level.  The scores were calculated on the combined total points of each club, so two teams could win their games but the third lose by a lot and they may still not get through, if you get my drift.

Anyway, Bathurst managed to achieve the highest score in their group of four teams, so went on to play Binnaway in the final, which Binnaway won by two points.  Mick’s team did win every one of their games, which they were pleased with.  Binnaway has never reached State level before, so they were thrilled and Bathurst will be cheering them on.

In the meantime, what did I get up to?  Well, I didn’t watch bowls for the entire weekend.  I wandered the street for a good look and actually did some sewing.

I packed my baby Stella and finally added the shadows to the crumb blocks that I have made so far for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Before we left home I bought a wool pressing mat that worked beautifully with my $5 garage sale mini iron.

The blocks look good together.  Keep in mind, there will be a sashing in the light grey between them all, which will make the effect so much better, but a good bit of progress.

I also started knitting a new scarf, using my tried and trued pattern for a boomerang scarf.  This one is a festive red colour.  No photo of progress at that stage, as I forgot, but I will update later.

So, that was a nice way to start our latest adventure.  More to follow shortly.

Scrub Stitchin’ - Part 9 - The Final One - What I Worked on

Finally, we are at the end of these posts.

So, what did I work on?

Firstly, I started on the Batik Fish appliqué.  My grand plan was to do a bit each day, so I wouldn’t get sick of it. Well, I worked on them on Wednesday, in amongst lots of chatting and catching up with everyone and having my first ever massage.  (I’ll be doing that again next time if she is there.)

I thought I would have them completed by lunch on Thursday, so kept going.  I underestimated things, and did’t get them finished until late that afternoon.  Here I am working on the very last stitches.

I was one very happy camper to have that job completed.  It won’t take all that long to get the quilt top made, once I have a play on the design curtain.

Next, I worked on the pink Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  They are always a nice and easy thing to do.  I didn’t need to make any crumb blocks in April.

Then, it was time to start piecing the blocks for the Solid Fat Quarter Quilt.  I had everything cut into strips, and colours paired, so it didn’t take too long to get the blocks made and the next day I had the quilt top completed.  I’m really happy with how it has turned out.

While working on those projects I pieced another twenty pairs for the Bonnie Lass. Quilt as leaders and enders.

The final project I worked on was the Simply Serene Quilt that was one that Chooky and Jo planned for us.  All I did was make the half square triangles.  I needed a design wall for the next bit, and there wouldn’t be time to get the quilt top together.  It was simpler to leave that till I got home and played with my design curtain.

Finally, remember those fabrics and zip that were in our goodies bag.  Well, on Friday afternoon, in among  all the other goings on that day, we were given the instructions on how to make a book pouch, using a new to us zipper insertion technique. Just about everyone had theirs completed on the weekend, which was a first.

There were a few of us left on the Sunday night and we had a lazy tea of leftovers.  It was a nice relaxing way to end the week.   I did get quite a bit of my crochet corner to corner rug worked on.

So lots to show for the weekend, with plenty more to do once I returned home, not much of which has happened.  It will, all in good time.

We had a nice drive home on the Monday, with wonderful scenery, as always.

It was fun to see the new train that will be replacing the XPT doing a trial run near Dubbo.

And we knew we were nearing home when we started to see the autumn colour in the trees.

In conclusion, it was a fabulous time in Baradine with a wonderful group of people and we can’t wait to return for the next event.