The Rest of March

We are now well into autumn and are still experiencing rather warm weather for this part of the world, with most days being in the mid to high 20s C.  We aren’t complaining, as it has been lovely to sit on the back verandah or be out and about.

The other morning we were treated to a pretty spider’s web in the back yard.  It didn’t stay this way for very long and later in the day I noticed that a bee had been captured in its clutches.

Despite the warm days, the mornings are starting to be cooler and we have had our first couple of foggy mornings.  That is a sign of things to come, as Bathurst is renowned for its pea souper fogs.  At the moment they are still rather atmospheric and disappear quickly.

Our street trees are starting to change colour.  Some further down the street are already fully yellow and losing most of their leaves.  It is funny how the same species of tree varies in the rate of the colouring.

We had a nice outing Saturday a week ago.  Our local visitors centre and council coordinate the “Autumn Colours” program of events.  Many are heritage related and we like to join in on something each year.  This time we took part in a historic walking tour of the village of Rockley.  It is out towards where Mick grew up and he knows the area very well, but thought it would be interesting to learn more of the history.

The tour started in the early afternoon, so we decided to partake in lunch at the Rockley Pub, now owned by the chef Matt Moran.  

Our lunch was delicious.

I’ll just share a little bit about the village.

The war memorial features a clock that has an inscription under it which doesn’t make much sense.

It turns out that it was originally positioned on the wall of the original Abercrombie Shire Council chambers, which is now a private residence.

“Calais Villa” has an interesting history.  It was built in the 1880s by one of the prominent early settlers, William Brownlow.  He was a Nottingham lacemaker who had moved to Calais in France and married Sophia over there.  In the mid 1800s the French Revolution made it difficult for foreign lacemakers, so many returned to England, but there were also problems there, so a large number were offered free passage to Australia, but had to make the commitment that they would not use there trade over here, which is rather sad.  Anyway, he went on to be a very successful farmer.  Their house has a beautiful garden that we have visited a couple of years ago during Rockley’s open garden weekend. 

You can read about it in more detail here.

Both the churches were designed by Edward Gell, a well known colonial architect.

The Anglican Church is a lovely building and had beautiful windows.

We weren’t able to enter the Catholic Church, but it is another lovely building.

The old post office building is also now a private residence.  The manual telephone exchange was housed here and we both remember having to speak with the operator to connect to people out that way on the phone.

The School of Arts hall has recently been upgraded to meet modern standards. Built in 1890, it was the first commission of early Bathurst architect John Job Coleman, at the age of 20.

The tour finished with a delicious afternoon tea at the museum, housed in the original flour mill building.  It capped off a very enjoyable afternoon, hosted by the lovely ladies of the museum.

We took the scenic route home, which is always something we like to do.  We really are blessed to have such a labyrinth of quiet country roads in the area. By the time we arrived home we were driving through some nice rain and ended up receiving just over an inch of gentle rain overnight.

I had a very social time that weekend, travelling out to Oberon on the following day to catch up with a good friend for lunch.  

I have to share a photo of the chocolate mousse we treated ourselves to.  Isn’t the presentation perfect.  It tasted pretty good too.

Yesterday, we actually went for a motorcycle ride.  The Vintage Club from Sydney hold a week long rally in Bathurst each year in the week leading up to Easter.  We often join in on the Good Friday ride to Oberon.  Yes, back to Oberon.  I have been out there four times in the last two months.

Sadly, we had a little off on the bike.  We overshot a turn and when attempting to do a u-turn, at no speed at all, Mick lost his footing and we toppled over.  The only damage to the bike was a broken brake lever, but while lifting the bike Mick tweaked his back just a little.  Not too bad, but enough for him to decide that we will not ride a solo bike two up any more. So, an end to an era after many thousands of miles travelled together on Sophia.  

From now on, when we go together, which is most of the time, we will take Olga the old girl BMW sidecar and Mick will keep Sophia for riding on his own.

We still completed the ride yesterday and still both love being on the bike.

On a happier note, today is Easter Sunday and our neighbours over the road have their three young granddaughters visiting.  Mick drew a little map of our front yard and we gave each of them an individual treasure map to find one of the Easter rabbit bags I made full of chocolate.  It was a bit of fun.

It appeared that our Easter egg collection on the dining table had been breeding like rabbits before we filled the bags.

Happy Easter.