October - What a Busy Month

This month has really been crazy busy.  It has been one of those times that you wonder how you had time to go to work.

Settle in for quite a read.

Let’s start at the very beginning…..

On the first of the month, Betty let me know that the organist from her church would be playing at our church.  That didn’t make sense to me, as there is an organ recital planned for the first of November and I didn’t know anything about this.  It turns out that there was a bus load of about 50 historic organ enthusiasts travelling around on an organ crawl, playing historic organs in churches.  Of course I popped up to have a listen.  There were only three of us locals there, so quite a treat.  Oh my, it was so nice to hear the Hunter Organ played so well.  I’m used to just hearing a basic organist.  At the end of the performance, they all sang a hymn, and it was a joy to hear so many male voices singing in the space.  Thanks Betty for letting me know this was happening.

One thing about Bathurst, is that we attract lots of car rallies and get together, due to having Mount Panorama.  On the first weekend of the month Bathurst hosted the National Rally of Ford Cortinas.  The Cortina was first released in 1965, so this was a very special rally, being the 60th anniversary. Oh dear!  They are as old as me.

Anyway, there was a display in front of the courthouse, where they closed off the street.  So many cars.  They were parked each side of the street, two rows up the centre and also on the footpath.  

I liked looking at all the different shapes they came in over time.

I think of a Cortina as being a low powered, rather boring car.  Yes, there were a few like that, but there were loads that had been somewhat souped up.  Eight cylinders, turbo chargers, you name it.  They actually won the Bathurst Car Race when they first came out.

The paint jobs were also rather stunning on some, while others were their original weather worn look.

The following week was the lead up to the Bathurst 1000 car race.  There was a parade of the cars and pantecs on the Wednesday, but the weather was rather foul, so for once I didn’t worry about going into town to have a look.

We did sit down and watch a fair bit of the actual race on TV on the Sunday. 

The weather became rather ordinary for the race as well.  Imagine driving around Mount Panorama at race speed in that sort of weather.

This was the view of The Mount from our house.  The top was completely hidden by cloud, so we were glad we were in the warm and dry lounge room.

I didn’t try a new recipe, but did revisit one I haven’t cooked for many years.  Gem Scones.  They are cooked in hot cast iron “Gem Irons”.  One of our neighbours was excited to have bought some, so it inspired me to get mine out and use them. We’ve had them for a very long time.  The batter is more like a cake than a scone mix, but you serve them up the same way.

The other reason to cook them was that we were having Chooky’s Mum, sister and another friend over for afternoon tea.  It was a great excuse to play ladies (and Mick) and get out the good china and table cloth.

We used Mick’s Mum’s cups and saucers and teapot.  There was the embroidered cloth completed by my paternal grandmother.  We used Mum’s silver teaspoons, sugar bowl and creamer and a couple of her plates and a few extra pieces that Mick and I have collected over the years.  It is so nice to get them out and actually use them.  It was also a good excuse to do some baking.

The following weekend was a busy one, as it was time once in for the church fete.  We were busy on the Friday setting up, followed by the big day on the Saturday.  As usual, I was on the White Elephant stall and Mick was on Bargains for Blokes.  It was a very successful event.

Just after we had everything set up on the Friday a storm it.  It was expected, so everything was covered.  At home we stood inside watching the hail come down.  Fortunately, not a huge amount and not large in size.

On the Monday after the fete, we had some friends from Queensland arrive for a few days.  The first couple of days were fairly quiet, but on the Thursday (last week) we went on an adventure.  We caught the train to Sydney for the day.  I will do a separate post on our day out.

They headed off on last Friday and I headed off to Rylstone for an outing with my patchwork group.  It was a beautiful day for a drive.  I may have done a little bit of shopping at Convent and Chapel Wool Shop.  Don’t you love the knitted sheep out the front.

It is such a gorgeous shop.  When we visited last year, Mick was suitable impressed, so much that he now asks if we need to go to Rylstone to the wool shop when we are heading in that general direction.

I loved the look of the Donegal Tweed wool they sell.  It is from the last remaining wool mill in Donegal in Ireland.  Don’t you love the colours.

This is what I bought.  

Yes, two balls of Donegal Tweed, some circular needles and some knit blockers. (The fake fur pom pom was from somewhere else.) I have chosen a beanie pattern that I wish to knit and it is Gansy inspired, so requires a fairly tight tension.

This is the reason I need to knit a new beanie.  Yep, I accidentally put the beanie I knit for Mick in with a normal load of washing.  Oops!  

This is what it used to look like.  Oh well, a good excuse to make a new one.  I want to make me a new beanie as well.  The blue wool is for Mick and the cream for me.

On the following day, the Saturday, my friend Lisa and I did our annual arounds of the open gardens in town. This is always a great catching up day for us both.

The next day, the Sunday, Lisa once again joined Mick and I and we drove to Orange to have a look at their open gardens.  We like to see what other towns have to offer.  The weather was grey and cold (11 degrees C), but we still had a great day out.

Then, on Monday, we packed the caravan and headed off.  Do you now see why I said it has been a busy month?

I think that is more than enough for one post, if you have lasted this long, so I will fill in the rest shortly.

Lightning Ridge

We have visited Lightning Ridge a few years back and at that time took the town bus tour and had a good explore around Grawin and Sheepyards, as well as having a scratch around to try and find some opal.  Therefore, we only gave ourselves one full day in the town before continuing on our way.

Lightning Ridge seems to be the destination of choice for Bloggers/Zoomers/Scrub Stitchers, with me being the sixth to visit the town in the last month.

We had two places we particularly wanted to visit this time.  The first was the Chambers of the Black Hand.  We had heard nothing but rave reviews about it. The name had me intrigued.  Apparently, an Englishman by the name of Ron Canlin, with a background in the Naval Special Forces, ended up at Lightning Ridge, just for a short time, and ended up buying the Black Hands Mine in 1982.  

The mine was a dud, so he decided to open it to the public.  He hand dug a set of stairs down into the mine.  It is a very long set of stairs and you end up 18 metres below the surface.  There are still mine tours, but we weren’t interested in that.

He signed off on the date he completed the stairs and small gallery at their base.

He created a room at the bottom of the stairs and discovered that the sandstone walls were soft enough to carve.  He had done some whittling of wood previously, but has not formal art training.  First he created a Welcome banner, then he carved his Navy regimental insignia.  He used the bread and butter knife out of his lunch box.  All the carvings are done with that one knife and some forks.  He went through quite a few forks, creating textured backgrounds.

The original knife, with the opals attached to the handle, is held in the gift shop.  It is surprising how much of the blade is still intact.

He continued to add to the carvings, improving his skills as he went along.  There are now many different chambers featuring all sorts of things.  Some are just the natural stone, while others are painted.  Come along for an explore.

There are several Buddha in one chamber and they have been blessed by a representative of the Dalai Lama. 

The collection of Prime Ministers is surprisingly up to date.  Apparently, the most recent carving in the Chambers was done in 2022.

The miner represents Ron, while Herman was the fellow that started and ran The Opal Cave, where they sell opals, funnily enough.

To amuse the kids, there are several “Where’s Wally” pictures dotted around the chambers.  We found a few, but I’m guessing we missed many more.  They were in rather hidden little spots.

Ron is now in his 80s and lives down the south coast.  Apparently, he still visits Lightning Ridge, but is not doing any more carvings.

We were not disappointed and the Chambers lived up to their reviews.  We are so very glad that we visited.

Our next port of call was the Cactus Garden.  This was created in the 1980s, with some of the plants being up to 60 years old.

This one is a Saguaro, which is the Arizona State Flower.  This specimen is over 100 years old.  Most of the cactus were from the Americas.

And that concluded our pre planned touristy bits.

Having read the information brochure on the area and checking out the website, it appeared that there was Social Bowls at the Bowling Club on Sunday afternoons, and it was Sunday.  However, when Mick phoned, it turned out that they had played in the morning instead, as it was Mother’s Day.  They said he could still go down for a roll up in the afternoon and a few others would probably turn up.  I went along to keep him company and do some crochet.

The Bowling Club is rather fancy for the area and is currently undergoing even further improvements.  They have one grass green and a very flash artificial surface green under cover with fans and misters.  The fans and misters weren’t on, but we appreciated the shade.  It was a pleasant temperature, but would have been a bit warm otherwise.

There were even a couple of John Murray murals.

No one else turned up, so I had a roll up with him.  No crochet was done. We had a lovely afternoon rolling back and forwards and I am delighted that I actually beat him on a couple of ends.  It was a really pleasant way to spend some time without being touristy.  Afterwards we had a nice yarn with a couple of local bowlers and learnt that they have a very rich bowls tournament, The Black Opal Classic, which was depicted in one of the murals.

Our final destination for the day was to soak away the aches and pains in the bore baths, on dusk.

All I can say is that they are HOT!!! 

There is the large pool, pictured here and a smaller, cooler one.  I could only manage to dangle my feet in the cooler one… not even get in.  Mick, on the other hand hopped in the big pool.  Even the locals were saying it was very hot on the day.  Oh well, it was still a nice place to sit and we had a nice chat with others that were there.

And so ended our time in Lightning Ridge.  We would be back on the road the next day.