Here, There and Everywhere - Travelling West - Part 1

We had good friends from Queensland visit in November, so we set off in a convoy of two caravans to head west to areas they had not previously visited.

Check out the size of this wide load we saw in Orange.  We were pleased we were travelling in a different direction to where it was going.

There were lots of crops ready to harvest.

Our first stop was “Escort Rock”.  This was the site of the largest ever goldfields theft in Australia.  It is another place we have driven past on several occasions, but never stopped at.  The rock itself is on private land, so you can only view it from afar.  You can read the story of the bushranger robbery that took place here.

From here we continued into the small town of Eugowra.  The streets were lined with jacaranda and silky oak trees.  They looked so good.  Neither tree grows here, as we are too cold.

Eugowra is still recovering from the severe flooding it received two years ago.  We popped into the craft shop, grabbed a coffee and enjoyed a picnic lunch.

We made a few purchases at the craft shop.  What a great initiative for someone to sell hand cut set of fabric in various sizes.  I thought I’d give this 10 inch set a go.

Our plan was to have a walk around looking at the many murals in the town, but a storm was brewing, so we kept on our way.  We ended up driving through quite a bit of torrential rain.

The day’s destination was Forbes, where we free camped beside Lake Forbes, in the middle of town, for two nights.  We have stayed there before and it is a beaut place to camp.

We spent the afternoon wandering beside the lake and checking out the town.    The lake looked beautiful in the late afternoon light.

I may have found some treasures in the op shops.  In Vinnies there was one month’s instalment of a Sue Daley BOM, including two packets of EPP papers and a bobbin on 80wt thread for $2.  Very happy with that.  The rest came from the Salvos.  Nice yardage fabric at $1 per metre and the Thimble-Its.  I’ll talk about them more at another stage.

The second day dawned fine, so it was breakfast in the sunshine.  I love my 1970s table cloth.

We just spent the day playing the tourist around Forbes and having a lazy afternoon back at camp.

The cemetery has some interesting graves, the most famous being the bushranger Ben Hall.  He also carried out his bushranging around Bathurst.

Several of his well known fellow bushrangers are also buried in the cemetery in unmarked graves.

For a small town, there are quite a few famous pioneers buried here.  Another is Kate Kelly, Ned’s sister.

It is just interesting wandering around seeing all the beautiful headstones.

Back in town, we wandered around the town square, seeing some of the beautiful old buildings.  Forbes was founded on the back of the gold rush, which resulted in such beautiful architecture.

This mural was on the side of a shearing business.

Back at our camp site we enjoyed watching the dragon boat teams in training,

After a very hot day, we were treated to a still night with a full moon.  

After dinner, Mick and I went for a walk around the lake.  Come along with us.

The perfect way to end the day.

Here, There and Everywhere - Bathurst Open Gardens

On the weekend following the Cowra Open Gardens, back in October, we visited those in Bathurst, as we do every year.  I’ll just share a few highlights.  Let’s go for a stroll. 

This was my favourite garden.  It was a small renovated cottage on a relatively small block.  The whole front yard was garden and a riot of colour in the old fashioned cottages style.

The backyard featured a gorgeous sun drenched courtyard, which was accessed by huge glass doors from the rear of the house.  

The yard still maintained some lawn and productive garden beds.  There was even a small lap pool, studio in the back of the yard and room for some chooks.  Such wonderful use of space.

Another small garden was on show.  We had actually visited this garden a few years ago, so it was nice to see how it has matured.  Once again, it is a fantastic use of limited space, this time with a Japanese theme.

Next was a larger suburban garden.

We then travelled out of town to visit a couple of gardens on old established properties.  The first has been open on a few occasions previously.

The second was open for the first time.  The homestead is one of the oldest in the district.

We timed our visit well, as some local musicians were performing.

As usual, we spent this day with one of my good friends.  The day is about friendship as much as gardens, so very enjoyable.

Here, There and Everywhere - Cowra Open Gardens

This is a very belated post, as we visited these gardens in mid October.

The original plan was to have a couple of nights up there with the caravan and play the tourist, but that didn’t line up with what else we were up to, so a day trip it was.

We started with morning tea in Europa Park.  We drive past this park on the way into Cowra every time, but have never stopped before.

This plaque commemorates the migrants that passed through the town post World War Two.  It’s worth zooming in and having a read.

There was a grove on Chinese Elm trees planted in 1999 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Ukrainian Women’s Association in Australia, founded in the Cowra Migrant camp in 1949.  It’s sad to consider that Ukraine is once again suffering.

We really must go back and play the tourist properly one day.  There is so much history relating to the middle of the 20th century, as there was an army camp, prisoner of war camp, which became infamous due to the breakout by Japanese prisoners, and then subsequently the formation of the migrant camp. Cowra now has a peace bell and beautiful Japanese Garden, which goes to show that true reconciliation is possible.  On an aside, the shed in our back yard when I was a kid was one of the offices at the Cowra camp.  Once they were no longer required they were sold off and you can spot them around the place where they had been relocated.

Back to the gardens…..

We visited their open gardens during COVID when the Bathurst Open Gardens didn’t proceed.  They were mainly country gardens that time.  This time they were mainly town gardens and there were no repeats from our last visit, which was nice.

Quite a few were fairly new gardens.

This one just showed off the front garden.  Great street appeal.

The next one was one of my favourites.  The block had lots of natural granite boulders and the garden had been created around them.  There were also lots of beautiful roses.  Only 100kms up the road from us, but their gardens were a lot further advanced than ours.  The fact that there were quilts dotted around the garden may have been part of the appeal.

We got chatting quilts, as you do, and the owner brought out two that she had recently completed for potential grandchildren.  The little girl quilt was such beautiful soft colours and the workmanship was so fine. Sorry about the poor lighting.

There was one country garden, and it was a beauty.

On our way back in town we noticed a couple of painted water reservoirs.

One garden was to the side and back of a duplex.  Great use made of the terraced yard.  She didn’t have a shed, but had a very organised area for her gardening tools.

We had our lunch at Hart House, a grand old building, now used as a BnB.  Lunch was catered by the CWA, so there had to be tea and scones.

The garden was pretty impressive too.

The final garden was fairly new, surrounding a recently renovated house.  The view overlooking town from that front verandah was stunning.

On the way home we took a detour via Canowindra.  It was a hot day so we had an icy cold milkshake.

I always like to visit their local quilt shop called “The Plague and I”.  As it was Sunday it was closed, but the window display was nice.  She has a lovely collection of old sewing machines.

I love her quirky sense of humour.

So that was our day at Cowra, and a very enjoyable one, too.  Hopefully we will get up to see their gardens another year and try to play the tourist at the same time.