Holidays at Currango

Inserting Greg's photo with his first trout, made me start to think back on the fabulous holidays we used to have with Tom and Mollie Taylor at Currango near Tantangara dam in the Snowy mountains.

We had to go there after the crutching in March and before the lambing starting late April into May.So we would be in a lather of preparation for weeks before and finally set off from Hughes Park at 6 am ,just as light was breaking. Our little Volksy would be loaded to the gunnels with food, wine, brandy, all from Queltaler ofcourse , and the two little boys in the back with a 60lb tin of bluegum honey for Mollie under their feet.Cases and trout fishing gear on the roof rack securely tied down and off we went .All excitement and joy, like dogs let off the chain, we'd get to Renmark for breakfast and then the long haul to Hay along the dreary, hot Hay plains. We'd have the luxury of a Motel stay where one time in the mouseplague, the mice were heard thundering through the innerspring mattresses while trying to get some sleep.The next day we traveled past Narandara and on to Wagga where we would have our first glimpse of  clear running water.What excitement to get to Tumut and then begin the steady climb up Mt Talbingo and feel the cold mountain air.Past Yarrangobilly and Rules'Point to the liitle wonky bridge over the infant Murrumbidgee river. We would stop here and look at the clear mountain stream, breathe in the cool mountain air and feel elated that we had got that far in a day and a half. Then on to Currango through the dismal forest and over all the little tributaries jumping with fingerling rainbow trout as we forded the water. To see the four stunted willows at the last crossing and then drive up to the homestead to be greeted by a smiling and oh so welcoming Mollie and gruff Tom. After catching up on the latest news and Tom's promise of gigantic trout we'd go to Daffodil Cottage and unload our gear and grope for our freshly made beds as there was no electricity, but a fire had been laid in the stove for us to boil a kettle for hot water bottles.

French Lunch

Today we had lunch at my brother's place. It was prepared by his French friend and she did a fabulous job. Entree was garlic prawns with a French Chablis , mains was Coq au Vin with vin ordinaire and desert creme caramel, it was simply delicious. French wines are much more delicate than ours almost to the point of blandness. We are so used to big, bold wines in Australia. Our sister came all the way from Para Vista and it was great to see her and the photos she took of her son and little grand daughter in Melbourne where she went last weekend to celebrate his 30th birthday.It was a great afternoon and we all went home toward dusk to feed the chooks and lock them up.

We have just come in from watching the Almond Festival fire works display, I do love fireworks and OOH and AAH like a 4 year old, if I had thought about it we could have had a better view from the road and taken some great shots with Brian's new camera. The birds in the trees were not happy at all!! This morning I could hear the grey thrush calling out in that bell like tone , so it could well be that it has really taken up residence here. I also saw four goldfish again in the pond, I wonder if there are any smallfry too. The above is a bit bigger than a goldfish and was the first trout Greg caught on the Tantangara dam way back in the 1960ies

Visiting SALA Galleries

It didn't start off as a very good day, weatherwise, back to winter with bleak skies, wind and rain. So instead of going to Adelaide on the train to see the Waterhouse exhibition, we opted for local ones, using the campervan so that we would finish up at Normanville, get some fish and chips, drive to the Carrickalinga headland and have lunch in the van overlooking the sea. Went to the McLaren Vale visitors center first where five male artists were displaying their work. The sculptures were beautifully crafted but aggressive looking.I'm sure young people would love them.Some interesting drawings and very good impressions of local scenes in strong blocks of colour. I loved Glen Howlett's Four Season slumped glass tiles, great depth and beautifully mounted. The other impressive paintings were of female figures, again in strong colours and very evocative.
Because not all the galleries are open at present, we went to Normanville instead and got a "box" of fish, chips and "fresh garden salad"...what has happened to our piece of fish and minimum chips?? such luxuries we get now!! It was lovely sitting up high in the van overlooking the wild ,raging sea, so stirred up, it was brown in the foreground and a dirty green with white caps in the distance.The Second valley hills barely visible in the distance. There were two little kestrels swooping on the wind and then hovering over the beach edge looking for food. There was a raven next to the van on the railing feeding its young so they have hatched early. Amazingly there were no seagulls at all and that is the second time we have observed this.
We drove back via the Myponga reservoir road and took the back roads to Chapel Hill Winery where there is also a SALA exhibition. We were given some chardonnay while wandering around looking at the art works.The main works were very intriguing, with such a different perspective you have to get your head around them and some looked somewhat phallic, or organic or both.They would be great talking points.I didn't go much on the pale coloured paintings and the chooks left a lot to be desired as did the sheep, not many people can paint those particular animals I find.

Now we are home and it is raining heavily again, the chooks look like drowned rats.

Handspun knitwoven Jacket

Finished a jacket knit woven with handspun merino wool I did some time ago. Don't do any spinning these days, seem to be too busy with other things. I used to dye my own handspun as well and still have some of that which I mainly use as a feature colour or contrast. When we lived on Hughes Park , I used a lot of soursobs, lichens, which gave the most wonderful deep brown colour or the little sundew bulbs which gave an exciting deep red, but it faded quite quickly.
Once again I am having trouble inserting the photo of the jacket, the laptop will not recognise either the file number or find the relevant folder which holds the picture. So will try again tomorrow.  Hence the photo of the yellow candles which are quite spectacular when the sun is out.
Meanwhile I want to mention that the Goldfish have re appeared today and the frogs are starting again too. Brian thinks it is because the days are lengthening but I wonder if it is the angle of the sun's rays as the shadow in the house is slowly creeping toward the north. The ducks are very much at home now and are not put off by strangers coming past the pond. There was another rabbit too, mooching about among the daisy bushes. The grey thrush has a mate answering this morning so here is hoping they will nest here somewhere. There is a blackbird already nesting in the little shed, having renovated last years nest, so spring can't be far away.
My friend came and played the piano and we had another session with Vivadi's Sonata III and it is coming together...she loves the De Fesch sonata too which is great for me.

Roosters Getting above Themselves

It was a beautiful day today.We went to the Willunga Farmers Market to get real honey this morning , it is crowded with people and there are a lot of stalls and parking is quite something these days.We then went up the hill and drove to a tractor shed wine sale in a very beautiful setting off the Kuitpo road. There was plenty of youthful , enthusiastic help there and we tasted Verdhello, Viognier, Pinot noir, Meritage, which is a blend of various varieties and very nice indeed. So ,I got carried away as usual and got a supply  to last us till at least Christmas!!

After lunch I saw the rooster had already flown over the fence, so decided to let the hens out as well to enjoy the green feed. As I opened the gate and went through to see if there were any eggs, the damn rooster attacked me and I made the mistake of counter attacking, I was so wild when he flew me again I grabbed him by the neck and held him thinking " where is the axe?" after a while I let him go and he walked away a little more subdued. The hens had made themselves scarce meanwhile , not liking the fury who generally feeds them! He is a big rooster and very handsome and I am only keeping him for a friend's son who said he dearly wanted him, and that is two years ago....meanwhile the rooster has matured and he really needs a harem of twelve hens. It reminded me of a little, beautiful and gloriously colourful bantam rooster I was given. He was the devil incarnate as he would fly me with no provocation every time I went in the yard, so I used to dress up like a Samuri warrior, long boots, heavy jacket, leather gloves and my riding crop and still he would fly me.Someone suggested a water spray bottle , but nothing worked and in the end he got the axe, poor little creature. He made a very good coq au vin.

Can Ducks have a cat-nap?

One of the native black ducks arrived this morning early and while waiting for its mate ,it put its bill under its wing and had forty winks. It made me think of cat-naps, where do we get some of these expressions from, I wonder. When its mate finally arrived later in the morning, they did a little dive and swim routine as though to say to each other, "Its good to see you". This afternoon ,while I was starting to prune the roses, they did a similar routine and finished up making a duckling, she nearly drowning in the process. It seems a bit early in the season for them to start nesting ,I would have thought.Certainly the chooks have started to lay again and I picked up a bantam egg when I let them out for their green feed.They will however, camp on the patio near the door and make a mess ofcourse, they have five acres to scratch over, but no, they want to fossick through my potplants and sit in the sun.
Taking photographs is an interesting way of seeing things which the eye ignores. Taking some photos of the pond, and downloading them onto the laptop, I noticed all these sticks in the foreground and realised they were dead shasta daisy stalks which haven't been cut down yet and my eye had ignored them obviously. So I will have to learn a new way of seeing.

Vivaldi is still eluding me time wise, am now practicing with the metronome which is unsettling but I'm determined to get to grips with the beat and its subdivisions, the dotted note, the semiquavers, they can drive you up the wall , if you let them.My viola playing friend once suggested we ought to have a metronome fitted into our scull......heaven forbid!!

The word "Crepuscular"

The word crepuscular I find somewhat off putting, yet it perfectly suits our Tawney frogmouths, last evening sitting by the fire sipping my evening whiskey , I saw one of the birds silhouetted against the dark twilight, it landed on the upright trellis post which supports our honeysuckle vine. There is also a beautiful rose named "Crepuscule" the word alone puts me off from having it in the garden, sad ,really. The grey shrike thrush is staying around and I was listening to its beautiful song this morning as I was looking at another rabbit dashing across the wet, wet front garden making for Brian's peas and beans, it is taking a grave risk!!
Have finished the very plain natural Merino handspun yarn knitwoven jacket, it needs to be washed now to bring out the softness but the weather is not conducive to washing woollens. The next jacket will be knit woven with 12 ply yarn in a very nice soft grey. I am wondering how to introduce a little colour without being over the top, there is some very exciting sari silk on hand but that may be too thick, we'll see.

Our gallery building is being auctioned early August and we are all wondering what will happen. Will the next owners still want us in there and will the lease stay the same? Usually these things are immediately increased and that would kill us. Renting somewhere else in Willunga at a low rent will be nigh impossible probably, everyone seems to want to make their fortune in double quick time these days.
One of the things on TV that really annoys me are the documentaries with their loud, loud background music. I wonder how you would go about letting the people who make these , know how very irritating it is to be blasted out of your seat with the music and then have to strain to hear the commentory. We were watching David Attenborough  on the Birds of Paradise in NG  and he too, had loud music which spoiled it for me. The photography is superb and the birds just stunning. Joanna Lumley's Greek Travels too, are so interesting but she talks very quietly and beautifully and then you have this irritating back ground music which drives you mad.

Raptors!!

We really have a great variety of birds here on our little patch. Early this afternoon the chooks were kicking up a hell of a din.Thinking it may be a fox on this grey dull day, I went out to check on them. All I saw was a small sparrow hawk and as the rooster is more than twice its size I couldn't see what all the panic was about.Late afternoon, though, when I went to give them their evening feed, I came upon a little pile of very colourful feathers near the wood heap and so the little hawk obviously got a musk lorekeet and scoffed the lot. The black ducks are still happily using the pond and sleeping on one leg with their bills under their wing or busily grooming themselves, what a life!!!!
We had another 6 ml of rain last night and the place is now waterlogged, some creature had tried to dig up the scraps I bury as compost on a new piece of ground but obviously couldn't deal with the heavy, sticky clay soil and left it alone.
The above photo is a nest of Willy Wagtail chicks in our walnut tree last year.!

Afternoon of worldclass guitar music

Have just got back from Foxcreek where my friends and I listened to the Grigoryan brothers playing great music on their guitars.Their elegant long fingers flew over the strings producing the most exquisite sounds and rhythms. We are so privileged to be able to hear these artists so close to home.
It started me thinking too, about the hard work that goes on behind the scene to stage such a delightful afternoon. The staff of the winery who would have put a lot of effort into organizing, getting the site ready for the marquee, the finger food ,which was delicious and taken around to the patrons standing outside at interval, the wine available at a discount price, it all added to make the afternoon a success for those attending the concert. I took a photo with my mobile phone but don't know how to download it onto the laptop.
Last Friday afternoon, our Book group met and we discussed "March" written by Geraldine Brooks. The author had taken the father in "Little Women" by Louisa Allcott  ,Mr March, as her main character and imagined him in the American civil war for the year he was away from his family.The book was well received by everyone and we had a great discussion on the attitudes of those times and the horrible things men and women go through in wartime, supposedly to right a wrong and how history repeats itself.Geraldine Brooks must have done a huge amount of research, her books are all very meaty and worth reading and re-reading.
Our black ducks are making themselves at home and return every morning so far to spend the day frolicking in the water and hopefully eating the algy instead of tadpoles or goldfish fry. No idea where they go to at night, probably the Willunga creek
Today I learned how to transport pictures from my mobile phone to this laptop and so, here is the photo I took of the Grigoryan brothers at Foxcreek winery...how awesome is that!! 

Black ducks on our pond

This morning the pair of black ducks which were here when we re did the pond last year, arrived back this morning. Why I know they are the same pair is because they are not the least bit worried about us and snorkel away under the mulch, sit and groom themselves in the sun( when there is any) and don't move when I go out to empty the teapot on the gerberas. The grey thrush is about still, too ,so here is hoping it gets a mate and stays to raise a family. Though the ducks certainly made ducklings on our pond last season ( the female nearly drowns in the process of pro creation!!) they did not nest here sadly, it would have been great to have had a brood of ducklings about the place.
The Christmas bush is all out of whack too, it is flowering now instead of December and I have had to knock off all the little figs which appeared on the fig tree in April and came to nothing ofcourse.
We had another 2.5 ml of rain this morning so that put paid to burning the heap today, there was no wind and I don't want to smoke out my neighbours. Tomorrow is an easterly wind which is perfect but there could be rain as well. Our permit runs out 20th July, we will have to ask for and extension.Bureaucracy gone mad...

There are some very interesting articles in the Adelaide Review about the arts and the lack of funds, should we be looking how the god of football and shopping get their worshippers to contribute?

Seals at the Goolwa barrages

After we shopped this morning, we decided to drive to the Goolwa barrages to see the seal colony which has taken up residence there and living high off the hog on European carp, I believe. The electrician who repaired our power cable last week, told us this. He takes his wooden boat out on the Coorong and saw them there.Sure enough when we walked along the barrages and came to the end, there they were, at least two dozen at a guess. They were lounging on the wooden trusses, lazing in the water waving the odd flipper about, grunting and snuffling and occasionally barking as well. I was very cross because I hadn't thought to take my camera and there would have been some amusing shots.Back on the edge of the Coorong were a bevy of shags drying their wings and a lone Egret and a pelican. When we walked back a small group of little cormorants were diving and eating whatever school of fish was there, I wondered if they may have been Coorong Mullet fry.
We had lunch at the Whistlestop cafe and very nice it was too, I had the veal and duck sausages and mash while Brian had the John Dory fillet and chips with salad which was equally good, I had a glass of merlot and Brian a glass of sauvingnon blanc. We'll just have oysters and brown bread and butter for dinner tonight.
We drove back via the Nankita way through the back hills which is always a delightful drive.Years ago we saw a monitor cross the road near some thick scrub, there still are some lovely bits of bush on that route. We saw a black shouldered kite on Norman road too, and yesterday a new little bird flew into the Holm oak and dived into the pond but we have not been able to identify it so far, it was too brief a sighting.
The above image was photographed by a friend ,he had some great shots of birds as well especially the kites in flight and the detail on the whitefaced heron is so beautiful.

Second Half of the Year

Here we are, July, where did the first half of the year go? It is interesting that on the 28th June I didn't mention it would have been my oldest sister's 78th birthday. She died 9 years ago next month and we all miss her still so much. She was such a support for us all, lived this exemplary life of  moderation , swam in the sea at Henley Beach each morning, summer and winter, nursed our elderly father till he died and then her husband who had liver cancer ,at home with only the help of a district nurse. It seemed so unfair for her to be found dead in her bathroom without any of us knowing there was anything wrong with her at the time. I was the last one to see her as she had come to our place on the Saturday for a day of chat and lunch. She left in the afternoon to be home before dark and gave me the customary three rings on the phone to let me know she was home safe.At least she doesn't have to see what the world is turning into.....
Today was cold and miserable but we had a cheerful time with a few friends to a rustic lunch of soups and home made breads and plenty of reds. It is always interesting to hear peoples stories of where they have lived or what countries have been visited and what adventures they have had.Or how certain areas have changed and been built on , the Willunga Hills face has certainly changed with all the trees which have been planted and which are now making their presence known, taking away that bare, rolling, sensuous look it had years ago when we first came here.
The water from the last rains are still evident and I think we will have to have the drive re-gravelled and a spoon drain put in to make the water from the road flow into the front garden rather than into the car shed.It will have to wait till the drier weather.

The pond had lovely reflections on it the other morning so I took a photo of it.