After an especially hot and dry first two months of 2017, the weather has suddenly turned muggy and a little cooler, with rainfall increasing somewhat. Today I suggested to Dot that we go out for lunch and see some of the greening countryside and we chose, perhaps bizarrely, a trip to Kentucky. That's not in the USA, but a tiny hamlet of perhaps 300 people lying about 40 km southwest of Armidale up on the northern tablelands. It has a tiny primary school, a couple of churches, a village hall built strangely in 1940, and a general store that also doubles up as a cafe and post-office. Strangely there was no pub. I have seen pubs in tiny settlements in Queensland - one place having as far as I could tell just two residents - the publican and his wife. And Dobson's Distillery at Kentucky is a major business producing craft beer, wines, and such spirits as gin and vodka. Oh well, I suppose they serve as the local public house!
Well, we both had BLAT for lunch - basically Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado and Tomato on Turkish bread and it was delicious. And the surrounding countryside was attractive. But what really captured our attention were the lovely cloudscapes. Huge billowing cumulus clouds dotted the landscapes in all directions, some dropping their contents on our car as we sped along and others brooding darkly in the distance. For example, here are three images of the clouds taken from near the cafe, and as you can see there's an awful lot of rolling pastoral countryside:
We returned home via a round-about route. To start with we took Terrible Vale road, which fortunately didn't live up to its name. It was a good quality sealed road, albeit only one lane wide, all the way to Thunderbolt's Way where we turned northwards towards home. One of the attractions of this route is passing by Dangar's Lagoon an area of internal drainage that, after heavy rain, fills up and becomes a water birds' paradise. Well, on this occasion, recent heavy rains at the end of 2016 and in the last week meant the lagoon was full. So, we stopped at the public bird-hide on its shores and looked out for ducks, swans, and other water birds. Well, there were some in the distance as shown on this picture:
You can see how pretty the site is, and also the black swans which were probably 200 m away. However, the bird life wasn't prolific but I can probably explain that. The local rivers and farm dams are running high and provide alternative venues to Dangar's Lagoon, even though the latter is semi-permanent. Also. it's not the start of the nesting season, so birds have probably scattered on that count too. But what really caught our attention, as we cautiously trod the path to the shore-line to avoid possible snakes, was again the cloudscapes. Once again, they were riveting.
OK, we drove 80km - about 50 miles - there and back to get these views, but in our view it was worth it. Fortunately, we have had no rain today at home, an none seems imminent, which means I can head off on my bike for another 10+ km ride. And to make life a bit more interesting I've been invited in a couple of weeks to attend the launching ceremony for Brand Armidale to be held in the Mall between the post-office and the historic courthouse. Armidale's administrator invited me to be involved in two meetings with consultants to develop the brand and while I know much of what they're proposing, I'm keeping quiet for now!
AS
Well, we both had BLAT for lunch - basically Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado and Tomato on Turkish bread and it was delicious. And the surrounding countryside was attractive. But what really captured our attention were the lovely cloudscapes. Huge billowing cumulus clouds dotted the landscapes in all directions, some dropping their contents on our car as we sped along and others brooding darkly in the distance. For example, here are three images of the clouds taken from near the cafe, and as you can see there's an awful lot of rolling pastoral countryside:
We returned home via a round-about route. To start with we took Terrible Vale road, which fortunately didn't live up to its name. It was a good quality sealed road, albeit only one lane wide, all the way to Thunderbolt's Way where we turned northwards towards home. One of the attractions of this route is passing by Dangar's Lagoon an area of internal drainage that, after heavy rain, fills up and becomes a water birds' paradise. Well, on this occasion, recent heavy rains at the end of 2016 and in the last week meant the lagoon was full. So, we stopped at the public bird-hide on its shores and looked out for ducks, swans, and other water birds. Well, there were some in the distance as shown on this picture:
You can see how pretty the site is, and also the black swans which were probably 200 m away. However, the bird life wasn't prolific but I can probably explain that. The local rivers and farm dams are running high and provide alternative venues to Dangar's Lagoon, even though the latter is semi-permanent. Also. it's not the start of the nesting season, so birds have probably scattered on that count too. But what really caught our attention, as we cautiously trod the path to the shore-line to avoid possible snakes, was again the cloudscapes. Once again, they were riveting.
OK, we drove 80km - about 50 miles - there and back to get these views, but in our view it was worth it. Fortunately, we have had no rain today at home, an none seems imminent, which means I can head off on my bike for another 10+ km ride. And to make life a bit more interesting I've been invited in a couple of weeks to attend the launching ceremony for Brand Armidale to be held in the Mall between the post-office and the historic courthouse. Armidale's administrator invited me to be involved in two meetings with consultants to develop the brand and while I know much of what they're proposing, I'm keeping quiet for now!
AS
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