A Cloudy Interregnum

I've been recording my recent epic trip to Europe and central America, but would to break the cycle by recording scenes on recent walks back here in Armidale. It is, of course, now officially Spring, which sprung into action on 1 September, which is locally called Wattle Day. The beautiful and often spectacular yellow flowering of wattle bushes is amongst the first signs that Winter has passed and this year it came about 3 weeks early. That's because we've had, nationally, possibly the worst drought in a century accompanied by much warmer temperatures than usual. A few recent photos illustrate the wonderful effect of wattles in bloom.

Here I was walking along the banks of Dumaresq Creek in the middle of town when I was taken by these scenes:. Such views are widespread across town

Aren't these blooms lovely?













And, today, I was on another walk when cloudscapes took my attention. There are several reasons for this. Over the dry Autumn and Winter we have had, nearly every day had heaps of warm sunshine and many days were completely cloudless. Humidity was also low and overnight temperatures plunged much lower than usual due to the lack of cloud-cover and still air.

However, in the last two weeks Armidale managed to record something like 55 mm of rain (or something like 2.2 inches). This was accompanied by some thunder and lightning, often strong winds, and a great deal of grey cloud ... often not pleasant but at least serving to bring on a green tinge to our grass and replenish soil moisture. After the last few days of strong and cold easterly winds with leaden clouds and a lot of rain the winds eased but remained easterly which brought moisture on-shore. Moreover, the break in the weather allowed me to take a long walk around town and I was enthused by the picturesque intersection of clouds and sun. Here are some of my pictures taken on my mobile phone as I skirted the northern edge of town. Many were taken just north of Duval High School, which both Emily and Bec attended c. 20 years ago. How fast time flies, alas.

This last picture is supposed to show the rainbow I saw walking down the steep Gordon Street, but it doesn't alas show up> However, the rainbow alerted me to the fact that rain was imminent and I quickened pace while taking a short-cut home. It started raining just short of our front door! How's that for luck?

AS

An Interlude in Seaton

After spending 8 to 9 days in Spain I headed to the south coast of England for a few nights before the next leg of my journey across the Atlantic.

In fact, I stayed much of the time at Phil's apartment in Poole and enjoyed weather that was strangely warmer and sunnier compared with Galicia.

The main excursion during my 5 days in the UK was to Seaton, an attractive spot on the east Devonshire coast. Strictly speaking I actually headed to Beer - yes, such a place name exists - which is paired with Seaton. And that's where my niece Elly lives with her three kids and husband Jon. Alas, he was at work as a local doctor, so we only saw Elly and her children and also Brian and Daphne who motored up from their home in Plympton, not far away.

I took a few pictures of our time there - mainly on the beach. Note have glassy the water is. as I said the weather was hot ... but also there was little breeze and virtually no waves. This is the view from Elly's home. Nice isn't it?

And here we are with Elly and her kids on the beach for lunch, along with brothers Phil and Brian.

The beach itself is rather pebbly, like much of the southern English coast-line, but it seems to be a good spot to park one's boat!

Given the weather, it was not surprising to see a lot of people lying on the beach or swimming in the water.

There was a small playground near the beach that the kids enjoyed.

 And here are three well-known dudes enjoying the sun.

AS

Walking the El Camino de Santiago de Compostela

The Galician countryside is criss-crossed by a network of religious pilgrimage routes leading to Santiago and most we saw seemed well-populated with walkers as it was the start of the summer holiday season. However, I gather that in this day and age that many of the walkers are there for recreation not for religious salvation.

Anyway, members of our tour party were given the opportunity of walking one of the paths for an hour or so and I opted to take up the options to experience the countryside from another perspective.
Here we are awaiting departure.

And this is a typical view we had along the path

I don't know whether is for pilgrims to take a bath or a place where your horse, or perhaps dog, could get a drink. I don't think it was for human consumption!

A typical Spanish farmhouse surrounded by lovely countryside.

Part way along our route we came to an unusual farm and processing plant. The farm grew medicinal herbs and then
processed these in various potions and creams for human consumption. These two pictures show the picturesque grounds which tourists could wander around. And the one below shows a field of medicinal herbs.

 And here we see one of the owners demonstrating a range of products. Some of the female members of our party showed interest in the various products, but I don't recall any of the blokes trying the various creams and potions.










After we resumed our rural walk we went through a very small village and I just had to take this picture or an elderly gentleman, possibly in his 70s who had just run out of milk. Since the nearest supermarket would have been a fair distance away he seems to have borrowed a cow desperately in need of milking. And he's taking it home to top up his supply!

After another few kilometres we came to a picturesque little town whose name escapes me.

There were people dancing and singing to musical accompaniment.

But the main task in the little town was to have a chat with the mayor shown here with one of his colleagues.



This is my last post for the Spanish visit, but I must say that I'd like to return for a wider exploration of this interesting country. I've been to Spain before, but a decade ago (2008) and that was to Zaragoza in Aragon and then on to Barcelona..

AS

Cheese-making - my new skill!

On yet another day on the road we went to a cheese-making business and experienced its real-time demonstration of the processes involved. Then, to our surprise, we were invited to make our own miniature cheeses to take away and consume at leisure. I took up the offer and the resulting product was eventually consumed at my brother's apartment in Poole, Dorset, on the UK's south coast. I thought about trying to get the product back to Australia, but (a) the return was at least 2 weeks away and (b) I might never get the cheese through Australian customs! By the way, it was delicious! Perhaps I should set up a similar business here in Armidale.

Here are instructors and guides to the premises.

And here some of our tour party - conference delegates taking up the offer to make a cheese.

I gathered that corn, like that shown here, could be used to flavour the cheese, though the product I made contained only curdled milk.

We also went on a tour of the very old home to which our cheese making demonstration was attached. The house interior was extremely cramped by today's standards, which might perhaps go towards explaining why so many homes all over Galicia were abandoned.

And here are some my friends displaying their little tubs of personally made cheese in little containers. In the left is Guy Robinson, a geography professor from Adelaide. In fact, Australia was wildly over-represented at the conference, with four delegates from a population of 25 million.

And here, to confirm that I'm making this post up, is my block of cheese - all crafted by me.

And all over Galicia we saw this kind of food storage premises - up on stilts or like this one with an over-hanging skirt - to prevent local wildlife stealing food. By the way, I'm on the right of the picture and two Israeli delegates are on the left.

AS