Exciting Times December 2023

 As usual at year's end life gets busy and interesting. Here are a few images that justify this claim. At the start of December, Armidale's privately run playhouse staged a gorgeous production of Broeknville. This play charts how a grouo of young people - aided by one older person - try to renew life in a badly damaged community. It was wonderfully produced and acted bfore an enthusiastic audience. Our little town of c. 26,000 people stages a huge number of excellent stage shows and musical concerts. Dot and I greatly appreciated this event. Look up 'Brokenville' on-line if you'd like to find out more about it.

A week later, Dot and I drove the 23 km south from Armidale to the small, but very interesting, town of Uralla. We're both members of the Probus organisation and were among a large group of people enjoying an excellent lunch at the historical McCrossin's Mill Museum dating back to the 19th century. Our probus branch is mainly populated with elderly but highly networked people, many having a professional or business background.

Then, today, Thursday 15th of December, we enjoyed the build-up of thunderstorms and I took a whole lot of photos showing great cloudscapes this provided.

The northern tablelands where we live has been excessively dry through spring and we were longing for a lot of rain. Over many weeks temperatures have been much higher than usual damaging agricultural production. We might be c. 1,100 m above sea level 

(c. 3,200 feet) but on many days we experienced temperatures of well over 30 C (86F). Well yesterday we experienced major storms and Armidale airport registered 22 mm or getting on for one inch.

The following cloudscapes date from around lunchtime on the follwing day - the 15th December  - and they looked like a storm in the offing. Well, 90 minutes later I was proved right and we welcomed another downpour ochestrated with donner und blitz. Local farmers must be loving this ... along with environmentalists worried about bushfires.

Don't we enjoy an interesting life?

AS