A Quick Trip to Versailles

It's sure been a busy week or two ... and about to get a lot busier, but that's another story.

Anyway, Dot and I managed a quick trip to Versailles last week and rekindle old memories of a visit we made there something like 15 years ago. It's a wonderful place to visit and last week Versailles came to us in Canberra when the National Gallery of Australia hosted 'Treasures from the Palace'. Walking through the exhibition I also rekindled my memories of my schooldays back in the 1960s - yes, I'm really that ancient - when I studied French history, geography, culture and language. Indeed, when I left school I could probably write better in French than I could in English. So I came face to face once again with many images the Le Roi Soleil (or Sun King, alias Louis Quatorze), the ill-fated Louis XVI and his famous wife, Marie Antoinette (Hm, must be a relative of mine!), and the restoration Bourbons. When told about the revolting peasants (or was it pheasants?) the ill-advised Marie Antoinette was quoted as saying "let them eat cake"! The peasants eventually got their revenge when she and her husband had their heads separated from their bodies during the French Revolution. All this reminiscing reminded me that back in the 2000s I attended a conference held at Louis 14th's stables at Rambouillet, not far from Versailles.

The exhibition hosted many pictures, sculptures and furnishings such as ceramics, tapestries, carpets and chairs all sourced from Versailles. These are some of the images we saw:

I think this is a portrait of Marie Antoinette made while she was in one piece!

I wonder what birds they kept in this bird-cage? It couldn't have been budgerigars since Australia was only settled one year before the French Revolution.

No, they didn't transport the Hall of Mirrors to Australia, although it certainly looked real to start with. Only the candelabra made the trip.

But this photo shows a real dude who looks a bit like me - appropriately dressed for the occasion as usual!

 AS

Carol and Vivienne

My Cousin Carol and her daughter, Vivienne, recently visited Australia for two weeks from their homes at Poulton-le-Fylde  and Glasgow respectively. They travelled quite widely in the Eastern States - Victoria, NSW, and Queensland, visiting relatives in Melbourne, taking a break on the Gold Coast (where they unfortunately encountered the tail end of cyclone Debbie, which dumped upwards of 500 mm of rain (c. 20 inches) in 3 days) and meeting up with Dot and me and our mutual Cousin David and his extended family in Sydney.

We stayed for 3 days in the same Travelodge hotel as Carol and Vivienne located just to the south of Hyde park (yes, Sydney has one too!) and for much of that time went around together sightseeing - often using Uber taxis to transport ourselves from place to place cheaply and efficiently. This post recounts some of the things we did together.

We ate breakfasts each day at a different cafe in the vicinity of our hotel and, on the first morning, it as the Fat Man's Cafe just off Oxford Street (yes, we have one of those too!). The cafe and its neighbourhood had interesting wall paintings as the first three pictures show. I liked the third item in which a drain-pipe becomes a rifle - perhaps against my better instincts.

Here we are performong and enduring ritual - taking the harbour ferry to Manly from Circular Quay.

We saw a few yacht races en route, including some yachts turned upside down, and encountered a heavy swell when crossing between north and south heads. The ferry pitched and tossed to add fun to the trip.

And so to the beach after a stroll down the famous Corso linking the beach and ferry. Despite the choppy conditions, there were heaps of surfers in the water, some of them pretty good.

On returning to Circular Quay we strolled through the Rocks area - the site of Australia's first European settlement - paying particular attention to the interesting street market with a wide variety of stalls.

The following day we travelled to Darling Harbour for breakfast and a stroll around this entertainment zone. We focused much of the time on the Chinese Gardens, which I had never previously visited and they were excellent!

We were even given a bowl of food - little pellets - to feed the voracious carp in the pool. They fought each for the food, while I tried to be fair and scatter the food widely.

We next travelled to the Queen Victoria Building - a 19th century shopping mall lovingly restored and home to many top-end shops and services. It's multi-level as this image shows, has interesting clocks, and a pianist to add to the up-market atmosphere.

On our final day, we took a trip to another Sydney icon - Bondi Beach. Cousin David did the honour of picking us up in his spanking new Mazda at the hotel and accompanying us to the beach, not far from his home.

At the top of the beach a wall hosts dozens of interesting art-works - not graffiti - like these show here.

I rarely appear in my own blog, but here I am suitably attired for the beach. And below that, Carol posed for the camera with feline company.

As a storm was brewing we made a strategic retreat, though I don't think the prospect disturbed the surfers!

AS

A Dry Continent?

Australia has the reputation of being a dry continent and, indeed, we have sifting sand dunes in the Simpson Desert that resemble a Saharan landscape. On the other hand we can record some impressive rain events, one of which has just occurred. Tropical cyclone Debbie hit the central Queensland coast 2-3 days ago, accompanied by violent winds of over 250 km per hour. I doubt if many of my readers have ever experienced any storm over 100 km per hour, a figure 2.5 times that level caused massive damage to buildings, trees, crops, power-lines, high-priced yachts and other infrastructure.

But the rainfall received by the town of Mackay was staggering. In the last four days it has received 478 mm of rain (or 19 inches). That's almost two-thirds of the annual rainfall we receive here in Armidale or, if I remember correctly, the annual rainfall of the south coast of England. And, worse still, the system is heading southwards in our direction. As yet Armidale has no strong winds - indeed right now it's dead calm, but the winds are picking up on the coast close to the Queensland border. But it started raining about 2 hours ago and there are forecasts for up to 100 mm (4 inches) on the Northern Tablelands where we live.

My cousin Carol and her daughter, Vivienne, who live near Blackpool in Lancashire (UK) are currently visiting Australia - we're meeting up on Saturday in Sydney - and, guess what. They're staying now on the Gold Coast where maybe 200 mm (8 inches) is about to fall! It's not exactly great holiday weather. The figure at dawn today had already reached 85 mm and in the mountains behind it was more like 150mm already. I hope they've got webbed feet!

AS

Art Exhibition and Dinner

The nearby town of Uralla stages an annual art exhibition organised by their Rotary Club and we've been there several times in the past, even buying the odd picture. This year, as in the past, Armidale, Uralla, Walcha and other Rotary Clubs got together and organised a fund-raising dinner in the exhibition hall - a nice venue because we were surrounded by some great art-works, many done by locals, while we ate a delicious meal served by youngsters taking some sort of catering qualification and talked to people whom we had not previously met. These pictures provide some idea of the event's quality. Dot came along too, the first time she's attended a Rotary event as far as I know.

We were asked at the door to nominate our two favourite pictures one from (a) general exhibit and the second from (b) the young artists collection. My choice came down to the two pictures below, the first showing dragonflies on a pond - very impressionistic and the second showing the courtyard and doorway of a home on the Greek island of Mykonos in the Cyclades. The second struck me as very atmospheric and it was my first choice..

This next image shows two of my favourite pictures produced by pupils in years 7 to 9 (roughly 13 to 15 y.o.). They're the two large impressionistic items in the middle - and the bottom one had been given a gong by the exhibition's organisers.

And here's another exhibit that I liked very much. Alas, the most favoured images I gathered from the chatter around me were landscapes or pictures of farms and farm-houses or maybe images of country towns. Am I alone in eschewing the common place and preferring the unusual?

And here's where we were dining, taken shortly after the end of the meal.

My mantra on life is increasingly becoming: 'do something new'. I like to visit new places, countries, cultures, environments, technological developments, innovative businesses, social groups and so on. Thus, for example, Dot and I have just booked our first cruise with some intersting side trips. You'll find out where in the next few months.

AS

A Sad Event

Since we feed seeds to our local bird population copiously, we get visits from a wide variety of species such as eastern rosellas and their crimson compatriots, king parrots, rainbow lorikeets, crested pigeons and, of course, galahs which are possibly the most numerous. More recently, we've even proved attractive to a host of white corellas, which are relatively new to Armidale but whose population is expanding rapidly. The attraction is our seed-bearing pistachio Chinensis and the corellas get at the seed by bouncing up and down on twigs bearing the seed from the tree's main branches and then having their meal at leisure on the ground. It's a pain having to go around picking up those twigs.

Because of the abundant feed we've discovered that we're setting up an old-folks home for birds, an especially it seems for galahs. We have already been undertakers to several deceased members of that species. For the past week we have witnessed the slow decline of another galah, a bird that no longer seems to be able to fly. It even cannot now fly away like galahs always seem to do when humans get too close. When I'm out cycling whole flocks take to the air simultaneously and chattering voluminously. But our poor bird just looks at us inquisitively and backs off at a slow pace when approached. Well, this afternoon I had to mow an overly long lawn after all the heavy rain we've had recently - a job I didn't want to do in case I gave our elderly galah a cardiac arrest.

Well I pulled the cord and mower started. In order to reduce avian consternation kept the revs low and started at the far end of the garden from where our guest was huddled. The strategy worked and the bird remained still, cocking its head to observe progress. As I got closer and closer it began to shuffle and eventually moved as far as it conveniently could, but never flew off like a healthy bird. In fact, it let me get within a couples of meters (yards) of where it was observing me. And then I moved further away to finish off the rest of the lawn with some thoughts springing to my mind.

Do birds experience empathy? Can they recognise specimens of our species and learn to fear some but not others? Are they subject to pastoral care by members of their own species? Since I tried to hand-feed the poor creature this morning, perhaps it recognised me as a benefactor! Perhaps it valued future delivery of food highly and didn't want to foreclose on that option! Perhaps the bird has learned to value neat and tidy gardens! Maybe it valued my presence because I've scared off the corella pests plaguing its dying days! And, on the issue of pastoral care, I saw another galah land near its relative when I turned the mower off and stand by our guest, looking it up and down.

My guess is that it's only a few days before our guest shuffles off its mortal coil and we have another departure ceremony.

AS

Seasons of New England

Uralla, a little town 22 km (c. 14 miles) to the south of Armidale, holds an annual festival called Seasons of New England that's a show-case for local small business-people or those engaged in all sorts of craft activities. So there are many stalls providing all manner of foods, wood or metal objects, meals (Dot had Moroccan and I had Turkish!), cosmetics, clothing and accessories, drinks (craft beers, wines, apple cider), and so on. In fact, if one were destitute and starving it might be possible to survive by snacking on the tasting mechanisms operated by the stalls. There are pony rides for children and other kids' activities including face-painting. There was even a stage where a band could perform, but no musicians while we there in late morning.

All the stalls are under cover - demountable square tent-like structures, which might be necessary in inclement weather. However, something remarkable happened yesterday. It didn't rain and the sun put in an appearance, unlike much of March so far.  As I type this on Sunday morning we're back to a scene of leaden skies and a bucket-load of water heading our way! Even the dining areas with seats and tables were under cover in Uralla and for good reason had we exchanged the last two days.

Such festivals are an integral part of community, especially in rural areas where they can bring together for common purpose the highly scattered farming families who might be located even 60 or 80 km (up to 50 miles) away even within Uralla Shire itself. But, interestingly, we met up with many people we know from Armidale, which is perhaps not surprising as Uralla is partly a dormitory suburb of Armidale - about a 12 minute drive away along a good road. We must have spent a couple of hours wandering around the festival, nattering to friends, and consuming our meals.

And, after trying some of the local cider, I bought a four-pack. As you can see, it's called bone-dry, which was an accurate description. Unlike most cider that's quite sweet, the makers of this brew managed to remove a lot of the sugar content and, since I liked the flavour, I bought a small supply.

This part of the Northern Tablelands used to be one of Australia's leading apple growing regions, but only a few remnant orchards are still in operation. However, I'm pretty sure the apples used in the cider are local-grown.

AS

Flood

On the 21st March we tend begin thinking that winter's on its way. But this year has been very different to most in that warm weather has continued to enshroud us. At 7 am this morning I was out on my bike because the temperature was so warm - about 18 C and rode about the usual 16 km or 10 miles. However, I did have an ulterior motive for rising that early. Last night the weather forecasts for today talked of heavy rainfall driven by humid winds coming off the Coral Sea and true to expectations a few peals of thunder heralded the start of some very heavy rain. Poor Dot had to rush into the garden to salvage some washing from the line and did a good job at the rescue.

Then, in the space of 40 minutes we had a dump of 21 mm, after which the rain retreated. Alas, a second dump started after half an hour and in a short space of time the gauge registered another 14 mm. So, in a little under two hours we received 45 mm (or 1.77 inches) and parts of our garden disappeared under water. Just have a quick look:

Chairs under water.

Some remnant towels on the line - much wetter than when they came out of the spin dryer.

Lake Kenalmac rising and spilling out on to our driveway.

I'm enrolling in a course in Ark Construction 101 just in case things go on like this, but I think that Armidale is fairly safe at 1000 m above sea level. If waters rose this high just about all of Britain would disappear and solve the Brexit crisis.

AS