Green Electricity

 

I love the vistas and landscapes of New England. And, here's a picture I took four days ago looking northwards to Mount Duval.

Two days later I took another picture of Mount Duval from much further away. This time I was with two friends combing the countryside for an electricity farm located near Uralla (c. 21 km south of Armidale). And what we saw took our breath away. Take a look at these mind-boggling statistics. This new development will typically deliver 720 megawatts per day and 1.8 million megawatt hours per annum. It will contribute to reducing greenhouse omissions by 1.5 million tonnes, which is like taking 300,000 cars off the road. And it will power no less than 250,000 homes. Not bad, eh! Even more amazingly, our region (Northern Tablelands) has 80,000 people and possibly has 35,000 houses. In other words, this bunch of solar panels will support 7 times our region's population. As you can see, these panels cover square kilometers.

And, a day later, we were surprised to hear that this solar farm had been officially opened. The day we were there, it still seemed to be under construction.

All up this is likely a great benefit to our region in terms of cheaper electricity, jobs created for constrruction and maintenance, and ... potentially better grazing country for sheep. New England is a renewable energy hub in NSW and a big step forward. Around New England we're also en route to a stack of major wind farms, many other electric panel generation locations and pumped hydro. We'll soon be exporting electricity to a wide range of territory.

See more at: www.newenglandsolar.com.au

AS 

Unusual Event

I regularly go out for a walk in the late afternoon over familiar routes that rarely differ. The other day I reached the top of a downhill and potentially dangerous bike track and to my amazement I came across a possee of school kids on bikes  from a well-known and regarded private school - TAS (The Arnidale School). While I was nearby they were congregating and not riding, but the sheer number amazed me. Has any reader seen such a looming event? Here's the top of the track.

And here is a possee of kids waiting to go.

And here's another group waiting to go!

That's an amazing number of kids from one private school! After taking these pictures I walked home quickly to tea.

AS

Culturefest

In the late-afternoon and early evening of Friday 10 March, Armidale staged a magnificent event - a Culturefest. 

Our town is multicultural with huge numbers of migrants from heaps of different countries globally. And to celebrate this condition, we staged a massive food-share at Curtis Park on the banks of Dumaresq Creek. Located there were maybe 15-20 food-stalls each delivering samples of traditional foods from their country of origin. Each was located in a 'tent' bearing the flag and name of the countries in question - see below. We could sample foods from many parts of Asia, Europe, parts of Africa and South America. Have you ever had a meal from Bhutan or Nigeria or Indonesia?

I mayself chose a meal from Iran, an interesting country I've visited twice and from which I have several friends. It cost me nothing and was delicious! The whole of Curtis Park was crammed with people queuing for food and consuming it. The event was hugely popular and provided an opportunity helping to integrate and welcome people from different cultural backgrounds. It was also for people across all age-groups and often wearing traditional clothing.

The location was also decked in the flags of maybe 80 or 90 different nations welcoming people from those nations.

There were places where people sit down either on the ground or on chairs and a stage where later on bands from different cultures could perform.

What other town of 25,000 people do you know of staging a similar event - and from anywhere on earth?

AS

Shigeru Kawai Piano Launch

 Armidale's New England Conservatorium of Music has just upagraded its piano. They bought it from the Japanese company Shigeru Kawai and we were advised that their pianos are now regarded as among the world's best.

Here's the instrument in question:

To celebrate its arrival, the Conservatorium planned a concert in their domain and it turned out to be among the most stupendous I've attended there. The entire program consisted of piano works and, remarkably, all performers were based in Armidale. Even two of the 5 performers must have been around 18 years of age - either last year of high school or starting tertiary education. Armidale has a huge array of musical talent. The concert lasted 2 hours.

The opening work was Mendelssohn's stupendous 17 Variations Serieuses Op 54 played by Sheila Guymer. Then came two Danzas Argentinas composed by Alberto Ginastera ... of whom I know nothing. This was beautifully played by young Will Mackson. Both performers received raptuous applause. Here's Sheila.

And here's young Will who performed marvellously.

Next came Nigan from Baal Shem (B. 27, #2) in which joung Emily played the violin accompanied by Robert Manley.

Then the piano teacher, Robert Manley, performed three glorious works by Brahms (1) and Greig (2). 

After this, Sheila resumed her role at the piano while Robert, believe it or not, switched to a 'cello to perform Faure's Elegie Op 24. Again, the performances were top-class.

An intermission now occurred to hand out awards to young performers, after which we saw something I've never seen in public. Kasey Cochrane joined Robert at the piano to play a glorious duet - Lutoslawski's famous Variations on a Theme by Paganini. Again, it was a great performance and the musicians won enormous applause. 

Lastly, the audience was enthralled by an amazing work by Eduard Holst called Shooting Stars Galop. And they sure did gallop!! More amazing still was the fact that there old piano joined the new one and each had two pianists - see above. So we had a sort of piano quartet with 8 hands on the 2 keyboards. Again, the audience was overwhelmed by a brilliant musical they were unlikely to ever see again. The applause at the end was long and resounding, signing off on a great day enjoyed by a large and enthusiastic audience. Lucky Armidale! 

Alas, I forgot to take a picture of this 8 hands event. Maybe I was so enthralled by the music that I forgot to take it. Anyway, here's all 4 piano performer taking their final bow. The applause was monumental.

What a day! Dot and I were enthralled. Come and live here if you like this kind of event.

AS

Blooming Summer

 We're moving here into late summer but, after a lot of cool and wet weather, we're enjoying day-long sunshine and warm temperatures. Today, for example, the forecast is for temperature to reach 30 C (86 F) even though we're 1100 m above sea level. We've a garden with masses of flowers and I've just done a quick walk around it with my camera photographing many of the flowers in tubs, flower beds, and even trees. Here they are:

I'm not really up with the names of the various plants, but Dot has told me that the ones in the mext picture are naked ladies!! I can't quite see the connection, but I'll leave it up to you to work this issue out!

I hope you enjoyed these photos as much as I did taking them. Thanks to Dot's great efforts we've got heaps of flowers for us to enjoy.

AS

Monthly Concert Last Sunday in Month

 Armidale has a fantastic number of high quality musical concerts and I increasingly focus on a monthly event held at 12.30 pm on the last Sunday of each month. It's located at the Uniting Church and entry is by donation. Two days ago, the concert featured music for flute, violin, viola and cello (sometimes confusingly called a flute quartet!) performed by excellent young musicians. They were James McKay, Eliza Scott, Robert van Gend and Charlotte Low. The repertoire ranged from the 18th to 21st centuries. It  included a well known work by Mozart and more obscure, but nevertheless lovely pieces.

Here are the musicians.

And, as you can see, the church was fairly full with an enthused audience.

AS

Lamb and Potato Festival

Many small towns across rural Australia organise festivals to bring in tourists and their money to boost local income but also provide an opportunity for local citizens to come together socially. One such town is Guyra located c. 35 km north of Armidale. It's known for its altitude which is c. 1330 m (4364 feet) above sea level. The town's population is only about 1947 but the extensive surrounding countryside might add another 1,000.

Every January - the warmest time of year - the town stages its Lamb and Potato Festival which lasts maybe 10 to 12 days. Dot and I frequently visit the event yearly to sample local farm produce and see other interesting events. If you'd like to find out more about the place and its event see respectively:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guyra,_New_South_Wales and

https://guyralambpotatofestival.com/ 

The day we chose to go was quite warm and sunny, which was lovely given the wet weather we experienced for much 2022. Even at 1330 m, the temperature at lunch-time must have been close to 27 C (about 80F). Not bad, eh?

These pictures reveal some of what we saw. Here's a guy selling belts. I bought two.

Many other stalls were selling clothing, food and farm equipment like this one.

Here's the cafe where we bought lunch. Mine was an excellent - very tasty lamburger.

In the middle of the fair, which extended alongside the New England Highway was a permanent memorial to the local farm economy - a statue of a sheep.

As is usual in such events, there was a tent that served as a stage for a guy singing 'country music'.

Another  great feature was a train ride. The track shown here experienced its last long-distance service maybe 30 years ago. And the track is now scheduled to be turned into a mountain-bike trail. However, the locals have developed their own service - for the festival only. Here are the 'station', two pictures of the 'passenger train'. It was vary popular with local families and kids.

All up, it's an interesting and entertaining experience.

AS