Sweet Wayfaring

The antique shop at Lucknow is a perfect spot to strike it lucky. It's stuffed full of old wares. I guess the"Cherries Here" sign has made it out of its storage spot by now ... the cherry season has begun. Well that's it for this trip. I'm popping over to Blue Mountains Journal for a week to show you what the highway widening is doing to our town of Lawson. Then I'll be back here for a very enjoyable trip to the farming country around Mudgee which is north west of the mountains.

I liked the colour of the fresh spring growth against the soft green walls of the School of Arts at Lucknow. This is an old gold mining town ... the name seems appropriate.

Here we go, the empty house for this trip. I trudged through ripening grass seeds and burrs to get this shot .... yes spring is quickly passing giving a high-noon summery bleach to the image.

Here's the shearing shed. With the sunshine going up a notch or two since our train ride a couple of weeks earlier the grass was beginning to dry out and was no longer bright green . If you were to go out there today, a further few dry weeks later, you'd find the grass brittle and dry as we are having unusually hot close to spring.

It wouldn't be a visit to the country without me trying to add to my hay series and other favourites. I've got a shearing shed and an abandonded house coming up next but didn't find a new Royal Hotel.

The wheat crop was looking promising. I believe the harvest is now in progress.

The bee keepers had their hives out collecting the bounty from spring flowers. AB in Germany posted some beehives recently so I was pleased to find the Australian version to show. Given the interest in vineyard differences yesterday bees are just as much fun. Also check out Z's Bee Hotel in Switzerland .

On the way out we passed through the vinyard and orchard country which was beginning to burst out with spring growth ... by now (several weeks later) I'm sure they will be in full leaf. In light of the comments I am adding this additional image taken nearby the same day.

When we were on the train trip I saw some fields bright with canola flowers and made a note to myself to get out west again before the season has passed. A few weeks later we did go for a drive but we were too late. Instead of seeing this or this we saw fields with just a stray flower or two left. As such, it wasn't a terribly exciting drive but I will show you some of the photos over the next week while I wait for us to do something more interesting.

Here's one last shot of the damp misty countryside on the way home and the end of a very enjoyable trip. I dont think we'll be waiting 16 years before our next train ride. For the next week I'll be walking in the Everglades gardens over at the Blue Mountains Journal before coming back here for another short drive"out west".

Soon we were gliding through the green fields again. As the day began to dim a storm began to brew. It was going to be much cooler by the time we got home. The reflections in the glass were a real pest for photography, hence the lack of shots from on the train despite lots of lovely scenery.

It was nearly time to catch the train back home. We saw this sign on the way to the station -- a reminder to those who would be seeing us rush by at a level crossing.

Sorry they are blurry because I photographed them from a great distance but some were so special I had to show you. Going clockwise: 1. There were lots of little birds in the rushes but few would come out far enough for a good shot 2. The swan and her cygnets hurtled down the river on a swift current, I barely caught the image despite running along the bank. In Australia our swans are black, the cygnets will change colour as they grow older. 3. And there were all sorts of parrots high in the trees including in the green ones I have shown you before. 4. The little kingfisher was a tiny bright spot by the water which I grabbed in the hope that the camera would pick up detail I could not see. When I got tired of chasing elusive birds I scanned the ground looking for more static objects. I hope this tiny shell was from a fledgling bird now flying free.

With a few more hours to kill before catching the train home we went down to the river which runs near the shopping centre. It was a lovely spot to sit, contemplate and watch and listen to the birds. I'll show you some of the birds tomorrow.

It was not just the stalls and stall holders who interested me. How are these for local characters?

It was the weekend for the farmers market, so we wandered around looking at the local produce for sale.

The Western Plains Zoo and Old Dubbo Gaol are the big tourist attractions around Dubbo but we had visited the zoo only last year and seen the gaol before so settled for wandering around the town instead. The photo of the old Bentley is for no other reason than I like it. It was parked in the main street.

We stayed at the very pleasant Westbury Guest House. The city was hot and bathed in dust from the massive dust cloud that had reached as far as Sydney so it was pleasant to sit on the verandah and enjoy a cool drink while some refeshing rainfall fell, there was even some light hail.