Sweet Wayfaring

You know I love reoadside grass.  We've gone quite a long way down the road, time we headed back to the caravan park and my warm cabin. We are not quite done yet, i have a few more shots back at the camp.

The sunshine is making the ice sparkle but no matter how hard I tried I could not get the camera to pick up those little glints of light, so you get a gate instead.

I'm just loving this frost.  Hope you aren't tired of it yet.

These days it's fine wool not gold which sustains the community.

Isn't it beautiful.

As soon as I approached the paddock to take a photo of the ducks they took off and flew over the graveyard behind the church. This was taken on a frosty morning in Windyer which is out Mudgee way. A repost to participate in Julie's Taphophile Tragics community .  There continues to be a wonderful variety of posts from around the world while my specialty is country Australia.

We're coming up to the church, it's a modern replacement for an old building so here is it's fence instead.  Over the road there is a big flock of ducks settled in the white paddock.

The road is silent,  All is quiet around me except for the occasional call of birds and the soft thump of this little fellow bounding over the paddock. I wonder if his feet get cold?

It's not a work of art.  Is the remnants of an old building.  By the way Windeyer was once a booming gold mining town.  There's not much left of it now.

How's this for a different take on my usual wildflower shots.

I guess it is a problem living next door to a camping site.

The night before as were were looking for our destination we saw the grass in this area being burnt off, the fire glowing red in the cold night.  In the morning there are little black frosted mounds and an old log still smouldering.

The property with the shed had this great fence too. And I've added another two Royal Hotels from Julie to the collection

What isn't there to love about this shed?

Over the road is the hotel.  It's not a Royal but I have received recent contributions from Gordon and Red Nomad OZ over at the Royal Collection check them out.

Pull on your coat, and sturdy boots, put on your gloves and come stroll the town with me as the sun peeps over the horizon. This is the football field and I include it for no other reason than its where my walk began and I like the colours muted by the frost.

We went out to Clandulla this weekend decided to stay over so we could do some more work on the block.  All of the accommodation in the nearby towns was booked so instead we stayed at the caravan park in the tiny town of Windeyer (population less than 50) which is about 40kms from Mudgee on the Hill End road. When I looked outside our cabin this morning I discovered a world white with frost.  What a gift!   You are going to see lots of frosty shots over the next few days.

We end this series at the lookout overlooking the town.  You can see the cement works in the top picture.  In the one below you can see the avenue of poplar trees and if you look carefully you can also see the ropeway running across the foreground. And from this vantage point you can readily see Kandos is a small town in a lovely landscape.  I hope you have enjoyed the tour.

The third Icon -- the avenue of trees providing a welcome entrance to nearly every country town -- often planted as a memorial after the war or as an Arbor Day project by school children long ago.  Do schools still do Arbor Day?

This one is just loaded with country town icons ... the long clothes line rather than the ubiquitous Hills Hoist of the suburbs (or using the clothes line instead of a dryer),  the simple faded cotton frocks, the old tank to store the wood (or having a wood heap at all), the wire fence and the bare back yard

I'll end this tour of Kandos with some images of things common in country towns that are not necessarily found in the  cities.  Icon 1 -- barb wire and chicken wire fences (and another of my favourites - derilict buildings).

I'm not a golfer but I am sure it would be great to play this course. It is a 18 hole par 70 championship course designed by two renowned golf architects RS Black and Arthur East. For me, I love the roses (they grow wonderfully well in this area) and the mountains which are an ever present and delightful part of the landscape.

Down in the centre of town is a more traditional church. Unlike nearby Rylstone, stone buildings are rare here.  In fact the shops and houses in Kandos are an assortment of cement, ash brick, cement render, fibro, hardiplank, timber, brick and very occasionally stone which gives the town a mish-mash charm not found the in the endless brick suburbs of the city.

One building making a statement on the town is the Museum which was formerly a Methodist Church. It's architecture is unusual in Australian church design.  In 1919 the owner of the cement works donated the cement to build the church on one proviso, that it was in style of the church from his home town in America.  The parishioners were not too keen on it but nonetheless agreed.