Sweet Wayfaring

At Cudal we browsed another junk shop, where my eye was taken but various domestic items.  The old ice cream can brought back memories of when they were first introduced - such an amazingly big quantity of ice cream in comparison to the cardboard wrapped bricks that preceded them. I don't remember Weetbix looking like this box below do you? And this one made me think of another domestic dream of home bottled fruit gone awry.  The wooden fruit box they are in brings back memories of boxes of Grannie Smith's each individually wrapped in tissue paper.

The canola fields are outside the town of Cudal.  I have shown you pictures of Cudal before, including its Royal Hotel.  It's a small but by no means dead town.  It's just that nearly every country town has a few blank faces.

I never quite know where to stop when it comes to canola.  I am mesmerised by these bright yellow flowers.

Here's the reason for this trip.  I wanted to see the canola fields in flower.

It's quite a while since I visited the haystacks theme.  Here's a different take on it.

The traffic can be different in the country.

Just outside Orange we found this river of daffodils.  I'd love to have a swathe like this in my garden, but imagine planting all those bulbs.

As a writer I find remainder shops very sad ... some author's passion and work in the junk pile of cheap books.  As a photographer this frame at D'arcy's  makes me feel the same way.

We stopped for a quick browse at D'arcy's at Lucknow.  I've shown you this shop before.  It's a big shed so jam packed full of stuff that it is hard to choose what to show so in the end I settled on a couple signs with old and familiar names. Talking of names, you don't run into many D'arcys these days.  And if you did I bet it would be a girl. zzzz

We went away again this weekend.  Through the same country as our last trip but a little further to the west then swinging back through Mudgee and our block at Clandulla before returning home to the mountains.  The season is at the cusp of change with the sheen of spring green beginning to peep through the winter brown.

And so it's back to our beloved mountains and home.  The end of this trip.

This is the little church at Bylong.  I have shown you it before but I thought it worth another shot. There is not a lot to Bylong.  There was a cafe with many motorcycles parked out front as well.  These roads seem very popular with bikers.  I don't blame them. They are popular with me too.

Climbing the mountain we can see the River below. I am not sure if it is the Bylong River. Like most of the rivers in this area it's fringed with she-oaks and has busy rocky bits and lazy sandy bits.  They find gold in those rivers.

We are driving along the Bylong Valley Way a very picturesque drive of farms against a backdrop of mountains.  I'm always happy to see the mountains return.

We were enjoying the trip so much we decided to make it stretch a little longer and return by the Bylong Valley Way.

This was once someone's home among the gum trees.

I promised you some abandoned shots.  This one was quite a distance away across of field but I had to have it because there was also car in the frame.

We are back near  Mudgee where the country lines are vineyards, all looking a little forlorn at this time of year.  

The sun is up and we are cruising our way back home.  Somewhere between Dunnedoo and Gulgong we saw this plantation.  I don't know what sort of crop it is. Do you?

Feeling chilly yet?  It's time I finished this walk.  I like towns where the old verandahs are still intact.  By the way, that is the Royal Hotel but I photographed it last time we were here.  We plan to have breakfast at the White Rose cafe before heading on our way.  The sun should be out by then.

Black Swan  Dunedoo is the aboriginal word for swan. There are a series of metal sculptures of birds in the local park.  More of them below. Barn owl Wedge tailed eagle Kookaburra

It is just me and the birds down by the railway line.

The sun is up but it sure isn't out. We are down by the railway line here.

No trip is complete without me finding some sort of fence to photograph.  It's still very misty.

And what backyard is complete without a clothes line, not used too much in the winter it seems.

Aren't those winter leaves and berries by the painted shed pretty.

Citrus trees which fruit in the winter are another common find in the back yard.

I love jonquils for the way the naturalise so nicely and flower so early in the season cheering up winter days and old sheds.

If you poke your nose over the fence in a country town you are sure to find a rusting corrugated iron shed. I'm going to run a short series of sheds in winter, which are different from summer.  After all that shed's elegant lines would be hidden by the tree in the summer.

I have made mention before that country towns often have Pepperina trees  growing along their streets.  This town has lovely wide streets with them growing down the centre.  And yes you are in for another round of misty photos, inevitable for a morning walk at this time of year.

I'm up bright and early exploring the town of Dunedoo.  Its Sunday morning and light frost is dusting the ground.   Don't worry this is the only frost shot on this walk. It's chilly and there's barely a soul in sight ... a perfect day for poking my camera nose over fences.

We are heading back inland and it's getting late, time we found a place to rest our heads for the evening. The next town is Dunedoo, regular readers of this blog might remember our train trip to Dunedoo where we spent a wet day walking the streets and figured we had dun all there was to do in Dunedoo. Ironic that we are going to find ourselves back there.