Calling artists, photographers and the like - come to Buangor on Sunday to help save the ancient and doomed trees

FROM THE WHAM FACEBOOK SITE:

Helen Lewers added photos to April 26, 2015.

26 April at 21:31

Say your goodbyes to these beautiful old redgums who've been living in the Middle Creek area long before it had that name - 200-400 years previously, at least. Say goodbye to the young trees too. There aren't too many growing on adjacent farmland. NONE of these trees are protected. 

Not by‪#‎VicRoadsVandals‬.

Not by the ‪#‎AndrewsGvt‬.

Not by anyone who has the power to protect them. 

Say goodbye.

AN INVITATION

Noticed any roads authorities vandalising ancient habitat trees

on the Western Highway lately? 

Come to Buangor on the 3 May - Sunday - 10am to 3pm 

and help record the treasures we are losing. 

Bring all your own materials, picnic, chair, etc. 

(NB - good toilets at Beaufort!) 

The enormous environmental damage being inflicted upon us all 

is to save a TOTAL OF 2 WHOLE MINUTES of travel time 

between Beaufort and Ararat! 

For more details contact as per poster or via WHAM on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/867523523309131/

Numbers to phone for more information:

0408 545 229

0400 713 175

Could you also bring Yellow Ribbons
to tie around the trees
As a symbol of our care for them
Please know, we are being positive about saving these trees
for future generations

Vote with your dollars at Victorian Markets this Saturday and Sunday - 2013-04-27 and 2013-04-28

Fourth Saturday-Sunday Markets

4th Saturday	Where	When	Entry	Notes
Ballarat Lakeside	Windmill Drive, Lake Wendouree, Ballarat	9am-1pm	free	2nd and 4th Saturdays, except December - 2nd Saturday only
Bentleigh	East Bentleigh Primary School, 90 Bignell Road, East Bentleigh	8am-12.30pm	$2 entry	4th saturday excl. January;
Casey-Berwick	The Old Cheese Factory, 34 Homestead Road, Berwick	8am-12.30pm		Dec 20th from 4pm to 8pm
Churchill Island	Churchill Island, Phillip Island	8am-1pm		Every Saturday during January - 8th, 15, 22, 29
Hume Murray	Gateway Village, Lincoln Clauseway, Wodonga	8am-12pm		Every 2nd Saturday from Jan 8th
Keilor East	Centreway Park, Wyong Street	8am-1pm		Starts: November 24th
Lancefield	Centre Plantation, High Street, Lancefield	9am-1pm		3rd Saturday in December
Mansfield	Mansfield Primary School, Bottom Terrace. Entrance off Highette Street, Mansfield	8.30am-1pm		No Market in January
Monty	Montmorency Primary School 60A Rattray Road, Montmorency	9am-1pm	gold coin	entry proceeds go to Primary School
Myrtleford	St Paul's Anglican Church, Clyde Street, Myrtleford	8am-12pm		Each Saturday - January to May; 1st/3rd Saturday - June to December
Newtown	Cnr Shannon Avenue and West Fyans Street Newtown Geelong	8am-1pm
Preston	Bell Primary School Corner Scotia St and Oakover Rd, Preston	9am-1pm	$2	children free
Slow Food	Abbotsford Convent, St Heliers Road, Abbotsford	8am-1pm	$2	Parking:$2
Taste of Gold - Monash	Monash University Clayton Campus Car Park	8.30am-1pm		moved from Holmesglen TAFE; no market January
Traralgon	Kay Street Gardens, Kay Street, Traralgon	8am-1pm
Torquay	Torquay Central, Bristol Road, Tourquay	8.30am-1pm		every saturday
Yarraville	Yarraville Gardens, Cnr Hyde and Sommerville Roads, Yarraville	8am-12pm

4th Sunday	Where	When	Entry	Notes
Fitzroy-St Kilda	Corner Fitzroy St & Lakeside Drive	8am-1pm
Flemington (ex Melb Showgrounds)	Debney Park Secondary College, 169 Mt Alexander Road, Flemington	9am-1pm		Every Sunday; restarts 9th January 2011; Parking $3
Kinglake	In the Shed, cnr Heidelberg/Kinglake Road and Healesvill/Kinglake Road	9am-2pm		Ex Yarra Glen Railway Market
Manningham	The Manningham Club 1 Thompsons Rd, Bulleen	8am-1pm		gold coin donation
Mt. Eliza	Cnr Mt Eliza Way and Canadian Bay Road, Mount Eliza	9am-1pm		No market in December
Mulgrave	Grounds of the Body Shop, Cnr Jacksons & Wellington Rds Mulgrave	8am-1pm		Every Sunday;
Yarrawonga	Piper Street, Yarrawonga	8.30am-12.30pm

To market, to market, and to market at beautiful Buninyong

To-day I went to the Buninyong Markets.  Buninyong is a charming Victorian country village and now an outer suburb of Ballarat.  Once a month, on the third Saturday, it becomes Market Central.  THE market, so to speak, is organised by Rotary and you can find details here.

To my visitor's eye, I saw the market as a whole comprised of three sections.  Inside the Town Hall, seemed to be the Makers' Market: food, soaps, crafts, and so on.  Outside, the service lane coming parking area was taken over by things that grow.  This, to me, was the Farmers' Market.  This two/thirds was part of the Rotary bailiwick.

Next door at the Buninyong Uniting Church there was the third section: a Car Boot Sale.  I think some of the stuff there would not have fitted anywhere near a car boot.  There were crowds of stalls on the extensive front lawns of the church.  All manner of materials and things and books and things. Up next to the church itself is the church hall from where Uniting Church women served tea and biscuits alongside a table selling various goods and the whole in the midst of boxes and boxes of all manner of books.

I think it is a marvellous undertaking that Buninyong has embarked upon.  It brings people, goods and money to the village in a rather joyous jumble to make a marvellous whole.

To take a peek at the experience of going to market in Buninyong,

please go here.

On the banks of the Yarrowee ... a new Trad Pad

2012 turned out to be a whole year's hiatus on The Trad Pad.  With hindsight, it is going to be a year that I wrap up thoughtfully and tuck away.  I am rather glad - in the end - that I didn't do anything public on The Trad Pad last year.

On the banks of the Yarrowee River, Ballarat

This year looks like being very different.  I have moved to a really real Trad Pad situated 2kms and a world away from the city centre of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia.  I am living in an historic old mining area across the road from the Yarrowee River at the foot of a forested hill.  In this out of sight, out of time part of the world the roads have no bitumen, no channelling and kerbing.

 Water in a formerly dry waterhole on the Yarrowee.

Below: blossom and oaks on the Yarrowee.

Until yesterday, directly in front of my place the river was dry.  After some good and much needed rain, there is now water in my part of the river.

I live right on the Yarrowee Trail - part of the Goldfields Track and the Great Dividing Trail.  Runners and walkers and bikers of all shapes, sizes, and ages wander past my place.  I have a large old Golden Ash in the front yard which is a beautiful and natural form of air-conditioning and perfect for sitting under on a hot afternoon.

And - as you can see from the picture in the title above - there is a verandah.

The cottage that is The Trad Pad is quaint, quirky and small and in need of some repair.  It allegedly has three bedrooms but I prefer to say two bedrooms and a dressing room because the third has the only built-in wardrobe in the place.  While it would take a single bed, I have two chests of drawers in there instead.  So it is not a sleeping room but a dressing room.

While there is a nicely sized front yard there is almost no backyard.  The backyard is a sort of triangle (the house is on a corner - the western wall forms part of the property's boundary) with a lane behind which once would have been used as a dunny-run - adjoining a square. The whole is gravelled instead of grass.  If it was grassed one would need barber's clippers to trim the lawn.  I have some of my potted plants there.

 

At the foot of the forested hill

Musk Farm and Wombat Hill - great Australian gardens

In search of the rushing, gushing Yarra River - Part 2

The Yarra River at Warrandyte at 3.30pm (approx) on Monday 6 September 2010

These pictures were taken from the walk below the Riverside Cark Park.  As you can see, the water was only about 50cm below the walkway.  Would not have taken much more to break the bank on this side.  The other side does not have a low embankment.

Please note the height of the bridge.  Even strong bridges can be damaged by drivers as one can see in the picture.  But there was a bridge before this bridge...

This memorial post commemorates 

the artist Walter Withers who was

a member of the famous Heidelberg School. 

Here is the Withers picture of the Old Bridge, Warrandyte.

Please note the wattle tumbling down the hilly embankment.

If you look closely in my pictures above, 

you will see wattle on that embankment - 

not as profuse as portrayed in the painting by Withers, 

but there still.

The Heidelberg School had something of a colony at Warrandyte at one time - although it was not the best known colony of this unique group of Australian artists.  The legacy, though, lingers on.  Warrandyte is still a place that attracts creative people.

The day was getting darker.

Lunch should have happened hours ago.

A lovely old building summoned and I pulled into the carpark.

Smoke rising into the eucalypts from a stone chimney is a welcoming sight.

First stop, a long overdue browse at The Linen and Larder...

and in through the beckoning doors...

Linen and Larder is bursting with good stuff - 

homewares, gifts, clothing, and stuff for eating and eating upon.

A return journey with credit card is required.

Perhaps some thoughts for Christmas.

You will find L & L here:

THE YARRA STORE
Linen & Larder
321 Warrandyte-Ringwood Road
Warrandyte, Vic 3113

Tummy was still calling ... but a little louder ...

and so to next door ...

... and the Stonehouse Cafe Restaurant.

It has hints of yesteryear - but the decor needs a few additions.

I would suggest a deal with Linen and Larder for the interior.

There are two large banks of windows

opening out on to a verandah under the gum trees

with greedy, nosy sulphur-crested cockatoos a-visiting.

These windows - set into their stone walls -

could do with a couple of school benches under them.

A perfect place for newspaper and coffee.

But back to my tummy ...

I asked for a bowl of hot tomato and herb soup ...

and the bread was s-o-o scrumptious ...

... with some hot chocolate ...

Tummy was well looked after - then home.

Ripe and rhododendrons

Miss Eagle's sister, The Director, has been in Melbourne again this week-end.

Yesterday, we lunched at Ripe in Sassafras. It had changed a little since last I was there. Ripe is an old house and it had a verandah/deck at the back. The deck has been extended. Access is by two sets of folding glass doors. There is a marquee with see-through walls. Features of the space are a rhododendron and communal tables. It was a chilly, overcast day so there was one one of those huge outdoor gas heaters.Inside, in the house section, it is still the same wooden tables and chairs for a more intimate ambiance.

Here we were - each of us with gastric lapbands. So we ordered the vegetable and coriander soup and the risotto - with two spoons and two forks so we could share. Beautiful warming, comfort food. The risotto - with fresh asparagus, beans, and feta - was the best ever. As you can see, dear Reader, substantial portions.

Ripe also retails some luscious, high quality goodies.

Great to think about as the Christmas season draws near.

After lunch, we visited the National Rhododendron Gardens at Olinda.
The Gardens are magnificent - sitting on the edge of the beautiful Dandenongs.
The Dandenongs are a temperate rainforest area with huge eucalypts from which masts of sailing ships were made.
There is a huge variety of colour represented in the rhododendrons.
The native Australian bush makes a beautiful backdrop and contrast for the rhododendrons.

For more pictures of this masterpiece among Australian gardens, please visit here.

Riding on the sheep's back

Over at Getting Stitched on the Farm, Kristin is talking about shearing the sheep.

So, Miss Eagle thought, I will talk about sheep and shearing in Australia.

Somewhere, sometime, during the last fifty years, Australia ceased riding on the sheep's back.

This was the phrase which highlighted Australia's economic dependence on wool.

This was the phrase which highlighted our interest in the price of wool.

To-day, it's sharemarket prices and not the price of wool that captures the nation's attention.

Miss Eagle recently spotted this beautiful merino on a gate in Dunkeld in western Victoria.

Did the owners make their golden pile from the sheep's back?
From beautiful flocks like this one, near Dunkeld.

Grazing sheep near Broken Hill in New South Wales is different from grazing in Victoria.
The desert, the rocky outcrops of the Barrier Range.
These pictures were taken in August 2006 at The Nine Mile.

The above collage shows the homestead.

Greg and Mia, the owners, are drafting sheep prior to sale.
They are assisted by Greg's father, John.


This ancient shearing shed is at Acacia Vale now part of The Nine Mile.


This is the interior...
the shearer's stands...
natural light...
the sorting table...


the pens...
another view of the pens...
the view from the shearing shed...
stencils hanging on the wall waiting for use on a wool pack...
the wool press...

The trough filled with artesian water.