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July 2012Winter WeatherSat , 31th July 2012The winter weather in Barraba is being a bit unpleasant. Yesterday morning I went to work at the primary school at 8 o'clock and the sky was all blue with pleasant sunshine and no significant breeze. When I finished my job, organising the Junior Red Cross breakfast, the weather had changed. There was lots of clouds and only a bit of sunshine but the wind had developed, It was SW and was very cold. The weather forecast had said that there was a big High cyclone on the Southern Ocean which was bringing very cold wind to much of Australia. Today I had to go to the Barraba Artisans' and Farmers' Market at 8 o'clock. Once again the weather at that time was wonderful with no clouds and no wind. Later the sky was somewhat filled with clouds with only occasional sunshine and there was a continuous SE cold wind most of the morning. In the afternoon the clouds were still almost continuous. Happily in the living room in our house we were quite comfortable. Revised: 31st August 2012A Wonderful TV programFriday , 27th July 2012This evening we watched the SBS program called Global Village. The first piece was a visit to Hobart in Tasmania but then they went to Barraba to show us William Bright the maker of the worlds most great harpsichords. We were most happy to see him on the farm where he was born on the Woodsreef Road a fair number of kilometres away from the town. We were also impressed because we saw Bill Bright talking to Rupert Richardson, the famous artist, who also lives out there. Rupert was painting a landscape pictures on the lid of one of Bill's harpsichords. We are very pleased to have Bill Bright and Rupert Richardson, very high class specialists in our community. One of the interesting pieces in the program about Bill was him playing the pipe organ in the St Laurence's Anglican church in Barraba. He had worked at repairing the organ which is very famous. We were very interested because our little daughter's father in law, Richard Fitzhardinge, had been the architect that designed Rupert Richardson's house in the Barraba Shire. Revised: 11th Aug 2012Another cat problemWednesday , 25th July 2012Last Sunday I saw a magpie flying up behind the hedge between our back yard and our next door neighbours. I was interested but then I saw our cat Chico attacking a magpie there. I then noticed fifteen magpies in the trees around this all screaming at Chico. I know that Chico is bird predator but I am so unhappy about things like this. Clearly the magpies were also unhappy. New visitorsSaturday , 21 July 2012Yesterday we had some motorhomer friends come to Barraba from their place in South Australia. They were happy to park in our back lawn with connection to our motorhome powerpoint on the back wall. They were the Eldreds, Don was a colleague of mine in the Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia when I was the Technical Advisor in the National Rest Area and Environment Committee of which he was the chairman. The Eldreds live in Aldinga south of Adelaide near Willunga where we used to go to visit a friend Joy who used to work with Jean at Avon. He is constantly in touch with my Eco-Camping Australia organisation partner, Ross Kassebaum who lives in Port Lincoln on the Eire Peninsula west of Adelaide. Don came in his Winnebago with his wife Joan because they are going to an appointment at a town near Townsville in Queensland. In the afternoon we had a long and interesting conversation on our deck with tea, coffee and biscuits. In the evening we took them to the chinese restaurant at the Barraba Bowling Club for dinners which we all appreciated. This morning they left Barraba on the way to Queensland. They said they would visit us again on their way back to South Australia. They were pleased because we thanked them for visiting us. ExpeditionsMonday , 9th July 2012Today we had to go to Tamworth for some shopping. We left Tamworth quite early and on the way back to Barraba we had some time to do a couple of expeditions. We drove west of the highway along Wimbourn Rd which went towards Mount Borah and across the Manilla River on a muddy and stoney ford and then back east to Fossikers Way. After that we went to the Split Rock Dam to see it because it has been increased in height. It did look better but we had to go to the recreation area just upstream from the dam to see what the lake was like now. We saw a wonderful lake and we saw three Australian Pelicans swimming in the dam and we saw an Australian Darter on an old tree stump in the dam. We were so impressed with the new level of dam water and found the dam very beautiful. We had been here when we were living in the Motley motorhome. We liked the dam then but now we liked it much more. We decided that we needed to drive up Oakhampton Road rather that back to Fossikers Way because we were impressed with the views of our landscape and we were interested in the indications of the route of the new pipeline from Split Rock Dam to Barraba. It was just alongside the Oakhampton Road until that road reached the Fossikers Way on Red Hill. The route of the pipeline was indicated on the east side of this highway until it reached the top of the hill nearest to Barraba where it changed to the western side of the highway. We had been in Glenriddle Reserve when we were in the Motley. The reserve is quite a long way upstream from the dam and then the Manilla River at the reserve was just a trickle. We were recently invited to a motorhomers happy hour at Glenriddle Reserve and we saw that the river very big now. We were very happy to have seen so many good views even though we had seen some cattle on the road. Sadly the work on the pipeline will take some time and when it reaches the Barraba silos it might cause me a problem when I have to put up the sign concerning our Artisans' and Farmers' Market because the pipeline will be very close to our sign's place. End of Frost Over BarrabaFriday , 6th July 2012Last Sunday was the last day we had had people visiting the exhibition we had put up on the RSL Hall. This week we have had to undo the exhibition. The first task was to take down the pictures and put them back in the packing in which they had come. Lots of the ladies who volunteered did this very well. I spent lots of time taking the hooks of the on screens which the pictures had been hung. When this was all dome we had to return the pictures, some to the artists who are local but lots had to be taken back to the depots in Armidale. Gunnedah. and Tamworth where they had been put by the artists before being brought by our volunteers to Barraba. Sarah and I did the Tamworth deliveries on Tuesday. She went to Frame Smart which is in the nearest part of Tamworth from Barraba. I took some to Wes Wall Gallery which was way up the hill in Brisbane Street, and lots more to Peel Framing which was near the main street of Tamworth in the second side street on our side of the town. Sarah, Kelly and I, after we had finished the delivery of the pictures, went to Addimi, our favourite coffee shop in Tamworth in the main street and we had our lunch there before we drove back to Barraba. After those tasks we had to remove the screens and other things we had put in the RSL Hall. We have not yet completed this while working some days this week, and we will try to finish tomorrow if we can get enough volunteers to help us. |
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