Bathurst proved to be a very interesting town and, as we drove out after spending a couple of days there, we were reminded just how civilised it was. On the left hand side of the road a group of women were playing bowls while on the right a game of croquet was underway, all very pleasant.
We headed on down to Victoria through Gundegai, home of The Dog on the Tuckerbox. There is a statue of the dog who I thought was Australia's version of Greyfriars Bobby but he turns out to just be the subject of a rather lewd poem. However, everyone takes pictures of their own dog by the statue and last time we were there, one family were even trying to balance their puppy on a plastic tuckerbox for a photo. 
We carried on through Cowra which is famous for a mass breakout by over 1100 Japanese prisoners of war who were being held there. The ensuing chase was very bloody and over 200 POWs and 4 Australian soldiers were killed before the remainder were recaptured.
Although most towns cannot boast about anything as dramatic as a prison breakout, they all have little slogans or bits of information on the town name signs. So, on through Young (City of Cherries), Wombat (Population 120) then on to Cootamundra, the birthplace of Don Bradman. There is a Don Bradman Museum and a road called Captain's Walk but you will not see a Don Bradman Tea Rooms or souvenir figurines as the family successfully managed to win a court action to prevent his name being used for commercial purposes.
We drove through a little twister, which was quite exciting, then the landscape started to change as we headed for the Snowy Mountains. After endless grey-green eucalypts and brown grass we began to see patches of lush green pine trees on the mountains.
They grow apples up here because the winters are cold enough but they have to shade all the apple trees fron sun and bugs in the summer. One town, Batlow, is home to the Big Apple. As with all big things I have seen so far, this was not very big and a bit of a disappointment, I am still hopeful I may see an impressive big thing soon.
Finally we reached our next destination, Corryong which is at the base of Mount Sugarloaf and across Kosciusku National Park from the Snowy Mountains in the Murray Valley.Our campsite was in Colac colac (pronounced Clack clack) and was possibly the nicest we have ever stayed in. It was completely shaded by huge trees and had a creek running through it. When we used to caravan in England and France I was always after a sunny pitch but I have become Australian very quickly in that regard and now really appreciate any shade.
The campsite was connected to Corryong by a cycle path so we pedalled into town where there was a statue of the Man from Snowy River who is a character in a very long poem by Banjo Paterson, in the less exciting country shows around these parts they have competitions for reciting the poem! We visited the excellent Man From Snowy River Museum which, thankfully, was not just about him. It housed a blanket map of Australia knitted by a local man while he was a prisoner of war in Germany, his captors demanded his pullover to send to their troops and he unravelled it so the could not have it and then set about knitting all kinds of things from scavenged wool, culminating in the map. The museum had also rescued old wooden buildings from the town as they were replaced and out the back were the schoolhouse, the bank, an old cottage and plenty of others from when the town had a population of only a couple of hundred. It was fantastic and well worth a visit.
The afternoon was spent exploring tiny towns on the banks of the Murray, our favourite discovery was Jingellic where it is okay to camp for free on the riverbank below the pub as long as you give the pub your custom, I can't see that being too much of a problem.

At last we have been on the road again after getting in a bit of a rut constantly working on the house. The plan was to go and see Zoe and Shaun around Christmas so we decided to make a bit of a trip of it as it is a while since we have been away and there is so much to see.
So we hooked up the caravan and, instead of the usual trek down via Sydney, we headed west through the Hunter Valley and along the Golden Highway. Part of the fun of travelling along the smaller roads are the signs which can be spotted along the way. The Golden Highway passes through mining country and there were signs warning of the date of the next planned road closures for mine blasting, but my favourites are the naive names the early settlers gave to some of the places. On this road we traveled through Jump Up Creek and Breakfast Creek (no sign of any water in either of them), then we moved on to the signs for towns that always have a bit of extra information or a slogan on them. Jerry's Plains (settled in 1822) - The gateway to horse country. Anywhere that calls itself a gateway to something is just using code for 'there is absolutely nothing actually here'.
We climbed up and up seemingly endlessly as we crossed the Great Dividing Range. The early settlers failed on many occasions to cross the range further south at the Blue Mountains, if they had tried where we were crossing, they may have found it a little easier as the slopes are more gentle here. The funny thing about crossing the Dividing Range is that you don't seem to descend much on the other side because the rest of New South Wales is on a plateau.
We take it in turns to drive which means we can keep on the move for a considerable time, so we carried on skirting Wollemi National Park where a group of trees were discovered in 1994 that had never been seen before, they are massive and are just another example of how huge Australia is if they could be growing unnoticed until so recently. On through Dingo Gully and past Hill End, a virtual ghost town now that used to be home to thousands during the Gold Rush, we finally reached Bathurst where we had booked to stay in the showground.
This was a fun experience, all reasonably sized country towns seem to have a showground, built around the end of the 19th century and this one has put a few powered sites on one of its grassy areas to get a bit of an income from caravanners. We were pitched between the cattle and sheep pavillions. To my delight it was overlooked by Mount Panorama Racing Circuit, home to the Bathurst 1000!
The public can position themselves on pole (as I did of course) and drive around the entire Mount Panorama circuit! It is really tempting to put your foot down but the place is full of speed traps. There is a vineyard within the circuit and the views are sensational, a real must experience for any motor racing fans. The museum is excellent too and well worth a visit.
We will spend a couple of days here then head for Corryong, over the border in Victoria.

Christmas is well and truly on its way here as can be seen by the lights on the houses and Ian has gone to town as usual. He missed out last year as we only had a caravan to decorate but he has made up for it this time and has plenty of competition among the neighbours, it seems that about every third house has made a bit of an effort with some lights. It is very pleasant to stroll around on a warm evening and look at the displays but seems a bit weird still, I don't think I will ever get used to Christmas in summer, Ian never has.
Apart from anything else it is strange that everyone is about to set off on their summer vacation too as the long school holiday begins next weekend, it is an expensive time of year for Australians because everything happens at once.
We still have not made a decision about whether to swelter over turkey and all the trimmings this year or to chuck a couple of prawns on the barbie, we did the latter last year and it felt very unchristmassy so I think the turkey may win.
Zoe is going to join us on a little camping trip later this month so we will definitely be attempting the full roast then. I am currently on a mission to find Paxo in a supermarket without much success so far, maybe I should set up a business importing it for British ex pats.
It sounds like I am complaining but I am not, the weather is gorgeous here at the moment. It seems to follow a bit of a pattern starting at around 26 degrees for a few days then building up and up until it reaches the late 30s or even 40, then there is a huge thunderstorm at night and we drop back down to 26 again and the whole cycle starts over. The hot days appear to generate the most spectacular sunsets too, ranging from all shades of orange to bright pink.
The wildlife changes as the weather gets hotter and we now have a new resident in our garden, a Dollarbird, so called because there is a white disc pattern on the underside of both wings that looks like a dollar coin and can be seen when he is flying.
This bearded dragon was sunbathing as I walked with Monty today, it made no attempt to move even though we very nearly trod on it and just gave us a dirty look, I don't think they are dangerous but I was a bit unnerved by its confidence. 

I flew back into Sydney at the crack of dawn on Tuesday morning to be greeted by bright sunshine and blue skies after a very grey and wet month in England. Although it was great to catch up with family and friends it is very nice to feel the sun on my back again. Apparently I missed some extremely hot days, over 40 degrees when everyone just sits around and sweats while talking about how hot it is. I have yet to experience this, the temperature where we are did not get above high 30s last summer but this year is supposed to be the hottest on record so watch this space.
Ian has been very busy while I have been away and has built an excellent bridge from the veranda to the street, cutting out the need to clamber down seven steps then scramble up another seven to get to the front door. This makes things much easier when coming in with shopping or even just returning from the club after a few wines and means we should be able to remain living in this house well into our dotage.
The warm weather has brought about a number of changes while I was away. The birds all seem to have babies and all kinds of trees, shrubs and flowers are in bloom including this monster which has popped up in our garden, it is like a gigantic agapanthus and looks fabulous.
Ian took me to see a discovery he had made at the Tilligerry Habitat in my absence, a Bower Bird had built this little arch (or bower) it is what they do to attract the ladies. They also steal anything they can find that is blue, if you look carefully at the photo you can see the blue contraband displayed around the bower. According to David Attenborough, if you move the blue stuff around, when the Bower Bird returns he will put it back exactly as it was.

It was time for the Sydney 'Sculptures by the Sea' exhibition last week, I had been looking forward to this as we missed it last year because we arrived in Australia just a few days after it finished.
The sculptures are arranged on the rocks overlooking Bondi Beach and the way they use the background is taken into account when the judging takes place. Some of them were fantastic, others strange and a couple downright creepy but, all in all, an excellent collection of artwork.
We have got into the habit of 
taking the train when we go down to Sydney because it only takes a little longer than driving, it is ridiculously cheap and we can get right into the centre without having to think about parking, so we set off at silly o'clock and were in Bondi by about 10am. It was a bit blowy walking along the cliffs but the big waves just added to the drama of the backdrop to the sculptures and we had to hide in a cafe with about 500 other visitors as a sudden downpour took us all by surprise, but it was a good day nonetheless.

The Bondi Icebergs have their home at the Bondi ocean pool. I had to stifle a chuckle as I was reading about their proud boast that they swim every day of the winter, you can't impress me with that, my sister Gill swims in Hampstead Heath pond throughout the winter in England!
Back working in the garden the next day I was thinking what an upside down place this is with trees that shed their bark instead of their leaves when I heard the unmistakable, dreadful grunting koalas make. It sounded really close by so I scanned the trees and saw this chap in next door's front garden. He was huge and very active for the daytime, scampering around the tree, eating and grunting then he climbed out of the tree and bounded off down the road, we could hear him grunting at the top of his voice as he went, he was definitely out to try and impress the lady koalas!

We hit the road Tuesday morning and drove two hours north on the Pacific Highway to Forster. I had heard plenty about how beautiful the area was and it did not disappoint, it was gorgeous. 
Forster and Tuncurry are towns facing each other on opposite banks of the Wallumba River at the entrance to Wallis Lake, they are joined by a bridge and the first glimpse of Forster when approaching via the bridge from Tuncurry is memorable to say the least. The turquoise water and white sand beaches sit in front of an extremely smart looking town, which was much bigger than I expected and reminded me a bit of Poole in Dorset with its low level apartment blocks with blue glass balcony screens.
There was a huge ocean pool at one end of the beach and, of course, the obligatory drive through bottle shop, I am used to these now but it was a surprise when I saw my first one.
One of the things I am starting to discover about Australian towns is that there are nearly always old buildings to be found in amongst the new, Forster was home to this splendid little old church which was nestled between shiny new holiday apartments on the waterfront.
It was a glorious, sunny day but very windy as we went for a walk along the cliff road, so windy, in fact, that we saw a real life sea rescue! The small boat had broken down and the rescue boat battled through the choppy waters to save the crew. They had a bit of trouble getting close enough to attach a line but eventually managed it and the stricken sailors were towed to safety. We returned home a bit wind blown but vowing to add Forster to our list of places to take visitors to.
Back in Lemon Tree Passage the Lemon Jam took place on Sunday. This is a monthly event in the park at the marina with a band playing, a few market stalls and a barbecue at the milk bar. The organisers have been incredibly unlucky with the Lemon Jam over the last few months as it has fallen on one of our, very few, rainy days each time. Not so this week, the band performing were a bunch we hear rehearsing in a warehouse every Tuesday evening and they were pretty good and I was amused to see the very Australian behaviour of the audience, we Brits would be sitting at the front in the full sun but not the sensible Aussies, they are always gathered around the perimeter in the shade.

Now the warm weather has arrived it has brought with it the start of the country show season. It seems the smaller the town, the more peculiar the focus of the show, so Saturday saw us at the Karuah Wood and Oyster Show! A bizarre mix, I'm sure you will agree, but all the more fascinating for it. Karuah is a small town about forty minutes from us which the old Pacific Highway used to pass through causing a huge bottleneck but bringing plenty of business to the shops and cafes of Karuah. Ten years ago, the new Pacific Highway was built which bypasses the town and, although it is undoubtedly more pleasant to live there, the closed down shops and cafes tell the story of how this little town's economy must have suffered. So the show is pretty important to them each year.
The two main events were the woodchopping competition, which went on all day, and the oyster eating contest. The oyster company running the eating competition have been doing it for years but have not yet realised there is a major flaw in the organisation of the contest. They have a big stall selling oysters at $9 for half a dozen but the competition that runs alongside is against the clock, not a bunch of people racing at the same time. So, if you were unscrupulous you could just pay your $1 entry fee to the contest, you would get a plate of 12 oysters and as long as you ate them a bit sharpish, the organisers wouldn't notice you were just in it for a cheap feast.
Back to the woodchopping. We saw this at the Royal Easter Show in Sydney but because this was a much smaller affair, we could see the contestants getting ready. There was much polishing of axes but then they put on chain mail socks! I must admit I had wondered why there were not more accidents as the competitors stand on the log and chop between their two feet and the winner is the one who's log falls in half first.
The wood chopping fraternity take it all very seriously and it is quite alarming to see how young some of the axemen are, in fact there was a junior competition and some of the boys looked as young as 12. However they all seem to know each other and have fun, I have included a picture of wood chopping humour on one chap's t-shirt.
There was another type of wood chopping going on too with the Tae Kwan Do display. I find martial arts demonstrations terribly dull but this one was livened up considerably by one very fat exponent splitting his trousers.
Of course there was a stall selling that Australian staple, Showbags. Bags of varying prices pre packed with rubbish plastic toys and sweets which are a major feature of every show or festival and even some markets.
Back to the hard slog on the garden now, which is starting to look a bit like the beginnings of a garden at last. The drainage is now in place on the final two terraces and I have even managed to get some veggies planted.

The wildlife is waking up and getting more exciting, we hear koalas grunting at night and this possum turned up on our balcony a couple of evenings ago driving Monty crazy.
We have promised ourselves a day exploring each week and tomorrow we plan to go to Forster, I am quite excited because I have heard a lot about how beautiful it is there.

Spring has most definitely sprung here and it has caught me completely by surprise. Usually, in the UK, when winter is starting to come to an end I sow seeds to plant out months later when any danger of frost is over. Not so here, it was the first day of spring one day then, about a week later, our neighbour had fully grown lettuces in his garden! I can see I am going to have to join a gardening club if only to pick the brains of the other members to find out what to plant and when.

Another, very pleasant, surprise has been the flowering trees. Almost everything seems to burst into bloom at this time of year. Many people grow imported plants in their yards and some look very much like gardens I am used to seeing in England, they even grow roses, which can be quite a challenge in this climate.

But it is the native plants that I am enjoying the most, they are so different to any I have experienced before. Even trees and shrubs that look very ordinary for most of the year are out in their Sunday best at the moment. There are bottlebrush blooms of varying colours all around and the big Banksia trees have finger like growths which suddenly burst into huge fluffy things that the birds love.

It seems there is something new to see every time I leave the house. Interesting things are popping up in our own garden too, like this beautiful Amaryllis.

One less pleasant aspect of spring is the swooping magpies! They are nesting at the moment and they do attack, there are warning signs in particularly attack prone areas.

Apparently they really dislike cyclists and we have experienced this a couple of times already, as we are cycling along we hear a tapping on our cycle helmets which is the magpies swooping and pecking, bike helmets are compulsory here but I didn't realise it was to protect us from magpies!

We were looking forward with excitement to visitors last week. First, our old friend Tim was coming up with Virginia and their dog Monty (yes, our Monty was having a visitor too), then Zoe and Shaun were flying up from Melbourne for the weekend. 
Tim, Virginia and Monty arrived on Wednesday in the middle of a torrential downpour that pretty much didn't stop the whole time they were here. We had fun though, visiting local spots and winning the trivia night at the club by a huge margin! Pommie Monty and Aussie Monty got on famously, although it was hard to tell the difference if they were not next to each other. I do think we

were being a bit hopeful though when we drove up to Birubi Point to see if we could see any whales from the land. We did manage to show both sets of guests a koala (Ella in her usual tree) and a Tawny Frogmouth Owl who famously are so well disguised and difficult to find, if you are lucky enough to spot one, you can walk right up to it because they have such faith in their camouflage, so all was not lost.
The weather was not much better for Zoe and Shaun's visit, although the rain was not quite so torrential.

Rain has its advantages though, while we were showing them around Newcastle on Saturday, the weather became so unpleasant we had to duck into a pub for a beer. In the pub we discovered a complete sub section of Australian society that was previously unknown to us - there was a bagpipe competition going on!
There were posters for the White Heather Club Highland Outfitters dotted about and the room was full of people of all ages wearing tartan and cheering and clapping while pipers,

fully kilted and sporranned, took it in turns to play in front of the judges. There were loads of them all in their different tartan, some warming up outside and others admiring each others pipes. As for the competition it was hard to tell who was in the lead, although there was a frisson of excitement when one chap got up to play.

Some marched up and down a bit as they played but, apart from that, it was a bit tricky to pick out the good ones.
We dodged the showers on Sunday too and, as we drove Zoe and Shaun to the airport Sunday evening, it turned into a lovely, balmy evening and the weather has been glorious ever since.