Marysville 2

The night before Phyllis cobbled together a nice meal with what he found at the local supermarket. 

For them, Phyllis and Kosov arose the next day at a reasonable hour. Alone the evening before they went out for a little drive, and were excited to show me something they had found, the Gould Memorial Drive. I am not sure whether it is a war memorial planting or not, but lush with fresh green leaves, it was stunning.

Along the way.

Gorgeous. 

As a test, I left it to them to plan the day. The first fail was learning that the local historical museum wasn't open this day. I would have really liked to visit. A lack of planning also led to not being able to find the Keppel Falls Lookout, after a half hour drive along little better than a bush track. We turned around. Eucalyptus, gum trees, have evolved to cope with bushfires, and normally recover. The fire was so intense in places during the 2009 fires, the trees were killed, and are strong reminders of the day. This is not normal in Australia, but of course it is nothing to do with climate change. 

We backtracked and decided to take the 2km/1.2ml return walk to see the Keppel waterfalls. 

I walked over 2 k/m return, admittedly on flat ground, with neighbour HH to have lunch, so I know how far a kilometre is, and it was further. There were steep hills a times and we did reach a point where there were rocks and flowing water, but not the falls. I called the return to the car, as I worried about the strain on my not quite right heart. We returned to the car, and I can't remember why I drove back to Marysville, but I was a bit faster than Phyllis. My country gravel road driving skills hadn't been forgotten.

Back in Marysville, it was time to eat, and there wasn't a shortage of places to choose from. We lunched at  Marysville Country Bakery and the food was fine, and surprisingly, the double espresso was excellent. 

We took a wander around the nearby Gallipoli Park.

It's a representation of a lizard, if you can't work it out. 

The lads had mentioned going to Bruno's Sculpture Garden, which Ray and I visited in the past but we missed the turn as we headed to Steavenson Falls. We continued on.

The falls are a short walk from the carpark, past a small hydro electric power station. There is plenty  of old people seating. 

There is a path to the top of the falls, and I even remember Mother walking to the top with us in the 90s, but it would be too much for me now. The lads weren't interested to explore further. I checked the entry fees at Bruno's Garden, and they decided that was a no as well.

Meanwhile back at our digs, this cockatoo photo bombed my photo of a currawong. 

I did get to snap the currawong. 

My knee and Kosov's foot. It is illegal to feed native birds in Australia, so there wasn't a need for a 'no feeding the birds' in the caravan park, but of course we did, with seed in the car boot that has been there since before Ray died. We planned to use it the day after he died when we were to take our friend Victor, from Sydney, to the Dandenong Ranges. The best laid plans..... 

Dudes, find us somewhere nice to eat tonight! The golf club, Andrew. A dinner suit required lads? No Andrew. It was quiet but not dead. Rather nice, actually. Phyllis hasn't stop raving about the 12 hour slow cooked lamb. He is going to get the slow cooker down from the storage above the fridge and make it himself. I took my cap off and forgot it.

Onndrewwww, give me your phone. From the middle of the restaurant, Kosov zoomed into 100 times something to capture a kookaburra in the failing light. I was gobsmacked at the photo taken from so far away. By the guano, it is clear that kookas sit there often, ready to swoop down to steal a tasty steak from an outdoor diner. 

Friday Funny

Later edit: I thought she was funny the first time I watched the clips. I watch funny clips more than once before using them here. After a couple of watches, I wasn't finding hers so funny. Still, with so many subscribers, there must be something in them. I will see what others think.

With a bit of introspection, I think what appealed to me about the clips were the two attractive racing car drivers, and how they interacted with her.  

Why wasn't I told? Told about Amelia Dimoldenberg, that is. I find her amusing, and clearly so do her 3.32 million YouTube subscribers. She has being 'performing' for a very long time.

I am brand new to her channel, I've watched a few of her videos. They aren't long, and she seems to have an unhealthy interest in motor car racing drivers. That's ok with me.

Firstly, the English racing car driver Lando Norris.

And the Australian driver, Oscar Piastri.

Stress

This was written a couple of weeks ago. I may as well publish it. Don't feel the need to comment. 

Tuesday I had forgotten Ex Sis in Law was going to park here, catch a tram to St Vincent's for a procedure, and I would have to pick her up after, post anesthetic. There was some car shuffling involved. 

She was due to arrive here after 11, so my plan of a leisurely trip to buy new lounge room chairs was thwarted. I/we decided on what we wanted a week or so ago, so armed with monies, I went early, leaving home at 9.20. I chose the fabric and double checked what I was ordering. It went smoothly but the shock was it won't be delivered until March. I guess it is made to order in China, and then sent on a ship to Australia. 

She set off on a tram, and at a bit after 2.00, I received a call that she would be ready to collect at 3.30. I was only a few minutes late, not bad considering I had to check out the pick up patient parking, of which there was none available and then park in the pay car park. Oh, this is going to cost!

From when I parked until I was back at the car with Ex Sis in Law was about 15 minutes, and I was charged $0.00 for parking. I was impressed.

Once back home and finding stuffs to make her a cup of tea, she felt fine to drive, and off she went. 

The Marysville tragedy

Marysville began its life as a gold mining settlement and progressed on to be logging town but by the 1950s it had become a town to visit for a holiday, especially in autumn when the exotic trees turned into their red and golden colours.

This is exactly what my maternal grandparents did, alternating each year between Marysville, the similar town of Bright and seaside Rosebud. They would stay in guesthouses, which as far as I can remember had private rooms with a shared bathroom, and a communal kitchen along with an area to eat your meals and a lounge to sit and read or whatever.

I remember visiting Marysville with Ray and a couple of friends in the 80s, where we had high tea in the best known guest house in the town. I can't remember its name. It might come to me (Mary Lyn), which is where my grandparents stayed). In the 1990s we visited with my mother and stepfather.One year in the two thousand teen years, Ray and I visited the town, after the 2009 tragedy. I've just visited again and I cannot connect any of the visits together, and here is the main reason why.

During this visit, I looked around the town for houses with brick chimneys, of which there should be many in such a town. I did not see one. 

At the end of southern Australia's millennium drought on Friday the 6th of February 2009, our state premier appeared on tv to warn us that the next day would see terrible bushfires, with temperatures of 43/110 and people needed to evacuate to safe places at any sign of fire threat. He was derided for being melodramatic. The next day already burning fires fed by a hot, dry and strong north wind, with tinder dry forests turned into firestorms, the like that had not been seen for years, then with a southerly wind change, the fires became unpredictable.

There were 400 fires burning, 173 people died in Victoria, 45 of them in Marysville. Of four hundred buildings in the town, 14 survived. The town had quite simply been destroyed. Fire fighters switched from fighting fires to self preservation. So, there aren't brick chimneys in Marysville now.  

Sister, Bone Doctor and the two year old Little Jo were living in Bendigo, with Bone Doctor working at Bendigo Base Hospital, and on that day Sister and Little Jo were under threat from the fires and evacuated to the centre of town. I should look back at my old blog at what I wrote at the time.

The Marysville of the 80s that we visited was very different to the Marysville we visited in the two thousand teens, still quite bare after the fires, to a now gorgeous town full of new shops, places to eat, buildings and houses. By the number of cafes and restaurants and huge amounts of seating, it must be incredibly busy at times. 

  

Disability

Today is International Day of People with a Disability. This piece by my friend James O'Brien is well worth a read.

The Victorian State Library also published an interesting read, showing a photo of a woman from olden times who could sew with her feet. In the post, I really liked seeing the very obvious joy de vivre of the two people in wheelchairs, the photo taken by the marvellous but late Rennie Ellis. 

Marysville 1

Go east, young men, so they did along with me to the town of Marysville. I'd forgotten about this nice art work at the entrance to the Mullum Mullum Tunnel.

The scenery was starting to look impressive as we motored along Maroondah Highway.

It looks damp up on the mountain, where we are headed.

We approached the town of Healesville.

Oh, care for a little gin?

Oh really. Must we stop at Aldi! Actually, it was a very convenient place to park and find some food to eat in the main street, after Phyllis spent some time in bling shops.

I popped in and added JayCee's name to welcome visitor list. 

The colourful plants were all over Healesville. I believe they are a type of rose.

Just east of Healesville is Maroondah Dam, where we stopped at a viewing point. 

We then hit the Black Spur and Phyllis was driving quite slowly but used the slow vehicle pull offs to let faster cars past. 

The ferns in the sunlight were just stunning.

And here we are at our caravan park cabin, with our balcony looking at the fast flowing Steavenson River. Bird life abounded, especially king parrots. Sue would have loved the location. 

My competent driver being embraced.

A male king parrot.

Who ended up with scratched arms. "Ondrewww, I am wounded!"

The cabin was a bit ordinary and did not pass the finger over the top of the fridge dust test. There were nicer cabins, but Marysville is quite an expensive place to stay, it would seem. I paid the same as I did for a one bedroom self contained flat, with a balcony on the edge of the centre of Sydney, with nice views. 

A relaxing tipple in the evening light for use on Brag Book. 

A (pied?) currawong. 

I felt the need to put something on the tree trunk to indicate its size, so a packet of pocket tissues did the job. It is big trunk. 

The park was fairly quiet on the Thursday night and we were without immediate neighbours in the row. Friday night, the hoards arrived.

The new choo choo line

I had a thought to take a trip on our new Metro Tunnel rail line on Sunday afternoon, but in the morning I wanted to shop at Big W in South Yarra as I had foolishly lost a cap on Saturday. The 58 tram was in trouble, with a city car accident blocking its path. On the appropriate app, it was showing a tram due in 8 minutes, a second 8 minutes and a third in 9 minutes. In ten minutes when nothing had changed, I changed my plan and headed for Anzac Station, to catch the second train to ever run from there with passengers to the city as our new train line opened.

The train was crowded, but not unbearably so. The train arrived on time, yet it took forever to unload and load passengers on, many in baby pushers and plenty of wheelchairs. It was even worse at Town Hall. 

I left the train at State Library and because of the crowding, I couldn't immediately find the lifts, so I used the escalator from the platform to the concourse. As I was almost at the top, the escalator stopped, I think because it was overloaded. I walked the last few steps, and then took the longest escalator in Melbourne from the concourse to street level, I didn't know this and while it was not overloaded, it too stopped soon after I stepped on. I should have gone back down, but because of the people behind me, I walked up. This was getting hard. I paused and someone asked me if I was ok. I replied yes, I just needed a rest. By the time I reached the top, I was absolutely buggered. I leant against the wall for a bit and overheard staff discussing whether it should be called in as a serious fault or just restarted, for the third time. The latter was decided. 

After I recovered I went on to Big W at QV and then uneventfully caught a crowded train back home, again the station being so crowded, I couldn't find lifts. 

While I think Sydney's new Metro Stations are more attractive and have better wayfinding, I think our new Metro system and stations will function well, decades into the future. I was quite impressed with how well it all worked in spite of being opening day and overcrowded by the excited and curious, and it really was a very exciting day. This new train line, connecting two conventional train lines will change Melbourne travel patterns substantially.

Photos of the crowded train stations would be boring, and it would have bored me to take them, so just text in this post.