Spent the morning with some friends yesterday, at Robelle Domain in Springfield… there’s a cafe there, too, which seems to be open late… might have to check that out..
It’s a lovely place. The playground is pretty impressive, and the kids all loved the water feature… after we’d explored the waterfall and the trails we went back to the play area, where they stripped off their shirts and proceeded to get drenched… Good thing kids don’t seem to feel the cold..
Here’s the kids… I took a few photos, but I couldn’t get one with everyone smiling..
There was a grassed area further on; a sort of hill/tiered seating arrangement.. perfect for running up (and maybe rolling down?)
We stopped a bit further on for a snack of homegrown oranges, chopped up and eaten straight from the skin… there were water bubblers nearby to wash off the juice.. then it was back to exploring..
One of the highlights of the day (besides the water play) was the mostly dry stream running alongside the trails. The kids scrambled and climbed along the rocks, testing their “parkour” abilities 😀
If you look closely, you may see small people… There they are! 😀
More climbing…..
Littlest bean wore his nice boots, so I was not overly impressed when he slipped into the muddy stream and got soaked up to his knees… he didn’t seem too worried..
My camera battery ran down, so I didn’t get any photos of the water feature… they played there the last half hour or so, while the adults had coffee… it was a fun morning.
We will be back!
I was talking to a friend yesterday morning about the dream of creating a Christian healing community, and to another friend yesterday evening about my plans/dreams to do a naturopathy course (which would eventually fit in with the community plans…) The way I feel today, it seems ridiculous. Out of reach. Undoable. I do feel a bit old and decrepit today…
The dream keeps growing, in my head. I am unable to do it on my own.
Fortunately, I am not on my own….
I still believe God has placed the dream in me… so He will send the resources and abilities to realise it. Don’t know when… but I suppose there’s no point worrying about it.
One foot in front of the other.. identify the next step, and take it.
So, having visited the hippy heights, and seen lots of farmhouses on the weekend, I’ve been thinking again about our commune-to-be…
My vision is for a central house, with surrounding dwellings (caravans, huts, yurts, strawbale, train carriages… whatever works) Maybe even a transplanted chapel and schoolhouse…
Now, I’ve always loved the look of gypsy caravans, and would love to have some of those, but lately I’ve been seeing a lot about old 50s/60s caravans. They’re tiny – one or two person size – but self contained. And moveable… Here’s a few examples..
Got back yesterday from the road trip – we had a great time! We didn’t end up camping – way too wet – but we explored the back roads, and had fun 😀
The main purpose of the trip was to pick up a trailer my friend had bought online, so we headed for Grafton to do that… I don’t know New South Wales particularly well, so I left the sightseeing itinerary to my friend. She’d been wanting to check out the Lions Road over the mountains, so we went that way.. Up the top there’s a lookout called the Border Loop Lookout, where you can see the railway line as it spirals round the mountain (and, presumably, trains, if you’re there at the right time..) We stopped there for a cup of tea and a look… we’d been hearing the bellbirds from the car as we drove, but they were louder when we got out.
The other sound you hear would be rain…
We travelled the rest of the way to Grafton… the Lions Road is winding and climbing and bumpy. Normally I would be quite travel-sick… this time, my boys prayed specifically for me to be OK, and we had a box of liquorice allsorts in the car there and back – I didn’t even have a twinge of nausea, so I figure the combination of prayer, liquorice and sugar must have done the trick 😀
Picked up the trailer about half an hour out of Grafton.. the sellers also bred puppies, so we squeed over gorgeous puppies (how do their tails wag so fast!?) and were also gifted with some fruit from their trees (grapefruit, guava, passionfruit,oranges and a grapefruit/orange cross)
Back to Grafton for some lunch by the river..
From there we went straight to Maclean, where we were booked in to the Maclean Hotel for the night..
We were by the river but couldn’t really see it too well from the balcony, so we braved the drizzle to have a walk by the river and up the street lined with old brick buildings..
Maclean is a fishing town on the Clarence River… it also calls itself “The Scottish Town in Australia”
The telephone poles are painted with different clan names and tartans, and there’s a map at the Information Centre/Scottish Shop where you can look up your ancestral clan… here’s mine..
We wandered up and down the main street… there were some interesting shops and a lovely little teashop, but they were closed, and we left in the morning before they would have opened… we got hot chips for tea and settled back in the hotel for the evening. The Maclean Hotel is a nice pub/accommodation place, with a fire downstairs in the winter… the room had a lovely high ceiling, and doors leading on to the balcony – it would be nice in the summer… a little too cold for the winter… nothing a big woolly blanket couldn’t fix 😀
It rained heavily throughout the night, but let up enough in the morning for us to pack the car… the downpour resumed as we left Maclean…
We had planned to take the coast road back, but we both agreed that we’d always wanted to visit Nimbin, so it was back up the mountains again… still raining, and lots of potholes.. Nimbin is known as the “Alternative Capital of Australia”… it reminded me of the Montville/Maleny area, but with more hemp (of all kinds..) I’d love to go back and visit when it’s not raining.. I liked the vibe..
We passed the Nimbin Rocks on the way in..
… and encountered rainbows on the outskirts… This is the school at the other end of town..
We walked up and down the main street..
… checked out various clothes shops, as well as Happy High Herbs, and the Hemp Embassy, and then stopped at the Rainbow Cafe for lattes and rainbow chips (various coloured root veges, thick cut, fried and salted – perfect for a cold, wet, windy day!)
There’s a fair bit of drugs/paraphenalia at Nimbin (we inadvertently gatecrashed a couple of deals while visiting the public loos on our way out, and it’s the place to go if you want to learn more about legalising cannabis) but there’s also alternative lifestyle, as in sustainability and creativity. I’m not interested in smoking pot, but I’d be interested in checking that out a bit more..
We finally wended our way home, back over the range… the creek was noticeably higher and wilder after the previous night’s rain, nearly reaching the bridges at some points…
All in all, we had a fun time together… weary after a long road home, but – yayyy! Road trip! 😀
Today, I went to a cafe and sat down with a cup of coffee. Not so amazing, I know, but it’s the first time in a long while that I’ve been able to get away on my own and while away the time with a cuppa and a daydream…
I like to sit and cogitate… maybe pray, maybe work through a thought or two. Coffee helps in a lot of ways.. it’s one of my favourite pasttimes 😀
Today, I sat facing a window. After a while, I noticed that there were people closing the gates that block off the train tracks outside… soon a steam train came through. I haven’t seen that section of track used very often, and it was a lovely addition to my day! Aren’t steam trains pretty? They look older… maybe more graceful? Slightly more decorative – and, of course, there’s the steam…
I sat, with my coffee, and a delighted smile. I felt almost like a kid again..
Enjoy your next cup of coffee.
Sometimes it’s just coffee…
There’s a lady at church who gives out flowers… lovely bunches of mixed flowers, to people having birthdays, or random others 😀 Yesterday I passed by the bucket filled with colour, and thought fleetingly that it would be lovely to take some home…
Five minutes later, there was a tap on my shoulder, and suddenly – flowers!
The deep red roses smell beautiful 😀 ,
and gerberas are so cheerful…
Then my littlest bean went visiting for the afternoon, and another friend gave him some sprigs of lavender to take home for me!
I feel blessed 😀
… and surrounded by colour and perfume…
a bit of creativity, a bit of eco consciousness, a bit of inspiration.... hopefully not a lot of pompousness and blathering :D
i'm not entirely sure what's going on here... let's travel along and see...
Here’s the kids… I took a few photos, but I couldn’t get one with everyone smiling..
There they are! 😀
More climbing…..
1000 Fields of Roses 
