I hope you all are having a lovely Christmas season. In the time between Christmas and New Year I usually spend some time reflecting on the year that was and my plans for the year to come - not that planning is ever a perfect science because we never really know what is around the corner. In comparison to this time last year it is lovely to see green grass, blue skies with lots of clouds, our trees laden with fruit and some limited success in our vege garden. In this strange year I achieved many things around the house from restoring furniture to renovating. I read several good books but I also wasted much too much time on my screens. It all started with checking "Fires Near Me". This was too quickly followed by the virus which had me addicted to the horrible soap opera - checking the numbers, learning the rules and the suspense of the border wars. I was lured into binge watching TV series. And social media grabbed its chunk too. I knew for sure something had to change last
For the past week or so we have been on a pre Christmas Sweet Wayfaring trip through the Riverina and outback NSW. It has been on my bucket list to drive the Kidman Way for a while. We have previously done the 'ends' but not the 'middle' section from Griffith to Cobar so that was our destination this year. As is always the case when I am on new roads I keep my eye out for more Royal Hotels to add to my collection and was rewarded with two on this trip. Royal Hotel, Mirrool This beauty is in the tiny town of Mirrool which is not much more than the pub, a couple of houses, a small church and the ubiquitous wheat silos beside a railway siding. To get there we traveled through vast acres of grain country where this year's bumper harvest was in the process of being gathered. Next we passed through the Riverina which has huge vineyards and orchards where irrigation makes the dry landscape flourish. It is just astounding the scale of agriculture in this region. To r