My Bright Field

In my old Sweet Wayfaring blog I used to post Country Lines images - so I will wrap up this trip with a country lines photo.  Back home I am now getting on with eating up the yummy citrus fruit, pruning the fruit trees, shrubs and roses. It's exhausting work so I will go off the air again for a while.

Between Parkes and Condobolin is the locality of Yarrabandai.  I'm surprised that there were ever enough people to support a shop.

Condobolin (100kms from Parkes) is a nice town (population 3,500) situated on the Lachlan River.  We arrived on the day they were celebrating NAIDOC week with a street parade.  NAIDOC stands for National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee.

Bogan Gate (on the way to Trundle) is like just about every town and locality out west, it has grain silos.  Unlike the north of Victoria these towns are not part of a silo art trail.

Another day, another town.  This time it's Trundle (population 600) about 60 kms from Parkes.  Trundle is reputed to have the longest hotel verandah in NSW.  It also has a very wide main street. Lots of towns out west have wide streets but this one is the widest I have ever seen.

For my "abandoned" shot for this trip, at Daroobalgie between Forbes and Parkes there is an old disused abattoir.  I would have loved to have gone in closer to get good shots of this evocative place but it is on private property.  I see it is available as a movie set . A book I have read recently I am still working my way through the ABC Book Club Top 50 list . This week's book  The First Stone: Some Questions of Sex and Powe r by Helen Garner is one I have previously chosen not to read despite enjoying Garner's work.  Written in the early 1990s it investigated a sexual harassment case of two girls claiming their university college master had groped them at a party - it mostly takes the side of the master.  It made me uncomfortable at the time, whose version of events is to be believed? How do positions of power play into the mix?  Can someone's career be ruined by claims even if they are later rejected in court?  Twenty years down the track...

Forbes which is 33kms from Parkes is another quite sizeable town.  It has elegant civic buildings and has kept more of its old town charm than Parkes. What's growing in my gardens right now? Burnbrae is fragrant with the perfume of daphne.  At Rose Orchard Haus the japonica camellia is beginning to flower and paperwhite jonquils are cheerfully clustered at the trunks of trees.

On the road between Parkes and Peak Hill is the small settlement of Alectown.  It is one of those blink and you will miss it type places but this amazing garden display had me blinking twice.

Gold Mine, Peak Hill It's time I took you on a drive to some of the country towns around Parkes.  Peak Hill is a small old gold town about 50 kms from Parkes.  An old open cut mine pit is on the edge of the town and the streetscape has retained a lot of its gold town character. I think they are both quite lovely.

Parkes is also famous for its radio telescope which along with other Australian telescopes assisted in the moon walk coverage 50 years ago.  Did you view the moon walk on that day? I was at school.  Those from farms or who didn't have televisions at home (I was one of them) were assigned to places in town to watch.  I was with a bunch of schoolgirls at the headteacher's residence.

Parkes is home to several excellent museums.   Not surprisingly one of them is an Elvis museum with a wide selection of Elvis memorabilia. There is also a local history museum, a car museum, a huge farm machinery museum and historic aircraft museum.

Here's an Elvis on door of the Royal Hotel.  Some of you will know that when I travel in the country I photograph  Royal Hotels for my collection .  I was even interviewed on this quirky habit by the  ABC once . (BTW they got my name wrong) There are quite a few Royal Hotels in this area but I have travelled these parts before so didn't discover any new ones.

These days it is not Sir Henry Parkes that gets top billing in the town ... it's Elvis! Back in 1993 some locals threw an Elvis party which had a couple of hundred people attend. It's now a major event with over 25,000 people descending on the town each January. And there are Elvis sightings all over the place, even in July.  I had a bit of fun spotting some of them for you. A book I have read recently No I have not read anything about Elvis or even rock 'n roll but I have read something with music at its heart Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy. In tropical Darwin (pre 1974 cyclone) a talented teenager studies piano with the Maestro, a refugee from Vienna - a fascinating story.

Sir Henry Parkes who's statue is is shown above was a key figure in the federation of Australia. Parkes is quite a substantial town (population 11,000) that pre-dates federation in 1901 so I was wondering how the town's name came about.  Apparently it was known as Bushmans, after Bushman's Lead a gold mine in the area. Bushman's Lead post office opened in 1872 and was renamed to Parkes in 1873 in honour of Parkes who visited the area that year. The town grew up from there. What's growing in my gardens right now? It's Tuesday so time for a garden update.  At Kandos I have picked the last of the roses, we are harvesting citrus (yum) and I have begun pruning the fruit trees.  At Lawson winter iris and jonquils are in flower.

It is big sky country out this way. Some of the country is looking incredibly dry, some looking quite green and some ploughed and planted. A poem for today The Brain is Wider than the Sky by Emily Dickinson

Sign spotted at the Bakery at Condobolin We are back from a couple of weeks Sweet Wayfaring in the Central West of NSW. We set up our caravan at Parkes and took day trips to some of the towns listed here.  Over the next few weeks I will take you along to show you what we discovered on the way. We had cold but lovely weather.  Now I am not at all glad to be home because it was 8C outside and inside when we arrived at Lawson today and it's blowing a gale outside. Reflection: Job 28:25-28 The Message (MSG) “God alone knows the way to Wisdom, he knows the exact place to find it. He knows where everything is on earth, he sees everything under heaven. After he commanded the winds to blow and measured out the waters, Arranged for the rain and set off explosions of thunder and lightning, He focused on Wisdom, made sure it was all set and tested and ready. Then he addressed the human race: ‘Here it is! Fear-of-the-Lord—that’s Wisdom, and Insight means shunning ev...