Australia Day In Our Small Country Town

Small country towns work hard to stay viable and our little local town is no exception. There are many various volunteer groups that  are always working tirelessly  to make our town a great little place to live and as a rule they do a wonderful job.
On Australia Day there is always a breakfast ceremony held at the local park in the main street.
On the evening before a group of  local men, Brian included band together to transport all the metal tables and benches from the local school to the park in ready for the next morning's activities.
This year there was  a storm just after the job was completed and we were  worried that the ceremony may have ended up being washed out but we were lucky, Australia Day  morning weather was perfect.
The ceremony began  at 7.00AM with the raising of the flag by the two local school captains.

The Orbital Swing Band  always provides us with the music for the morning and  for The National Anthem.

  The local shire mayor  then introduced  the visiting Australia Day Ambassador Jo Carter, a former Australian Olympic ice skating champion who gave a very interesting and heartfelt speech on what she felt it meant to be Australian and what the day meant to her personally.

She is pictured above with our shire mayor Peter Shinton as he presented her with a book on the history of  our local community.
Jo then proceeded to  help with the presentation of the awards to various hard working individuals who willingly give their time for the betterment of our community.

Phil Richie who volunteers with our local Progress association, and works hard   with the campgrounds,

Glenn(Doc) Halliday who has been a long term volunteer acting in many positions in various  volunteer group around town including, Progress, Junior Sports Club, Lions Club,Jockey Club and The Binnaway Show group.

Malcolm Leader who has lived in Binnaway his entire life, began his voluntary involvement as a teenager with the Jockey Club, and was made a life member a few years ago.He is a volunteer member of the Bush Fire Brigade and has been  for over 50 years, along with other  great service to the community.

And last but by no means least, our very own  Rail Heritage Society received a group award for hold the event last April of "The Centenary of Rail in Binnaway", where we  organised a display of historical rail items  , had market stalls, morning tea, lunch and  had a rail motor taking  trips . It was a wonderful day  and we were very honoured to be awarded for our efforts.
It is lovely to see all the people who give up their time so freely to help out  in their various ways all  thanked in this way for their continued dedication and service to their community.
Once the official part of the morning was  concluded, the local Men's Shed as  industrious as always cooked up a storm on the BBQ,

They only ask a small  coin donation and  the hearty  breakfast is always greatly enjoyed by the attending crowd .

The Progress Group also  serves tea, coffee and juice  and  everybody sits, chats, eats and catches up and discusses how much rain did or didn't fall on each others properties the night before.

It is wonderful to see small country towns in action, they have so much to offer, if only you take the time to see that.
Our town  has highs and lows and sometimes the   light that is community spirit flickers and nearly  extinguishes and then a breath of fresh air comes along  and the light brightens and  glows and  along with it the spirit of the people.
We love our small town  and we along with all our other volunteers  will continue to strive to make it the best little town we can . Happy Australia Day ( albeit a little late due to the over booked schedule of this retired couple)
If you are ever thinking about volunteering, then just do it,
You will never regret it,
you make great friends ,
and it enriches your life and your towns .

Take care,
Cheers
Jane and Brian.

Halfway Round The World and Back Again.

It feels just like what the title states, that we have been halfway round the world and back again, but in reality have only been to Wollongong, Newcastle and home again.
I think the fact that we were really tired after having the grand children for 10 days contributed to that.
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Before we left  Brian built a new water  trough for the poultry. It  was a 6inch diameter pvc pipe sealed off on the ends with a small float installed.Brian just cut a slot for them to drink from. The  water pod automatically keeps it topped up. It just means that we  now have a back up water supply in the main yard  for when we are away just in case one source fails.

We headed off to Wollongong to take the grand kids home, their Mum and Dad had been working the 10 days the kids were at the farm and had then headed to Melbourne to the tennis.
The kids went back to their normal routines of OOSH and daycare and we had a few  hours each day to rest and recuperate.
We did some shopping, ate out a bit, including a nice seafood lunch we shared one day,

 And rested quite a bit.
After our daughter and son in law returned home we said our goodbyes  and headed to Sydney.
In Sydney we headed to our bottle and jar supplier Plasdene , that I use for my preserving and stocked up on sauce bottles, jelly jars and pickles/jam jars.

We were staying the night with my sister and brother in law in Sydney, they live in a lovely leafy area with water at the bottom of their garden.

My brother in law recently  has acquired a Flow Bee hive,

It was interesting , this was the first opportunity to have a close look at one of these newer  types of hives.
Every day on the deck at my sister's house a myriad of birds come to visit and sometimes receive a small tidbit of food.
There were striking King Parrots and Scaley Breast Parrots,

magpies,

Beautiful Rainbow Lorrikeets,

including these two that decided to get a little cosy right in front of us,

Next came the parade of Kookaburras,

Even one very friendly one that insisted on coming inside.

We had a lovely visit and all too soon had to head to Newcastle.The reason we were in Newcastle was to attend the wedding of our gorgeous God daughter.
She looked stunning as her dad escorted her to the ceremony,

The cake was beautiful and was made by the bride's brother in law.

the reception was really lovely, with beautifully decorated tables and delicious food.

It was wonderful to witness  our god daughter marry her partner and we had such a great time catching up with her parents and other friends that we hadn't caught up with for a few years.
The next day we had a relaxing day on the waterfront,

We called into the Honeysuckle Hotel,

And had a lovely relaxed lunch.

We had a lovely day, wandering and driving around Newcastle seeing all the changes that have happened since we left.
The next day we headed back to the farm.
Brian had purchased a new  breathable bee suit in Newcastle( he had seen one the same at my sister's place and decided it was for him)

Until now he had only been using a disposable all in one paper/plastic suit that was extremely hot and had now fallen apart.
Rob our bee helper came and brought us some more honey that he had extracted from our hives, this is just a small  portion of what  we get from them.

Brian has been  busy with a few caravan repairs since we  come home, our baby is an old girl  and we regularly have to do a few bits to keep her going.
This time he had a hinge on a cupboard door and the  plywood base under a mattress needed re-enforcing as well.

We picked more jalapenos,

And I made some more jalapeno pepper jelly,

It was water bathed and cooled to seal the jars,

And they look so pretty when you backlight them with a torch.

I was passed on a lovely sounding recipe to use  the pepper jelly and I am hoping to try it tomorrow for a gathering we are going to .

Happy Australia Day Everyone,
We really are "The Lucky Country.!!!
Please take care and be good to each other,
Cheers
Jane and Brian.