Trips Away!

Okay. This picture was taken last May when I was in England to check up on the health of my mother(left) and we went out to lunch with her sister and husband.
I show you this because I have no pictures of my last excursion but I shall tell you about it anyway.

Robert and I decided that we needed a bit of a day-away. So I put my hand up for Warracknabeal and he put his hand up for Halls Gap. We managed both.
We set off on Tuesday morning at 8.30am and drove to Ballarat and then north to the Mallee towns of Donald and Warracknabeal. I say this bravely but wondering in fact where the Mallee finishes and the Wimmera starts.
I had seen in a book of "Women's Arts of the 19th and 20th Centuries" that the items in the photos were held in a museum in Warracknabeal. It was wonderful. Marg from the Historical Society opened up for us and gave us an hour of delight. This museum is only open in the afternoon from 2 till 4pm by volunteers but it must be the best museum of its kind that I have encountered. It is housed in the old State Bank and has a wealth of collectables and some very valuable pieces. It is nearly four hours from Melbourne but is a must if you are ever going anywhere within a 100km.
There is also the best second hand shop in Warracknabeal that I have come across for ages. Much cheaper than the city stuff and generally good stuff. Everything from old kitchen whisks to old wooden ladders and lots of books and videos and old furniture.
We ate at the Palace Hotel and then travelled south through Horsham and pulled in at the Best Western in Halls Gap, just past town on the western side. we had done about 400+ km and the last 50 were windy and a sheer drop on the passenger side. Not the sort of road that you want to keep checking the drop from.
We went for a short walk before dinner to check out the shops etc and on our return were just ahead of a mob (family) of kangaroos. Typically, the two young adults bounded across the road but the young one and Mum stopped in the middle of the road to check traffic, the joey popped its head out for a look too. They all made it safely across.
The next morning we ate our breakfast in the cafe which looks across the lake and paddock to the area where about 40 kangaroos were grazing their breakfast.

No pics. I wouldn't have done justice to any of it with my minipixel kodak.

We drove home in the rain all the way but were so thrilled to see water. The previous day we had watched many square km of newly planted wheat looking very stunted because of the lack of rain. We raced home to make sure that we were getting some of it in our own back yard. Lovely wet stuff.

Kitty welcomed us and yes it had been raining quite a lot and is still drizzling even now.
I made some more marmalade today which I shall post about tomorrow. No knitting!!!
Cheers Gillian