Friday, July 10, 2009

Three and a half hours north.

I feel it is time to change my settings perhaps, this evening. So, be prepared!

It is raining here tonight which is a pleasurable change.


I am currently home alone, whilst husband is at the MCG watching an over-sized pigs bladder being kicked around. I believe I am the sensible one as it's far too cold to be in the great outdoors this evening. Whats the bet he'll arrive home complaining of the cold and taking ages to warm up.

Last weekend, that of my birthday, saw he and I up at our respite centre, also known as Porepunkah, where we have a little cabin in a holiday park that overlooks the gracious Mt. Buffalo.

As you can see, the vista is glorious from our back door and I love the time we spend up there just rambling throughout the different towns in the Alpine Region.

Porepunkah is at the foot of the High Country, so called because it is a mountainous region in northern Victoria and is the playland for ski enthusiasts come winter time.






On the odd occasion, it does snow where our cabin is, but I do believe the last snow of any merit fall occurred in the park some eight years ago.

Here is a view of Mt. Buffalo with snow on them thar hills, the likes of which is quite beautiful from my perspective. I love the fact that every time I visit there, the images are always different.

My photograph collection of the area is full of contrasting images of this particular mountain.

I can well appreciate when my parents once upon a time lived south of Melbourne, Mum would always talk of 'her' mountain she would look out onto every morning from her front verandah.


Whilst up there this time, every morning was frosty white when we first got up, but as soon as the sun's rays hit an area the ice would turn to moisture and quickly be absorbed.

We have a resident nocturnal possum there who was pretty impressed with the bird seed my other half left out for the local parrots and every night he partook from the tree stump with a lot of noise just to let us know he was there.









One of the best things about going up to Porepunkah, apart from having time away from day to day living is exploring local shops that display their handicrafts. Being a bit of a tourist mecca, the area is bursting with local cottage industries, be it jams, nuts, vegetables and handcrafts.

Its so pleasurable talking with the locals who are usually always grateful if you show any interest in their produce be it animal, vegetable or mineral as.

To be on the lookout for a 'find' is always exciting too and especially in Porepunkah, Bright and Myrtleford, we have shown much favour as they always seem to have EXACTLY what it is we're after.

While there for these four days, we explored the areas of Beechworth and Yackandandah...... such pretty names for such picturesque towns don't you think?

These first three scenes are of Beechworth which was once upon a time a thriving gold rush town.
Photo no. 1 is of the main street.





No. 2 if you look closely enough is a cat in the window upstairs from a shop.






This somewhat gothic picture (would love to be there on a dark night) is out the back of a rather pricey upmarket antique dealer also in the main street.







Last but not least of these four photographs is of the main street in Yackandandah.






One nut/potato farm we called into had minimal supplies available in their store. As we walked out to our trusty steed (car) the owner strolled by and stopped for a chat. He appeared very despondent and told us a tale of how bad business is right now. Tourism was down according to him and his takings for the week were minimal. As a consequence he wasn't sure of his viability despite having been in the business all his working life.

The day was a grey cloudy day by then and the photo I took outside his farm to me depicted his sombre mood quite significantly.






This is the end of my post for today. I have heaps more to add about the time away and this will be done hopefully on Sunday.


Its after midnight now and time for some sleep I think before I start making big mistakes on here...

Night all..............................

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