Flexing the odd muscle (car) at yesterday's Wattle Festival

The day for the Wattle Festival started out with good promise -
Found this splendid Hecla iron on one of our fav stalls at the Sunday market. Our fav (very reliable) seller had dated it between mid-1940s to mid-1950s Taylor iron made by Hecla.
She's a lovely thing, all green enamel-ly and weighs in at 9.5 kgs on my bathroom scales. The iron, not the stall seller.
No wonder kids were properly respectful of a woman who could wield one of them without breaking a sweat!

On the way to the festival there were the usual gorgeous old architecture ( a lot of Art Deco but shhhhh) and the usual lusty, busty chimneys or 3.

 

There was a steam train.

Ahhh.

Bliss.

 

Diamond Creek wasn't very diamond-like.

One of many vintage vehicles puttering about.

Yes, vintage vehicles of all eras were puttering galloping about!

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

Had an absolute ball meeting up with Marita and her gorgeous girls again, was a fab day out that we all enjoyed.
Love Hurstbridge, it's got a country town atmosphere but within easy reach of the CBD.
May try to tackle the Hurstbridge Heritage trail next!

Bucketing Saturday August 29

Am working my way through the talking books, currently part-way through a Dalziel and Pascoe mystery at the moment, and waiting for a few more on back order.

1836 Explorer Thomas Mitchell pitched up at Portland Bay in Victoria and found the Henty mob were already in residence.

1874 Tightrope walker extraordinaire Charles Blondin cooked and et an omelet in mid-rope amble above the Sydney Domain.

1883 The first meal charred cooked on an electric stove was done to a crisp in the Windsor Hotel in Ottawa with Thomas Ahearn showing off his pride and joy invention.

1914 NZ forces captured German Samoa.

1919 Prince Edward Island, famous setting of Anne of Green Gables, removed the ban on cars.

1978 Number one single in NZ was Rivers of Babylon by Bony M.

1981 Adelaide played host to the 7th National Conference for Lesbians and Homosexual Men.

1987 Jocelyn Muir finished swimming around Lake Ontario after 60 days.
She raised $250,000 for MS and set a new record for an international marathon.

1992 The Sydney Harbour Tunnel was opened.

1994 Canadian Carlos Costa swam for more than 23 hours to cross the Straits of Messina, in Italy, to become the first disabled athlete to complete the crossing.

August 28 or better known as TGIF in my calendar

Stuffs happened, stuffs keep happening and stuffs hold the whole world together in their stuff-like glue.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch Aunt Maggie lies comatose in a ditch....

Will Skippy find her in time?

Will Rin Tin Tin bury the dynamite safely?

Will the Littlest Hobo stop gnawing on that bone and go solve the wrongs of the world?

The answers to these questions and more will not be answered in tomorrow's episode of...

History Stuffs.

1819 In Bavaria t'was born Johann Gramp who came to Oz and planted his vines which became Orlando Wines.

1860 Melbourne's Parliament House came under attack from the public during a debate on a controversial land bill.

1860 In Montreal the Prince of Wales, Prince Albert Edward, was a visitor to a lacrosse match that was held in his honour.

1867 Mgr Baillargeon was announced as Bishop of Quebec.

1943 Eleanor Roosevelt popped into The Shaky Isles for a visit.

1992 The Big Snow that graced Canterbury was the heaviest in that region for 30 years.
Read more about it HERE.

Did you watch the first episode of ADbc?
On SBS.
Go watch next Thursday.
Very funny.
Uber-entertaining.
Mucho enjoyment!
Incessant giggling rampant.
Read review HERE.

August 26 ...and more pics....

 

Feral Beast dared go there.

Feral Beast was under threat of No Chocolate for a month.

Feral Beast apologised very quickly.

1634  The Huron Indians brought wild plums to feed the Jesuits at current-day Quebec.

1835 Gov Bourke - the complete tool - announced (in booming self-important voice) that Batman's Treaty with the Kulin Nation Aboriginal Peoples to be invalid and that all those settlers in Port Phillip were mere trespassers.
Pfft.

 

Rocks.

Again.

1891 The Northwest Territories had their very first published weather forecasts.

1894 The second Maori King, Tukaroto Potatau Matutaera Tawhiao, passed away on this date.
Read more about King Tawhiao HERE.

 

Look into my eyes....Go to the beach....Paddle in the shallows...

1939 Today saw the official opening of the Barnett Avenue Social Housing project for pensioners in NZ.
Read more about it HERE.

1960 Nancy Martinez, Canadian pop singer, was dropped off by the stork.
Listen to her HERE.

 

Strangely, we kept finding this wet thing lapping at the sand as we wended our way ever onward...

1966 Vincent Lingiari led 200 people of the Gurindji tribe in a walk off from Wave Hill Station in the NT in protest at the poor wages and conditions, and began the long fight to regain their traditional land.

1977 Bill 101 was adopted by the Quebec Govt - French became the official language of Quebec while those fathers were English could attend English school.

 

Finding Nemo...perhaps?

1986 It was announced that a colder and wetter August than usual had seen a higher loss of new lambs, costing NZ farmers $2.8 million.

2004 Something that pisses the rednecks off no end in the State of Beige Panic Ennui Victoria is Premier Steve Bracks introduced a bill to amend the Constitution to recognise the Aboriginal People of , and their contribution to, Victoria.

 

Bluestone steps leading down to...what was once beach but is now rock-pools within a marine santuary near Black Rock.

August 25 sees the continuation of happy snaps

Bread crusts for seagulls mandatory.

August 24
2001 Opposition leader, ALP head honcho Kim Beazley announced his support of same-sex marriages.
If only he was still the leader today.........

A spot of kelp.

August 25
1852 Excitingly, the first land sales were signed on the dotted line in Ballarat.

Click to enlarge and read.

1873 A hurricane hit Cape Breton Island destroying more than 1,200 fishing boats and washing the wharves completely away.

The birds...!!

1920 Captain Euan Dickson was the first to fly over Cook Strait on his way to Trentham from Christchurch.

Click, enlarge, read.

1948 Frankton in NZ was hit by a tornado which left flooding, damages, 80 injured and 3 dead in the mere ten minutes it made itself felt.
More info and photos of the day HERE.

Cliffs. Crumbling. Off-limits.

1955 Beginning today Soviet Union Agricultural experts were given a three-week tour of Canada's farms and farming practices.

Yes, I can take a half-decent snap now and then.

1969 The 12 sided 50 cent piece exploded onto the scene and replaced the round 50 cent piece.

Go on...roll up your jeans and paddle in the shallows....

#8 in piccys August 21

Am typing this with my medium-sized furbaby parked across my lap...a furbaby who seems to think she's still a tiny pup who can fit !

 

Watkins Bay from the other angle.

1806 With all the tucker just about gone in good old Hobart Town the prisoners aka convicts were given express permission to hunt kangaroos.

1879 Feast Day of Our Lady of Knock; the day when holy statues came to life before witnesses eyes in Knock, Ireland.

Read more HERE.

1894 Tassie was on a winner when it introduced a flat rate personal income tax.

That lump is, in fact, more fungi about to erupt and spawn all over Watkins Bay that FB uncovered.

Wonder if Native Fungi Child can sniff out truffles...

1915 Hill 60 at Gallipoli saw the last major fighting of the ANZAC forces.

More info, do the bizzo and click to enlarge.

 

Beaumaris Life Saving Club.

Doin' the hard yards every Summer to keep your beaches safe.

1958 The Barnes Dance began do-se-doing around Auckland when pedestrians were able to diagonally cross in all directions.

Read more HERE.

Commemorative seat thingie to mark the Rickett's Point Marine Sanctuary being official.

1968 The Post Office in Ontario announced it was closing the 100 yr old Post Office Savings Bank.

1979 The Canadian Federal Govt thought it might be a reasonable idea to provide bilingual air traffic control in Quebec.

Read.

Scouring action of the water has carved these pretty circles.

Or it was the landing gear of the aliens spaceship...

  

2006 Tuheitia Paki was chosen as the new Maori king, the eldest son of Dame Te Atairangikaahu.

2017 This is the date when the next predicted solar eclipse that will be viewable from Canada.
Mark it in your diary!

A decent radio show, The Matt & Jo Show, has launched a Real Beauty Search.
Click the link to go and vote for those with real beauty.

#7 in the photo list

Oh, yes, I did warn you there were 400 happy snaps uploading - thankfully for you some are so blurry they're hitting the bin.
Don't forget, click on any to enlarge to read the sign-boards or to see what on earth grabbed my attention.
On with our walk, boys and girls, and today we hit Watkins Bay, Beaumaris and more...

 

Blue Blubber Jellyfish.

In the wild.

 

Steep cliffs,pretty rock pools.

 

As still as a mill pond....

 

Sheryl knew she didn't fit in with this crowd but wasn't sure where else a shag should hang out...

 

Rocky outcrop.

Below us.

Waaaaaaaay below us....

...that people used to climb down to *shudder*.

 

Ahh! Watkins Bay begins to peep around the corner at us.

 

Usual suspects at a beach...

 

Sign to remind everyone not to nick the shells, not to disturb the rocks and NOT to poke at the sea critters.

 

Sheryl decided to hang out on her own...

 

More info.

 

Pool.

With rocks.

And shells.

 

Go on, right click and save to your hard drive.

 

Nature's sculpture.

 

Mother Nature always ignored the fashion rhyme

"Pink and green should never be seen

Except with a colour in between."

 

Tidal scouring showing clearly here how the cliffs will, eventually, be undermined. 

 

 And again.

 

These rocks would have once been a part of the cliff/headland.

 

These rockpools are teeming with life in the warmer months.

Read about the fisherman who gave this bay his name HERE.