A Cracked Rib, Christmas Cheer And A Weekend Away

What do you really need a month out from Christmas?  Yes indeed, to trip over and crack your rib, and render yourself useless in the Holiday rush.  Not happy Jan, as the ad used to say.  So Christmas will be a very minor bump in the road of a not so great 2017.

some candy canes (my doodle) to cheer myself up:=)

Mr P. is also feeling a bit out of sorts at the moment, so we headed down to our fave getaway - Northern Rivers, just over the Queensland border for those not from these parts.  It is beautifully green down there, and guess what, it rains and storms nearly every time we head down.  And yes we had a storm the second night.  But it is glorious with the lightning flashing over the river and nearby hills.

sunset over the river

the view from our room

And yes the light really was that brilliant yellow, making everything gleam like jewels in the twilight.  Very magical.

the bedroom

We stayed at the Ramada Hotel and Suites Ballina, which overlooks the Richmond River.  You will often see dolphins, sea turtles, fish and even rays making their way up and down the water.  There are gulls and terns, pelicans, cormorants and darters fishing and flitting about, grabbing fish and crabs on the go.

another view of the stormy sky from our hotel window 

So Mr P. and I spent a couple of days seeing the sights.  Here is - ta da!  a real butcher.  Yes I have a thing about butchers.  Call me weird if you like, but I love seeing real butchers cutting up real meats.  This is in Wigmore Arcade, Ballina.  A treasure for sure.

a real butcher!

Now here's something you don't see much of these days - a real butcher.  And yes there was a corpse hanging in the backroom - a Bangalow pig I think:=) 

the front (or back?) of the new gallery - look at all those solar panels! 

We meandered on to the Lismore Regional Gallery, newly opened after moving from its old premises round the corner (and after the awful flood earlier this year).  It is situated in the Quad, with the Library on the kitty cat corner.  I think this is the actual front of the building though the obvious access from the carpark is at the back. 

my chicken, cheese wrap 

We had lunch at Slate Café which is in the Gallery building.  Mr P. had nachos, while I had this chicken, cheesy wrap.  Nice and healthy, but a wee bit too much dill for me.  Dill was clearly the herb du jour as we had buckets of it at another café too.

the Emporium at Newrybar 

Newrybar used to be a teeny, tiny little hamlet with a general store and a petrol pump, and an antique shop full of junk.  Now it is home to Harvest, an incredibly popular restaurant with its own garden and forager.  And this place - I have to say an incredibly expensive boutique establishment with lots of wonderful and pricey things.  But then again, well-heeled Sydneysiders flock to it flashing their cash...

our friend Brooke's pottery studio - Red Door

We trotted along to our friend Brooke's studio at Fernleigh in the hinterland.  She was very busy!  So we had a quick yack, and I bought a few things for Chrissie gifts.  As regular readers will know, I have many of her things in my kitchen.  But there's always room for more.


  

a current exhibition at Tweed Regional Gallery  

As always we stopped off at Tweed Regional Gallery to have lunch and a wander round.  (I was also picking up a painting I'd bought a couple of months ago from one of their exhibitions.)  This is part of the Adventures of Aecap exhibition.

We had a great time as we always do here, and if you get a chance, it's definitely worth a few days in the Northern Rivers area.  Oh, and I didn't even mention the lovely beaches, and hinterland drives, and the Byron Bay Lighthouse, and the quaint little villages up in the hills, and the produce...

last year's Christmas doodle