Sydney Roadtrip

This post is a quickie photo essay!  We're still catching up on things after our roadtrip, and Mr P. has been very unwell with this awful cold and cough that lingers and lingers ...  Lots of bugs going around at the moment, apparently.  We think he caught it from being in so many hospital waiting rooms lately.

Mr P. organised our recent Sydney trip, heading down south to visit an old friend, and to hit as many art galleries as we could.  Was it eight or nine we managed?  Job well done, as the English say!  And it was wonderful to catch up with our old mate Jim, whom we have known since we were knee-high to a grasshopper, as the saying goes.

NERAM  (horse sculpture by Tim Storrier)

First off, we hit NERAM - the New England Regional Art Museum.  We try to get here once a year; it's about 5 or 6 hours drive from us, so we take a roadtrip!  And if you're lucky, you get to see some snow here in Winter.  Clearly, not now :=)  

driving over the Sydney Harbour Bridge - a few times!

a cute twiggy fella on top of someone's chimney

massive sculpture by Ron Mueck (Art Gallery of NSW)

Ron Mueck does amazing work.  These huge sculptures are very confronting, and fascinating.  I'm hiding the mmm extra-large appendages - hehehe ...

there were carrot pancakes for Mr P. at Archie's Café Co, Dover Heights

there were koi carp at the Gosford Regional Gallery, and Japanese Garden

Mr P. ate fried halloumi and scrambled eggs at The Point cafe, Avoca Beach

we admired a Brett Whiteley sculpture at the newly re-opened Newcastle Art Gallery

we had a gander at Smoky Bay Lighthouse

(By the architect James Barnet Colonial Architect for NSW, 1865-1890.)  He designed various public buildings and a number of lighthouses around New South Wales, including this one.  I love a lighthouse, my friends!  I'm thinking of joining the Lighthouse Society.  

and said hi to a wallaby having his/her lunch

We checked out the Trial Bay Gaol ruins; a "nice" prison, apparently

I ate Bircher muesli at the Hilltop Store

we drove to a sea view at Sawtell, looking north

and captured ourselves in the outdoor Sculpture Garden at the Grafton Regional Gallery

We shared a Black Forest croissant at the Ulmarra Food Co-op

and admired the water dragon in the leafy front courtyard

What a trip!  And probably our last for a while, till Mr P.'s treatments finish.  There are so many wonderful things to see in our big country.  If you can get here, my friends ...  

On The Road Again - Tamworth And Beyond - Part Three

You asked for it, so here it is!  Well, maybe you didn't but you're getting it anyway :=)  More about our recent trip down south/out west.  We love a roadtrip!  And art galleries, and mountains and wildlife, and food, and architecture - well, you get the drift ...

we saw kangaroos at Ebor-Guy Fawkes Cemetery, NSW

  

we stayed at The Pottery Shed cottage in Boambee near Coffs Harbour
- see the wee gas stove?

we took a walk on the Coffs Harbour Jetty

and joined lots of folk taking a morning stroll

heading here!

I bought a small ceramic whale here, by Indigenous artist Tony Hart

I ate a fabulous rösti with grilled halloumi

while Mr P. had "magic" apple-cinnamon pancakes

we had lunch here in Sawtell (as per above)

we visited the brilliant new building holding the Coffs Harbour Council/Library and Art Gallery
 - artwork on wall by Reece Flanders titled River Connections

Mr P. and I loved this building!

and we enjoyed walking around the top storey of the building

we had time for a coffee!

And then we drove the 4.5 hours home, back to Brisbane.  Some misguided people would like to suggest that time goes backward when you cross the QLD border.  How silly of them, and how clever of us to keep 'em away - hehehe ...

the whale by Tony Hart

On The Road Again - Tamworth And Beyond - Part 2

I promised you a Part the Second, and here it is!  I have been a busy bee on the blog this month, so just to finish it off ...  Here is a quick photo essay of our recent trip (well, recent meaning late June!)  The birthday trip for me.  We had a fabulous time, on our art gallery tour.

fab old building in Manilla NSW

I love silo art!

The Water Diviner by Fintan Magee

Mr P. checking it out, very intensely :)

'twas getting creepy out on the gravel road with the moon coming up

There were lots of crazy animals jumping out at us on this loooong drive back to our cottage.  Kangaroos and cows and feral goats and wild dogs and boar ...

Don't you just love an old-fashioned store?  In Armidale NSW

Mr P. looking serious again with The Artist's Mount by Tim Storrier
outside NERAM in Armidale NSW

a breakfast bagel at the Gallery Café aka Six Counties Café

Ebony Russell's Canyons at NERAM

I've noticed lately that placing mirrors under artworks is a bit of a thing!  And very good it is too.  We love the gallery in Armidale, and always stop there if we are passing through the town.

the start of Waterfall Way

looking down into the watery depths

beautiful waterfalls

Mr P. checking out the info.

Okay, I think it's time to stop here - for now.  I see a Part the Third coming up!  More art and food coming up next time.  See you for Part the Third in September!

Linking up with Min from Write of the Middle for her link party #WWWhimsy

On The Road Again! Heading To Tamworth, New South Wales And Beyond - Part One

Mr P. and I love a road trip, as regular readers will know.  And we always try to get away for our birthdays, so off we went in late-ish June for mine.  This was to be an art gallery trip, as we knew of two new galleries that had opened recently - Tamworth Regional Gallery, and the Yarrila Arts Museum, both in New South Wales.  (And we snuck in a visit to NERAM - the New England Regional Art Museum.)  Funny how every gallery and art museum has to have an acronym these days.

a sculpture in Warwick QLD - on our way! 
 (Designer John Simpson, who sadly passed away before this was erected,
though his ashes are interred in the foundations.)

Bluff Rock, known for the massacre of the local indigenous tribe

Sadly, the local indigenous people were thrown off this rock by European settlers (so the story goes), most to die, and the rest injured and never seen again.  This massacre was in retaliation for the (supposed) murder of a shepherd on Bolivia Station.  But there are conflicting stories, and who knows the truth of it?  Tragic in every sense, anyway.

a bit of street art in Deepwater - a platypus!

Deepwater River - sadly, no platypuses seen :( 

and ... the bridge over the Deepwater River

You guessed it! It's Uralla, on Thunderbolt's Way (he was a local bushranger!)

the Uralla Institute building

and the Moonbi chook

the new Tamworth Regional Gallery (and Mr P. looking serious)

their fabulous new gallery 

in the small town of Manilla - old silo, and some old tractors

and the Manilla fish!

You can just see the stained-glass window to the left of the fishy mouth - which is a depiction of the Manilla fish!  Manilla is a small town on Fossickers' Way, apparently famous for fishing, paragliding and mountain biking!  Who knew?!!  Oh yes, and the best coffee, even at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon!

forgot to add Captain Thunderbolt (aforesaid famous bushranger!)

a wee train going by in the tiny town of Nemingha

the real estate agent of Manilla town

I just had to add in this photo!  Can this be real?  I laugh every time I see this.  Do we call him Purt for short?

That's enough for now; more to come in another post!

c. Sherry M.