Castlemaine - 19th Jan to 10th Feb

Back in Castlemaine after our trip to Sydney, we have carried on enjoying the activities available locally. Liz has been getting involved with some drawing and felt making and she and Sarah attended a 3 day drawing technique class focussed on improving observation, by producing one A1 charcoal drawing of a large number of still life objects all mixed up together but studied in one small section at a time. Quite tough and intensive but they both learned a lot. Liz has also joined in with Sarah's singing and recorder groups, as well as local yoga sessions.

I had previously signed up for some didgeridoo lessons and learned to do the circular breathing with some success. Inspired by this I have started keyboard/piano lessons, which is something I had failed to do at home ever since I got my own keyboard many years ago. I have also had a couple of outings with a local off-road cycling group, who are friends of Sarah and mostly about same age as me. We are a strictly non-lycra-clad, multi-rest-stop, and finishing-at-the-cafe-for-lunch group. Having said that, the paths we go on are quite tough - winding through the trees, over logs, steep ups and downs, eyes on the path, so not much time to take in the surroundings, but it is good fun.

We have also met a number of Sarah and James' friends and visited the local cafes and cinema. All of this as well as the local shops have been in very easy reach of Sarah's house. Usually walking or cycling distance, so we have been enjoying not needing a car.

The trick will be to sustain some of these activities back home whilst back to working again.

The weather here has been quite kind to us and even then we have dodged the excessive heat by respectively being in New South Wales and Victoria at the right times. We have pretty much got used to living with the heat and the biting insects. Gnats and mosquitos seem to be around all day here, so it is not always pleasant to sit outside even when the temperature permits though there are places with less insects. We have learned the routine of keeping the heat and insects out of the house. More or less all the houses have insect screen doors and windows everywhere as well as the normal glass and wooden ones. Also blinds at all windows, so on hot days blinds have to be closed at all windows where the sun comes in which makes it rather dark inside but does stop the temperature going up too much. In the evening when the air cools the solid doors and windows can be opened but screen doors kept strictly shut to stop the bitey things coming in. We did notice this routine was much less necessary in Sydney where the air seemed fresher from all the waterways around and there seemed to be less insects.

Lately it has been cooler which makes the Australian people happy, but I have been finding it quite cold sometimes. Still hard to get used to people here referring to "bad weather" meaning hot. They worry and complain about the possibility of long periods of hot weather in the same way we do over wet or cold weather, but for myself I find the heat less bother than the complaining!

Next blog will be about our trip to Tasmania where we were from 11th to 19th Feb.