Its coming up for one year since I moved back to the Bellingen Shire. Been a busy year.
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Christmas fulfilled the usual promise of a bit of everything. Indian Jimmy from Port Macquarie told me once that LOVE stood for : LOTS OF VAIRED EMOTIONS.
I don’t know what Christmas stands for but I do know that a Capricornian Saviour has created a pretty wild festival. We had flooding rains and waters rising in the paddocks. Temperatures were “cool” but we managed one beach trip and several pool swims. Masses of gifts, tents in the rain and plenty of family members.
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BOXING DAY 2010 AT RALEIGH.
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A rambling lookback taken on a summer day with sea breezes and blue skies. We have had very little of that this season. There’s guitar music coming from the music room and BayWatch is on the television. Strange – but somehows soothing.
Well, things were soothing until the sirens started down on the New Pacific Highway. A stream of them racing past.
Now to see what was happening on the 29th of each month of 2010.
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29 DECEMBER 2009.
I wrapped up 2009 still living in Ulmarra in the big old house on Coldstream Street. Across the Street, the cattle ran in the paddocks. The village was west about 1km or so and on Sundays, Izzy played with the Droughtbreakers at the WIDE RIVER CAFÉ.
Ulmarra was HOT. Very hot. The Grafton area is that with the Coast 40kms or so to the east. I liked the Clarence Valley but there was a baby coming down here on the Bellinger and I was homesick.
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VIEW THROUGH THE VENETIANS AT 56 COLDSTREAM STREET, ULMARRA ON 29 DECEMBER 2009.
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The New Year of 2010 came in with a fine moon and random fireworks which I thought were somehow organised but turned out simply to be crackers at Fred’s party for his buck’s night up the road.
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2009 NEW YEAR’S MOON IN ULMARRA.
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29 JANUARY 2010.
Baby was born on January 8, 2010, in Coffs Harbour Hospital. That gave me three little girls as grandchildren.
This new one is the daughter of my daughter. I found it increasingly difficult to remain at a distance from Bellingen which is where she lives and the others up in the New England.
Bellingen was hot in January 2009 and the bats were about. My children were born 30 years ago in Bellingen Hospital. That is no longer a common practice.The Hospital became an issue for me throughout 2010 as I thought more about the reduction in services. Here are some links to Pages about the Bello Hospital.
SAVE BELLO HOSPITAL FB PAGE.
SAVE BELLINGEN HOSPITAL
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29 JANUARY 2010. THE BABY IN NORTH BELLO.
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END OF FEBRUARY 2010.
We had a family circuit trip planned for February and the beginning of March 2010, going South as far as BasinView down near Jervis Bay and back through Armidale and down the Waterfall Way . The day before we left, a Cottage came up for rent in Raleigh and we took it. I had been going between Ulmarra and Bellingen for weeks, but this occasion proved to be my last. I rented the Cottage, headed South for the Family Trip and haven’t been back to Ulmarra at all.
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END OF FEBRUARY.
THE POMS’ LAND IN PORT MACQUARIE.
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29 MARCH 2010.
I moved into the WORKERS’ COTTAGE at Raleigh. That gives me a view to the East and a view to the West. It gives me the sunrises and the sunsets. I rather like Raleigh now that the Highway traffic takes the new Freeway and the Old Pacific Highway has become a good quality local road with mnimal usage. Its similar to Brunswick Heads Area – in that way.
The other pleasure for me in homecoming has been the access to North Bellingen via NORTH BANK ROAD.
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SUNRISE ON MARCH 29 2010 AT RALEIGH.
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29 APRIL 2010.
Bellingen remains a town of Babies and children. We were able to introduce our Little Lady to the Street. Hyde Street, that is. And Church Street.
The YELLOW SHED is still filled with surprises.
Bellingen turned out to be a very fine place to live with a new Baby. People greeted us and food arrived at the house as well as clothes and toys and gifts. Just a walk along the street and through the Supermarket could take an hour or more as a result of ‘ encounters’ with well wishers.
This Baby is 4th or 5th generation Bello as well so there has been a goodly amount of recollections.
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29 APRIL 2010. THE YELLOW SHED OMN HYDE STREET.
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29 MAY 2010.
The one thing Izzy left behind which hasn’t yet found him here was his music. On the Tweed and Clarence, he was playing at least once a week and generally several gigs per week. Things are different here so far. Then again, he has a project in mind and good things take time to form.
Raleigh brought us some good neighbours including critters. Birds are in abundance and two dogs spend their days with us. There are still cows about – mostly dairy cattle down here so the chances of their being eaten are reduced greatly.
We also have horses and wallabies and other odds and ends.
May felt rather chilly. I have been away on the Tweed since 2001 and haven’t had a lot to do with Winter so I am rather maladjusted in more ways than one.
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29 MAY 2010. ON THE KAYE BASS IN THE NEW MUSIC ROOM.
BALI AND SCOOBIE.
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29 JUNE 2010.
As well as sunrises, I see the moonrises from the Workers” Cottage. The River is about 1km East and the Ocean about another kilometre from there. I hit the wall with telstra once again and switched to WESTNET and the laptops and wireless networks were all working just fine. That gave me access to the sites I love and researching which is one of my passions.
http://bellingenmuseum.org.au/
http://www.bellingencourier.com.au/
nellibellingen FB
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29 JUNE 2010. MOON AT RALEIGH.
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29 JULY 2010.
My kids grew up in the Valley and so did my sister’s. They are now in their 30s and late 20s and have travelled and worked all over.
In July, some tough news in our family brought my niece back from the U.K. and she met up with my girl. Cousins in the first degree.
KOMBU was high on her list of places she wanted to see again, which we did including the EDIBLE STREETSCAPE. We lunched at the Gelato Bar. My homecoming was voluntary and to do with a Baby coming. Some homecomings are a little more complicated than that.
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29 JULY 2010. OUTSIDE KOMBU.
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29 AUGUST 2010.
A jabiru came to visit our dam. Up in Ulmarra, I had been lucky enough to see many brolgas after the big 2009 flood. One jabiru might not equal many brolgas but it was a fine thing to see.
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| 29 SEPTEMBER 2010.
Birds and more birds. Birds coming for food and birds just coming. |
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| 29 OCTOBER 2010. |
SPRINGTIME brought the beauty of the Valley right to my front door. |
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29 NOVEMBER 2010.
THE BLACK BEAR where we take coffee and juices. It has been a year of cafes and baby.
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| 29 DECEMBER 2010. |
NAMBUCCA HEADS.
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BELLINGER RIVER AT URUNGA. |
RALEIGH.
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On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
A kookaburra in a gum tree
On the second day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Two cockatoos, and a kookaburra in a gum tree
Three parakeets………
Four great galahs…….
Five opals black……
Six ‘roos a-jumping……..
Seven emus running…….
Eight koalas clinging………
Nine wombats waddling……..
Ten dingoes dashing…….
Eleven snakes a-sliding…….
Twelve goannas going…….
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Twelve goanna goin, Eleven snakes a-sliding,
Ten dingoes dashing, Nine wombats waddling,
Eight koalas clinging, Seven emus running,
Six ‘roos a-jumping, Five opals black,
Four great galahs, Three parakeets,
Two cockatoos, And a kookaburra up a gum tree.
CHRISTMAS DAY
The North Wind is tossing the leaves,
The red dust is over the town,
The sparrows are under the eaves,
And the grass in the paddock is brown;
As we lift up our voices and sing
To the Christ-Child the Heavenly King.
The tree-ferns in green gullies sway;
The cool stream flows silently by;
The joy bells are greeting the day,
And the chimes are adrift in the sky,
As we lift up our voices and sing
To the Christ-Child the Heavenly King.
http://heathhill.blogspot.com/2005/12/australian-christmas-carols.html
foto- xmas 2009 north bello
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This week sees the end of Springtime 2010 and brings in the Summer. Its been wet and cool most of the time although Izzy says Grafton was HOT. The Kids were on duty at the Bello Growers Markets last Saturday – selling FUDGE. I’m not quite sure who they were selling fudge for but they showed initiative.
The Showground looks a little more like itself after the trashing of the Global Carnival and its accompanying flood. We did not have rhubarb and apple crumble this week due to the cook being unwell.
Once – I went to Tyalgum to listen to a Pianist, a young pianist play in the Hall there at the Classical Music Festival. A man called Jim took me. He has since gone to live at Lightning Ridge and play piano in the club there.
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One of the ways to access Urunga from here at Raleigh is to take a left at the $1 million roundabout just across the bridge and follow Yellow Rock Road around. We did that in reverse the other day, coming back from town. Part way round, there was once a holiday shack. There were once a lot of holiday shacks in Urunga and evirons but the rampaging Govt Departments are eliminating them.
This particular one stood on stilts at the edge of the river and the sands. I always fancied it. This week, we took the little road past its former site and parked beside the River. I love Rivers.
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Yellow Rock curves further around the river. It has perhaps 5 cattle grids on the way and the dairy cattle graze almost to the water and are milked in dairies beside the road.
The North Coast Rail Line crosses the road almost at Raleigh itself. A level crossing with the Repton Rail Bridge to the North.
http://www.nswrail.net/locations/show.php?name=NSW:Raleigh
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The threading continuity of my life is more visible in this area than in any other. Its here that I holidayed as a child and came as teenager and young adult. It’s the area I married into and where my children were born and to which I return.
Now I am an old woman and have once more returned. I am more thoughtful this time, more reflective.
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Saturday Night, with moon rising, I was wondering about Saturday Nights in other places. Places which I will most likely never see. Polly from New York State told me about the Woodstock Meeting. Mike Madigan showed me images of Icebergs in Newfoundland and Ellen Derek explained Thanksgiving for me in Boston. In this settled phase of my life, an unsettled urge began prod at me.
The next morning, I was in Raleigh Hall at a meeting and met a girl with a beautiful smile. Worked it out that there are 5-6 households of US here in this little section of the world.
I have had “Marianne Faithful in the Irish Hills” hopes for years. Could be the time for me. I like village life and the prospect of true village life with like minded community is appealing.
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The parrots and other birds who come calling in the mornings now number 20-30 or so. Squarking and squabbling.
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nellibell49 in urunga, bellingen, raleigh and repton and environs
