Today as we are still in lock down in New South Wales, I thought we’d share a takeaway coffee at a secret spot I only discovered last year. Newcastle’s Fairy Garden to my surprise is over 50 years old. I can’t believe I never heard of it as a kid even if then it was a private place.
Merv Moyle created the wonderland across the road from his house in the 1970’s for his children. Over the years he kept adding his new ideas to it until his death in his 90’s.
Imagine how special his children and grand children must felt to have their own fairy garden, complete with a fairy queen, animal friends, fairies and toadstools, not to mention the beautiful flowers and rainforest. As a child, I thought we were lucky as our dad had made us a cubby house. I am glad that it is now open for anyone to wander through and connect with your inner child at this magical place.
I hope you enjoyed our coffee and visit today. Thanks to Natalie The Explorer for hosting Weekend Coffee Share
The sight before me took my breath away. The room was filled with circular tanks of over 1000 sea jellies. I never realised that there was so much variety in them. The Sea Jelly Spectacular was taken to the next level by specially selected background music and neon lights. Together they emphasized the amazing pulsations of the jellyfish. The experience was so wondrous I still remember it with a smile nearly a decade later.
If ever you are in Hong Kong spend some time being memorized by these amazing creatures at the Sea Jelly Spectacular at Ocean Park.
I think my favourite stopover in Ruby so far was at Cranky Rock. It is a recreational reserve not far from Warialda in North Western New South Wales. The camp ground attached to the reserve is run by a caretaker who each night in the cooler months lights a big campfire and provides nibbles for the campers to enjoy as they socialise together. My husband and I loved meeting other campers, sharing stories and learning more about future travel options. Some campers were old hands and other like us were first timers. It didn’t matter. There were also chickens wandering around and if you found an egg they laid you could keep it.
Cranky Rock is made up of various giant boulders that balance on each other and make an enclosed natural phenonium. It was so peaceful my husband and I spend over an hour down in the valley before moving on to explore other parts of the bush.
We definitely plan to go back to this spot when we are out of lockdown and can travel again.
This week again we will be having takeaway coffee as New South Wales remains in lockdown. As we cannot have visitors to our homes or most shops we will take a walk with purpose. Today we will be exploring the Newcastle Window Wander. A group of local businesses have gathered together to increase their shops profile while closed and at the same time give locals something to look at during their daily exercise. The idea is to follow the map, look at the specially created window displays, take a selfie, upload it the social media and then go in the draw to win a gift voucher.
Today was a beautiful day for walking with Spring just around the corner. It was interesting to go walking with the specific goal of looking in shop windows. What surprised me was that I don’t really notice what is in the windows when I walk. As I followed the map I found most of the window displays. On 3 occasions I was so impressed I will go back to the shops when they reopen. Unfortunately being window displays they were hard to photo graph without something being reflected in the glass.
I smiled at the first window I saw that used humour to catch our attention. They created a “shitty” birthday cake made out of toilet paper rolls.
The next shop a few doors down in Darby Street was a men’s wear store that I didn’t know existed and they keep my husband’s favourite John Lennon brand shirts. I loved the one in the window.
Some were a little bit clever.
The birds at the gallery were spectacular. They were amazing replicas of some of our iconic birds. Unfortunately, due to the doors breaking the line of vision my photos don’t do them justice.
The last stop on our journey was Pappa Sven. I have walked past this small shop many times but never looked inside or at the windows. It is a Swedish shop and looks amazing. They had created their window display to represent celebrating the joy of Swedish Midsummer.
I love Lego. The creativity and inspiration used to design these amazing models is unbelievable. Last year in Newcastle we were lucky enough to have an exhibition by Brickman. He is one of only 14 Lego professionals in the world. This display was titled Awesome. It included 37 models, took 5000 hours to build and used over 2 million Lego bricks. Each model was an example the first, the biggest, the deadliest or special in some other way.
Each model had a story board next to it which describes the build, giving
The facts of the model
Information about the designer, how long it took to make including the number of bricks used
The designers notes about build it including frustrations and problems
And lastly, Why It Is AWESOME.
The first big model we saw was the first full size Harley Davidson motor bike. Apparently in non Covid times to public like could sit on it. Even the electricals worked. AWESOME.
This Caterpillar 797 dump truck was the largest ever build. I loved it.
I was also fascinated to see the impact of a model of a single Lego brick. Definitely Awesome. From memory it took over 6 000 bricks to make.
One of my favourite things was the attention to detail hidden in and around each model. It really brought each model to life. Having previously traveled on the Shinkansen (bullet train) we smiled at the memories it created for us.
As an added bonus Brickman hid Mr & Mrs Awesome many times throughout the exhibition asking the children to look for them and enter a competition telling him how many they found. These special Lego figures were fun to look for that encouraged a much closer look for everyone.
These copies of original movie posters looked amazing.
If we were having coffee I would tell you I can’t believe how fast the last 3 months have gone. Life goes by so quickly these days. Today our takeaway coffee is from the café at Merewether beach. This is because Newcastle is currently in lock down so can’t have visitors to our homes.
It was a beautiful winter’s day out. We enjoyed watching the surfers and smelling the fresh sea air. It was also great to see the ocean looking so clear and clean. Here’s some photos we took to remember our walk.
If we were having coffee I would tell you about my latest favourite pastime. Buying second hand books. I love the thrill of the chase. They are everywhere and sometimes I am amazed at how new the books I find are. I have several authors I look for and based on them I have found many new authors. Most I am able to pick up for a couple of dollars however on our latest holiday, I was lucky and found many exciting titles for only $1.00. Needless to say, I had fun.
If we were having coffee I would ask if you have been doing a jigsaw puzzle during lockdown. I have. My latest puzzle is of the people skating on the frozen Rideau Canal in Ottawa. Its a beautiful puzzle that reminds me I need to go back to Ottawa in winter to complete this bucket list activity. Back in January 2015, when my husband and I were in Canada winter was late and the canal opened to skaters the day we arrived back in Australia.
If we were having coffee I tell you that today is both my 59th birthday and National Rum day. Ironically, my husband baked me a fancy birthday cake from scratch yesterday, while I was at work. His choice a chocolate rum cake. Imagine his surprise to discover this morning the rum day connection. Rum is also my favourite spirit.
If we were having coffee I would tell you how much I love wattle. It is the floral emblem of Australia. I am also blessed that it begins to flower in August. It is a bright yellow and pops up everywhere. Wattle never fails to bring a smile to my face.
If we were having coffee I would ask you what has been happening in your world?
In New South Wales, Australia at present Delta has everyone terrified. Nine weeks ago it started in Sydney. Eight weeks ago all of Greater Sydney was locked down but the regions were free. Then suddenly last week the virus escaped Sydney. People doing the wrong thing brought it to Newcastle my home town and we were instantly locked down. Delta was free and there is no stopping it. Everyday another part of regional NSW or Australia is infected and instantly locked down as we work at containing it.
Because of the health orders in place our lives are very simple. Stay at home unless you are allowed to go to work, are exercising or attending medical appointments. For me this got me rethinking my priorities in life. While I am currently appreciating what I can’t do, I am gaining joy from the simple pleasures I can do. For example creating a meal from scratch, being more mindful, reading, walking and getting back to my blogging. All of these activities I had lost focus on as my life got “too busy.”
Today while walking for my essential shopping I stopped in my tracks as I walked past a house. I smiled as I remembered seeing the same chalk board last year during lockdown.
Such a simple idea and I love the fact that the kids had invited the community to join in. For me it was also personal. When my father was very sick in hospital as a family we also created a joke of the day on his white board. It gave us something simple to focus on and share with the nurses and doctors – many of whom added a joke of their own.
If we were having coffee I would tell you that this week is 7 years since I started Inspiring Max. My first blog post was Mother’s Day 11th May, 2014. Initially a slow start, it gathered momentum in 2015 and 2016. Now I need to regain my mojo and write consistently. No excuses. I just need to do it.
If we were having coffee I would wish mothers everywhere a happy Mother’s Day. This year mine was quiet as both my children live in different cities and couldn’t make it home. I did spend an hour with my mother which we both enjoyed.
If we were having coffee I would tell you on one of our recent road trips to Sydney we were stopped on the way back with the opening of the Swansea bridge. Lucky for me we were in the first row of traffic and therefore I could get some close up photos. The Swansea bridge opens to allow boats to pass through the channel either into or out of Lake Macquarie.
If we were having coffee I would tell you how well with our newest crops are growing. The ginger, my husband grew from a cutting and our never ending supply of long red chillies came from a small chilli bush. Both taste amazing and are perfect for the Asian style meals I like to cook.
If we were having coffee I would tell you about our family friend’s son’s wedding. It was held in the North Sydney area and the walk to and from gave us a different prospective of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The wedding itself was held in a room with a view at eye level of the bridge. It was special.
If we were having coffee I would ask you what has been happening in your world?
Thanks to Natalie for hosting Weekend Coffee Share so we can all get to know each other better.
If we were having coffee I would tell you I can’t believe there is only one more week of summer. This year is going by so fast. Since our last coffee catch-up life has been very busy. It’s lucky that I have begun living a life of semi-retirement as I haven’t had time to work. One thing I have made time for on most days has been an enjoyable cappacino.
If we were having coffee tell you that on Australia Day this year it was 40 years since I started training as a psychiatric nurse. Back in 1981 the stigma attached to people suffering with mental illness was huge and many were too scared to seek help. Fast forward 40 years and with each decade, discussions about mental health have improved greatly. Now there are many options for treatment. One of the things that I am grateful for in Australia over the pandemic is mental health issues have been discussed openly and been at the centre of all government policy and decisions.
If we were having coffee I would tell you about travelling to Tweed Heads for a family wedding at the end January. The wedding itself was on the headland on the New South Wales and Queensland border. (on the New South Wales side.) It was set up so if there was still a problem with the Queensland border closures all guests could get to the wedding. The only problem was that to drive to the wedding site, we had to drive into Queensland and back into New South Wales. This was initially a problem to us as 3 of our 4 members were banned from entering Queensland due to having been in Sydney in the last 14 days. We worked out that we could walk if necessary but fortunately on the day of the wedding the borders opened up to all. So the problem was averted.
From our room in the resort, you could see the border barricades and despite the hotel being in New South Wales it ran on Queensland time. This was very confusing as our clocks would move forwards and backwards an hour depending on where in the motel we were. The front of the hotel also had dividing sections telling us which parts were in NSW and parts QLD. It was very weird for 3 days being able to see Queensland and yet not cross the road into it. On the day the barricades came down it was fun to watch the news being made from our motel room and to drive into Queensland because we could.
If we were having coffee I would tell you that our daughter started her registered nursing career and has moved into regional New South Wales. This has taken up much of our time both before and after the wedding. It’s surprising how much stuff she had in either our house or storage. Slowly but surely her house is coming together and eventually I can reinvent our spare room into my space. I am so proud of her taking a risk and moving to an area she knows no-one to follow her dreams and gain experience not attainable in the cities.
If we were having coffee I would tell you about walking around Sydney seeing the preparations for the Lunar New Year Festival. Throughout the city were various figures of the Chinese calendar. The first one we saw as the tiger which is also my favourite as I was born in the year of the Tiger. He was very cute and his eyes seemed to follow you around the park.
If we were having coffee I would tell you about our Sunday walk today. We went to Dixon Park beach, one of our local beaches, to see rocks and etching from 20 years ago that had been uncovered due to the amount of sand that has been washed away recently. This beach is between my two favourite beaches in the local area and I have walked it many times and never seen these rocks as they were covered by sand. Today you couldn’t walk between the beaches without climbing over the rocks. It was very strange. I was also fascinated that the sand in many parts was a mix of grey (assumedly from the rocks) and the usual yellow.
If we were having coffee I would ask you what has been happening in your world?
Sunflowers are a very special flower. They are so bright and magical. Although up till yesterday I had only seen them in small groups at the florists or growing wild beside the road.
Then a casual chat in the kebab shop changed my life. The other lady was showing my daughter and I as well as the shop attendant photos she had taken in a local sunflower field. I instantly knew what we were doing the next day, and I wasn’t disappointed.
A local award winning farmer had specifically planted the Quirindi sunflower field for locals and tourists to experience walking in sunflowers. The cost was a donation and we were able to pick our own sunflowers to take home.
I loved it. It was like nothing I had ever done before. I couldn’t believe the height of the flowers or the size of the flower stems or the leaves. I was also fascinated to learn that sunflowers follow the sun. If you ever get the chance to walk in a sunflower field don’t let the chance go by.
The various stages of opening up.
After a 4 hour trip home and some sugar in the water, today our special sunflowers are enjoying life in our lounge room.
