The Gang Show

For months, Mitchell has been working with a team to construct the set of this year's Gang Show. We took the opportunity to see the show last night and also managed to see Mitchell in action as part of the Crew working on the set for the scene changes.  The show took the form of a couple of mini musicals one based on the "Jungle Book" and the other a Space Odyssey.  The standard of the performance was amazing. It was slick and streamlined with excellent singing and choreography.  Little wonder the Scouts were able to run full houses over 9 performances.

Echuca Visit

Today, we took the opportunity to visit Echuca and catch up with Greg, Noel and Pam.  Although Greg had a mild infection and was on antibiotics, he was as usual, in good spirits.  We went with Noel and Pam to the Moama Bowls Club for lunch.  It is an amazing place undergoing yet another upgrade and for lunch we had a "small" roast that knocked us out for the rest of the day.

Basketball - Sophie

Sophie is really enjoying her Basketball this season. She has a couple of good players in the team but more importantly, she has a good Coach so she is developing her skills quickly.

It was a tight game this week against a team that was MUCH higher on the ladder but in an exciting finish Sophie's team pulled two points ahead to win the game.  Sophie was in the thick of the action working hard throughout the match.

Netball - Holly

Holly and her team made the semifinals after an unexpected win last week.  To make things even better they won again this week to move themselves into the Grand Final.  Holly played a good game.  She is a natural defender and usually won the ball against a much taller opponent.

The girls really enjoyed the win.  Their opponents next week have not been beaten so it will be an interesting game but we have seen that expected outcomes do not always eventuate.

Visit with the Inchleys

We took a few days to visit the Inchleys and see how Graeme was progressing after his stroke.
We had an easy visit and it was good to see his recovery was well underway.  As their home is right on the bus route into Sydney, transport was not a problem.

It must be said that the visit was not a stressful affair.

During our stay, we managed to catch up with Kathy and Bruce who are now living closer to Newcastle.

We also managed the odd cup of coffee at a variety of locations.

Cockatoo Island

During our visit to Sydney we took the ferry to Cockatoo Island, a little piece of history preserved in the middle of Sydney Harbour.

The place has a long history of ship building and repair and much of the infrastructure remains in place.

The Island also has a history as a Convict Prison that used to hold the most intransigent from all over Australia.

Fishing

On a day of rather dubious weather, we piled onto the good ship "Plover" to try our hand at a little more fishing.

The signs were not good as we bounced across the waves on the way out to sea.  A few fish decided to join us on board including this 47 cm flathead.

The highlight was the pod of dolphins that rode along with us as we traveled back to port to offload the sick and injured. Up to about 5 could be seen at any one time

A couple of us abandoned ship and retired to the sanctuary of the cafe strip in Mornington.  It clearly met with Jack's approval.

Cooper's Off To Camp

There had been considerable preparation leading up to Cooper's first school camp. The preparation paid off and it all went well as Cooper and his mates headed off.  There will be some cold wet boys before this is over!

Art Trail Extended

We departed Jeparit with numb fingers and toes to see the remains of the Art Trail.  The silos are yet to be completed at Lascalles so we had to make do with the art on the Conveniences with the blank silos in the background.

Then down to Woomelang to see their local favourite.

Around the area there are massive flat grain stores that are probably making the silos redundant.

Continuing on, we set up camp in St Arnaud, the historic seat of Claire's mothers family. The Park overlooked the centre of the town.

After a little research at the Information Centre, Claire was able to locate a number of members of her family.  Unfortunately we found them to be particularly uncommunicative.

Visiting Victorian "Lakes"

The Wimmera Mallee is a very different part of Victoria.  The infrastructure needed to support the huge farms and plantings of wheat are evident in the landscape.

There are also a couple of huge lakes. Albacutya and Hindmarsh are big but contain very little water. In fact there are roads across both lakes. Lake Albacutya is near Hopetoun.

Further south is the much larger Lake Hindmarsh.

This Lake did contain a little water.

Stawell

We camped in Stawell as our Centre of Operations for the Silo Art Tour and it was an amazing location for a Caravan Park situated on the bend of the river.  We were surrounded by water and a fire pit and wood were provided for the freezing nights.

The fire kept us warm as the temperature dropped to zero!

With the backdrop of the Grampians, it was an ideal location for a few days break.

Silo Art

A number of small towns in the Wimmera Mallee decided to paint their wheat Silos with portraits of locals as a tourist attraction for the area.  They appear to have been very successful.  As we toured the silos, there were many others traveling the same route.  We started at Rupanyup.

Then on to Sheep Hills.

Then to Brim which was the original painting and the driver for the development of the trail.

It was then a long haul up to Patchewollock for the final in the series. Two other silos are yet to be painted and will be completed in the next couple of months.

This can lead on to other projects as the galvanized iron Mallee Fowl at Patchewollock show.