now frost

Each night this week has been colder than the last - 2 degrees below zero, 3 degrees below - I'm wrapping up my aloe vera  plants in old, woollen doggy rugs to keep them alive overnight.
The washing is snap frozen on the line and the dog sniffs his water bucket in a worried way and comes back inside to drink. He doesn't know what to make of the ice in his water  bucket.

I love this weather. It's so sharp and sparkling. I've got woolly socks and jumpers and gloves, and with the days beginning to lengthen again, the dog and I catch the dawn as we crackle over frozen grass and leaves on our morning walk. No wind.  It is foggy and mysterious when we set off, and I love that too.

Snowy walk

(Click on these photos - there is more to see)

My yearly wish is granted - in August, as usual, with the last fierce blasts of cold from the Antarctic.

Snow.

I was walking down Sturt St for a university event in the old Ballarat Trades Hall, when  the spatter of rain became a snow fall.

and as always in Ballarat when it snows, all the shops and cafes emptied of staff and customers, and people laughed and took photos of themselves and their friends.

I took lots of photos. Snow augurs a good year for me. 

The Unicorn Hotel in the snow from Camp Street.

Walking across Sturt Street to Camp Street

The Trades Hall, Camp Street. It is flying the Eureka flag, of course.

The snow got thicker. This is the old Masonic Hall.

People gathered outside the door of the Trades Hall and took more photos before we went inside for the signing - everyone had a phone out but I had brought a real camera and there was some envy.

The snow was softer when I left and went off to have lunch at the dumpling restaurant, 3 doors down in Camp Street.

.

Snow, green tea and dumplings. Bliss!

Pink Umbrella & Snow

First day of August, Camp Street Ballarat

more umbrellas... you can just about see the pink one up on the right 

watching snow through my umbrella

Listening to Neil Murray

We went to a friend's bush block outside Buninyong for an informal concert. I've never heard Neil Murray except on the radio. I thought he would be good, and he was better. 

I heard the songs I love and a few new ones, especially Burrumbeeep Hill which I'm now singing myself over and over. 

Here's Neil's website where you can listen to Burrumbeep Hill too. 

Someone told me  he is a Lake Bolac boy. That makes him really local. Wikipedia has a bit of a personal and musical bio here.

This isn't a picture of Burrumbeep Hill, but it's similar country, just around Ararat.

An old town dreaming

Tarnagulla last Sunday.

A quintessential goldfields town made of bricks and local, golden stone

Low wood and iron verandahs across the whole width of the street

Houses with weathered corrugated iron roofs and wire fences engulfed in roses. 

Grey worn wood, rusted iron back fences.

Looks like my mum's old copper ended up here.

Looking across the road.

Then we drove off to Dunolly.

Country outside Tarnagulla

Beautiful and dry, even in spring, the silvery-grey countryside north-east of Ballarat.

Escape from Ballarat

Today I took a break from work and study and took off in a mini van with fellow members of the Sebastopol Historical Society. I'm going to make several posts of this trip, but tonight I'm posting a pub in Dunolly which I fell in love with and would like to live in.

I want to live on this top floor and have beers on this balcony and go to sleep with the wind in these palm trees late at night.

Isn't it a beauty?

You'll need to click on the pictures to see them properly.