Another Country Diary Links to images and other pages are in blue, mouse-over pop-up comments are burgundy.
15 July
Kate brought home a few knitted toys that she'd been given by a lady who makes them for op-shops and charities. She felt she couldn't refuse, and decided that they were so er,... funky that they'd be just right for the dogs to play with (and inevitably rip apart). So they've been appearing around the house and garden for weeks. Max, the littlest dog, always greats you when you come home with something in his mouth. It can be a leaf, a stick, even a piece of paper but he always does it. The knitted toys have been his object of choice recently. That's why this one was left in the heavy frosted grass. In the past I've also taken a series of photographs of a plastic Troll doll with fluorescent purple hair. It lost arms, legs and its face, and it too turned up around the yard in all seasons.
16 July '02
The old wooden sign for Miller's in Tarago faces east and catches the light. I've often wanted to photograph it as I pass, today the early light made it glow and I stopped. The yard has racks of rusting metal and the usual car bodies and truck trays. The lettering on the full sign puts it into a different era and I've filed it away as future 'typographic inspiration' (larger image here). What I hadn't noticed was that there was a  number One on the red mailbox. It's not the first block on the corner of the road, so it must relate to some past numbering system. It's one of those places with a story I'm sure.
19 July '02
I don't take the main street through Goulburn, using the street beside the Railway yards and Station. There are a string of beautiful old buildings that I've time to appreciate and some old houses that have been restored nicely, (and more than a few that have been bastardized). For all it's size, it still feels comfortably like a country town. Coming in from Bungendore, I drive past the showground on my way to Sydney and often see trotting horses and carts on the road. I had to stop to allow this handful of jumpy horses cross the street in the fog. The sale yards are also nearby and I've passed stock sales in full voice once or twice if I'm passing during the day. The trotting stables always look a little run down. To me, trots and greyhounds always have that air of a struggle to keep up appearances. It's always a little seedy and 'of the people' rather than any 'sport of kings'. A cold foggy morning seems to fit.
Trying to get out of Sydney early doesn't work and if I wait, it has to be after 6.30pm before the freeway is flowing, rather than crawling. So I often spend time watching the sun go down. Doug's office is just near the Broadway shopping centre and I've photographed it at all times of the day and night, it's such a great period building.  Just another three hours and I'm home. In the dark.
20 July '02
While I was going through Goulburn I saw this facade and noted that the building, now a cafe, used to be a Baker and Confectioner. I didn't think about it much yesterday, just that it was an old fashioned term. Goulburn was our first inland city, and still is a big rural centre. It had its own brewery very early on, and and I'm not surprised there was a confectioner. I only wonder what product they made and sold? Anyone reading this who knows about J.J Armstrong, Baker & Confectioner? The building was dated as 1907.
Fred Harden
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