100 times slower than normal

The water at Dural has been steadily leaking into the ground from a hole in one of the pipes. This was happening quite a distance from the house but, while the house hasn’t floated away, it has meant that the latest water bill was in the millions. Bob called a plumber who started digging up the drive to fix it. That was yesterday and he didn’t finish. He said he had another job this morning but would then come to the house. While this wasn’t that big a problem, per se, it did mean we didn’t have any water. Bob did make a couple of trips up to the stop cock so we could have a full flush every now and then and some water for tea and coffee but otherwise, it was a dry house.

The plumber turned up when we were lunching at the world’s best bakery (Glenorie).

Love their pies

Mirinda decided that Susie needed another first so she came with us. Apart from a rather noisy poodle that left quite quickly, the stimulation was not really doggie based. Still, she had fun twisting herself around the chair legs, making her lead ever smaller, in that silly way that dogs do.

After lunch and checking on the plumber and scanning a load more photographs for Mirinda, we went up to Fagan Park to visit Netherby Homestead.

Bloody cold callers! Piss off!!

We’ve visited the park a few times but the homestead is only open on Tuesdays and some Sundays. So we went this afternoon.

What a lovely house! Made of bricks, created on the property, in 1900 by Samuel, the son of an early settler called William Fagan. William came to Australia from Ireland in 1848. Eventually, Samuel turned Netherby into one of the biggest citrus fruit concerns in New South Wales. In 1980, his son, Bruce, gave the property and land to the people of NSW for their enjoyment.

Actually, I’m fairly certain I’ve blogged about Fagan Park before so I’ll stop with the history lesson.

Stepping through the front door and into the expansive and commodious hallway, is like stepping back in time. And then the old lady follows you in and suddenly you are transported back as you hear about how much she hates doing the gardening and how she never really wanted to get a lift every day from her neighbour but because she was polite that first time and said yes, she’s been stuck going back and forth with him for the last 14 years.

She talked a lot! And then she locked the house up. Fortunately we’d seen everything but she still closed up shop early. We just went outside and strolled around the grounds before going to the Mechanical Museum where a volunteer switched on a big stationary engine which turned a drill 100 times slower than it was designed for. This is for safety reasons, he assured us.

Apart from the stationary engines, there was also Annie Lorry, a very old car which, for reasons not made entirely clear, had a blanket over her cabin. And she wasn’t alone, there were also blankets over the cabins of the other two cars in the Mechanical Museum.

Check out my wooden spokes

It was then into the other museum which is full of farm machinery. I rather like all the lovely bold prime colours they use to paint these things. They reminded me of the models at the Science Museum, only bigger.

Agricultural colour

After that, we went back to the house, feeling suitably educated.

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Fiona has threatened to read my blog. We shall see. In the meanwhilst…here’s an old photo of her in a wear and hope swimsuit.

Brave bathing beauty

I’ve been spending a lot of time scanning photographs into Mirinda’s Flickr account and thought the one above was a bit of a laugh. It also should make up for the one of Lauren and Jason I posted the other day which they, apparently, aren’t that keen on.

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And, before I go, here’s a wonderful bit of nostalgia. It is believed to be the first colour film taken in London. It was shot in 1927 by a French chap called Claude Friese-Greene.