A Country Drive

We went to Blackwood Creek which is a rural area but there is a church there and that's about it.  We did a round trip from home back to home in the afternoon as it's not that far. Just a nice Sunday afternoons drive.  A link to another post with different scenery in the same area done in 2020.

A Blackwood Creek Post Office opened in 1884 and closed in 1974. 

Sheep and cows along the country roads in the paddocks. 

Part of Blackwood Creek, creek.  Irrigation pipes above.

Taken out the front window of the car when moving along - a typical country road.

Above are the irrigation pipes and below sheep on the dam wall.

A farm and farmland in the area of Blackwood Creek plus the name of one property on the gate. 

Coming towards where we used to live for the first 8 years of married life.  It's this road that I rode the motorbike with my uniform underneath, coat on top to go to Bracknell to look after my patients.  This time was before they had Trained Nurses to do what they do today. 

The house where we once lived for the first 8 years of our married life. Below are the tunnels where strawberries are grown.

Blackwood Creek is the area dotted within the red on the map.

The Punchbowl Ducks

Some ducks taken at The Punchbowl only a short distance from home. We are not permitted to feed the ducks.

The old Hospital

 This old hospital is in Deloraine, Tasmania, Australia, I once worked there for about 2 years  as the Sister in Charge during the day only. 

I travelled 1,000 mile each fortnight in my MGB car and in the summer, I'd take the roof off and go for it.  I once came across an elephant on a trailer behind a truck with its trunk over the side of the road where I wanted to pass, oh gosh - I was late for the Doctor's rounds that morning with much laughter from the Doctor's.  

Babies were also born at the Hospital and the Dentist used to pull teeth in the Theatre.  Oneday after dental surgery on many children (we used to use Ether) after all was finished I was talking for awhile to a Nurse and then proceeded to clean away the instruments the Nurses were not permitted to touch, when I became rather fuzzy nearly falling asleep when I saw out the corner of my eye I had left the Ether top off the bottle and the doors and windows were closed - oh dear, the top went on the Ether and the windows I opened along with the door...much laughter from all when I told them how dumb I was.  

So now Arcoona Manor is for sale having been an accommodation house for several years and privately owned.  Arcoona was built in the Edwardian style, was completed in 1892 for a Dr. Cole and his family.

This is one side of Arcoona in about 1967, then me taken there in my uniform.

This photo is of me, Mum and Dad plus my MGB taken about 1967 or 8.

Below is how Arcoona Manor is today. 

The table above is the original, the room we used to call the ballroom when it was a hospital. 

The above room was once a ward as were all the rooms downstairs of size and the fireplaces worked as we always had a fire in them in the winter.

Below is one of the bedrooms upstairs and once was the maid's bedroom along with others.

Deloraine is west of Launceston about 35 minutes drive.  Dotted in red on the map.

In the Garden

A few flowers in bloom in the garden so far this winter along with the fungi underneath the Magnolia tree here at home.

Camellia, 'Margaret Davis'

The fungi were in a difficult place, so they are not that clear.

Maiden Hair Fern grown outside.  Camellia below.