More Festivals

It seems like there is a festival of some sort in one of the small communities every weekend. Last Saturday we had the hard choice between “Drive Back in Time” old car fest in Beechworth or the Autumn Festival in Bright – we opted for Bright as did it seems most of the Alpine Shire (our local government unit like a county) and a good portion of Melbourne. This was the most people we have seen at one place in ages!

There was a bush market (hand-made & local goods), food stalls, buskers on every corner, and bagpipe and marching bands performing up and down streets. A park had been converted into a kid’s zone complete with (free!) bounce houses and a balloon-blowing clown. And to top it off there was a parade.

Bagpipe band from a secondary school (high school) in Albury:

We enjoyed pies (savory pot pies) and local plums (Maren ate 3 before we even found a place to sit). And ice cream of course. We ran into a few friends, which made us feel like true locals (as compared to Melbourne weekenders or those blokes with funny accents J).

Pies and plums at the Autumn Festival:

Ice Cream dripping down our arms in true Australian fashion:

In the late afternoon we made our way up Mount Buffalo and took the road to the very end (Maren needed a nap) where there was an outlook hut. 

Hut at the horn on Mount Buffalo (temperatures about 15 degree C lower than in Bright with a wicked wind):

It was cold and windy so we chose to go a little ways back down the mountain to the “Galleries” walk – a short hike to an area of large boulders that created caves and crevices to climb around in. It was sheltered from the wind and a really beautiful hike. In some places I felt like we were in a slot canyon of southern Utah except the walls were granite.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place:

Sunday evening we visited friends to have dinner and return their canaries that we had been watching while they were out of town. 

Kids were sad to see the birds go:

Eric had let the friends know it was the day before my birthday and so “surprise!” they had flowers, decorations, and cake. My birthday was great – other friends brought chocolate cake and brownies to church for me and Eric and I went out to lunch on Monday. It was so great that I don’t think I need to celebrate another. I’ll just stay this age (39) for the rest of my life.

Chocolate, my love language: