Big News and the 'bombing' of Penola and a visit to Horsham

Firstly we have at long last got planing permission for our house build from the council. Even though they seemed to take an age we are now sooooo glad the council took their time going through the plans. They actually found two mistakes on the drawing made by the draftsman, which would have caused quite a problem when the roof was to be fitted.  Thank goodness they were so thorough.  

So now the house has been pegged out and once we've checked the orientation the build can begin, strangely enough by digging a few holes first, one for the septic tank and one for the rain water tank. This soil will then be used to make the slope level for the waffle pod to sit on.

It is so exciting, everything crossed please for good building weather over the next few months.

The weekend we took off to the big city was also the weekend of the annual Penola Arts Festival.  This pretty little town just 1/2 hour drive from us is right in the middle of the Coonawarra wine region and host to some amazingly creative people.  The town was 'bombed' most stationery things were beautifully decorated with very colourful knitting and crochet.  One of the cafes had knitted sushi, prawn and sea creature mobiles hanging in the window and a little knitted terrier tied up with it knitted lead and it's knitted bowl of water 'greeting' people as they entered.  It made you smile and really brightened up the start of winter.

There were all sorts of events taking place in the surrounding winehouses, singing, local artists displaying their work... well all sorts of things and something the whole community seemed to take part in.  

And we've visited Horsham... the one in Victoria... which is also the one which has a population of just 20,000 and is a rural city.  It has some interesting buildings lots of them with an Art Deco influence and some interesting art works dotted around.  The Information Centre was a very good place to start our exploring, the very knowledgeable lady there gave us an abundance of information on the place, maps and a list of 'whats on'.  And a wee bit of history...The town was named by a settler called Darlot, he originally had lived in Brighton in the UK and had visited Horsham... there seems to be no record of why he thought it was a good name for this town.

The place was fairly bustling when we arrived in the morning but come lunchtime everyone seemed to disappear, most of the shops had closed for rest of the weekend.  There were a couple of cafes open but that was about it.  No matter, we found the local Lapidary were holding an open day, it was brilliant.  I was very surprised how varied the stalls were, a couple of lady silversmiths working away, a chap polishing opals he'd mined from his own opal mine.  Others were cutting and polishing some beautiful gems, there was a bone carver and a chap selling hand crafted viking and anglo saxon style jewelry.  All very interesting, tempting and really lovely to meet and chat to the fascinating characters and hear their stories.

The main street which was full up with people when we arrived!

English Elm trees, a rare sight since the Dutch Elm disease took most of the UK ones out.

Horsham was very different to how I imagined it would be and very different to the UK one but it still had a good feeling to it.