Something New

It is always refreshing that after 11 years of living in a place you can still discover something new. Today we went on a road trip with a difference, more a Sunday drive (except that it's Monday). We loaded the boys into the truck and explored the dirt forest roads in the range above Nundle. To make it interesting it has been drizzling with rain for a week so there was plenty of mud and water to splash through. A friend had told us about a magic spot by Swamp Creek so we set out to find it. While we didn't have fishing rods with us to lure in a trout as our friend did, we had a thermos of hot stove top coffee and left over birthday cake (Bec Schofield's decadent death by chocolate recipe) served with double cream and blackberry jam. How special. The vibrant green moss was luminous on the deep brown sodden bark of the pines and on the forest floor there was a gallery of fungi (we have to borrow a copy of What Fungi is That? from the Nundle Library so we know which variety to pick next time).
In the mood, we drove along the Two Mile Walk to an orchard planted by gold miners in the late 19th century. We had visited the orchard on foot twice previously, but some 10 years ago, so it was a treat to drive there. Although a little wild, the trees were thriving without a caretaker. Pears, apples, and plums had lost their leaves for winter, but the winter woodbyne was a resplendent gold. I'm about to pour over some albums containing photos of our previous visits, once in snow and in the full bloom of spring, to compare notes.