Leecy, down from Central Coast for an emergency dental appointment took us to meet her good friends Linda and Patrick, we had heard so much of and were yet to meet. We joined them for Sunday night supper. Linda is a Librarian teacher at King’s and she kindly invited us to join her in the school dining room for dinner followed by a visit to the King’s Library the following night as she was on duty. What a superb facility – we found it most uplifting to read the histories of past students who had excelled along with world leaders whose leadership philosophies fill the walls giving inspiration to students in all circumstances. A quiet grandeur that invited learning and judging by the many young lads coming in during the night, they too enjoyed the pursuit of knowledge in this beautiful place.
Keen to visit the home of May Gibbs as we have loved her artistic use of Australian flora and fauna creating botanically correct and beautifully illustrated books of the enchanting gum-nut babies Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and delightful banksia baddies, who certainly caught our imaginations. How often have we found ourselves peering into banksia bushes looking for the ultimate baddie lurking amongst the many cylindrical & furry seedpods! We caught the River-Cat into Sydney only to find the Dendy Cinema timing had caught us out. We had to start our day with a film if we wanted to see “And when did you last see your Father”. As the film came to an end Lea was given no time to compose her-self as half blinded by tears, she followed George to catch the carefully timed ferry over to Neutral Bay. Gawking at Kirribilli House, the official home of our Prime Minister, perched in its splendid setting overlooking the best of Sydney Harbour’s iconic monuments, as we passed by. Beyond the city we noticed an apocalyptic black cloud and we could only hope it was moving north towards Parramatta and would be over by the time we made for home. We had no time to waste on arrival in Neutral Bay and quick marched breathlessly up through the side streets following the signs to the May Gibbs historical home appropriately named “Nutcote”. She lived in this compactly designed home for forty years lovingly tending her garden and painting in her studio overlooking the Bay. We walked down through her English cottage garden to the front door which immediately transported us into the world of “One very hot night when the cicadas were singing so loudly that Snugglepot couldn’t hear his father snoring, he and Cuddlepie crept out of bed and out the house…” and the many other tales through which this beloved artist/author captured the imaginations of so many Australians in their youth. We find ourselves reminded of the Flower Fairies books that sat on our Rhodesian shelves!
A view from ‘Nutcote’ We hadn’t been inside long when the skies opened with a mighty downpour, preventing us from exploring the waterside Australian native garden. Just before closing time we made a wet dash down the side of the house into a guest wing tucked below the house. Here, we watched archival video footage. May Gibbs died in 1969 leaving her estate to the Spastic Centre and Northcott Society and as their caretakers began to lock up we took a gap in the weather and managed to catch a beautifully timed ferry from a closer stop down a million stairs! The ferry service makes trips back and forth from Sydney a most stress-free and perfect way to commute.
Leecy came down to Parramata loaded up with all the paintings that she has been hard at work doing for the past couple of months or more. George had offered to help hang them in readiness for the annual King’s Art Show held in Gowan Brae Mansion during a weekend spent with her son. Supposedly to cook for him while he studied for a flying exam! However, Lea became the cook and they would pop into Forrest House for meals beginning with the Opening of the Beijing Olympics on the Friday evening and ending with a big Sunday brunch. Much to George’s intense amusement Dup the geriatric dog found himself being terrorised by Skittle who discarded her persona of weak and feeble for a new age le chat terriblé guarding her territory!
The artist with her work – whew!
When the two arrived back at Forrest house Sunday afternoon intent on relaxing over water colour tuition - they were told to stay out in the chilly garden in no uncertain terms as Lea had spent the weekend housecleaning in readiness for the return of Forrest’s owners and the arrival of a childhood friend. Pippa flew into Sydney for a night with us. She had spent a month with her brother in Coffs Harbour and was now on her way home to England. Our mothers, Pat and Stella had met up in their first workplace after leaving school, maintaining a close friendship across all the years of their lives and dying within weeks of each other. Interwoven by special events and celebrations from birth, the Barnes / Howman kids almost believed they were related!
With Lea’s odd ability to recall birth dates she had baked a cake for Pippa celebrating hers the day she flew out coinciding with our travellers Shell and Keith flying in after their six weeks away.
Pippa and LeaThe following day we left Shell & Keith to catch their breath while we slipped off to the city by ferry to spend the day walking from Watsons Bay up to The Gap and round South Head passing Lady Bay with its nudists sunning themselves on the rock as we made our way to Hornby lighthouse guarding the Heads. It was a particularly glorious day with the first signs of spring busting out in the bush, wild jonquils in the undergrowth scenting our pathways and a whale tail could be seen flicking in and out of the ocean. We ate our pork sarmies in Camp Cove before walking back to Watsons Bay to catch a bus to Bondi Beach and back to Circular Quay for the ferry home.
George had his long awaited appointment with an eye specialist in Parramatta and we arranged to pass the evening seeing the very joyous Mama Mia at the local cinema as it was in close proximity to the station. The eye outcome knocked us, as does anything unexpected until we get our head round it! Fortunately the film proved a wonderfully light hearted distraction followed by Cousin Alison and Amanda from Tasmania, meeting us outside the cinema door instead of in the station. Their train had made the airport /Parramatta journey in fine time! We had barely greeted each other when Shell & Keith also came hunting us out at the cinema…. the party was ON! It was Alison’s birthday and due to the late hour we had decided to have dinner in town before heading home for coffee and birthday cake. A fine start to our weekend with more to follow… Soon after we had all turned in for the night, the yelping delight of Leecy and Tasmanian Daly disturbed us all. Coming from the Opening Night of King’s 29th Art Show and on a high, after selling 6 painting and receiving two orders on a night that is normally dedicated to drinking and socialising, she’d hoped we would still be up partying at that late hour enabling her to wish Alison happy birthday. We popped up briefly to enjoy the success!
Leaving Keith to rest up, George, Lea, Shell, Alison and Amanda took off on the River-Cat for a day wandering in the Botanical gardens and lunching in the Art Gallery in fine style overlooking the harbour.
Protecting botanically important trees from roosting bats naturally caught our attention, especially when we came across this blow up man (Mr Blobby) flailing away at them!
That night we wearily relaxed watching Keith & Colleen’s latest movie on honey badgers in the comfort of Forrest house before hitting the sack.
A beautiful winter’s day dawned for our Ruby celebration breakfast down at Parramatta Lake. Lea’s sisters had been her wedding attendants and we were keen to celebrate the occasion with them. Sadly, distance put paid to our flower girl being there. However, Holly and Bernd were there in spirit and generously paid for breakfast. Another little girl caught up in the days preceding our engagement was Alison and we were thrilled at her efforts to mark our day with her presence. A low key celebration had been envisaged to fit into a day at the Art Show BUT the bridesmaids weren’t prepared to put up with their sister’s minimalist table! We arrived early with the champagne, ready to welcome the family on arrival at the café only to find Leecy and John Daly had dickied up a room attached to the café with yellow daffodils, cut-out ruby 40’s and matching balloons the previous evening. Shell arrived with ruby crackers and unusual table decorations. A most meaningful gift on the table awaited us from Saxon, a cushion cover with our five grandchildren’s smiling faces imprinted.
A memorable breakfast with plenty of laughter and happy tears took place due to Leecy sabotaging our “no speeches” stance by standing up to suggest each person share a story of Lea & George!
Ruby Anniversary Breakfast
We returned to Kings Art Show and found Leecy’s display covered in “measles” – red dots for SOLD! For tough financial times, it was wonderful to see all her sales and re-orders. In conjunction with the Art Show the all British Car Club put on a massive display in the beautiful grounds of the school and naturally the men were easily lured that-a-way. An ecstatic George returned to say he had found an Armstrong Siddeley Star Sapphire – the very model he had owned and driven over forty years ago.
1953 Armstrong Siddeley Star Sapphire
Thwarted! It had driven off seconds before we got there. Another Armstrong Siddeley aficionado was quick to tell us it was up for sale and give us the details. $16,000 – George had paid £85 for his back in 1966!
The next day we travelled up to Killcare as George was keen to join Leecy’s Tuesday Art group beginning a new project on boat perspectives down in Hardys Bay. The hour’s journey gave us our first quiet time to reflect on Friday’s diagnosis of glaucoma and how it would affect our nomadic existence. The specialist’s wish to monitor the effects of eye drops on one eye over a month has us delaying our departure until mid September. All being well we will still have enough time to reach Bundaberg for our long planned holiday with Saxon, Paul and Talia.
Life with Leecy takes on a seemingly constant round of socialising with her art classes each day. Coming back, we were greeted like old friends by her students. George joined the art classes, gleaning much from the tuition of so many budding artists.
George captured in action…
The action …
Lea, back to being the house-keeper, makes soup for Tuesdays and bakes biscuits for the daily art breaks which she delightedly joins for the inevitable chatter – always too short for her liking though.
Our first Sunday back here, Shell and Keith drove up for a soup lunch with us before gathering with many of Leecy’s friends at the local RSL to enjoy Peter Kinch’s afternoon of music.
Hardys Bay RSL Gathering to listen to The Music Man
The very next day we were partying again with Yvonne and Bill who had invited us over for sausages yet served us a delicious sea food lunch. That night found us at Point Frederick overlooking Brisbane Waters celebrating Jennifer’s birthday in the mind boggling home where we’d met our Howman relative back in June. Champagne flowed as we guzzled pizza and tackled the intricacies of a game of pool. Even taking Dup on his slow daily constitutional down on the bay we find ourselves unexpectedly sharing a “red” with a local as the sunset throws ever changing colours, shades and shadows across the harbour and surrounding hillsides. All too beautiful to refuse!
AND all too much for George, now laid low by a heavy chest cold and a fever that knocked him out for 48 hours as our busy month drew to a close.
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