THE DESCENDING PATH
So the path descends. Its like that sometimes. Thought I could see some peaks and green valleys but now the path descends and an uneasiness edges its way in. Descending into what ? I wonder. Into watching footie in the bedroom ? Descending hopefully through the narrowness beyond which might lie something I have not yet seen. Such as the inside of the Mad O’Brian’s kitchen cupboard in Armidale which one little girl foto=ed for me.
There’s something about kitchen cupboards which reassures me. We have a fabulous grater here in Bilambil. Kati B and IMM gave it to Izzy for his birthday. Kati B found it in Coffs when she was in the bleakness of early re-location from Sydney to Kalang. The Mad O”Brians gave him a fine knife and cookbook and IMM made a chopping board from local timbers. All of them but me love the kitchen and the cooking. I don’t. Iz bakes bagels and makes vegies for us. We need them. This is a descent so it is.
Some days we have sat in the grounds of UQ – thats University of Queensland eating pizza and talking of this and that. Of high literature and low literature – of research and other things. I find out today from SAG of which I am a member. SAG – Society of Australian Genealogists – which still don’t seem to have been worth the money – BUT – to which I am allowing more time whilst I familiarise myself with the site and concede my distance from Sydney as being one of the major drawbacks. Today they let us know that we can all be members of NLA – STATE LIBRARY NSW going on here. So I have applied online and within 10 days will be sent a card and then I CAN ACCESS THE ONLINE HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS FOREVER FOR FREE. Iz is off up Piggabeen being interviewed for a Position and he’s applying for a position in Armidale.Of all unlikely places. It is a shimmering year. One light tap from a Tap Hammer and it could all shiver into skerricks is how it feels.
So lets do a THIS ISN’T SYDNEY and just look at fotos and think as little as possible.
That’s The Cottage up there. I have been here for more than 3 years which is not something I often do. There has been a powerful earthquake in Los Angeles and the Olympics are coming up in Beijing. None of those things makes any sense to me at all.
TUMBULGUM
I lived here once. For several years. Fawcett Street Tumbulgum. Its a fine place is Tumbulgum. I was happy there. The Mad O’Brians lived underneath for a time. Just one block to the right is the Tweed River where it meets the Rous. Tumbulgum has 7 streets. The cane fields surround it. When I first moved in there with the Guy , they still burned the cane. I have always been VERY fond of sugar and fire and living in Tumbulgum I had both. As well as the River. Always been fond of Rivers. Big ones with jetties and boats. Tumbulgum has houseboats.
It has a very good pizza cafe as well called the BIRDWING after the Tweed River Butterflies. They came one year when I lived there in their masses. Many Colours. Many patterns. Condong snow came too from the Canefires. Little Kathy liked the Condong Snow. Black it was and came down on the washing out the back and on the cars. I loved Condong Snow. Its like the song Coast FM is playing at the moment – ” You promised you’d be here whenever it snows”.
Tumbulgum also has a Tavern and an Art Gallery as well as a very fine Corner Store and Post Office. It has no letterboxes. When we lived there we went around each day to the Post Office Store and collected the mail. Not that I am one to get much mail. I don’t really care for Mail.
We had a grand party there one year – it rained but that didn’t stop us and we played croquet in the backyard. I live over the Hills from Tumbulgum now – not far. We go there for lunch at the Birdwing on occasion. I liked living there. A film company took the town over for a week or so. Built props in the former service station and re-facaded the buildings and we all pretended it was Hawaii for a week. Well Guy didn’t. He was still set on making it from Fawcett Street to the Pub and did so regardless of any film company. He also wasn’t allowing a film company to prevent little Kathy from having her swim in the Tweed River.
On another occasion a barefooted water skier skied up and down for 48 hours non stop and the town closed off Riverside Drive. We had a movie screen and watched Stuart Little II and cheered – Rah Rah Rah each time the barefooted water skier went by.
Tumbulgum is prone to flooding as the Tweed rises from the right and the sugar cane canals flood in from the left and the back. I was living under the house for several of those floods . The Mad O’Brians were there for others. The rodents and arachnids and serpents and cane toads and me. All feet off the ground under the house watching the waters rise. The neighbourhood would begin to call out alerts and we moved our cars across the Tumbulgum Bridge where the waters didn’t reach and waited out the floods in our elevated houses. Floods didn’t stop Guy getting round to the pub either. People tied boats up at the front verandah.
Its a good life the Tumbulgum life.
My father was still alive when I lived there in 2002,2003,2004 and he always sent my mail to TUMBLE GUM. A very literate man, my dad, but he liked the look and sound of TUMBLE GUM.
Its only this year, 2008, that I discover that my mother’s family the BELLS owned 300 acres of land between Tumbulgum and Condong. No wonder it felt like home. John Bell was my great grandfather. He was the son of James Bell the Glaswegian convict from Gallowsgate who was transported in 1831. I had always known John Bell as ” The invalid Mr bell’ – husband of Granny Bell ” a legend in her own lifetime”. The ” invalid Mr Bell” became invalided right there in Tumbulgum back in the 1880s/1890s somewhere in the Canefields. They then went south to Laurieton with all the other Scots. I believe one of the sisters married into Tweed People. Dinseys and Quirks at least. I have not yet met a Dinsey.
I met a Quirk a long time ago but I don’t know whether he was a Quirk from here or not. My own Mum JOY BELL grew up in a street in Rosebery Sydney. That street was called TWEEDMOUTH AVENUE and here I am living up on the TWEED MOUTH .
I might have a picture of Tweedmouth Avenue in the 1950s when Nana Bell lived there and we were all little children.
Aha! A foto of Tweedmouth Avenue when Nana and Poppa Bell lived there. Thats my mother Joy Bell in the middle. On the left is her younger sister, Betty Bell, and on the right is her older sister Jean Bell.
And this is the whole BELL FAMILY at Tweedmouth Ave. Jean Bell, Poppa( William Allen Bell) Jessie Sarah (Ready) Bell, Jack Bell, Joy Bell and Betty Bell. 1948
On Sundays we often went to visit Rosebery and play with our cousins. The Cousins below are the Carter Boys – sons of Jean Bell and Bill Carter. Out the front of Nana and Poppa’s. 1957.
JULY REMAINS WITH US
The winds are here and its grey skied. I am not very “good” at this time of the year. Been practicing for 59 years and yet this time of the year defeats me frequently. Its 21 years ago that drugs and alcohol defeated me at this time of the year. I married once at this time of the year. I walk into it every year – a little askew. I loved a man once – well in my own way I have loved a few men. I loved this man below once – ROGER WHITE.
He was my first love – sober and clean. He was very good to me. He died did my Rog. From cancer in the brain. He sold towels in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. I met him not long into August or September 1987 and I liked him.
Another July comes and with it confusion and difficulty. Our home is up for grabs. We are living on reduced pension. Izzy don’t have a job and now he don’t have a band neither. Vodafone is barely working and we do have a socket set – but I don’t know how to use it. So I ride through July in the confident expectation that August will be a month I can handle.
I USUALLY DO.
NEW MUSICAL GEAR AND A NIGHT MEETING WITH BAGELS AND A MOWN LAWN
Having studied for many years and being halfway through a thesis – Izzy CAN NOW BAKE BAGELS. From scratch. They are GOOD. He can also mow Lawns.
BACK FROM THE 19th CENTURY
AND NOT LIKING IT AT ALL.
Well despite the obstructions caused by Vodafone and the 3G. I had a great week and in fact 10 days of access to the BRITISH LIBRARY’S HISTORIC NEWSPAPERS TRIAL DATABASES. THat was a fine and wonderful thing and I shall begin sorting and processing them now. I have quite a lot of articles which I have clipped and will start sorting and putting on the LYNNE BELL SANDERS website and the MELINDA KENDALL website.
They range from the outbreak of the 1812 war with the USA to mention of MELINDA MCNALLY on the death of Henry. They include the sentencing to death of my own ancestor HANNAH HUTCHING. And they will take rather a lot of obsessive organisation but I will begin . Its going to make one fine collection anyways.
I had sneaked another day of BRITISH LIBRARY in today but when I went to have a shower – I logged out and on trying for re-entry – no luck. Invalid Password so they said. The week’s trial was over. DRAT ! Izzy tells me that the cost of belonging to a database like this is prohibitive and only BIG organisations like UNIVERSITIES could afford it. Same as AUSTLIT which is a real pest. Specially since it seems UOW doesn’t have access. I HAD NOT FINISHED WITH THE 19th CENTURY. I prefer it back there. From this distance that is. I don’t actually want to be sentenced to death for nicking some cloth. It wouldn’t have been the one year good behaviour bond for Centrelink back then.
Tonight is Live Band Night and I went down for a while – Helen and Bob are back from Greece and Barbara and David were down there. Barbara has a new grandaughter by the name of Marli.
The music was just fine with a great crowd but I had the sour taste re Scrubby. So I chatted a little. Stood outside under the gas burner. I played with Oki the so excellent dog who likes my little LED lamp I carry on my keyring on the CRUMPLER bag. I drank some coca cola and some water and now I’m home. I wish I still had the Newspapers to look through but in the meantime - I am warm and comfortable and Izzy will be home soon. My escalated Vodafone is for a time working. ALL IS WELL. ALL IS WELL. The Mad O’Briens are down to visit Kati B and IMM for the weekend and I have encountered a Banjo player. I also left as Izzy was singing his KEBMO song. He sings well does My Man. Red shirt and all.
WOT ABOUT SCRUBBY ?
Well the Bill just heard that mebbe Scrubby won’t be playing at the Club anymore. Looks like the Bill won’t be going down those Fridays. He likes the Scrub same as a whole lot of other people do. In fact O Fans of the Scrub and the Hillbillies – Why not give the Club a call and ask for the Scrub to come back. Some changes is good changes and some changes ain’t. The switch to Friday Nights is one thing. It is however , I am sure, meant to be an upgrade not a downgrade. Or even a sidewise grade.
BRING BACK OUR SCRUBBY !!!
says the BILL.
WHY IS HE GONE ?
HE LOVES US !
WE LOVE HIM !
WHAT HAS HAPPENED HERE ??????????
WANT TOP MUSIC FRESH FROM THE MURWILLUMBAH HILLS ?
WANT GREAT BLUES ?
WANT SLIDE AND LOCAL COMPOSITIONS,VOCALS AND GUITAR.
Take a look at the Re-Sume of this man and his bands and see just what it is we are losing if we let him go whimperlessly.
WANT A REALLY NICE BLOKE ?
Take a look at the Hillbilly Blues Bandits website.
Winners of 2 DOLPHIN songwriting awards HILLBILLY BLUES BANDITS TAKE ALL THE TREASURE AT NCEIA DOLPHIN AWARDS IN THE BLUES CATEGORY
ONE MORE DAY ON OLD UK NEWSPAPERS
Today the Sun is out after yesterday’s bleakness, snow in Armidale and heater on in the daytime even here. Today looks like being the last day of our week’s access to the Old British UK newspapers – and its a right fine day for it. Sun is shining. Weather is warmer. Izzy is out on the porch – we think its a porch – with his Mac - deep in Mr Bawden’s Clarence River stories. I am in the study – well its our bedroom and the study and tv room – I am in it and I am about to re-enter the world of 1815 when Melinda Kendall was born and the world of Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post or Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser and see what we see. I know a lot more about ASSISTED EMIGRATION now. Several of my ancestors were ASSISTED. Might leave all other business alone for they day and dream on. One day Says Iz we will have a place big enough to have a READING ROOM – my old vision of the Booklined walls. Deep lounges says he – club lounges and hewn furniture and no electronics in said room.
Kati B and I are planning LINGUISTICS at UNE next year. Now for the Morning Paper.
IZZY FOREAL TRIES TO GO IT ALONE AT JAMIESON’S RESTAURANT
TO ALL TWEED GOLD COAST NORTHERN RIVERS MUSICIANS
FROM IZZY
Izzy Foreal may perform solo on Saturday, July 26 at his regular Jamieson’s Restaurant gig in the Panorama Plaza, Scenic Drive, West Tweed. If that happens, Izzy will be playing 6-string guitar all night, with his usual kazoo and vocal additions. This may not sound too remarkable for a performer who has been playing as long as Izzy, except for the fact that he is a bass-player and has only played guitar in front of a public audience a couple of times in his career – and never for three 45-minute sets! Izzy usually has another musician with him at Jamieson’s each Saturday night, because of his preferred role as a bass-player. He’s been warming up to this solo effort with an opening bracket on guitar over the last couple of Saturdays. To make things a bit easier for himself, Izzy is inviting any local Tweed & Northern Rivers musicians / performers to come along and join in for the fun of it. As well as taking the pressure off for the night, this will give Izzy a chance to check out the local talent, so that he can widen his options for future ‘duo’ nights at Jamieson’s.
IF YOU THINK YOU FIT IN THE SCENES BELOW – COME ALONG
GETTING DESPERATE ON A MONDAY
NOW we are staring at the jaws of $530 per fortnight as an income and feeling squeamish plus dealing with the half wakened Centrelink Monster. We have been to the open air Cathedral at Bexhill on the road to Lismore. And I go frequently to the Hall below the Catholic Church in Coolangatta. In this manner – some sort of Divine Intervention might just catch on. I personally am afraid to touch the Centrelink Monster which once devoured me and took me to court on numerous charges of fraud. I don’t appear to have been very good at fraud due to I didn’t know I had done it and the outcome of my devious and fraudulent behaviour was that I was living on a disabled pension in a rented cottage but Fraud they called it. The Magistrate didn’t seem so convinced but the Eager Centrelink Fraud man who wanted to come unnanounced into the rented Cottage and interview me – we he was convinced of my criminal nature – despite their not being in 55 years more than one parking fine and that was in Murwillumbah when I was having coffee and lunch – and Joanne Pascoe paid it for me pronto because she was having coffee and lunch with me. The Probation and Parole Officer in Murwllumbah she was most excited about the prospects of rehabilitating me and placing me on Community Service – which in turn became limited when I told of her of the reasons I was on a disability pension and might not be able to perform the tasks she had in mind. So I pleaded guilty and the Magistrate put me on a $100 Good behaviour bond and the Court People apologised to me and the Police Man who took my fingerprints apologised. He thought Joanne Pascoe were the Convicted Crim – her being the more Criminal in appearance seemingly – but no – it was I – the white-haired clean and sober schoolteacher . Guilty. Convicted and Finger printed. Then the Police man who tried to be very pleasant – led me into the bowels of Tweed Heads Police Station – such as I have only seen in my decade or more of watching THE BILL . It was here that I really hit some trouble- The very pleasant young Police Constable almost lost it. I couldn’t do the fingerprinting. I tried. But I could not get the roll at all. Ink everywhere and the young man becoming agitated. I DO NOT LIKE COURT ROOMS and I DO NOT LIKE police stations. My friend RQ she loves them. Seems to like even the smell of them. Well at least the one time we were in the Downing Centre she did and went on to become a LAWYER – but I become very much afraid. Now that I am doing my family history I am NOT surprised.
We are talking 19th Century Convicts here. And we are talking in 2 cases at least – 18th Century Convicts. We are talking “assisted” emigration from the Sutherland Shire of Scotland which was very Eager assistance much like the Centrelink Fraud Investigator with his tape recorder and thinly veiled threats. I am from generations of the rebellious and downtrodden and cast out. I do not therefore wish to go near the Government Agencies for any reason at all – specially since our foray into that world in April led to the USUAL. My Pension was cut by $100. THEY came to the conclusion that I owned my own home and so cut my rent assistance. THEY having told Iz that yes you can have the $100 pw austudy – then saying OH NO ! Not if you are doing a Doctorate you can’t.. Foolish man who can’t even make a wage – you cannot do your PhD.
So now – I am to speak again to them and see what happens this time. I shall take some new age positive thinking in with me and see what happens this time when we poke the monster in its haunches with our little darts.
VODAFONE AND MY OLD BRITISH NEWSPAPERS
THE BOB DYLAN SONGBOOK BAND AT WHICH I AM NOT THIS SUNDAY. NOR IS JOHNNY CARR. HE HAS A GIG ELSEWHERE AND THE TOAD IS COMING ALONG. AS FOR ME -
Well – Still struggling with drop outs on the internet so I rang LARA again . Lara is the Replicant woman on the Vodafone line . I know how to speak to her somewhat now and I know that I need to say VMC. That got me through toute suite to a real person in another country who was a combo of pleasant and efficient. My case has been ESCALATED already – silly me. Should have known. Telstra works fine now that we have had the Village Rally and the Today Tonight TV show and now it does seem that Vodafone – at least explain what they are doing to help. He tells me Engineers have been sent out to do an on site test of coverage and to check my device . As long as Earle ” the belligerent farmer” hasn’t obstructed them – they could be anywhere around me . The very Nice Vodafone man in another country told me it took 3 days from ESCALATION to resolution. Then he realised 4 days had passed so he said that he meant “3 days from now. Working Days that is “. So I said. Ok. After the year of obstructionsim and lies from Telstra – 7 days is NOTHING AT ALL. Specially with explanations as the Escalation goes along. I am in fact quite impressed at the civility , action and technical savvy. Thanks Vodafone. Mind you I am still on restrictions while I have the chance at these newspapers and thats a bummer but it is not as bad as when my Dad died and the Mouse ate my other PC. Nor is it as bad as CHILLI and BIG AIR all through 2007. Izzy is down at THE BOB DYLAN SONGBOOK BAND but I remain in contemplpative withdrawal. Bruised by the world. So I have ClassicFm on and incense burning and the front door closed in some gesture of renunciation while I return to the 19th century war between Canada and US and try to find some indication of PATRICK MCNALLY, JUDITH KILFROY OR MCDERMOTT. I seem to think that if I just keep publicly begging on the Internet someone will go AHA ! here are the birth and marriage dates. Here is a well padded story about Pat and Jude and the Kids.
No luck so far but I have had plenty of good fortune with my own family research. So I shall keep at it.
IZZY FOREAL IS SELLING HIS WASHBURN BASS
ON E BAY TAKE A LOOK
A rare 1980s Japanese-made (Matsumoku Company) Washburn Scavenger Bass, in original moulded hard case. Solid mahogany body with carved arch-top, detachable rock maple neck, strings through body, anchored at back, polished rosewood fingerboard, single-coil split pickup, precision die-cast bridge with brass saddles, metal volume & tone knobs replace plastic originals, all other fittings original, rare redish woodgrain finish. Played for many years by Izzy Foreal from Zarsoff Brothers (he has owned about 6 of this model).
RAINING AND COLD
WELL cold in Bilambil terms. Probably rank amateur coldness in Armidale terms. I however am cold. and Wet. The Valley does Cold and Wet very well and with fog and mist and low visibility. It looked this morning as if Floods would ensue but things have eased and the chill is all that remains. I have chosen to stay home. I prefer to go to Jamieson’s especially when its a SCRUBBY night. I like the Izzy Scrubby combination. However I am choosing a night at home without even a Panorama Plaza dessert. They are now making BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING. $3.50. Home made. Chet still has his Thai Takeways in the fridge there and all is well. Last week Kati B and co were here and the weather was warm and soothing and welcoming. Tonight Iz will order a GREEN PIZZA from JAMIESONS RESTAURANT for me and I shall stay home – wash my hair – sit by the heater and keep reading the old newspapers. I have copied many things from the Olde Newspapers. I don’t know how many more days free access we have and I am making the most of the time we have .
Here we have the view looking back from the Northern Side of the Valley looking back to Linden Lea – where we live in the Cottage.
There is no view of Mt Warning today. Mists is all. Mebbe somewhat like the Sutherland Shire. And Findhorn of course which has been my obsession longtime. And which appears to be up there someplace very close to where Wilhelmina Mcleod and her mother Janet Mackay were “ASSISTED’ in their emigration.
Izzy has gone off in the Charade to Jamieson’s now. That leaves me with the Cottage to myself in the dark and rain, snug as. Well snug as but still being tossed about by Vodafone. Last night at BILAMBIL SPORTS CLUB LIVE BAND – the HUGE new plasma TV buckled under the cloud cover and people were driven to watching the smaller BAR TV which was not affected by the Cloud Cover. The soccer lads kep on playing despite the rain. Mudgeeraba versus US. Kenny handled the raffles. We didnt win any this week.
THE OLD FOTOS COLLECTION
This is the house in which I grew up. Western Suburbs of Sydney. 27 Paxton Avenue Belmore. My father built it . He was a carpenter and a returned soldier from WWII. He built it from double brick when I was a baby and we lived there till we were grown. I slept in the room on the right at the end with my Sister Susan. She was called Shoes N Sandals due to her name being Susan Sanders. My brother slept in a room to the back. On this side of the road was the canal and the railway line. A Goods line it was. Sometimes chokoes grew in the Canal
Now this house is The Cottage. Thats me with Tanya Tausky. We were at an exhibition at the Linden Gallery. The Gallery has closed now but I had some wonderful times there.
Now for a lovely shot of 3 children playing STIP POKER. Thats CASSNADRA POMROY , BENJAMIN POMROY and KATI BRAITHWAITE. They are grown now. Still rather odd but much larger. Cassandra is going to London. Benjamin is in Canada and Kati B has travelled to Thailand and lived in New Zealand.
Below is an Australian Christmas. In Urunga. In Orara Street. 1990 I think.
MORE FOTOS ON A FRIDAY AT HOME
FAIRY MEADOW
The fairies and elves from the meadow have gone
To some sylran spot, where no railroads are known,
Where no miners will dig through the bowels of earth
To disturb them, and drive them away from their hearth.
They are gone, I am sure; I have searched every nook,
By hillside, by wayside, by green mound, and brook,
No trace of their footsteps will be here seen again
They are all trodden out by the footsteps of men.
No more can the sound of their tripping be heard
As they dance in the moonlight around the green sward;
No; their music has ceased, and no more can be heard
To mingle its notes with the shy mocking bird.
Now, instead of the footprints of fairies, I see
The footprints of men, just returned from a spree,
With their pockets all empty, their head reeling round,
While an army of bottles lie strewn on the ground.
Now drinking and squabbling seem as much in vogue
That each neighbour thinks his next neighbour a rogue;
And while such sad doings and feelings remain,
We need never expect to see fairies again.
(Illawarra Mercury, May 8, 1884)
MELINDA KENDALL
We once lived in Tumbulgum – in a wee fibro cottage in FAWCETT STREET – Number 12. My father was alive then and he called it TUMBLE GUM – Its a good town to live in. 7 streets all up it has. Later I moved to Tugun and people kept telling me it was a ‘lovely village’ . TUGUN is NOT a village. Its lovelier now that the motorway bypasses it but it is not a village and very large planes fly low over the top of it. TUMBULGUM is a village. It doesn’t need to erect a sign saying so.
It takes a village to raise a child
I don’t think the fairies have quite gone from Tumbulgum or Bilambil but the earth moving equipment is there alrighty.
These 2 children were raised in villages. Urunga and Bellingen. 2 Capricorns and fine eaters. Fine cooks and eaters and shoppers actually.
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Kati B abseils down a cliff someplace her mother doesn’t know about.
When I was a child I lived in 27 Paxton Ave Belmore Sydney NSW Australia. I was sent to an Opportunity Class but did not really grasp the Opportunity, Thats Irmgard Klump on my right and Irene Chee on my left. We are the 3 girls on the right of the picture as you look at it. I think it was Beverley Harrisons house or ? Just across the road it was on the Canal. The Canal beside and perhaps under the Goods Railway Line.
AT HOME ON FRIDAY
Staying in again today. Tonight is Live Band at Bilambil Sports Club and we will make an appearance there. Johnny Carr’s Night. For the day I am staying here and ploughing through the 19th century newspapers. I found this DRUNKARD’S TREE in the CALEDONIAN MERCURY where I am looking for the trial of JAMES BELL.
James Bell 28 from Gallowsgate, Glascow, Scotland transported for housebreaking. Tried Glascow. 7yrs. Arrived on the ‘York’ 7.2.1831. Assigned to the Paterson River. Certificate of Freedom. 9.8.1938.
Wilhelmina McLeod emigrated from Sutherland Shire, Scotland, with her mother Janet MacKay, two siisters and a brother on the James Morgan, arriving Sydney 11.2.1839. The family moved to the Hunter. James and Wilhelmina married on 29.9.1840 at the Scots Church Paterson.
This appeared in 1829 . Good looking day here despite rather a lot of sirens out behind to the Sou East. Rare to hear a siren here. Being as we are OUT OF TOWN. Town is creeping up upon us but we are nevertheless still OUT OF TOWN. The sirenes therefore are an unsual occurrence and they have been going most of the morning. Along Terranora – Tumbulgum Road I guess.
Adding to the sirenic effect is the school holiday effect of trail bikes again over the bag somewhere near Duroby Creek Road. Queensland is on school holidays. I am in internal pain today and that sensitises me to the irritants I can usually pay no attention to.
The day has gloomed over and the winds are up and cool. Not as cold as Armidale and Kati B and IMM tell me Kalang is far colder than here. But I do not like being cold. Although I am considering a Kalang Armidale run by train and coach in the 2nd week of the school holidays. So with Vodafone behaving well so far today I shall go on with the deep seeking in the old UK newspapers AND with a foto journey through the images I scanned this week. An idle and pointless ramble.
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes. By the deep sea, and music in its roars; I love not man the less, but nature more.
George Gordon
This foto was taken in COFFS HARBOUR when the original MACDONALDS still existed with the old train carriage. That’s my Sister Susan and my niece Cassandra with mad O’Brian obscured. The original Coffs Maccas is now a caravan sales place- Most unappealing and the Maccas are small and difficult to access from the Highway.
I don’t like to eat snails. I prefer fast food.”
Roger von Oech
A Kick in the Seat of the Pants (1996)
Continuing through the Foto Gallery – this is the TRANSIT CENTRE in TWEED HEADS. Nice eh ? Welcome to the Gateway to the Gold Coast and Queensland. No seats, no loos, no shelter. Just a bus stop without a timetable. Bay Street Tweed Heads. Hub of the Tweed. The sons of James and Wilhelmina Bell came to live on the Tweed in the 1860s-1890s and from what I can gather they arrived to a more llively greeting than we do in 2008. Ships and wharves and horses and carts. Perhaps even some taverns and mebbe even someone to carry a bag or two. Its only a few years since the train still ran to Murwillumbah. In fact – it ran there till just after they finished the very expensive painting and restoration of the large railway station. Then they stopped it and introduced in this time of petrol shortage and cost – COACHES FROM CASINO TO every destination along the train route.
A little further back and you could put your car on the train at Central Railway Station in Sydney, relax in an all night sleeper with a dining car and breakfast served in your carriage – alighting in Murbah and driving off in your own vehicle. Not so now !
Further back yet again – Nana and Poppa Bell – were able to travel in a refined manner on COASTAL STEAMERS.
Trains
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows the horses and cattle;
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.
Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is the tramp who stands and gazes;
And there is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart run away in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill and there a river:
Each a glimpse and gone forever!
OLD FOTOS AND OLD NEWSPAPERS
ME IN TUMBULGUM IN 2002 
SPENDING whole days at home which is something I have loved and still do. I found a blog which I like. Now I have lost it but I think it’s called THIS IS NOT SYDNEY. An aimless wandering blog . The page I started on was a Foto tour of WOY WOY. I like BLOGS that take tours of WOY WOY. Now I feel free to keep doing what I please which is nothing much at all.
We have SAG access to a site which accesses 19th century UK newspapers for one week. Its WONDERFUL. Well it would be even better if the Vodafone Internet would also come out of the Pre-historic era and work. Its almost as bad as last year when CHILLI and then BIG AIR ripped us off the same way.
No matter – it means long rambling days at home. I am looking at the Sutherland shire at the moment. Thats where Grandmother Wilhelmina McLeod came from in 1839 – later marrying JAMES BELL who came from GallowsGate Glasgow.
The free offer is the first real advantage I have had from being a member of SAG – Society of Australian Genealogists. Haven’t even got my membership card as yet although Izzy has his. I am sure there are other benefits but I have not as yet worked them out. One day I will be in Kent Street Sydney and then I shall access the premises and that will be a good thing. They have a library and a primary source area. I can in the meantime access the History Centre down on the Tweed River in the old Tweed Courthouse building. Its been transplanted from where it once was to where it now is – that however is a novel thing for this area where most things are destroyed rather than being preserved. I am out of charity with this area at the moment. Despite The Bells having had land here in the 1860s-1890s. I wonder why Granny Bell left. Perhaps she could see what the future would bring. The other resource centre appears to be in the TWEED SOUTH BOWLS CLUB. I just can’t get myself to absorb that. It don’t seem right somehow.
The foto above is Me and My Sister Susan with my mum and her parents. My Nana is JESSIE SARAH READY and my Poppa is WILLIAM ALLEN ( MICK ) BELL. Its his Grandmother who was WILHELMINA MCLEOD from the SUTHERLAND SHIRE and HER mother was Janey MacKay.
Then again – things often don’t seem right to me. Like I take 1000s of fotos but Izzy don’t use them. He uses OTHER fotos taken by other people. Lucky for blogs – says I. I can use anything I want and do anything I want. Its to do with his being an ARIES and a muso and an academic I guess. I am a Libran and a pensioner – disability pensioner. Don’t quite know what my disability is but that’s ME. There fore as the night passes and all is quiet. Not a creature stirring – not even a camel or a cow – not an alpaca or a goose – I can add another foto and then take ZIMMER BRADLEY to bed and not clutch my hurt to my bosom. INCONSOLABLE is not very attractive in ElderWomen. Robynne provided me with the word INCONSOLABLE – the big dog next door has begun to bark and that brings me near inconsolable . Nevertheless – DIGNITY IS MINE – and I shall add one more image here – search through one more very old UK newspaper for the Glasgow trial of James Bell – and then bed.
I have inserted this image of my son who is called JIM – I do not know whether they called his ancestor Jim or not. HIs GGGGrandfather was James Bell who was transported from Gallowsgate Glasgow where he lived. The donkey lived with us at South Arm Road via Bellingen from where we suffered another Sutherland shire ejection which led us to BUFFER CREEK out at Gleniffer. Only this last month I discovered that another ancestor named the Valley Gleniffer. That was one of the Craig Girls. She married a MacFadyen . Here is the rock which informed us of that fact.
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