Birchgrove still....

An Early morning photo shoot

It was tempting to stay under the warm doona, but we headed off to Birchgrove to get some photos...




These two below are of Cockatoo Island. If you are a regular visitor to this blog you have seen photos of Cockatoo Island when we were on it! (see the archives for Feb.2006)

So what was this holiday about then?

Well those of you who have paid close attention ( & thank you to those who have given me generous feedback), will have noticed that we visited a number of Engineering museums & sites. You would also know that Michael studies tool making, welding and watchmaking, so many of the museums reflected his interests. In a way, one of the themes that emerged was that of following in the footsteps of Marc Brunel , father of the better known Isambard Kingdom Brunel. If you have seen the TV series "Seven Wonders of the Industrial World", these names would be familiar to you.
Another website worth looking at is here.

When we were leaving Montreal by Greyhound to travel to Schuylerville , we travelled alongside the Champlain canal, first surveyed by Marc Brunel. At the end of our holiday we visited the tunnel he designed and built at Rotherhithe in London. In between we visited the Springfield armory Museum, touted as the first site of manufacturing in the world. Yet Brunel had invented the manufacture of the Block & Tackle mill (we went to Portsmouth, remember?) years before. Nelson's victory at sea was attributed to this new technology. So Michael questions why it is that Marc Brunel has been so underrated by history?
But look again, another theme emerges. That of rivers. There is a story that when the owners of a new publishing house , who were located on either side of the Atlantic, wondered what to call this company, one said to the other, "what do you see when you lokk out the window?" "The river Thames"was the reply, "What do you see?". "The Hudson river". A great story even if it is not the whole truth. Thames & Hudson publishes beautiful Art & photograhic books.

And guess what? The Champlain Canal links the navigable water of the Hudson River and Lake Erie, to the Champlain lake, thereby linking the trade and industry parts of both North East America , as well as Canada, to the ports that would move goods around the continent and around the world. So Brunel was a visionary. And yet today, many of the manufacturing towns along the Hudson are industrial wastelands, victims of the move to cheaper labour in Asia, as we have experienced in Australia. And the tragedy is that the history is also forgotten. The very things that contributed to great nationhood in previous centuries have been allowed to moulder down to dust and crumbling buildings, what museums they have often miss vital parts of the story, or have a modern emphasis that disguises the truth.





The Pictures:
The first 2 are Kayaking on the Hudson, the next 2 are the Champlain canal in Montreal
a scene in Glens Falls on the Hudson, and the Thames .
For some more photos of the Canal/Hudson at Schuylerville, taken this 4 July by our beloved Sarah check her blog

More photos from England

(L)Michael leaving the shop at the Greenwich Observatory, the meridian of Greenwich meantime is just to his left.(R) Image from the camera obscura at Greenwich



(top) standing on the deck of the pub 'the Mayflower" looking up the Thames. This was the location from whence the Mayflower set sail for America.
(L) the entrance to the tunnel under the Thames built by Marc Brunel, father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. (R) the Pumphouse used by Brunel to remove the water whilst building the tunnel.

Home in Oz now

We arrived home on Sunday morning. It is cold and wet here. Had to find the Ugg boots and turn on the heaters. Michael slept for 48 hours, he is clever , I wish I could do that! These are some photos from our time in Portsmouth. Look a bottlebrush in a pot, in the Lodge garden at the Naval dockyard. Michael had a wonderful time looking at the Block Mill, machinery designed by Marc Brunel.

Bath

The Roman baths were twenty pounds but the showers were free & frequent!
Bath was wet, cold & the hotel was appalling. The staff were friendly but completely inefficient! the hotel was expensive & rambling, we kept returning lost guests to their correct floor. The room was hot, but the heating was not on, so we had to have the window open and we were kept awake by the most raucous sea gulls I have ever encountered .
The good bits were the Roman Baths, the architecture & a great meal in a Turkish restaurant. hmm... Roman Baths , Turkish Restaurants

Dorchester-on Thames

This village is just south of Oxford. It is pretty without being twee. Chris made us walk for miles in dangerous territory. Cousin Brian wasn't the only one wondering if Oxford hospital is OK!

Some photographs

These relate to the previous post, so..the family gathering...

In England Now...

Not quite so easy to put in photos etc just yet. We are staying in London, spending lots of time with Melissa & Tim, had a lovely evening with Patrick & Annabel on Friday.
Yesterday we arrived in Dorchester-on-Thames, a village just south of Oxford. The rivers Thame & Thames meet here. Cousin Chris organised a big family reunion of Litrizza and Murphy clans. Great to catch up with cousins, many of whom I had not seen for decades, as well as those who come to Australia.
We had a good lunch, Mass for a few at 6.30. Those who remained for the night went to a pub for dinner 4 miles away. The clever ones went in a car, the rest followed Chris' firm encouragement to walk down along by the river, through several fields full of a variety of animal life:-bulls who wanted to follow us to the pub, picnickers who had moored their boats at the banks, skinny dippers (we think we might have interrupted some other activity), and other happy campers. Of course we had to walk back, this time along the road as it was dark.Nearly got swiped off the road by a few mad drivers, but survived! Photos later.

Last Day in USA

Just had for lunch, Bush's Baked beans. "98% Fat free, high in fiber". Clearly no relation to another more well known Bush!
There has been a lot of media attention here to the availability of the Human Papilloma virus vaccine. No mention anywhere, that it is the work of an Australian.
Ian Frazer is currently Australian of the Year.

Around & about

Today I went for a paddle in a kayak for the first time ever. Up the Hudson river. I enjoyed it despite paddling against a stiff breeze. (Clare I will say 'yes' next time you ask!)
Later I walked the 188 steps to the top of the Monument & took some photos. sorry about the flyscreen effect

Have a nice Day!

We did have a very nice day yesterday (Tuesday). We left the house at 6.45 am. John took us to the Amtrak station at Albany (the state capital of New York). We caught the 8.10 to New York, a beautiful journey that travels for the most part alongside the Hudson River.Peaceful stretches of water, with the occasional beach or boat ramp. and some amazing buildings in the most unlikey places. Arriving at Penn station, we bought a $7 Metro ticket which lets you on most subways & buses, at least on Manhattan. We went for a FREE ride to Staten Island & back. On the return journey, Michael commented to a fellow passenger about his camera. Turns out that Scott & Michael are both members of the same Olympus newsgroup!
Then we headed off to the Guggenheim museum.
when we came out of that , that stretch of 5th Avenue that houses many museums had been closed off for a 'museum mile fair'. After popping into Central Park, we wandered past stalls of artwork (no, the Guggenheim was not selling off it's overstock of Kandinskys cheap)some good, some appalling, & finally caught a bus to Times Square. Having visited most of the expensive, over heated (it had been a warm day) & disappointing camera shops on Times Square, we attempted to get to the Observation deck on the Empire State building. Long queues made us turn back at the last minute . 30 years ago , I left it until my last day in NY to head for the top, but it was shrouded in cloud that time. Maybe the next shot will be the lucky one!

Visit to Massachussetts

We drove into Massachusetts on Thursday. The weather was cool, wet & getting wetter. Michael was disappointed in the Springfield Armory Museum. He would have preferred fewer guns & more on the machines that manufactured them. No, the Simpsons were not to be found either.
We then headed to Lowell to visit The American Textile Museum. A great museum, wonderful displays, if somewhat formal and inaccessible.
then we drove to Waltham , had a great meal a good sleep & up at a civilised hour to get to the Charles River Museum.A bit haphazard, almost as if waiting to be sorted out, but far more informative and accessible than the others. Steam engines were overlooked by clocks & watches!
American museums appear to receive little public funding , and so rely on endowments form private donors and the work of (mostly) volunteers. Michael had wanted to visit all these industrial museums as they represent the technology that made this such a great nation in the previous 3 centuries. As an educator, I see the value of museums as important parts of a cultural heritage and community knowledge, but unfortunately amricans will miss out on this knowledge. Like Australia, the US is suffering a skills shortage, and like Australia, governments have failed to invest in education.