Oliver of Otterburn in Adelaide

Here I am in Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, and a very
fine place it is indeed.

Firstly I was taken by tram to the bayside suburb of Glenelg. It was
here in 1836 that the founding settlers from Britain landed to begin
the independent colony of South Australia.

There would be no convict stain in this colony, only freeborn Britons need apply.

South Australians are very proud of their heritage and a striking monument stands in Glenelg to commemorate the founding fathers.

Then, next I went to a prominent hill overlooking the city and there

is another significant statue.
Colonel William Light is pointing to his vision of a well planned orderly city that will arise before him.That has actually happened.

Adelaide is the most sensibly civilized city in Australia.

A sensible size of about a million people, live in a sensibly planned city, on a sensible piece of flat ground, nicely situated between the sea and the hills.

Of course it wasn’t easy to build a civilised city from nothing and much hard work was needed.

In Adelaide today there are many fine mansions built by citizens who found great prosperity in the colony.
It must be said that many of them became rich by grazing sheep on large properties.

I wonder why it wasn’t the sheep that became rich?

And there is another kind of prosperity.

I had a long talk with a very cheerful gentleman.
He came from Greece in 1952, one of many who migrated to Australia after the World War II had caused so much misery in Europe.
He has worked hard and brought up a fine family.
His name is ‘John’, that is his Aussie name because his real Greek name has too many letters.

He is a happy man.

Maairy of Corridge in the Big Apple

Maairy went with Pam, Paul & Oli for a half term trip to New York.

She visited Paris again en route & felt very at home on the Metro between Charles de Gaulle & Orly Airports as flocks of humans copied sheep behaviour, she felt that the stocking density was a bit high though!

After a very civilised flight in sheep (not cattle) class she arrived refreshed in NY.

An intensive day's study at the Rockafella Institute was followed by ascent to the Top of the Rock to watch sunset over Central Park (she spotted some good grazing for later). There was a great view of the Empire State Building too.

So many lights !!

Next morning a long queue for the ferry and then a trip out to the Stat-ewe of Liberty !

Maairy had a quick bite to eat on Liberty Island with a great view of Manhattan .

She liked Liberty (& found out that the statue was built by the same guy as built that tower in Paris she visited the week before) but she still prefers the Angel of the North !

Back on the boat to Ellis Island and the Immigration Museum which was very interesting.

Then back to the City but still no sign of that apple that she had been looking forward to !

The next day it was walking around the city and shopping at Macy’s and Bl-ewe-mingdales before a long flight home.

Maairy is going to Nottingham University tomorrow and possibly London on Thursday with a trip to the Lakes next Wednesday.

She has been doing some work - studying at Northumberland Agricultural College.

Oliver of Otterburn goes South (in Australia)

I am continuing my travels around Australia with Ray and we have just visited the furthest south point of the mainland. This is the lighthouse which is dramatically situated on a rocky headland on Wilsons Promontory.

The only access is by walking track so not too many people get there, let alone sheep.

Wilsons Promontory has been retained as a large national park. It has a dramatic granite structure with hills getting up to almost 600 meters.

The wildlife is protected and at the Tidal River Camp I met Willie the Wombat and we had a very friendly chat.

He told me that he mostly sleeps during the day and comes out in the late afternoon to
start munching grass and other herbage.

For a moment I thought that he was going to eat me, but he just munched off into the distance.

So, off I went with Ray on a three day bushwalk and that wasn’t easy

on my poor feet.

On the first day we walked twenty kilometers to reach

the lighthouse.

It is quite a sight. On this day the wind was blowing very strongly and the lighthouse stands high above the large waves battering the promontory.

We stayed the night in one of the cottages
previously used by the families of lighthouse keepers.

On day two we walked up and over a large hill, then down into beautiful Waterloo Bay. It is still untouched by humanity except for bushwalkers.

We camped for the night there in a small tent.

Then on the third day we were walking back to

civilisation when I received quite a shock – right in front of me on the track was a coiled up snake – these things can kill you!

Fortunately he only wanted to be left alone, and I was very happy to do just that.

So there it is, I am probably the very first, very tired, Northumbrian sheep to visit the southern point of continental Australia.

Precious and Catherine at the English speaking school in South Korea

Kindergarten Graduation

This week has been busy, we have been helping the 7 years practice for their Kindergarten graduation. (In Korea when you are born you turn one immediately, so most of the class were actually 6 years old). Its a milestone for many children and an honour for their parents that their kids have graduated from an English speaking school!

Picture 1- This is me with my Graduating class 'Cambridge' (Ophelia, Richard, Denny, Alice and Sam). I'm so pleased they all have English names, it makes it so much easier! They are super smart and we had lots of fun over the past month learning and playing games. They have enjoyed Catherine hiding me in the classroom and then everybody shouting 'Where are you Precious?' before running to find me; I sometimes got squeezed a little too hard and dropped a few times but it was fun.

Picture 2- This is me with some of my junior kindergarten class 'Oxford'. They are 5 years old and speak great English, they have also been trying to teach me Korean but we have to be quiet as there is NO korean to be spoken at school, Sssssshhh!!
Picture 3- 'MIT' class in their full graduation outfit. They were so cute.

It was a great day!!

Flying Jay lands in Oz

Just to let you know that we have had a delightful visit here in Australia from our wee friend Flying Jay and he is now heading to .. SANFRANSICO!

My brother lives there with his family
and who knows.. Flying Jay might get to meet Shrek.. cos my brother is
the head of department for DREAMWORKS..

HMM.. maybe Flying Jay might
get a starring roll in the next animation movie.. (sheep will fly...!)

Flying Jay had fun visiting the famous Dinisaur Dreaming Paelontogy project, looking for his ancestors - joined a singing quoir and went to visit the marino sheep on our family farm.

Here is Jay checking the farm out just before he met the 2000 marinos at the
shearing shed this morning..(he was a little hesitant cos he thought he
might loose his coat.)

Really delighted to be part of Jamie's adventures and will look forward

to hearing all about his travels.

Pip Cleeland

Lance the Piper visits an Artist

Lance the piper took eggs to Ivan Webley the Northumbrian Artist. Ivan was working on a commission for a new restaurant, painting the river Wansbeck from the bridge by the Leisure Centre in Morpeth, surrounded by his advisers, daughters Cloe" and Esme'.

Among his paintings, Lance the Piper found a print of Keilder Castle the birth place of some of Lance's ancestors,

another painting of the river in Morpeth

and an interior of The Joiner's Arms.

Ivan has been painting local scenes for more than 30 years and has been commissioned to paint a mural in one of the streets in Morpeth.

You can see lots more of Ivan's lovely paintings on his new website: http://www.northumbrian-morpeth-art.co.uk/home/slideshow

Oliver of Otterburn meets the Big Merino

Oliver of Otterburn meets the Big Merino

Wednesday 16 February,2011

My big news is that I am off travelling , I am going on a motor trip
with Ray. We will start from Sydney and drive right around Australia
and we plan to visit the southern, western, northern and eastern
points of the continent. Its a big country so this will take some
months. Along the way I am hoping to meet lots of the locals.

Our first stop was the town of Goulburn, to the south west of Sydney.
It was here that I came face to face with the Big Merino. Well, I had
always thought of myself as a pretty flash stud ram, with my gorgeous
blue horns. Certainly none of the pretty little ewes around Otterburn
had ever complained about my services. But here in Goulburn my
superiority complex took a bit of a shock.
The Big Merino is just HUGE. In fact he is the biggest sheep in the
world and I am sure this will give me bragging rights when all we
globetrotting sheep meet up back in Northumbria at the end of the
year.

Mind you, he doesn’t say much and he is not very nimble on his feet.
Actually, he is there to remind people that Australia was often said
to be “riding on the sheep’s back” because export of fine Merino wool
was the biggest foreign currency earner and the basis for the
prosperity of the country. And many of the best Merino stud rams were
bred in farms in the Goulburn district.