Our last full day in Griffith was spent catching some of the sights in Griffith itself. Predominant was Burley Griffin Community Gardens - some aspects of which were conceived or designed by Walter himself.
The canal.
Guardian of the bridge?
Little Corellas. Many more to come!
Duck race in progress. Not.
Pidgeons incoming.
A successful landing.
Some of the hundreds of Little Corellas we saw (and heard).
On day 5 we ventured south east from Griffith to have a look around Leeton and Narrandera. Many of Leeton’s main buildings are in the Art Deco style. Further along was Narrandera with its relaxed feel and our first view of the Murrumbidgee River.
Looking from the ANZAC memorial towards the Burley Griffin water towers.
A Fire Station as I remember them all looking.
Looking back towards the memorial.
Zoomed in a little.
Art Deco Hydro Hotel.
WCIC building. Both of my parents worked for this organisation (in Sydney) from the 1940s through to the mid-fifties and mid-eighties.
Another view of the Hydro Hotel.
Groovy round fence posts (and curved building).
Art Deco Roxy Theatre.
I didn't use it.
Fancy brickwork.
Another groovy house in Leeton.
Vinnies - in a 1915 building.
My total pages read for March was 893.
I finished Plato’s Five Dialogues comprising Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno and Phaedo.
I also read Luc Ferry’s A Brief History of Thought. I first read it in 2019 and noted then that I only took in or understood around 30% of the book. This time I would estimate I understood around 70% of the work - but that was 90% of the first four chapters, dwindling to around 50% (or less!) for the final two chapters on Nietzsche and then post deconstruction.
Day 4 saw finer weather. In the morning we attended Lifesource Church and in the afternoon visited Lake Wyangan, the Hermit’s Cave site (again) and the memorial to Donald Mackay in the main street of Griffith.
The lake has neither inflow or outflow so was quite unappealing.
I wouldn't eat anything pulled from the lake.
A view of Collina (north east Griffith) from above the Hermit's Garden.
The garden once produced significant amounts of food. Now quite neglected.
The memorial to Donald Mackay.
Day 3 was a little wet so we kept our travels local. The primary visit was to the Hermit’s Cave just outside of Griffith. It was occupied by a man named Valerio Ricetti for over 20 years from the late 1920s to the early 1950s. The entire complex extended over a kilometre.
View from the lookout above the cave complex.
The Chapel. I'm not sure if Valerio undertook some spiritual practices or disciplines here.
A closer view in the Chapel.
Part of the path. Looks like something from Picnic at Hanging Rock.
I think this was the kitchen.
The sleeping quarters.
Day 2 saw us travel from Goulburn to Griffith via Cootamundra, Temora and Barellan.
Cootamundra is famous as the birthplace of Don Bradman; Temora for Paleface Adios; and Barellan (though born in Griffith) as the childhood home of Evonne Goolagong Cawley.
Cootamundra and Temora were quite attractive places. We didn’t stop in Barellan. Lunch was in Ardlethan.
Cootamundra War Memorial in Albert Park. The lens was quite dusty.
Gazza's - a women's fashion store!
Wonder if horses are allowed in the arcade?
Very early, or quite late?
The famous pacer from the 1970s and 1980s.
Not much going on in Ardlethan that we could see.
So begins our photoblog1 of our recent holiday to the Riverina and Central West region of NSW.
Day 1 was a stopover in Goulburn on the way to Riverina. My only photos were from my phone and are of the Victoria Park Rose Garden:
Some flower colours were subtle.
Others not so subtle.
Clear white.
I don’t like the term, at all ↩︎
In my most recent pages read post (February) I mentioned that I had completed reading Bertrand Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy. I also mentioned that I had attempted to read one of Russell’s books around 40 years ago but had given up part way through the Introduction. I now suspect1 that that book obtained in the the 1980s was An Outline of Philosophy which was published in the USA simply as Philosophy.
Having now successfully completed reading one of Bertrand Russell’s books (!) I thought it time to consider some other philosophy works. I came across a gentleman on YouTube by the name of Jared Henderson who has a video called 7 Philosophy Books for Beginners. His seven recommendations are:
My total pages read for February was 834.
I finished Daryl Thompson’s Break Through and David Saxton’s God’s Battle Plan for the Mind. I re-read The Kremlin Conspiracy which I first read around six or seven years ago. I resumed reading Flannery O’Connor’s Complete Stories.
I also read Bertrand Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy. I had attempted to read one of Russell’s books around 40 years ago. I can recall having almost no idea what he was talking about in the introduction so I gave up. This time around was a little different. I could see what Russell was saying, but whilst I only understood perhaps half of it, I persevered. I have now been exposed to some of the terminology and thrust of philosophy and have a much better idea of what I don’t know (which is more than plenty).
Last week I made the decision to switch Linux distributions for my primary and secondary notebooks.
My primary notebook had been running Devuan since October 2023, and my secondary notebook had been running Debian stable since July 2024.
What prompted my decision was something I’d read the week before that Debian had decided to cease posting on X because X doesn’t reflect Debian’s ‘shared values’.
Pardon me, but I would think that a community or project (as they describe themselves) responsible for developing, maintaining and promoting an operating system would want to promulgate their ideas and communiqués on as broad a range of platforms as possible and to garner input from an equally broad base of developers and users.