return to Temora via Stockinbingal yesterday...

Today is an odd day...My mind and body feel riddled with anxiety and general fears are rising...

Perhaps it is due to spending quite some time this morning chasing up why I still have not received my bond back from my Mornington Peninsula rental...

Perhaps it is due to worrying about a puppy digging a large hole under the side fence this morning and was running amok...sabotaging potted plants in the front yard (waiting to transfer to the new house) and generally scattering dirt everywhere...

(Of course, I cleaned it all up...

I didn't want my daughter to come home tired from work and find all the mess..)

Perhaps it is due to general frustration that the short, cramped stay with my daughter is now a longer stay till at least September... with all the new house building delays...

All I know is that I really don't feel right...

So I've decided to just sit still with a coffee and glow in the wonders of yesterday's drive...

And write some more about it...

I travelled down Old Cootamundra Road from Temora yesterday, but decided to return via Stockinbingal on Burley Griffin Way...

The photo above is one of several grain train rail crossings on the road...

But of course, it was the countryside that enchanted me...

the greens and the blues and those gracious trees...

At times, the blue hills seemed like a meandering stream low in the sky...

Life may be a cluttered smog at times...but while the trees keep growing in such delightful countryside like this, know that there is always peace and beauty...somewhere...

All it takes is a little willpower to believe it is there and go seek it out...

retired person sign...

I saw a sign in one of the old Stockinbingal shop windows today...
Very fitting connection with my stage in life...
Also could think of a few metaphors for the fact it seemed to be carefully wrapped in plastic... pic.twitter.com/Q9uFnuQDzA

— 🇺🇦🌻Gemma Wiseman-on Wiradjuri land (@AuraGem) June 17, 2022

and I went for a drive to Stockinbingal...Part 2- side street...

 

Strange design for a post office...So I Googled...

Ellwood’s Hall was built by Thomas Ellwood and opened in June 1912. The Oddfellow’s Ball was the first entertainment there. The building included 2 shops with the hall's entrance in between...The post office currently occupies the first shop...

More details HERE

From this point, I discovered some unexpected house designs + the odd old business and garden features...Metal garden ornaments especially seemed to be favoured...

And once again I saw no one...

And behind the ex hotel were these 2 horses...

I felt that the police station looked more like a mini school...

And finally...this...

All this (and many more) surrounded the shed, (featured below), facing the street...

I am at quite a loss if anything is actually for sale or is this some grand hobby...

Once again, no one was around to ask...

and I went for a drive to Stockinbingal...Part 1- main street...

 

Stockinbingal is a village on the Burley Griffin Road just outside the Temora shire in the Cootamundra-Gundagai shire...It was proclaimed a village in 1886 and has barely changed...

In the 2011 census, the village had a population of 244 people)...

Fascinating personal history stories of Stockinbingal are HERE

On my weekend stay in Cootamundra, I passed through the village...It seemed like a ghost town that intrigued me...I was determined to return and explore the village more closely...

Today was the day...

First, I headed to the train station - as it was across the road from my parked car...

The station seems a little battered - only used now by passing grain/freight trains - but the old spirit is not broken...

Originally, when the station opened in 1893, it was used as a passenger railway station but closed to regular passenger services in 1983...

More details on the station's chequered history HERE

In the distance, you can just see one of the grain silos near the station...

Across the road from the station, I found a most unusual kind of general store...

It even included cavoodle puppies for sale...

No one was there, but it was open...

In fact, it was the only place I found open...

As I was to find out in my wanders, other businesses were open...once upon a time...

It looks open...but no...All display effect...

Many historic places featured history signs outside...

Here is a series of them...

Interesting design above the front area...

All the above buildings were in the main street opposite the railway station...

I found more interesting features of Stockinbingal down a side street...(See my next post - Part 2)

At this stage, I have seen a few parked cars, but I've seen no one walking around...