MRS MACQUARIE & DR JOHNSON

A WEDDING On November 3 1807, Elizabeth Henrietta Campbell married Lieutenant Colonel Lachlan Macquarie at Holsworthy in Devon. The ceremony was conducted by the Reverend Owen Lewis Meyrick. Elizabeth had been caring for the minister’s grand-daughters, while impatiently  waiting for Macquarie to return from army service in

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A Mother’s Love Expressed in Reading Aloud.

A Mother's Love Expressed in Reading Aloud.

Sixty years ago I was a wide eyed, sharp eared kid growing up on Tasmania’s North West Coast.  One weekend my mother and  I visited her brother’s family in a nearby town.  Over afternoon tea my aunt  described an incident that had taken place a few days

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SHOPPING…… SENIOR STYLE

SHOPPING...... SENIOR STYLE

Shopping for clothes. 😨 Oh dear, I may be  viewed as a disgrace to womanhood, but I detest it. It’s not that I don’t like to look nice, but it’s so time consuming and irritating. The older I get the more I try to avoid  the whole

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Queen Victoria – statues, strife and scandals!

Queen Victoria - statues, strife and scandals!

  A  ROYAL REPLICA Early last century John Norton, firebrand editor of Sydney’s Truth newspaper, described Queen Victoria rather unkindly as; ‘..the podgy figured, sulky faced little German woman whose ugly statue at the top of King Street sagaciously keeps one eye on the Mint while with

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BLUE MOUNTAINS – A HAPLESS TRAVELLER

BLUE MOUNTAINS - A HAPLESS TRAVELLER

My partner  Rob and I are making our way home from Sydney to the Blue Mountains by rail; a two hour journey. As the train begins to climb, an American lady sitting behind us asks  someone a question across the aisle; ‘Excuse me, will I know when

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FERRIES; THE OLD LADIES OF SYDNEY HARBOUR

FERRIES; THE OLD LADIES OF SYDNEY HARBOUR

Each Australia Day, commuter ferries  race down Sydney Harbour,  decorated  with bunting and loaded to the gunnels with cheering supporters. They remind me of well dressed matrons  competing in the  hundred metre dash at school sports days. In 1984 the exertion proved too much for the aging

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