Alstonville, Southern Cross University, Julie Barratt's Gallery

Julie's directions were - drive north to the giant prawn and call us. We'll come get you.
This morning she was explaining that there is a lot of controversy about the prawn. It needs a new coat of paint and another beach/tourist resort wants their own giant prawn.

Julie lives up in the country. She's got a beautiful piece of property that looks down into a little valley. The birds have finally finished their morning choir practice and so now it's pretty quiet.
But I really don't know how anyone sleeps past six in the morning! The kookaburra start off and I don't know what's going on, but there is some serious arguing. Maybe the teenagers don't want to get out of the nest. Then others cannot be out done, and everyone starts in. There's one bird that just warbles along- I think it's the black and white mocking bird (?) then there are beautiful pink and grey parrots of some kind that go screeching about. Between 6 - 7 right as the sun is coming up, it is just really really noisy! But the Aussies just sleep right through it. I actually love it, and have enjoyed lying in bed watching the morning sunlight creep across the lawn and listening to all of the different sounds.
I had an extra treat this morning. I was up earlier than usual, and looked down on Julie's back lawn to see a wallaby hopping along in the back. They are amazing.
I bundled myself up, made a cup of coffee, grabbed my knitting and went and sat on the back porch. Sasha the dog was pretty happy about that.
Yesterday was a really big day. I went to Southern Cross University (SCU) and gave a lecture to an art Theory class about book arts. The students seemed really interested, and excited about some of the things. After that Tim Murray (a book and paper artist) took me to the library to see what their book arts collection was like. This was really good because I've got to judge 80 books today, for purchase by the university. I'm glad I have an idea of what they already have. I've been told it's a teaching collection, and so I think I will fill in what I consider holes in the collection. Yesterday afternoon it was off to Julie's gallery to see the books and teach a little workshop for two girls. We did the blizzard book, which they really liked. But the books I'm going to judge. Oh boy. Wow. There are some pretty great things. Julie and I had a long discussion about them last night.
Sadly, I think I've caught Anne-Maree's cold. I've got a stuffy headache and a bit of a sore throat. Julie told me about a juice shop in town, so I'll be stopping there a few times today to load up on healthy juicy things. But you know, as I told Anne-Maree, now I've had the total Australian experience! (hee-hee!)