Yesterday we finished up the workshop at Bundoora Park with the papermakers. It was another frigid day, as the group photo below so amply illustrates!
We braced ourselves for what could have been logistically our most difficult day of the journey. The challenge was that we had to do the workshop, and then have every single thing packed up and out of the park no later than 5 pm (workshop ended at 4!) Since we are dealing with hot wax everywhere, tubs of it, and heated palattes, and 12 boxes of stuff all packed up, that meant a big hustle at the end. Fortunately Daniella had a plan that let us turn off all the heated elements at 2 pm, and still gave the ladies something good to work on. I went into my stable and began cleaning and packing in earnest (here is a photo of Sue and me trying to unscramble a knot of cables and outlets.
After that Sue and Bernie drove us and the 12 boxes and our suitcases back through Melbourne rush hour traffic to our hotel here, where we unloaded everything onto the curb and then into the hotel storage room until our next pickup this afternoon. Phew, that was a lot of schlepping! But all the women pitched in and helped with the cleanup, and we got through the day with a minimum of stress.
All day I was distracted by the birds, as usual. There was a whole lawn full of cockatoos feeding for much of the morning, right outside our stables.
Then this purple swamp hen strolled by. Every bird here is exotic to us. There was also a whole bunch of lorikeets, green, red and blue, but they flew away before I could get a picture. I borrowed a Field Guide to the Birds of Australia to carry along with me.
