Weekend Reflections - Peterborough

My last few posts have been of our recent trip to the arid lands north of us.

Here are a few reflections just after sunrise when the streets were empty of people,

except for me of course.

Above is the Town Hall reflected in the shop windows on the other side of the street.

One of the old hotels with their cast iron lace embellishment.

The YMCA glorying in the first rays of the sun

and the perfect mirror image in this grand mirror on the side of the Peterborough Hotel.

It was a most satisfying morning walk up and down the main street.

World Bird Wednesday - Peterborough Birds

Caught in the streets of Peterborough (see post below) on my dawn walk before we proceeded north to a warmer climate. Already here it was much warmer than more than 300 km south where the autumnal chill had decidedly set in.

                             Crested pigeon enjoying the first warm sun-rays of the morning.

Two for the price of one . . .

That's what I think of you!

There was not very much around to choose from, so here is a poor little Murray Magpie missing a part of it's foot.

This is one of the birds I am hoping to bag in the wild much further north, the Ring-neck Parrot.

A pair of them were in a cage at the motel we stayed at. As far as I know they are protected birds and I do hope the owners had a special licence from Fisheries and Wildlife!

Just to round off, the resplendent Railway Hotel in which we did not stay, preferring our bathroom facilities en-suite. Maybe next time I'll bother to bring a dressing gown and we'll try it.

Happy bird watching, next time some arid lands birds.

OUR WORLD - Peterborough Sunrise

                 Well, I'm safely back from our 1,400km trip to the wonders of our arid lands.

I have no idea why Blogger had to 'fix' something that was working well, at least much better and easier than now where every time I try to change something, I lose the whole post! This is my fourth attempt to get up an Our World post and I sincerely hope it works.

Once a thriving and important railway town with a prosperous agricultural base, Peterborough now still boasts a main street with four large hotels of the colonial era as well as the most imposing YMCA building I have seen anywhere.

Our overnight stop proved to be a goldmine of 18th and early 19th century architecture built to outlast the usefulness of the town itself.

The railway station has gone and unfortunately, there are many gaps in the once splendid main street.

The four hotels still left are the 'Federation', the 'Railway Hotel', the 'Peterborough Hotel' and, if I remember rightly, the 'Commercial.

A view to the YMCA and Town Hall with a typical palm tree of the 1870's still growing strong.

At left, the YMCA, a massive building with 15-18 foot ceilings and flanking it is the equally impressive Town Hall. Sorry, the photo does not capture the grandiloquence of either building and leaves out entirely the third in this row which is an even more opulent mansion, complete with ballroom.

For a sunrise walker, even the backstreets offer dear little cottages as well as many other houses marking the passage of the well-to-do of another era.

A little further back, there are also somewhat less salubrious sights.

And, lucky last, a peep at what lies ahead for a week or two of other posts to come.