Old clothes and porridge

 This time last week we had just made it home from our trip to FNQ, this week has been a little more less exciting.

Less exciting but still good.

Despite the various storms while we were away our broad beans seem to survived both hail and possums and to my immense relief we don't seem to have had any substantial damage to the trees, but I did spend a couple of afternoons cutting the grass and clearing up fallen branches and twigs,

It's also been a good week in that I've been able to get back into the documentation of Lakeview House, something which led me to a left field thought that the demise of the crinoline as a fashion item was hastened by the adoption of the pedestal toilet, it being difficult to sit on a toilet wearing a crinoline, especially if it was more rigid wire reinforced one.

At the same time, I spent my morning at the Athenaeum this week fossicking around online archives, and by pure happenstance discovered that an all England cricket team toured Australia and played Beechworth in January 1862, trouncing the locals

I'd been looking for information on both the Oddfellows cricket team and the local lunatic asylum's team (the staff of Beechworth Lunatic Asylum had their own team - as yet I don't know if they let the inmates play as well).

However the idea of England playing Beechworth in 1862 is interesting enough and shows the importance of the town in the gold rush era.

It wasn't all archiving - I was lucky earlier this week to see a koala trying to cross the road outside of the local Health Service.

Unlike most koalas this one seemed to have a bit of road sense and waited until there was a gap in the traffic, and everyone behaved responsibly, slowing to a crawl and putting their hazard flashers on to ensure it managed to get safely across the road ...