To the Tomato!

On 4 July we headed to Roma.  Given Queensland's propensity for "Big"things I am surprised they didn't have a Big Tomato.  They had a Big Rig instead - I think something to do with oil wells.  At least, I saw a 4x4 with Halliburton on the side, and was surprised no-one was chucking tomatoes at it!

'Getting back to chronology, we find travelling with a small dog a bit of a challenge.  Imagine having 4 of them!

The Ballone River had some water in it at St George but was way below record levels!

Some people took exercise on the way!

The water in the Ballone didn't continue past the weir.  The only waterbird present was a White-necked Heron.  Where have they all gone?

In case you wondered why St George was so called ....

They had a nice mural on the dunny at the sports ground.

Although only July some kids were wielding the willow on the oval.  

(One very rebellious indigenous youth was bouncing a footy - not just refusing to change season, but apparently showing interest in a Southern code)  Even in St Kilda they don't show interest in cricket until August.

The War memorial was extremely well designed.

Here is a sample of the individual honours.  Interestingly both here and Roma they differentiate between Killed in Action (KIA) and Died Of Wounds (DOW).

Ever since we crossed the border there have been prickly pears (Opuntia sp) beside the road.  They were some particularly large specimens between St George and Surat.

The country was otherwise looking in good order, but the standing water of the last two days wasn't so evident.

Bill Hayden famously said "A drovers dog could win this election"in 1987.  Here is a contender..

.. in 2016, where it was rather more difficult.  The dog was just outside the camp, where many more dogs were laid up in the grass.  The cattle were well spread over several kilometres on roadside.

I took some photos of the Avenue of heroes in Roma ( a series of bottle trees with plaques honouring soldiers of the town) but they didn't turn out too well.  I'll try again tomorrow.  Here are the images.

At the Bush Garden I did get a snap of  a Black Kite.

.We have camped at the Meadowbank Museum.  This is a farm camp some 12km West of Roma and seems quite good - at $20 for a powered site it is very good value!  Indeed it was - and judging by the number of punters who have turned up, well known as such.  There was a bit of conviviality early on but not Benny Hill Audience Woman.  (I did suggest that one guy - in the next site to us - was in fact theman himself, or at least the demented persona he sometimes adopted as shtick.)

• Bird of the Day:  Black Kite.  A common bird of the inland but until this trip not many in my 2016 list.  One of them stirred up about 500 Little Corellas which become flock of the day!
• Vegetation of the day: Bottle trees (Brachychiton rupestris),in Roma.  
• Memorable moment:  No contenders.  A pleasant, but quiet day.
• Comment of the day: Two big contenders.  The first was an exchange between two folks at the van park in St George.  "In a weeks time I'll be back at work." "Good: someone's gotta pay for our pension!" Second was a gent, doing the best he could, in St George, looking down at Tammy: "Your pig-dog's shrunk.  But all shes gotta do is bark 'em and bail 'em!.
• Pie of the day.  An entry described as 'Kidney" from St George Bakery.  Sorry dudes 5/10.  Not much kidney taste and too much gravy.  It was edible and had a fair meat content, but well below the level of (say) Holbrook.

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