Vignettes of Country Life

1. The Cygnet Cafe.

We went inside. It was a cavernous room held up in the centre by two beams that looked like polished trees. The counter was at the back. On the counter was a basket of scones, each one the size of four. The woman behind the counter pointed forcefully at the scones, obliging us to buy one. It is like that in the country.

2. 440 Main Road Clare.

We drove through Clare. looking for number 440, and stopped just where it was, more by good luck than signage. We walked up a muddy path and through a wonderland of large farm equipment into a cavernous barn. Cavernous! That word again! It is like that in the country. The barn was full of indescribable quantities of indescribably dusty things. Our thing was a dot matrix printer. It was in there somewhere.

3. The Woolworths Supermarket.

There is a certain lure to a supermarket. We just had to go in. We would need something for our dinner when we got home, after all. The supermarket was a cavernous one. They are like that in the country. Except for the small dying ones.

4. Lunch in Clare.

Everything on the menu at the pub was $9.95. You could even get ham steak with a pineapple ring. But we ended up at the bakery. We always do. Sometimes it takes a while for us to come to that conclusion. It was a prize winning bakery. They are all prize winning bakeries in the country. One of us ( not me ) had a Riblet Roll and the other a falafel.

5. Oranges in Zonta Garden.

We walked along the Main Road of Clare, towards the edge of town. There was a little public garden on the high side, with seats, a table and two stone slabs donated by the local quarry. They were massive slabs, such as you would expect to see in the country, upended, and their purpose was to block the view to the Main Road. Here we ate two oranges. It is strange eating oranges without a knife, the bitter scent of orange skin on your lips and fingers.

6. A Walk in the Backblocks.

Clare is a biggish country town. That means that there are backblocks. We walked along a road parallel to the Main Road, but two streets over. A young man drove his car out backwards, stopping at his letterbox to check for mail. He hadn't got any. Then he revved and hooned towards the town. It is like that in the country. We passed an old house that had once been grand, It was called Bleak House, which made us laugh. It was next door to a house that had a stone dwarf and a pumpkin on the wall.

7. The Drive Home.

Both there and back I was the passenger. I saw green wheat fields, and single flat bottomed trees, moving backwards as if on rollers. I saw cows and sheep and horses, also moving backwards. A man in a vineyard, snipping at a vine.