If only these walls could speak to me

My husband and I last weekend took a car trip up to the town of Ararat a very old town with a history of gold miners and being part of the gold rush in Australia, anyway my husband and I are doing our family tree and we have discovered he had relatives there in the time of the old gold rush and a great great grandfather (I think that is right) came from St Helena of the coast of south Africa to Australia to then live in the town of Ararat........So we went to see anything and on the way we got to see some beautiful old homesteads and then got to thinking what life was like and who lived in these now empty walls.

This one is huge and still looks very strong it sits here all on its own in a paddock so dry and brown. Who looked out of these windows and who would have knocked at this door.

My husband loved this one the best and being a builder he had to tell me a great long story about how it was built and the skill needed to put up such strong walls. this home is built from "blue stone" a very hard rock and it is everywhere in central Victoria and was mined here in our little town of malmsbury.

This is a lovely big farm house with the roof almost gone and the buildings being taken over by the wild garden. you can see everything here the sheds and the huge double house front and the workers sheds. I have no idea why this one was left like this but gosh I would love to get and have a little look about in there but there was a sigh "private property" so I respect the owners wishes.

O! and this one a little miners cottage I am sure and how sad to see it not longer as I do in my mines eye, children running around the house playing with wooden toys made by their father. mother hanging washing on a long line in the yard and the dog scratching for flees in the shade of the side of the house. :o)

This beautiful brick home must have belonged to someone who felt the blue stone was not as handsome as the hand made red bricks I am sure if we jumped over the fence (I could do that you know! lol lol) I am sure we would find bricks with thumb prints on them indicating how they counted them while they were being made in order for the maker to get paid correctly. The lady who lived in this house would have preferred to be back in England and so her garden and her home would have been run and kept and decorated exactly as she would have had it in England I am sure. :o)

the day was wonderful and we discovered my husband's great great had 14 children they may even have lived in the first big house at the top of this page but then again they may not have too.

This is my Thursday and I hope yours is going to be a nice as mine was!