Jan is walking well now, almost pain free and at a reasonable pace. I’m no longer allowed to call her The Patient. Today for a bit of excitement, we went to the Eel Festival at Elizabeth Farm in Parramatta. Lovely day today – 29 degrees and sunny, although there’s more rain forecast for the coming week.
The blurb says: This family-friendly festival celebrates Parramatta’s namesake, the eel, and its significance to the local Darug people known as the Burramattagal who for generations have gathered during eel season to feast, trade and share stories.
Elizabeth Farm, Australia’s oldest homestead (1793) , is always worth a visit. It’s a lovely old bungalow, very luxurious for its time.
Eel tasting.
The eel festival was fun. We saw a couple of eels in a tank, we ate some eel cooked in paperbark over an open barbecue and we saw some ingenious eel traps being woven from reeds. Jan even had a go at weaving herself. She didn’t manage to create a whole eel trap, her creation was more like six inches of rough twine.
There was an interesting old guy telling tall tales while demonstrating how to carve a club from a bit of tree. A pleasant outing.
In the week we’d explored some more parts of the riverside park near us. We took a walk around an area with a big kid’s playground. I’m a big kid, so I had a go on the flying fox when no-one was looking. It was good fun and I didn’t break any limbs.
PS: Thanks for all the lovely comments on the blog and the best wishes for Jan. I haven’t yet received many requests for home surgery, but it’s an offer not to be refused lightly.
Oh, so that’s why the Parramatta league club is called the Eels.
Were the eel traps indigenious?
Perhaps you’d like to restore our eel trap. I thought no one would ever want to use it again, but I obviously underestimated the colonials 🙂