Wiseman's Ferry and St. Francis of Assisi

Our Parish Fete is less than a week away now. But last week I decided to try and take some time outside the home and church. A parishioner decided to join me. His name is Andrew and he's a lawyer. In this country, we have lawyers and we have barristers. The lawyers do all the pre-trial stuff. The barristers actually appear in court and try the case if clients do not settle. Andrew works for "Woolies" (Woolworths) which is a big grocery store chain, here. He tells me that most of the lawsuits could have been avoided had the Wollies' employees done their job and cleaned up aisle spills!

Andrew took the week off. Since he seems like a nice guy, I invited him along on my hike at Wiseman's Ferry (1). Here is the free ferry of the "Wiseman" (2). Unfortuantely, I thought this spot was a another place that I'd visited before. As Andrew hadn't been to it, I thought I'd show him a little of Australia to the home boy. (Actually, he and his family are Lebanese and he speaks Arabic; he arrived here at 2 years old and grew up in Australia). When I found out this was someplace I'd never been to, I was a bit disappointed. It's too rustic and not very scenic. (The other spot was way nicer for hiking.) Still we made the most of it.

There is only one trail here, called "the Convict's Trail." After you cross the Hawkesbury River, you follow a road for about a quarter of a mile and then you get to the trail head. Apparently in the 1800's, some of the convicts (exiled from England) were forced to build trails into the bush, like the one we hiked. The trail winds up and up to the top of the hill for about 2 KM (you can see the hill right in the middle of photo 1).

Along the way are some exotic succulents that spurt out shoots that go up and up, like a fountain (3-5). At the topof each is a crown of red flowers (5). I'm guessing the stalk is about 12-15 feet high! Really incredible to see the strength of it!

Wildflowers were in bloom everywhere (6). They came in purples, yellows and whites. I think Jesus would've admired them. This rock is called "Hangman's Rock" and was often said to be a spot where convicts were hung (7-8). It's been disproven. According to the experts, a tree had once grown through the middle of this rock and subsequently died. Pretty incredible! Here is a shot of the ubiquitous, tall, eucalyptus trees (9). And finally a selfie of Andrew and myself (10)

The scenes on the drive home were eqaully nice. There's a lookout point that gives you an overview of the Hawkesbury River (11-12). At a stop light, I looked over and took this shot of a meadow full of wildflowers (13).

Later inthe week, I was invited to "bless" the wedding of John and Kathreen. The couple got married in a Greek Orthodox Church to make his grandmother happy. (He doesn't really practice his faith!) Afterwards I was invited to their home for some nosh. These fruit bouquets were made by another parishioner (14-15). Aren't they lovely? She does this for fun. John and Kathreen are expecting their first child in April (16).Congrats!

I end with some miscellaneous photos from around the parish: a recent sunset (17); After a Mass, we prayed around the statue of Mary Queen of the Nations in front of the church (18) on our patronal Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (October 7); here is a photo taken last week during our gathering of the first pastor of our parish (Fr. Leonard Testa, OFM Conv., Maltese) and the latest pastor (me, Cubano) (19); irises are blooming around the statue of St. Francis for his Feast Day (October 4) (20); finally a selfie of the friars gathered to celebrate St. Francis (from left to right): myself, Br. Jerry Payne from CA, Br. Louis Schmid, Br. Dominic Lavaq, both from Australia, and Fr. Robert Melnick from my home province (21).

Remember that my associate, Fr. Gerard Lofranco, had to return to the Philippines as his sister (also a religious) was dying. She died today. Please keep him, his family and her in your prayers.

And pray for the parish here, too. Next week we will celebrate our first fete in four years. The weather looks really good and so much hard work has been put into this event that I can only expect good things. But please pray anyway!