The wood of Blackwood, being very hard and close-grained, was used in Victoria for spear-throwers and shields; the bark was infused in water to bathe rheumatic joints, and the inner bark was used to make string. 

There are over 1,000 different wattle species in Australia, and many of them were used by the Aborigines. In many areas wattle gum was an important food as well as a cement. Wattle seed is high in protein and carbohydrate and was eaten both green and dry in the arid areas. The Tasmanians ate the green seed and pods of Coast Wattle, Acacia sophorae, and Varnish Wattle, Acacia verniciflua, and wattle blossom was hung in their huts to promote sleep.

Then there's the Bunyia Pine:

Particular trees were considered to be the property of certain Aboriginal families, but everyone was invited to share the delicious nuts, which are not unlike chestnuts when roasted in the fire.

Well, we didn't sing the song but the rain has stayed away from us during our first three days in England and it looks like it will be sunny for the last day we are here too.

We arrived late Friday night, and although it was slightly overcast on Saturday, it really has been fantastic here. Saturday was spent looking at some sights in the local area.  Down the road is Fishbourne Palace, an excavated site with extensive Roman ruins.  That was interesting both in inside the building and also for the gardens.  After a quick lunch,and because it was starting to get very windy, we moved on and went for a walk in Bosham Hoe.  This walk takes you down to the harbour, where you can see a lot of small villages dotted along the landscape and the boats, which go from being dry docked in low tide, to being well anchored for high tide.  There's even some streets on the harbour's edge that warn that cars parked in the area will be flooded in high tide.

What better way to finish the day than at the local pub?  Well, almost the most local one...  This one was a good family pub and the meals were large and well priced.  We had a great dinner there before feeding some ducks at the water's edge and going home.

Sunday was spent at church in the morning and visiting my brother-in-law's parents in the afternoon.  We walked along a stretch of beach near their house and even saw some people engaged in beach cricket!  Later on, Maya went to a birthday party and we just came home to rest - after all, we had a big night ahead of us...we were going to have wine, cheese, olives, grapes and other nibbles in a shared meal. Yes, it was a nice night.

Today, we woke to another sunny day.  We travelled in to London, which took just over 90 minutes from the south coast.  We had arranged to go to the British Museum and then after a couple of hours, meet up with our friends, the den Dulks. It was great that they made the effort to travel almost 90mins from north of London to meet up with us and we then spent the rest of the afternoon together, in the British Museum and walking around London.

After saying goodbye, Andrew & I then headed back to Waterloo Station so that we could go south again.  Not quite ready to end our day, we walked around the Southbank, behind the London Eye and had a quick dinner in the area.  We then began the long train journey south, surrounded by more people journeying home at this time of day!

Tomorrow is our last day here before we begin our trip back home to Australia.  I won't write about it now but will leave it until we get back.