Today is easter monday and virtually everything is shut unlike yesterday which was easter sunday when you might have expected it to be. However we noted on a previous drive around the area that Bethany ,the first successful german settlement in the area,was having an open day. 28 families emigrated due to religious persecution of the Lutherans in Silesia,one of whom was the Lehman family whose descendant was the well known wine maker Peter of that ilk. The other families have also left their mark with roads,shops and vineyards all named after them. We enjoyed a guided walk of the village which was built in a german hufendorf style i.e. houses along the main road with a long thin plot for veg,fruit etc behind towards a creek for water. The pioneer cemetery contains the remains of the first settlers and all the gravestones are written in german. The language was in common use well into the last century and our guide (aged 75) said his grandmother only spoke it and he can a little but their dialect is nothing like german today with many english words absorbed into it. The old school had fascinating photographs and other ephemera from the past. There was a demonstration of old techniques with a horse trough and rope being made. A lady even showed us how they still make the noodles for their chicken soup with a german made pasta machine from 1910.
All around the Barossa at the time of the vintage,which is about to finish this coming week,people place amusing scarecrows as part of their festival to mark the occasion . We took the opportunity to photograph the ones around the village. Back in Angaston we noticed that the historic smithy was going to be open this afternoon so walked down after lunch. It really was like stepping out of the Tardis. It had been in constant use since the 1840's and the last smith ceased working in his 90's. The last horse was shod in 1965 and the town clubbed together to buy it when it was threatened with demolition in the 1980's. It still has the original forge,anvil and bellows brought over when it started. Behind it was a wheelwrights which also still had all its equipment. A retired farmer,used to making stuff for his old family farm,and a keen youngster who was fed up of shop bought tools not being up for the job,were demonstrating how to make leaves for decorative ironmongery.