Our guest cottage, in which the original owners of "Riverbend" are said to have lived while they built the 'Big House', has always been empty, and so we were happy to hand it over to anyone who wanted to spend a relaxing week by the river - free of charge, of course.
During my time with the Australian National University, I took scores of foreign students down to "Riverbend" for a bit of a taste of Australian beaches and the countryside, by which they could kindly remember their time in Australia after they had returned to their home countries.
At one time, I even handed the key to the cottage to a barman at the Austrian Club who wanted to give his son a holiday of canoeing and swimming in the Clyde River but lacked the money to do so. They spent an enjoyable week at "Riverbend", at the end of which they left the key under the mat and a message scribbled hastily on the bottom of a pizza box, "Thanks, Peter!" From memory, it was a "Hawaiian Supreme".
Not everyone was as thoughtless as that, and we still fondly remember Joan and Ron Hogan who were good friends from our time with the Eurobodalla Country Music and Social Club. They spent a week - or was it two? - in our guest cottage sometime in 2006. A few weeks after they had left, a big parcel arrived. In it was the above watercolour of Riverbend's jetty, painted by Joan Hogan during their stay with us.
The painting now has pride of place in "Bonniedoon", and every time I open my eyes after a refreshing afternoon nap, I look at it again. Joan and Ron are both dead now but their memory lives on at "Riverbend".
