Melbourne street and its Treasures

This morning after a slow trip from Willunga to Melbourne street in peak traffic, I dropped Brian off at his eye specialist.Instead of walking to St Peters Cathedral because I didn't think it would be open to the public at 9.15 am, I walked up Melbourne street.I passed this stunning wrought iron gate and saw that it is now the David Roch Foundation gallery.It would be open at 10am,so walked on and went into the corner shop called The Store and ordered a coffee.Staff are very outgoing and friendly and I was offered a paper or magazine before I even sat down. The area is well organized and has a very lively feel about it.I took some pictures, one of the lass who was industriously polishing glasses behind the bar.The coffee was excellent and I highly recommend it as a place to meet and bat the breeze.The menue looked good too.

The one thing that has me baffled about this blog , is that I seem unable to position the photos where I want them, never mind, you'll just have to accept the hodge podgy look.
On the way back I took some photos of the stunning flowering Jacaranda trees.There was so much colour with the native Frangipanny trees in flower as well.

When I arrived at the Gallery, the curator was just opening it so she invited me in. It has a beautiful Japanese style front garden with the carefully raked gravel and simple but interesting garden furniture.She told me the red garden seat came from an embankment on the river Thames and the ends were resting camel castings complete with red tassles. Inside the Gallery is exhibiting the most exquisite collection of French art, both paintings, furniture and textiles. It was my first time for seeing




a  Vitrine , a most ornate and beautifully crafted glass fronted cabinet for displaying treasures like netsuke. That wonderful book The Hare with Amber eyes which I read and re read, talks about the Vitrine the wealthy French had in the 19th century to display their treasures and the author inherits his great uncle's collection of netsuke.

Of course I wasn't able to photograph that. Unfortunately I had to get back to pick up Brian from the specialist so I wasn't able to fully look at everything.I will go back though and take time to really look at the paintings and fabulous pieces of furniture.I came home so inspired I got stuck into mowing our wild, wild garden. The good thing too, was that Brian's eye pressures are down which is such a relief.

Painting Garden Furniture

Today was "feed the potplants" day, I feed them on a Sunday as for some reason I seem to view it as spiritual practice. The plants love it of course and respond well with flowers and healthy foliage the next week. Brian painted the little verandah table as well as the old fashioned slatted garden seat we have. It all looks very Zen, so neat and clean!
The above rose is "Ian Thorpe" it is still in its pot and will be till next autumn when we will start planting ou new rose garden.We are thrilled with this rose, it cuts beautifully and the colour is soft and lovely.There are sixteen round bales of hay off our little patch and the Willunga hills in the background are becoming more and more wooded. They used to be so bare when we first arrived here twenty two years ago but people have planted trees which have done so well considering we have had a ten year drought. As I went around our place this morning, looking for the Tawney Frogmouths, I took photos of the bales of hay as well as the rose and the pommygranite flowers. The young Murray Magpies were sitting in a row on the gumtree limb but I couldn't get them to pose as their parents were very uppity and screaming warning notes at me.The Willy Wagtails young are doing their own thing now, and the Black birds are still breeding. Have planted Queensland blue pumpkin seeds this morning in the chook yard so hopefully they will do well there.The ground was like concrete where I generally have my vegies, it would be good to have some rain again.

Lavender Pinochio

We went to Ross Roses yesterday afternoon and got quite a shock to see the place so run down. It used to be an absolute jewel of a place with well kept rose beds all roses with easy to read tags and paths of well mowed grass.It looked deserted but on closer investigation to see if there was a notice on the door, we saw a man behind the counter.He was willing to identify the small roses and first thought it was Julia's rose. I knew it wasn't that one as we have one in the front garden. Brian mentioned that he thought it was a Pinochio but it had not matched the photo in the Rose book. The man realised then it was Lavender Pinochio and so it is. It is a lovely little rose of faded pink tones and I think it would go well with the Hot Chocolate rose which is a dark brownish red. We are planning a new rose garden now and it is fun thinking how we will achieve this.
Monday 12th November
Today we went to the new little restaurant just opened in an altered restored, little stone building up the road a bit from here.Beautifully done and a pleasant outlook.The food was good but not cheap and I do think for that price they could add a little potato and a few beans without charging extra.Food is not expensive to buy and even if the staff cost a lot to employ, surely a few vegies wouldn't break the bank? The coffee was excellent.

After going back to Willunga and picking up the mail, we decided to go onto Myponga to look at the roses there. I fell in love with Ian Thorpe, a wonderful deep red into brown and one of the employees showed us Fire and Ice which was also too stunning to pass up.So we bought them both and will have them in pots till next autumn when we plant them out.then Brian decided we needed more goldfish and as they were cheaper by the tens ( I only wanted two for a large outside bowl ) he got ten. So, we have done our bit to keep the economy going!!
The irises and roses are just stunning this season. The bowl on the right with the chook next to it is now full of water and the two little goldfish seem reasonably settled. Put in some slate pieces for them to shelter under. The rose above is actually a Tineke rose would you believe. It is a lovely shape and lasts extremely well when cut and brought inside. We saw a very lush burgundy Pierre de Rhonsart today as well. We have the pink one climbing up the honey suckle trellis.

Tawneys have fledged

This morning while hanging out the washing, I noticed the Tawneys were no longer in the nest in the Ash tree.Looking around I found them in the Pepper tree, near the chook shed and not very far up. They won't be easy to photograph because of all the leaves hiding them. I also finally found the blackbird nest in the patio vine, I had looked and looked and could hear the chicks but they seem to be ventriloquists and could not pinpoint the source of the sound.
Saturday  10th November

It is a stunning morning today, glorious sunshine and the sharefarmer is raking and bailing the hay at this moment. The hay had been left too long to my mind,  but these young men lead such busy lives and ours is only a small patch.
I tried to find the Tawneys but they have gone elsewhere perhaps, I should have taken a picture of them yesterday while they were in the peppertree. I saw them at dusk flying onto the honeysuckle trellis but can't take pictures then. I did take pictures of the stunning cactus flowers late afternoon and I will see if I can transfer them here.It seems to have worked!! Are they not absolutely stunning? you can just see the nodding violets as well.
I have started pruning the roses, poor things have been sadly neglected and still they bloom. There is one in particular of a faded old rose look, but neither of us can remember its name. So will take it to Ross roses this afternoon and see if they can identify it. We can also look to see what is blooming and take notes ready for ordering as we will start a new rose garden which will be in the sun.

Horses and Fetlocks

This afternoon I missed the only horse race I ever look at, the Melbourne Cup!! I was at the physio having my own fetlock strapped as I seem to have stretched the tendons in my arch and it was swollen and sore. I raced home thinking I would just catch it but Brian had just watched it and said Greenmoon , and Australian horse, trained by and Australian and ridden by an Australian had come from well back and won the race.We had a bottle of wine to celebrate and watch all the formalities and presentation of cups etc.I bemoaned the fact no one mentioned the horse in all this, but later Brian said, we all remember the horse in years to come but who the hell are the jockeys and trainers let alone the owners??? Pharlap, Black caviar, Green moon....how true, I would mention the Pt Lincoln horse but can't spell her name.....

We had some tremendous thunder storms last night with winds so strong it blew the top of the raingauge so have no idea how much rain we had.Everything in the garden looks happy again after yesterdays pounding of hot north winds.

Last Sunday while Brian's son was staying with us, we went to a new winery just up the road from us. We only seem to do these things when one has visitors. It is a dear little building where they have the wine tasting, quite rustic looking and stunning views over White's valley towards the sea. The wine is organically grown and interesting enough for me to buy some. A Pino Noir grown on the plains here is unusual to say the least, it is usually better coming from a colder climate. On Monday, we went and had lunch at D'Arry's verandah.The weather was foul, one of those hot,northerly winds and brown skies days. Inside was great and the food delicious and beautifully presented.The staff there are very attentive without going over the top, so we had a lovely afternoon, good food , good wines and lively conversations.