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.