Food and wine

Easter weekend has started and crowds are gathering.  The quiet Victorian roads are now seething with traffic as people stream out of Melbourne heading for mountains, lakes, rivers and resorts - last chance to enjoy a holiday before the serious business of the year - "The Football" - begins.

We are here in Wangaratta for 2 nights so we can explore the Milawa Gourmet area.
A few wineries were closed in the area but shops were open showcasing local products - we bought olive oils, jams, cheese, mustard, and pickled onions which I am assured are the best in Australia but perhaps this only means the mainland - Tasmania produces great pickled onions!

Leaving Milawa we paused at Gapstead wines to taste the local drop - Ros bought a dozen, I bought 2 (bottles). On to Beechworth.

The countryside has changed - still dry but paddocks dotted with old gums, dry creek beds and punctuated with tracts of fairly open bushland.  An escarpment overlooks the farmland, rocky outcrops and folds of hills and gullies lead up to Beechworth.

This was bushranger country: not far away Ned Kelly made his last stand after the shootout with police, spending time in Beechworth lockup and courthouse before taking his final journey to Melbourne for trial, conviction and hanging in 1880. Harry Power, last of the old bushrangers and Ned's mentor also spent time in the gaol.  There is a lookout, offering a commanding view of the plains named for him, Power's Lookout, which Geoff and I climbed several years ago. It allowed him to view the troopers and make his escape (obviously not all the time). He died in Beechworth gaol.
Robert O'Hara Burke, of Burke and Wills fame, was superintendent of police here at one time.

Beechworth's importance during the gold rush period as a place of law and order is reflected in the many solid and elegant sandstone public buildings, bank buildings, including a gold vault, hotels and street scapes. The town has one of the best preserved Chinese cemetaries in Australia - the Chinese were instrumental right throughout Victoria in helping to extract the gold.

Today the "gold" is extracted through tourism!  Beechworth was thronged with people - the many eateries were doing great business, none more so than the iconic Beechworth Bakery. Beechworth is full of quirky shops selling anything and everything but often homewares, high end clothing and fine art and pottery at the many galleries.  The history of the town is highlighted beautifully and there is a great small museum. The town is full of neat cottages and lovely mature trees, deciduous and evergreen, line the streets. Tomorrow there is to be an enormous Easter festival with a procession of floats, vehicles, marchers etc.  The whole town is excited and expecting thousands of visitors!

Tonight we're sitting outside our motel unit eating cheese and drinking wine - with applecakes to come because restaraunts are closed but we could hit Maccas if we're desperate!

Home tomorrow - a lovely trip. Gardens, sight seeing, history, food, good company, glorious weather - what more could you ask?

Gardens, Antiques and Spas

Lambly Nursery was our first port of call today.  What a glorious spot! In the middle of baked paddocks an oasis of green: sculpted hedges surround rooms of colour, texture and fragrance, humming with bees and tiny birds diving in and out of bushes and shrubs.

There is a dry garden full of textures from euphorbias, lavenders, succulents, leaves, grasses and various coloured foliages, many grey or muted browns. A gravel pathway winds through leading to a rustic seat.

The whole effect is muted and restrained contrasting with the summer garden across the hedge which explodes with colour, rambling flowers and foliage.  Here Salvia Azure spreads in tangled profusion across the pathway bisecting the herbaceous borders. Cool colours, blue, pinks, white, lilacs, purples fill the beds of one "room" -  across the pathway another "room" is filled with the heat of oranges, reds and yellows yet not jangling, proving how forgiving nature can be.

Elsewhere we noted a pear walk, vegetables to die for and espaliered fruit trees. The nursery specialises in mail orders of rare plants, bulbs and heritage species.  This was a truly beautiful place with 12 permanent staff who enthusiastically celebrate gardening.

A brief stop for tea and pastry at the Creswick Boulangerie and Patisserie and then we hit the antique shops of Newlyn. Run by an elderly couple who love  anything old and beautiful and sharing this love and situated in a timber vintage building, this shop is full of quality pieces.  We stayed ages chatting and left with a few little bits.

The Mill antique centre was next - fun, retro, vintage, and huge - real searching needed to find treasure.

By this tine we were feeling in need of pampering so headed to Hepburn Springs and the historic bath house.  Considerably altered and no longer resembling it's 1895 ancestor the bath house still offers mineral water bathing as well as beauty and health treatments. We opted for the Santuary -  salt bath,  steam room, spa and final relaxing soak in the hot mineral pool.  Looking a bit like prunes we emerged, very clean, two hours later.

This area has many old guest houses, B and Bs, hotels and cottages to cater to visitors attracted by the mineral springs  for over 100 years.

What a lovely day!

Volcanoes and plains

Yesterday we drove to Hamilton to visit Aunty Dorothy - she is amazing, not only caring for two of her frail adult children but every day she has an elderly neighbour to dinner, she runs the local RSL ladies guild and is still involved with community activities.  She's 88! She was quite offended that I thought she was 90!  She came out to lunch beautifully dressed in lilac and kept the conversational ball rolling.  What a lady - an example to all of the benefits of keeping busy, alert and remaining still excited by life! Her unit is immaculate and her cottage garden is filled with colour.

The countryside in the western districts is very dry, bare earth showing through the sparse grass and areas of ploughed paddocks, dotted with gums and sometimes bordered with old pine or cypress windbreaks.  Cropping and hay making are important and stacks are immense: hay is mostly bailed rather then rolled. Farmers are burning stubble then ploughing before the hoped-for rains.  It is flat country mostly, broken by rounded hills - remnants of volcanic action thousands of years ago.  The Grampians loom over the plains providing walking, climbing and outdoor activities. This spectacular range is very popular.

Around Creswick, between Ballarat and Daylsford, potatoes are being harvested now and paddocks ploughed.  Creswick is a charming town, once important in the Victorian goldfields, and now drawing tourists to it's gardens, mill and eateries.  We ate at the American Hotel (1854) last night: an excellent menu, good wines and very full for a Tuesday night. Ros had calamari and I had pepper sausages on mash with caramalised onion and green pepper sauce - sublime!

Everywhere we are delighted by the historic, beautifully preserved public buildings and the many charming weatherboard cottages featuring iron lace and fretwork, painted and accented and frequently surrounded by picket fences, roses and lavenders. We have loved exploring the area.

Melbourne playground

What a day we've had!  Relics of Victoria's early defences, quarantine horror for early settlers, gracious homes of the mega rich and famous and the cafe heart of the Mornington Peninsula. Access to this naturally beautiful landscape and many seaside towns is easy via the motorway so it's a popular destination - many people have camped on the beach reserves year after year - and Melbournians love to get out and about.

We drove right to the end of the peninsula to Pt Nepean. Here are the early military fortifications of Fort Nepean with tunnels and gun emplacements which were for the early defence of Victoria and active during both wars. The entrance to Port Phillip Bay was of strategic importance and the many structures show the evolution of military engineering over the 19th and 30th centuries.

The quarantine station (begun in 1852 to take passengers from the SS Ticonderoga, which arrived with typhus on board: many died at sea in horrific conditions and on reaching land - 100 in all) operated until 1952 before becoming Army Cadet Training facilities until the 1990s.  It remains intact with many heritage listed buildings.

Walking tracks of varying lengths lead all over Point Nepean giving opportunities to view flora and fauna, the military and early settler history.  It is a wonderful area and well preserved- well worth spending a weekend exploring.

Portsea and Sorrento are two highly desirable seaside towns - mansions from Victoria's heyday, more modest homes and holiday accommodation line the golden sandy beaches and turquoise waters. The shopping strip is full of boutiques, eateries and galleries all full of people enjoying the glorious sunshine.

After a lunch of fresh, fresh fish we drove to view the wild side of the peninsula -  Prime Minister Harold Holt drowned near here in 1967 - but today the sea was calm and no footprints marred the beach stretching as far as the eye could see.

Catching our attention were rows of gaily painted beach huts, nestling on the sand and providing storage and family space for many years to beach goers.  These huts may only be passed down through families, never sold and they are highly valued. 

The final treat of the day was a lightening fast visit to Heronswood, a mansion built in the 1860s and now a garden, restaraunt, shop and home of the Digger's club promoting unusual and heritage plants. I bought the Alliums I've long admired.

This area demands another visit with walking boots! 

A gentle day

We slowed the pace today - slept in and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast.  Then we left to visit the town of Warrandyte in the hills area - not as high as the Dandenongs but leafy and green rolling countryside.  Equestrian centres, vineyards, fruit stalls, antiques, country stores, tea shops and restaurants make this a popular weekend destination. 

Our destination was a new Italian restaurant situated in a vineyard and olive grove - Olivigna - which was charming, a little rustic but elegant at the same time.  Pencil pines line the road framing olive trees before stepping up to a loggia for outdoor dining and into the restaurant.  The gardens feature agaves, lavenders and ground covers.
We ate gnocci with caramelised scallops, pea puree and crispy fried chicken skin - delicious!

After browsing antique shops we met Ellie's son and family for scrummy cake in Clifton Hills.  The rain held off although it was a bit fresh.  Shops have abandoned summer and filled their windows with winter temptations. Black, grey and more black.

Old Victoria Markets

These markets have been an institution here for ever - I came here with mum when I was 4 years old. Inevitably there have  been many changes - areas are roofed over and spaces enclosed. The market sheds contrast with the towering new sky line.

The eclectic mix of food, clothes, souvenirs, livestock and so much more is fascinating.  Fish, meats, poultry and deli have their own food halls, fruit and vegetables another area and organic  produce yet another.  Stall holders ( some have worked here 60 years and more) are enthusiastic without being pushy and very proud of their beautiful products - what a joy it must be to shop for such quality yet very well priced produce!  We ate breakfast and lunch here and then caught the tram back down to Flinders Street. The rain poured down! 

Then the sun came out and we headed off on the double-decker bus to tour the city - an excellent trip with a good commentary.  Unfortunately the rain came down again and we were nearly blown off the top of the bus! Brrrr!  Hot chocolate fixes a lot! Three marshmellows each! We enjoyed it whilst exploring Federation Square and the Victorian Gallery Shop. The roof line is an amazing structure.

We explored an alley-way bright with graffiti - preserved now because many of the painters have gone on to become recognised artists. Sadly some of the original work has been tagged by "artists" totally lacking creativity.

After dinner in the city we caught the train back to Ellie's house. What a great time we had on our city trip!

Melbourne International Garden Show

Trams are free within the city centre - we took the tram! The Exhibition Building completed in 1880 was the largest building in Australia at that time and remains an exhibition space today.  It is a stunningly beautiful building with a glorious cuppola at it's centre, restored to it's original colours in 1992 and featuring painted panels, a mezzanine floor and graceful spaces, filled today with the creations of an army of florists and garden enthusiasts. The creativity and beauty of the exhibits took your breath away.

Outside, the gardens, magnificent with aged oaks, towering figs and elms, beds of scarlet and orange cannas and lush lawns harbour the stalls, displays, and designs of Australia's gardening elite.  The display gardens, representing everything from outback gardens, courtyards, retro landscapes, to the most futuristic creations charm, thrill and challenge.  Designers are happy to share their visions, love and passion.

I found many inspirations but my favourite took a small space andfeatured an infinity pool, surrounded with dense plantings including white hydrangeas.   Highlighted by a steel structure, the dining area was framed by a matching pergola. Pleached figs bordered the pathway leading to the dining area and the lush lawn, bisected by rectangular grey pavers.  The whole garden was lush, cool and spectacular!  Peaceful!

Many gardens featured water, sculptures, structures and dense planting.
Colour often came through mass planting of single species such as cyclamen, bulbs, daisies.  Everywhere stall holders offered advice, the latest equipment, every possible seed, bulb and plant, old and new, ornaments and garden enhancements ever created.

Later we took a tram, not free this time and went out to St Kilda beach sitting to sip iced drinks and watch the bold, beautiful ( and not so beautiful) scene pass by.  Sun bathers and rather a lot of old, wrinkly sunburned men toasted themselves on the green lawns or fine sands of the bay. The Grand Prix is in town so the mix of accents, languages and rather exotically looking people added to the mix.

A great day ended with Chinese food in Little Bourke Street - the China Town of Melbourne. Walking back to the hotel the streets are still full of people, the evening is still warm and Melbourne is still humming!