It's time for some #AlternativeFacts. Trump is not President, Obama is allowed to have a third term, and that Simpsons episode from 20 years ago remains a funny satirical portrait of an alternative future America.
And in this lovely, lovely world, we can safely ignore politics and take our children to visit one of Melbourne's historic houses.
Our original intention was to visit Como House, and then take the little punt across to Herring Island. And after I talked up both to the kids and got them all excited* about going, I did the very basic internet research I should have done first and found that Como House wasn't open. (It seems to be open on weekends again now, so we will go another time).
So, on this particular day (last Saturday), we visited Rippon Lea instead. (Read on to see some pretty pictures and experience the charm of Rippon Lea).
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Jan 27, 2017
Dec 29, 2013
Sunday Selections #152
It's time for Sunday Selections!
Sunday Selections is a weekly meme hosted by River at Drifting Through Life.
This week's photos are another ode to "the beauty of everyday things".
1.
Where was this shot of beautiful pampas grass taken, do you think? By a beach, or in the country?
Would you believe on an embankment on the side of Dandenong Road near Malvern? I don't know if it is always there or has been temporarily left to run riot, but it is pretty big - a veritable field of gorgeousness right by the side of the busiest road in the suburb. And I'd never noticed it before. I was happy when we got a red light so I could take this photo.
2.
Here is a "shell sculpture" my kids made today. Isn't it lovely?
They also tried to con me into paying them $2 each to see it. Nice try kids.
3.
Someone was very relaxed yesterday.
4.
It's still Jacaranda season. Here is a set of images from our backyard.
One of the best things about our house is the backyard. It's not huge, and it's unkempt, but I love it. It is a little patch of green (and purple!) relaxation.
How was YOUR week?
Sunday Selections is a weekly meme hosted by River at Drifting Through Life.
The rules are very simple:-
1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title
2. link back to River somewhere in your post
3. leave a comment on River's post and visit some of the others who have posted and commented: for example:
Andrew at High Riser
Gillie at Random Thoughts From Abroad
This week's photos are another ode to "the beauty of everyday things".
1.
Where was this shot of beautiful pampas grass taken, do you think? By a beach, or in the country?
Would you believe on an embankment on the side of Dandenong Road near Malvern? I don't know if it is always there or has been temporarily left to run riot, but it is pretty big - a veritable field of gorgeousness right by the side of the busiest road in the suburb. And I'd never noticed it before. I was happy when we got a red light so I could take this photo.
2.
Here is a "shell sculpture" my kids made today. Isn't it lovely?
They also tried to con me into paying them $2 each to see it. Nice try kids.
3.
Someone was very relaxed yesterday.
4.
It's still Jacaranda season. Here is a set of images from our backyard.
One of the best things about our house is the backyard. It's not huge, and it's unkempt, but I love it. It is a little patch of green (and purple!) relaxation.
How was YOUR week?
Oct 15, 2013
Some beauty: more Spring
Can't resist these: the trees in the garden out the front of the kids' school are in bloom again. So beautiful.
Oct 13, 2013
Sunday Selections #141
It's time for Sunday Selections!
This is a weekly meme started by Kim of FrogPondsRock as a way to showcase some of the many photos we all take, but don't get around to showing on our blogs. Sunday Selections is now hosted by River at Drifting Through Life.
This week, like River, I have gone with Spring.
Spring: when even my scrabbly garden has some pretty flowers:
This one's a cheat - it's a rose border planted by our neighbors that separates our properties:
This is a weekly meme started by Kim of FrogPondsRock as a way to showcase some of the many photos we all take, but don't get around to showing on our blogs. Sunday Selections is now hosted by River at Drifting Through Life.
The rules are very simple:-
1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title
2. link back to River somewhere in your post
3. leave a comment on River's post and visit some of the others who have posted and commented
This week, like River, I have gone with Spring.
Spring: when even my scrabbly garden has some pretty flowers:
This one's a cheat - it's a rose border planted by our neighbors that separates our properties:
Here's the full border:
Without a lovingly tended garden, the kids are reduced to hunting for "secret flowers", hidden amongst the grass:
How does spring look in your part of the world?
Apr 22, 2013
Everyday Beauty: Other People's Gardens
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I have garden envy, sometimes.
My husband and I are not gardeners. I have attempted garden beautification a few times, but I never follow through. Anyone (even me) can weed a flower bed, plant some stuff and throw down mulch, but the thing is you also have to stand there and water it each night for a little while, and keep up the weeding and the mulching, and remember to check on the health of those flowers every now and then.
That's the bit I don't do so well.
For a long time when my kids were little I defended myself with "time". "I've got no TIME for gardening!" "Who has TIME for that?" etc.
Now I have the time. But I have found, contrary to what I expected, I prefer to spend that time reading, tooling around on the computer, watching Breaking Bad and playing dumb games on my phone.
Y. is not much better. He has grand plans for vegetable patches and fruit trees (in the FRONT yard of course - he is Greek after all), and every now and then he will do a blitz, attacking overgrown trees, bushes and rockeries and making an impressive improvement in a two day rampage. But again, that tends to be the end of it for six months.
So gardening is not our thing.
In contrast, our next door neighbors have a beautiful garden, with lush soft green grass, pretty flowers, a rosebush hedge and gorgeous little rockeries. Our neighbors across the road have a plainer garden (probably more my style to be honest), which is trim and neat, with soft green grass and tidy green stuff around the edges.
Our kids nag us a lot, to the effect "I wish WE had a pretty garden", and "I wish WE had flowers", and "Why don't WE have a nice garden?". And I tell them, a garden is a lot of work (or money). You see, the thing that does reduce my envy somewhat is that every second day you can see our neighbors working quite hard in their gardens, mowing, trimming, weeding, mulching and planting. It's a big, ongoing thing.
Once upon a time maintaining a nice garden was part of the deal you accepted when you moved to the suburbs. Saturdays were spent washing and maintaining the car, mowing lawns, scooping up dog poop, raking leaves, sweeping porches, and weeding and trimming the garden. It was part of the package and you had to do it if you didn't want neighbors like my dad talking about your house looking "like a rental property".
These days that social pressure is... well, not gone, but lessened.
Hence, our garden.
But I do enjoy the beauty of my neighbors' gardens, on our walks around the blocks.
I have garden envy, sometimes.
My husband and I are not gardeners. I have attempted garden beautification a few times, but I never follow through. Anyone (even me) can weed a flower bed, plant some stuff and throw down mulch, but the thing is you also have to stand there and water it each night for a little while, and keep up the weeding and the mulching, and remember to check on the health of those flowers every now and then.
That's the bit I don't do so well.
For a long time when my kids were little I defended myself with "time". "I've got no TIME for gardening!" "Who has TIME for that?" etc.
Now I have the time. But I have found, contrary to what I expected, I prefer to spend that time reading, tooling around on the computer, watching Breaking Bad and playing dumb games on my phone.
Y. is not much better. He has grand plans for vegetable patches and fruit trees (in the FRONT yard of course - he is Greek after all), and every now and then he will do a blitz, attacking overgrown trees, bushes and rockeries and making an impressive improvement in a two day rampage. But again, that tends to be the end of it for six months.
So gardening is not our thing.
In contrast, our next door neighbors have a beautiful garden, with lush soft green grass, pretty flowers, a rosebush hedge and gorgeous little rockeries. Our neighbors across the road have a plainer garden (probably more my style to be honest), which is trim and neat, with soft green grass and tidy green stuff around the edges.
Our kids nag us a lot, to the effect "I wish WE had a pretty garden", and "I wish WE had flowers", and "Why don't WE have a nice garden?". And I tell them, a garden is a lot of work (or money). You see, the thing that does reduce my envy somewhat is that every second day you can see our neighbors working quite hard in their gardens, mowing, trimming, weeding, mulching and planting. It's a big, ongoing thing.
Once upon a time maintaining a nice garden was part of the deal you accepted when you moved to the suburbs. Saturdays were spent washing and maintaining the car, mowing lawns, scooping up dog poop, raking leaves, sweeping porches, and weeding and trimming the garden. It was part of the package and you had to do it if you didn't want neighbors like my dad talking about your house looking "like a rental property".
These days that social pressure is... well, not gone, but lessened.
Hence, our garden.
But I do enjoy the beauty of my neighbors' gardens, on our walks around the blocks.
 |
| Thank you neighbors, for beautifying our walks. |
 |
| Next door |
 |
| This one is from my garden |
Feb 10, 2013
Leaf Art
Half the time we back the car out the driveway the kids follow a little ritual accompanied by hushed giggles whereby M tells A to wind down her window and grab a handful of leaves from the bushes and trees our car brushes past. I pretend not to notice, then when we come back home they quietly gather up the leaves they've harvested and then I tell them no leaves inside the house, and they either leave them in the car or toss them on the front lawn.
Mostly this is all to no further end, but sometimes the leaves are used in a game where they become money or fairy dust or counters or confetti, and sometimes I find them stashed in a cup or a bowl inside a cupboard for later play, or carefully piled on the table outside until the wind or the cat swats them away.
Today they were put to another use, with the help of some extra bits gathered from the backyard and some paper and sticky tape:
Mostly this is all to no further end, but sometimes the leaves are used in a game where they become money or fairy dust or counters or confetti, and sometimes I find them stashed in a cup or a bowl inside a cupboard for later play, or carefully piled on the table outside until the wind or the cat swats them away.
Today they were put to another use, with the help of some extra bits gathered from the backyard and some paper and sticky tape:
 |
| "Leaf Garden" |
 |
| "Leaf Dog and Cat" |
Oct 14, 2012
Everyday Beauty: Raindrops
Raindrops on the clothesline:
And on our scraggly young olive tree (olive shrub):
I wanted to add a photo of raindrops on the car window, which I always think looks beautiful, but I couldn't capture it on the camera. Some things you just have to see and enjoy with your eyes, I guess. :)
Oct 6, 2012
Everyday Beauty: Around Here
Just walking around the suburban streets...
Crazy Paving on the path at our local park.
A natural archway formed by trees over a footpath
My neighbors' garden
How's the walking around your place? Anything pretty?
Oct 1, 2012
Everyday Beauty: Weeds
I hate weeds. They're usually ugly. They stop pretty ground cover and flowers from flourishing. And they're what makes me give up gardening, time and time again.
But even among the weeds, there is beauty.
But even among the weeds, there is beauty.
I quite like this stuff:
Clover and "buttercups". Gorgeous.
This one had to be taken as an EXTREME close-up, because this is one of those ugly, sprawling, prickly fellas (who has since been pulled out).
But the flower was rather stunning, when you looked up close:
Where did you see everyday beauty this week?
Aug 22, 2012
Some Beauty: Afternoon at Heide
On Sunday afternoon I went with my friend Pandora to Heide.
Heide is pronounced "Hidey" and is the Heide Museum of Modern Art which you can read about here. If you are a Melburnian or even an Australian of course you will know about Heide, so forgive the exposition for I am supplying this information for the tiny number of people here who are, as I was, ignorant of its existence.
Despite being an art lover (and a modern art lover), loving Sydney Nolan and Albert Tucker and knowing or knowing OF the work of all the famous and influential artists who kept residence at Heide, despite my love of galleries and gardeny places and historical-buildings-you-can-visit, and despite living most of my life in Melbourne - despite all that - I had never heard of the place.
I'll blame it on growing up in New Zealand.
Anyway, the place has stuck in my head in a lovely way since. It is beautiful and serene, and a living monument to what John and Sunday Reed accomplished. They bought it as an old dairy farm in the 1930's and landscaped it for beauty and self-sustainability AND helped establish the Australian Modern art movement through their patronage and influence. (The word "patronage" is so patronizing don't you think? It brings to mind wealthy dilletantes and is inadequate for what the Reeds did for Australian art). Most of the literature and commentary suggests that Sunday was the stronger influence, or perhaps she was just the more charismatic.
It certainly makes a great story. Willowy, artistic and independent-minded young woman from wealthy establishment family marries similarly aristocratic young lawyer; they buy a run-down old dairy farm outside the city [as it was then] and create a working farm and inspirational gardens from a philosophy of beauty and self-sustainability. They take in and nurture the best artists, creating the hub of the Modernist art movement in Australia; they live suitably artistic lives being volatile and smashing crockery, breeding cats and having affairs with the artists who live there - most famously Sidney Nolan, who had a relationship with Sunday for many years and who painted the Ned Kelly series in their dining room.
So here is what Heide looks like now:
As we approached the original house ('Heide I') from the carpark we heard, then saw, two kookaburras flying between tall silver gum trees that flank the path to the house. It was a lovely welcome into a beautiful landscape.
This house is a weatherboard cottage now painted pale pink with high ceilings, timber floors and white walls. The Reeds bought it in the 1930's and renovated it from Victorian farmhouse to 'French Provincial cottage', and it is gorgeous.
I'll admit this house resonated with me far more than 'Heide II', the award-winning late 70's modern minimalist house the Reeds lived in later. That house, with its narrow brick-walled corridors, open staircase and sunken lounge with built-in furniture AND original nobbly brown cushions and shag carpet, jolted back memories of a couple of swish architect-designed houses I'd admired as a child. It was built as a house and intended to later be an art gallery, and the design is clever in that way - but it seems very much a building of its time, and feels impersonal and cramped (to me). But it does fit in well with the landscape and the gardens designed around it.
In Heide I: a fireplace mantel with cat paintings on the tiles - taken before I was told that photography wasn't allowed (oops).
The sign near the 'kitchen garden' showing what's available when. In my daydreams I plan to have a small kitchen garden (modelled on my mother-in-law's in her Greek village) so this little chart may come in handy for me. When? Oh, you know, never. But I do like the IDEA of it.
The oak tree behind the house - beautifully symmetrical.
Just a view looking through the tangled vines behind the house
In the garden
This photo also gives an idea of the kind of day it was there - wintry and slightly overcast, lending everything the kind of romantic-in-the-country air that I am partial to. (I'm already composing a soundtrack to this place in my head).
After our little tour we headed to Cafe Vue and met Pandora's friends for lunch, which was a celebration for her birthday. Lunch was lovely, though we all agreed the ridiculously abundant high tea being served to an embarrassed couple at the window looked appealing for next time.
After lunch it was down to the paddock to see the tin cows. I'm always amazed when sculpture captures the manner and movement of a living thing. From the distance these really look real:
And then it was time to go home, not having seen everything but quietly humming with the joy that comes from spending an afternoon in a beautiful place.
Next on my reading list is The Heart Garden, biography of Sunday Reed and her influence at Heide.
I also came across this blog and enjoyed this read - and the photos from Heide in summer:
http://jessicastanley.com.au/2012/01/21/the-heart-garden/
Heide is pronounced "Hidey" and is the Heide Museum of Modern Art which you can read about here. If you are a Melburnian or even an Australian of course you will know about Heide, so forgive the exposition for I am supplying this information for the tiny number of people here who are, as I was, ignorant of its existence.
Despite being an art lover (and a modern art lover), loving Sydney Nolan and Albert Tucker and knowing or knowing OF the work of all the famous and influential artists who kept residence at Heide, despite my love of galleries and gardeny places and historical-buildings-you-can-visit, and despite living most of my life in Melbourne - despite all that - I had never heard of the place.
I'll blame it on growing up in New Zealand.
Anyway, the place has stuck in my head in a lovely way since. It is beautiful and serene, and a living monument to what John and Sunday Reed accomplished. They bought it as an old dairy farm in the 1930's and landscaped it for beauty and self-sustainability AND helped establish the Australian Modern art movement through their patronage and influence. (The word "patronage" is so patronizing don't you think? It brings to mind wealthy dilletantes and is inadequate for what the Reeds did for Australian art). Most of the literature and commentary suggests that Sunday was the stronger influence, or perhaps she was just the more charismatic.
It certainly makes a great story. Willowy, artistic and independent-minded young woman from wealthy establishment family marries similarly aristocratic young lawyer; they buy a run-down old dairy farm outside the city [as it was then] and create a working farm and inspirational gardens from a philosophy of beauty and self-sustainability. They take in and nurture the best artists, creating the hub of the Modernist art movement in Australia; they live suitably artistic lives being volatile and smashing crockery, breeding cats and having affairs with the artists who live there - most famously Sidney Nolan, who had a relationship with Sunday for many years and who painted the Ned Kelly series in their dining room.
So here is what Heide looks like now:
As we approached the original house ('Heide I') from the carpark we heard, then saw, two kookaburras flying between tall silver gum trees that flank the path to the house. It was a lovely welcome into a beautiful landscape.
This house is a weatherboard cottage now painted pale pink with high ceilings, timber floors and white walls. The Reeds bought it in the 1930's and renovated it from Victorian farmhouse to 'French Provincial cottage', and it is gorgeous.
 |
| 'Heide I' - the Reeds' first home at Heide. |
I'll admit this house resonated with me far more than 'Heide II', the award-winning late 70's modern minimalist house the Reeds lived in later. That house, with its narrow brick-walled corridors, open staircase and sunken lounge with built-in furniture AND original nobbly brown cushions and shag carpet, jolted back memories of a couple of swish architect-designed houses I'd admired as a child. It was built as a house and intended to later be an art gallery, and the design is clever in that way - but it seems very much a building of its time, and feels impersonal and cramped (to me). But it does fit in well with the landscape and the gardens designed around it.
In Heide I: a fireplace mantel with cat paintings on the tiles - taken before I was told that photography wasn't allowed (oops).
 |
The sign near the 'kitchen garden' showing what's available when. In my daydreams I plan to have a small kitchen garden (modelled on my mother-in-law's in her Greek village) so this little chart may come in handy for me. When? Oh, you know, never. But I do like the IDEA of it.
The oak tree behind the house - beautifully symmetrical.
Just a view looking through the tangled vines behind the house
In the garden
 |
| Hey little fella |
Twig sculptures. Pandora who comes from a farming family thought they looked like giant hay bales (as they do). I who come from a watching-TV-in-the-suburbs family found they reminded me of the swirling 'another dimension' image at the beginning of the old black and white Twilight Zone shows.
But more beautiful of course.
This photo also gives an idea of the kind of day it was there - wintry and slightly overcast, lending everything the kind of romantic-in-the-country air that I am partial to. (I'm already composing a soundtrack to this place in my head).
After our little tour we headed to Cafe Vue and met Pandora's friends for lunch, which was a celebration for her birthday. Lunch was lovely, though we all agreed the ridiculously abundant high tea being served to an embarrassed couple at the window looked appealing for next time.
After lunch it was down to the paddock to see the tin cows. I'm always amazed when sculpture captures the manner and movement of a living thing. From the distance these really look real:
 |
| Photo by Pandora, used with her permission |
And then it was time to go home, not having seen everything but quietly humming with the joy that comes from spending an afternoon in a beautiful place.
Next on my reading list is The Heart Garden, biography of Sunday Reed and her influence at Heide.
I also came across this blog and enjoyed this read - and the photos from Heide in summer:
http://jessicastanley.com.au/2012/01/21/the-heart-garden/
May 26, 2012
The Great Outdoors
Dr Bron at The Modern Family flummoxed me a little with her linky theme this week: THE OUTDOORS ONE.
Oh that's easy, I thought, I'll just go through my posts and find one where I've talked about something we did outdoors.
Don't have one.
Not one!
We do spend time outdoors - we do. But clearly I don't find it as fascinating as I do my little whinges about housework and working and cooking and raising kids and how hard it is to get some sympathy for driving to work.
So, because I want to do the linky and because I want to prove we do actually do stuff outside, here are some things we have done outdoors.
Look for creatures in the garden
I took my kids outside every day for a week to marvel at this guy and tried to pretend it was all wonderful and fascinating and he didn't totally gross me out!
Splash in the "pond" created by the little crater our car has gouged out next to the driveway.
Make a fairy garden (collect flowers, autumn leaves and anything pretty and deposit them in or around the "pond")
Picnics
Beach
Practice on bikes and scooters
Look at clouds / stars / sky
Collect autumn leaves
Collingwood Children's Farm
Zoo
OK, so we're hardly adventurous. I admit, Y and I are not the most outdoorsy people. Currently the kids are asking us to take them camping, which is WAY outside our remit. I've been camping a few times - OK three - but I was always tagging along with others. There is no way I can imagine me and Y being responsible for a safe and well-equipped and fun family camping holiday. About six years ago I threw out my pup tent because it was mouldy - after my last camping trip I lost patience waiting for it to dry and put it away damp. So my answer to camping requests has been variously "We don't have the stuff" or "You'll go camping with school when you're older" or "oh, Daddy hates camping". (Daddy has never been camping but I can guarantee he'd dislike it).
I think I'll have to offer them the camp in the backyard one summer. But even for that, we don't have the stuff.
So that's my "outdoors" post.
Oh that's easy, I thought, I'll just go through my posts and find one where I've talked about something we did outdoors.
Don't have one.
Not one!
We do spend time outdoors - we do. But clearly I don't find it as fascinating as I do my little whinges about housework and working and cooking and raising kids and how hard it is to get some sympathy for driving to work.
So, because I want to do the linky and because I want to prove we do actually do stuff outside, here are some things we have done outdoors.
Look for creatures in the garden
I took my kids outside every day for a week to marvel at this guy and tried to pretend it was all wonderful and fascinating and he didn't totally gross me out!
Splash in the "pond" created by the little crater our car has gouged out next to the driveway.
This photo is fresh from today
Make a fairy garden (collect flowers, autumn leaves and anything pretty and deposit them in or around the "pond")
Picnics
 |
| Botanical Gardens, March this year |
 |
| Carols by Candlelight, Jells Park, December last year |
Beach
Parks
Walk the dog
Practice on bikes and scooters
Hang out in the back yard
Collect autumn leaves
Collingwood Children's Farm
Zoo
OK, so we're hardly adventurous. I admit, Y and I are not the most outdoorsy people. Currently the kids are asking us to take them camping, which is WAY outside our remit. I've been camping a few times - OK three - but I was always tagging along with others. There is no way I can imagine me and Y being responsible for a safe and well-equipped and fun family camping holiday. About six years ago I threw out my pup tent because it was mouldy - after my last camping trip I lost patience waiting for it to dry and put it away damp. So my answer to camping requests has been variously "We don't have the stuff" or "You'll go camping with school when you're older" or "oh, Daddy hates camping". (Daddy has never been camping but I can guarantee he'd dislike it).
I think I'll have to offer them the camp in the backyard one summer. But even for that, we don't have the stuff.
So that's my "outdoors" post.
What do you get up to in the outdoors?
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