Warburton

We drove from Marysville to Warburton over the hills past Lake Mountain. It was the long way and quite a narrow and windy road, but the forests were just beautiful. It was windy, and the last 5 km into Warburton it started to lightly rain and just as we got to our accommodation there was quite a down pour.  My first impression of Warburton was that it was a bit run down and disappointing, but after our two days there I could easily go back, it was a good base and there was plenty to do and an excellent visitors centre. Just 100 meters from our little cottage there was a lovely walk along the Yarra River which was very pretty. We did several walks along the river.

There was a lovely mural painted on the steps up to the Visitor's Centre, where the staff were very helpful and lots of information.

There were a series of about 40 murals at the back of the Visitor's Centre depicting various scenes from around the area.

We headed up to the Rainforest Gallery, which was a lovely metal board walk along the floor of the rainforest. Magnificent Mountain Ash and Myrtle Beech trees.

We then headed to Cement Creek and eventually managed to find the Redwood Forest Plantation, about 1400 trees planted back in the 1950's, pretty magnificent trees and a lovely place to wander through.

We then headed back into Warburton and across to Healsville and then the outskirts of Yarra Glen.- took about an hour, mum thought it was a long way to go for a hot chocolate at the Chocalitier, but after we got there and shared a quinoa and roasted vegetable salad, followed by a hot chocolate each and a wander through the shop, she could see why Amy and I like calling in here! It was a lovely sunny afternoon and very pleasant temperature.

After the chocolate place we checked out the Yarra Valley Dairy which was about 15 minutes away at Yering, where we got to sample some lovely goat and cow cheese, we had a gourmet afternoon! We then headed back to Warburton for the night.

After a bit of a rest at home, mum and I went for a walk along the Yarra River again, upstream this time.

Wednesday morning we packed up and drove back to mum's, it was just over and hours drive through Cockatoo and Upper Beaconsfield. It was a pretty drive through the forests. Dropped mum and home and spent and hour or two there before heading to the airport, dropping off the car and flying home to Canberra. It was a lovely trip and a nice break away.

Marysville Enroute to Warburton

After 3 nights with John and Judy we set off Monday morning, loaded up with a lovely packed lunch from Judy and headed to Warburton the back way through Alexandra and Marysville. It was a lovely drive and nice and quiet on the roads as it was the back roads and a Monday morning. We had a brief stop at Alexandra and then headed to Marysville which was very pretty. Marysville was pretty badly burnt out in bush fires in 2009. We called in at the visitors centre and worked out our plan of action. First stop was the Steavenson Falls which were very pretty and so lovely and green.

It was an easy walk to the falls so mum waited at the bottom while I did a quick walk up to the top of the falls.

After the falls we headed to Bruno's Sculpture Gardens where we wandered around the lovely gardens and looked at the sculptures scattered throughout the gardens. The gardens and sculptures had been burnt in the fire, throughout the gardens they had photos of some of the burnt out areas and damaged sculptures. Bruno had been able to restore a lot of the damaged ones. It was very peaceful wandering through the gardens, we sat at had our lunch at one of the picnic tables. 

Locksley Farm Stay

After 2 nights in Maldon we headed across to central Victoria to stay with friends of the family- John and Judy Thomson who live on a farm between Seymour and Euroa. We had a lovely time with John and Judy and they looked after us so well. We got to see around their farm, meet their pet sheep Cindy, and see the dorper sheep they run on their property. These sheep are for their meat, and they shed their wool/hair so don't need shearing. It is quite flat leading up to their property then you head up the hill and get lovely views across the plains. We had a fantastic time staying with John and Judy.

The view from their house.

Cindy the pet sheep, who wanders around the yard near the house and is a bit like a pet dog!

John, Pam and Judy- we went for a wander along the creek bed.

They used to have a small creek running through their property which runs usually 8 months of the year. In January 2016 they got 100mm of rain in 2 hours which turned their creek into a raging torrent 25 meters wide and 4 meters deep- it wash away lots of soil and sand and left them with a pretty amazing gully that runs through their property, John took me walking and rock hoping up the creek bed- was a great walk.

The house that John built- pretty amazing man and what he can do! John always told mum that he wouldn't come to her funeral unless she came for a visit, so she had been for her visit- so a seat will be reserved!

March Road Trip With Mum

I went on a road trip around central Victoria with my mum last week, we had a great time. Our first stop was Maldon out near Castlemaine, one of the earliest Gold Mining towns, a place mum had wanted to go for ages. I flew down to Melbourne, picked up a hire car and drove to Berwick, picked up mum and headed back out past the airport to Maldon- it wasn't all that far about an hour and a half from Melbourne. We stayed in a lovely house on the edge of Maldon that  had everything we needed- could have easily stayed there for a week! Maldon has beautiful old buildings which they have tried to preserve. We walked up and down the main street and later did a drive around the rest of the town to see some of the historical buildings.

There were lots of lovely verandas and wrought iron.

The main street

One of the lovely Aussie Bush scenes

One of the views from Mt Tarrengower where you can see a fair bit of Central Victoria. According to the Maldon visitors center Maldon is almost the geographical center of Victoria.

Mum on the front porch of our lovely home for two nights.

 Early morning view of Maldon from ANZAC hill

Enlighten Festival

A couple of weekends ago it was the Enlighten Festival, so Bill and I and the kids went in to have a look. We got some dinner from the Noodle Markets and caught up with a friend of mine and her husband and one of her sons. Kerrie and I had gone through Teachers College together so over 30 years we have known each other. We enjoyed checking out the evening and the lovely mild weather. The buildings looked good. I was hoping to ride into the balloons one morning with Bill, but in the 10 day festival the balloons only went up twice and not on the days we could have ridden in! It has not been typical autumn weather for Canberra this year, warm, humid and muggy- reminds us more of Sydney weather- all a bit crazy!

Rutherglen via Melbourne and Glenrowan

Amy and I had a quick trip down to Melbourne for some top up Neurofeedback treatment. We drove down on the Wednesday, leaving at 6:30am for a 3pm appointment, go stay the night with my mum, which is always nice to catch up and check up on her. We then had an appointment on Thursday at 12 noon, then head for home staying overnight somewhere, to tiring to drive back the next day. This time we stayed in a B&B at Rutherglen which is about half way between Canberra and Melbourne, a bit of a detour of the Hume Freeway but it was a lovely place to stay.

On the way back we called in at Glenrowan and checked out the Ned Kelly stuff- I always like going on a road I haven't traveled on before, or go through a town I haven't been before.

When we arrived at our B&B at Rutherglen we had a cheese platter awaiting, it was lovely sitting out on the balcony. The B&B was in an old bank. I had some home made lemonade, not being a drinker, and Rutherglen being a major wine area. That filled us up, so ended up just having a few tapas plates for dinner in one of the eateries in town. Everyone was so friendly.

In the morning I went for a walk around Lake King, a small lake in town, there were lovely river red gums lining the path. Nice way to start the day and burn off some energy before the lovely breakfast that kept us full for the rest of the day till we arrived home. 

Working in the Backyard

Have been busy out in the backyard with a few jobs over the last few weeks. One job has been putting up a new fence between our neighbour at the back. It ended up being a bit of a drama as the fence went down in one day but then he didn't come back till the following week to actually put up the fence. Normally it wouldn't be a drama but with dogs it was a bit of a hassle. We had to train Luna to go out the back in the old chook yard, she wasn't to happy about that at first. When we were all home we could check that Terry's place was secure and she could go for a wander. She would go and sit at their back door, tail wagging, hoping to go in and have a visit! The fence guy eventually came back and had it finished in two days, was most apologetic, had another job on at the same time. We have cleared the side fence of all the bushes as we are getting that done as well, as it is barely standing. He has promised to get it done in three days, and he did do Terry's other fence in three days so that should happen this week hopefully. We had the young men from church come around and help do some clearing- they got so much work done in one night it was great!

I picked up these metal bulrushes last week, they go perfectly with the reeds I potted up and make a nice little feature outside the back door- am very pleased with them.

Here is Eddie the Emu I picked up in Yea with Amy on our recent trip to Melbourne for some Neurofeedback treatment. He is made out of old horseshoes.