Melbourne.

G'Day,
We got back from Melbourne (capitol city of Victoria, 3 1/2 million people) on Saturday evening. Had a lovely time there. Took some good pics at the flower show which I thoroughly enjoyed. Went to the Caravan and camping show and sticky beaked around the city in general. Had a look in the Catholic cathedral, Saint Patrick's. Beautiful, a real work of art and a rival for St Mary's cathedral that I love to visit while I'm in Sydney. I'm not a catholic, Pete is, but I can still admire the architecture and design of beautiful buildings, anyway they were all built to the glory of the same god. Both St Pat's and St Mary's are ornate Gothic churches with lots of beautiful stained glass and wood work.
I had a lovely spend up at the flower show and got some red day lilies, a Louisiana iris, a black hellebore, some autumn crocus and Japanese iris bulbs, some black echiums, and a black scabiosa. All things that I know will grow in my soil here. Except the Louisiana iris which is a bit of an experiment, but worth a try. I also got a hug and my photo taken with Don Bourke who is a garden celebrity. He had a garden show on T.V. here for many years and now runs his own garden magazine and does radio shows. The other 2 flower pics on here are of a display of bromeliads and the yellow /orange flowers are lycoris or commonly named nerines. I had not seen them in this colour before. Pete was very patient with me while I looked at everything, isn't he a darling. He spent some of his time sitting on the grass enjoying a group of south American Indian blokes playing and singing their music who were very good.
I didn't cook one meal for all the time I was away except toast for breakfast. We ate Thai, Indian and Chinese food for tea each night, the Chinese place we went to was in the middle of the city in china town and we sat in the window so we enjoyed people watching while we waited for our meals. We used public transport so didn't have to drive. It was easy to learn how to use the tram system. I was not so impressed by Pete not following my directions and driving around in circles on the way out of the city . I was the navigator, but we found our way around eventually. My excuse for this when I am driving is "We are just taking the scenic route".
The place we stayed was in a good position and only a 15 minute walk from the flower show. St Vincent's hospital was also nearby and I thought it was funny that they had a sign on the footpath pointing to the Aikenhead ward and another a bit further along to the Healy ward. I think I would rather be in the Healy ward is I needed to be there.
We went to the Queen Victoria markets before we left on Saturday morning and had a lovely shopping spree, clothes & shoes for the kids, Pete's birthday presents, I got a pretty table cloth, and I was annoyed about the prices of fruit and veges as they were about half the price we pay here inland where things are actually grown. I got lovely fresh figs ( made them into jam last night) and passion fruit and some other fruit & veges as well to bring home. I also got some fresh seafood which we had for tea last night. The ling fish I bought home, I paid $19 per kilo, its $26 here if you can get it.
This morning I have been gardening and finding places to plant all of the lovely things I got from the garden show. They are all now in place except the Japanese Iris which will have to wait for me to lift and divide the row of agapanthus that is along my front fence so they can be mixed amongst them. They flower at different times.
The combined Bonsai and Pottery club's exhibition was on over the weekend and I went in yesterday for a few hours. It was a nice social afternoon as I didn't bother to exhibit anything, it was nice to talk to other club members etc.
The weather here is lovely at the moment. It has been in the high 20's to low 30's and though we haven't had much rain, what we have had is actually still in the soil and not being zapped straight back out again by the hot weather, so the garden is benefiting from it. It's a good time to plant and garden.
I go back to work tomorrow after a bit over a week holidays. Why don't I have a rich husband so I don't have to go to work? Ho Hum.