Sorrento is at the far end of the Mornington Peninsula, one of the two arms that almost enclose Victoria’s Port Phillip Bay.
They were having one of their street markets, and though the weather looked ominous, I decided to risk it and go down for a look.
A few days ago, mild temperatures and sunshine were forecast. I took the opportunity to head into the Royal Botanic Gardens for some much needed exercise and sun. I had never properly explored them before, sticking mainly to the edges along St. Kilda Road, or climbing the hill to the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, an outdoor entertainment venue that’s hosted hundreds of performers over the years. The Bowl sits in a valley surrounded by hills.
Continue reading “Springtime in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens”
Having spent months earlier in the year editing and publishing my travel memoir, Is this the Road to Stratford?, I needed a serious dose of nature to get me back in balance. My computer and I don’t get on well if we spend to much time together in our little room. Continue reading “Healesville Sanctuary, Yarra Valley, Victoria”
The Gippsland Lakes are a network of lakes, marshes and lagoons, covering an area of around 350 square kilometres. From Bairnsdale, I followed the Princes Highway, as it snaked its way down and around a point known as Jemmy’s Point.
In 1889, a wall was built to fix the position of a naturally occurring channel between the lakes and Bass Strait, to stabilise the water level, create a harbour for fishing boats and to open the lakes up to shipping. Hence the name, Lakes Entrance.
I decided last week I needed some R&R and some nature, so I headed down to Victoria’s lakes district on the south-east coast. I’d been promising myself I would explore the area for years but somehow hadn’t got round to it. I stopped the first night in Bairnsdale, before taking the last 38kms down to Lakes Entrance the next day.
Recently my artist daughter exhibited some of her paintings in an art exhibition at Coolart Homestead at Somers, on the Mornington Peninsula, 80 kilometres south of Melbourne. I went down for a look.
I’ve just come back from a week-and-a-half stint with two of my teenage grandsons, while their parents were overseas. It’s definitely not hard work for me to leave the traffic and noise of my suburb and decamp to the beaches of Port Phillip Bay.
The temperature was heading for zero (well, 10°), the wind was blasting and it was threatening to rain. But, intrepid traveller that I am, I headed back into the city. It’s years since I’ve been to Captain Cook’s cottage, settled in the gorgeous Fitzroy Gardens, stretching behind the State Parliament buildings.
Continue reading “Captain Cook’s Cottage, Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne”
On my way to a matinee at the Melbourne Theatre Company, I hopped a tram up St. Kilda Road to the Shrine of Remembrance, to try out my new camera. The Shrine sits on a hill in the Royal Botanic Gardens.
A couple of weeks ago, I took off with my four adult children to Noosa, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, for my nephew’s wedding. The week before, Australia’s east coast had been hit with violent storms, causing damage all the way down to Tasmania. We were worried. It was to be an outdoor wedding, in a gorgeous spot called Hidden Grove, a swathe of lawn surrounded by trees and shrubs at the edge of the beach.
Planning to the Nth 