Scones, Gardens and Art – A Magical Day
Apart from Champagne and Music, my other passions include Mosaics, Gardens, Art, Antique Bone China and Devonshire Teas.
On a recent Sunday I managed to indulge in a number of these passions…
My lovely neighbour and my clever, arty, gardening friend and I first set off to visit Banool, which was on display, for the first time, as a part of the open garden scheme. ‘Banool’ is a Paul Bangay designed garden filled with lovely old trees and interesting sculptural pieces
‘Banool’ has a lovely, old, stone house, which was built in 1936. The property was bought, by the current owners, in 2004 and the house and gardens have been extensively renovated.
There are many interesting copper sculptural pieces including a number of handmade copper swings, which looked amazing as architectural pieces.
The day began with rain but ended up being quite pleasant, though the seats were a little wet for our Devonshire tea tasting by the pool.
My trusty neighbour appears to be enjoying the scones! She didn’t continue on with us to the next garden/artist studio. Perhaps she went back for more scones…
We continued on to visit Nerina Lascelles. , one of the amazing artists who had her studio open as part of the Nillumbik Artist Open Studios
Nerina has been exhibiting in Australia and overseas for over 20 years. Her work is quite layered and seems to have a Japanese influence. I find it very beautiful.
The house was an incredible backdrop for Nerina’s exquisite paintings.
Our next stop was Shaaron Smith’s Mosaics Studio
This was the original purpose of our trip and we found Shaaron warm and friendly and her garden a riot of mosaics and roses.
Shaaron also runs classes in mosaics so if you are interested make sure you contact her. Click on the link above for her details.
Whilst we were admiring Shaaron’s mosaics, we met a couple who suggested another studio they thought we should visit. So we jumped back into our cars and bounced our way along a long and winding road and dusty tracks to find the oasis of Kay Steventon
Kay has a studio with her pantings but it was her ceramic pieces which I fell in love with…
Her garden was beautiful too and we were encouraged to have a wander through..
And so it was with a heart filled with gardens and art and mosaics and scones and adventure and beauty that we headed home. A Perfect day really.
My Spring Garden
Melbourne in Spring seems to oscillate between Summer and Winter temperatures. There is usually wind at times, rain at times and sun at times! However the garden is starting to look Spring like at least.
The first of the Roses are starting to Bloom too
This one is Nancy Haywood
This is an old Dutch Rose. I can pronounce it but I can’t spell it for you sorry.
Of course all of the Winter rain means weeds, weeds, weeds so I have been doing a lot of weeding of late.
The old rooster is happy about that..
So is the fish ( he doesn’t look that happy but it’s hard for a fish to look happy really)
I’m happy, I love it when the garden comes to life again.
I’ll be even happier when I have finished with the weeds..
Then I thought I’d celebrate with a High Tea with friends in the garden.
The garden really looks its best around Cup week when the roses are all out. I’ll make sure to take some photos to show you.
Until then I’d best get back to the weeding.
