Ups and Downs

This week I took a trip to Maryborough to visit the Golden Textures exhibition. Since my last visit in 2021 the gallery has had a complete make-over.

The architects have kept the history of the building (a former fire station), while updating and extending the display areas. One welcome addition for those on a road trip is that there are now toilets (no photo, but they were nice). A garden is planned, which will be good to see next time I visit in perhaps another 2 years. I liked this view through a skylight in the reception area:

We have had a bit of wild weather this week, and the wind created a view through the roof of my shade house:

The shadecloth ripped right across and left half the roof uncovered. I was a bit worried about my orchids being unprotected from potential frost, so I moved as many as I could to the greenhouse, especially this one which has a few flower spikes developing:

 I hope it will be happy in there!

Last week at work I was quite disturbed as large machinery was working across the road, demolishing what has been a pedestrian mall:

I was particularly upset at trees being smashed down:

 

It was shocking. 

When I got home I did some searching to find out what was happening. It turns out they are not completely demolishing the mall. There will be one lane of traffic through here, but there will still be a playground, and seating areas. But I couldn't see why they needed to just smash up what was there, particularly the trees! However this week when I went to work I found that lots of the trees are still standing:

It was still noisy, as the digger was pulling up the paving and dumping it into the big skip. I wonder what I will find next week?

I have not managed to do any sewing this week, so here is a tiny fairywren that hopped almost up to me as I stood very still one morning:

And for contrast, a pelican I saw when I popped out of a meeting for some fresh air a couple of days ago:

Wheat Country

Many years ago I worked in an office which had a poster on the wall of an amazing building, the "Stick Shed" at Murtoa. Today I got to go and see it for myself.

The exterior doesn't look too promising:

Although you might get the sense that it goes on for quite a distance. In fact it is 265metres long,

60 metres across, and nearly 20 metres tall in the centre. If dwarfs the humans. 560 trees hold up the roof. It is like a giant rustic cathedral.

It was built during the second world war as an emergency bulk wheat storage shed. When full, it held 3.5 million bushels, or about 92,500 tonnes, of wheat.

You can read more about it at the Stick Shed website. 

We bought lunch from a shop in Murtoa - injecting a little bit of cash into the local economy. On the way back to the car, I got a call from Mum's nursing home, to say that she had a fever and they wanted to send her to hospital. I said I would really prefer them to care for her there if they could. I thought the transfer to hospital, and the hanging around on a trolley for potentially hours waiting to be seen, would do her more harm than good.

To add some variety to the trip, we came home a different way, travelling through three towns with painted silos.

This one is in Rupanyup, a town I've never visited before. I only knew of it from a job I had many many years ago with a wool-buying company. Their silos were painted by a Russian mural artist, Julia Volchkova.

Next stop was St Arnaud,

to see their silos painted by a local artist, Kyle Torney. He has also painted murals on other buildings around the town, which we saw a few of while buying and enjoying icecreams.

The last silo for the day was at Avoca, where the art work is still in progress:

This side depicts a barking owl, and a brush-tailed phascogale is planned for the other side. The artist is Jimmi Buscombe from Warrnambool. When finished, this silo art will also have some glow-in-the-dark features.

While in Avoca we also visited the Chinese Garden:

The garden was a peaceful spot to rest for a while, on what was quite a warm day. Monday and Tuesday both had top temperatures of 10.1C in Lal Lal, so suddenly being in the high 20s was a shock to the system! 

It was a really good day out.

Unusual House and Garden

Last night we had the opportunity to tour a rather amazing place.

"The Old Curiosity Shop", built by James and Caroline Warwick in 1855, and decorated with "stuff" for the next 40 years.

The view of the outside today:

The oldest part of the building is covered in mosaics of shells, glass, and broken crockery. The temporary fencing in front is for safety reasons. The actual fence is a bit fragile at the moment.

This is part of the inside of that fragile fence:

Bizarre!

I've turned up the contrast on this shot, so you might just be able to make out "1855 WARWICK" in light stones in this corner of the garden:

The original shell mosaics are looking a bit sad, with many lost and broken shells, and all looking rather grey:

But the glass mosaics have kept their colour:

Some fascinating pictures taken in 1913 when everything was much newer can be seen here: State Library


This plate advertising the Coles Book Arcade caught my eye:

The Book Arcade closed in 1929. You can read about it here: The incredible Coles Book Arcade. Don't you wish you could visit a book shop with "a menagerie featuring a monkey house, a fernery, a toyland, a stationery department, a second-hand book department, a glass and china department, a refreshment room, and a confectionery department." Plus comfy chairs and a sign saying, "Read As Long As You Like – Nobody Asked To Buy."

The current owner of the house has added lots of her own whimsical touches to the garden:

One of several places to sit and enjoy the atmosphere:

Note the quinces ripening on the tree visible at the top left. That is one of two giant quince trees in the garden.


Another shady spot to sit and relax:

We went through the house as well, but I didn't feel comfortable taking photos because the owner actually lives there. But there is a newspaper article which includes better pictures than mine, and some inside the house, here: Warwicks Old Curiosity Shop.

It is an amazing place, and I'm very glad I got to see it!

Maldon

 This is why I went to Maldon:

 Maldon Combined Quilters have their show this weekend. The show is small, but quite nice. A few quilters had quilted their own quilts, which I always like to see.

Trees are starting to change for autumn:

Looking at the size of the gutters, do you think they must get some heavy rain at times?

Maldon Post Office looks like many other buildings around the country:

 But a plaque on the wall tells of a famous former resident:

Her novel The Getting of Wisdom was one of my favourites among the books I had to read for school.

Unlike the post office, this building is not like anything I've seen elsewhere:

The building is from the 1800's. But is the 3D brickwork original, or has it been added when the building was renovated? The same 3D effect appears on the parapet above the verandah, which would seem to imply it is original. But it is so wild!  

I just don't know.

Mystery Window

Today I attended a meeting in a room with these beautiful windows:

I was struck by the colour scheme - it's a lot like Bonnie's mystery quilt this year. Purples, green, yellow and magenta. And the clear glass becomes the neutrals.

Speaking of neutrals, after the meeting I popped into a quilt shop, and found where they "hide" them. In a corner that I normally just walk past because nothing reaches out and grabs me:

So a few little pieces came home with me to be added to my mystery quilt.

A Garden and a House

This is "Ballarat Gardens in Spring" weekend. Several private gardens are open, and today I visited a very green one:

Not many flowers:

But a lot of green:

These large European trees must provide welcome shade in summer. The whole garden must be like an oasis when all the surrounding paddocks dry up. But I like to see more flowers in a garden. There were a couple of roses, and in summer the agapanthus and acanthus will be be in flower. There were several spots of newly-mown bluebells which must have looked pretty under the trees a month or so ago. But this garden is really not about flowers.

Somewhere between there and our next stop, we came across this:

This house was designed by our architect about 3 years ago. I'd seen the picture below, taken when it was newly-built:

But I'd never seen the actual house before, or known just where it was. It was lovely to see that the house is now settling into the landscape. There are lots of native shrubs close to it, and the owners have done a lot of new planting recently:

I hope in a couple of years our house will be settling into its surroundings in the same way.

Nine Hours on a Train

A heritage train trip to Maryborough:

Early this morning we drove to Lara to board the train.

Most people on the train had travelled from Melbourne, although some were probably die-hards who got on at Newport at the crack of dawn.

Just outside Geelong the train had to stop because there was a fire beside the tracks somewhere in front of us. And although the emergency web site described the fire as small and safe, it was quite a while before the train line was re-opened and we could proceed. About an hour, in fact!

Eventually we were on our way. Next stop Ballarat! View inside our "heritage" saloon carriage:

Those two little kids did really well. They were on the train before us, so had at least a ten-hour trip. But they were quiet and happy all the way.

So why didn't we just get on the train in Ballarat? Because normally only goods trains run between Geelong and Ballarat, so it was a rare chance to be a passenger on this line.  Not that I managed to get a photo of Lal Lal station as we zoomed through:

That bluestone structure isn't even the main station building, just a shed of some sort beside it. Stay tuned to see the brilliant shot I got on the way back...

The people who got the best photos were probably in the convoy of cars that raced from crossing to overpass to bridge to vantage-point. At each such point, we saw them running back to their cars with their cameras. Between those points, we could at times see them racing along roads ranging from highways to dirt tracks, trying to get in front of the train before the next photo opportunity!

After losing many passengers at Ballarat (who were going to the Beer Festival), we continued on to Maryborough and its amazing station.

The undercover area of the platform is incredibly long.

What about the ceiling?

 Or the floor:

 It's an impressive building!

 Mark Twain visited it in 1895 (5 years after it was built), and apparently described Maryborough as "a railway station with a town attached". And Maryborough was three times as big then as it is now! I didn't get to judge for myself, as we had to make up the hour lost waiting for the fire, so there was no time to explore the town.  But the station was definitely worth seeing! 

Not your average station building.

Time to go home.
Stop in Ballarat to pick up the beer drinkers:

Zoom through Lal Lal station again:

The only down-sides to the day were that the air-con wasn't working properly in our carriage (and it was a pretty hot day) and that this window was filthy! I think for a scenic tour, they should have made sure that everyone could actually see the scenery.

Last stop for us, back at Lara at 7:30:

Then a one-hour drive home. The end of a very long day!