Paddle Boat

 This evening we had a fantastic outing on Lake Wendouree. A group we belong to hired this boat:

In case you aren't good at reading mirror-writing, the flag says "Golden City Paddle Steamer Museum Society". Details of the boat are on their website here.

During the cruise we saw the usual suspects:

Black swans.

Australian white ibis.

The boat took us quite close to things that are hard to see from the shore, such as these cormorants:

And these rowers:

Lots of happy travellers:

My highlight was seeing this pelican on an island right out in the middle of the lake:

You would never see it from the shore, as it would be completely hidden from view by the reeds and rushes.

What a great outing!

Dangerous Walk?

Took a walk with the dogs this afternoon along part of the Yarrowee River Trail in Ballarat.

This sign near the beginning of our walk was a bit worrying:

It was probably ideal snake weather, warm and sunny. I made sure to make plenty of noise while walking along, to give any snakes plenty of time to get out of the way!

At the other end of the section of the trail we walked, we came across this sign:

That was another worry! What sort of contamination? I wondered if it was related to gold mining activities in the 1800s, but Google lead me to something more recent. Concerns over health impacts from contaminated gun club. So those signs went up 5 years ago, but there doesn't appear to have been any activity beyond erecting fencing and signs.

In between the two signs, we enjoyed patches of the river,

 Saw a few wild birds:

And lots and lots of weed species. Like this:

False bindweed growing up and through a wall of blackberries on the river bank, with a bit of gorse sticking up here and there.

It was interesting to walk somewhere different, even though it is quite a degraded landscape. It was nice that there were no bothersome blood-sucking march flies there. And extra nice that we didn't come across any venomous snakes!

Not Going Anywhere

Although we don't have an official lockdown, I have been acting as if we have. Other than visiting my mother in her nursing home, I've been staying home. There has been so much Omicron virus around, it has felt too risky to mix with other people. How could I forgive myself if I picked it up and passed it on to my mother?

This article from a week ago shows I'm not the only one staying home: There's no Victorian COVID-19 lockdown, but Melburnians are choosing to stay home anyway

On top of that it is march fly season, which has kept me inside to avoid those biting menaces. And every day for the last week has been hot. I was feeling a bit stir-crazy, so this morning after visiting Mum I went for a walk somewhere I could avoid people and flies, and where the heat would not be too intense. 

Somewhere I could see some baby swans! And lots of other water birds.

I didn't go for a paddle:

Or a swim:

But the breeze off the water of Lake Wendouree was refreshing, there were hardly any people, and there were no biting flies! It was lovely.

I have been slowly continuing to work on the mystery quilt, and now have the first three (diagonal) rows together:

The photo is probably a bit confusing - ignore the blocks at the bottom and right. I have them pinned up in a particular order for the next rows. The actual sewn-together blocks are inside the "V" of dark red squares. But even that is a bit strange as its corners are hanging down because the whole piece is wider than my available design wall. At least this gives a little bit of an idea of how the main part of the quilt will look when it is all together!

Exploring

Rather than just walking around the regular block, today we took the dogs in to Ballarat, and after doing a couple of other things, took a walk through unfamiliar territory. We started with suburban streets, then we saw this:

You probably can't really read the sign, but it says "Yarrowee Trail Access". So we went to investigate.

It turns out that the Yarrowee Trail is a picturesque track beside the Yarrowee River. We might have to investigate more of the track another time, but today it was pleasant to follow it for half an hour or so.

We left the trail to avoid someone with a large dog that was not on a lead, and found ourselves walking between huge mounds apparently made up of broken bricks and concrete:

I found out through googling when we got home, that it is a business called Ballarat Concrete Recyclers. I don't know how long they have been at this location, but some of the trees and shrubs growing on the piles seemed quite large.

It was an interesting walk, and we will have to check out other parts of the trail in future.

I have now completed 80% of the blocks for the Laundry Basket Quilts mystery:

This is one corner of the quilt as I don't have a big enough space to pin up all the blocks. If you can work out where the centres of each side are, you might be able to see that there are only 5 blocks missing in each quarter.

Long Weekend - Day Three

The main event for today was being on duty at the Horticultural Society's stand at the Begonia Festival. I didn't even think to take photos of that! Members of the Society had potted up all sorts of plants over the last year, to sell during this major fundraiser. We were on duty for 2.5 hours, and were kept fairly busy during that time.

Once we were free, we checked out some of the rest of the Begonia Festival.  I don't remember seeing display gardens at the festival before, but this one was very popular:

No idea whose child this is. There were so many people around it was hard to take a photo without someone in it.

The garden was created by the apprentices who work in the Parks and Gardens Department.

Other display gardens were created by a local nursery:

And a water-garden company:

Couldn't get close enough to get a good view of the water - it is behind all those people.

Elsewhere there was a "floral art" display of large arrangements:

I know there were more things to look at, but after such a big weekend, I'd had enough. It was time to go.

Long Weekend - Day One

This weekend is huge in Ballarat. The main event is the Begonia Festival, but there are many other things to see and do.  Today was the best day for me to visit a couple of the events, and I had the pleasure of the company of a Melbourne friend who has already blogged about it with much better photos than mine. Check out her post here.

After a cuppa and a tour of our garden, our first port of call was the Begonia Quilters exhibition.

Although photos of quilts were allowed, they were not allowed to be published online. I hope this overview of the room will prove we were there, without breaching the rules. The show was in the Masonic Centre, a building I had not known of before. I have driven past it without noticing it, as it is well back from the road and downhill. (I have since spoken to several long-term Ballarat dwellers who also had no idea it was there, so I don't feel so bad now.) Refreshments were available here, so we had another cuppa, this time accompanied by scones with jam and cream.

Our next stop was the Embroiderers Guild exhibition. My photos of this don't do it justice at all, so you should definitely check out my friend's pictures. (Link in first paragraph).

I really liked this informative display of different types of embroidery:

There were a few quilts too,

mainly featuring stitchery panels. Look up at the ceiling. You might recognise this venue from my photos of setting up our quilt show last year. The ornate ceiling panels served as inspiration for a challenge for the Embroiderers:

After the embroidery, we popped in to a nearby cafe for a coffee and cake, then quickly checked out the book fair at less ornate church hall across the road. I picked up a couple of novels before they closed at 4pm, then we were on the road again.


Last stop for the day was the Begonia Festival. I love all the different coloured begonia leaves:

 but it is really all about the flowers:

 

I made one purchase in the market section of the festival, which was something I have wanted for a while. But that possibly needs its own post, so I'll save it for another day.

Leap Day

The last part of the last day of summer was a beautiful evening with the dogs beside Lake Wendouree:

They were so excited it was hard to get a good photo of them.

Such a peaceful evening.

So much to look at.

This was some completely unexpected wildlife:

A black wallaby, in what really is quite a suburban area, surrounded by busy roads. How did it get here? Can it survive here?

A bird I don't think I have ever seen before in real life:

Known since my childhood from a bird card out of Tuckfields "Ty-nee Tips" tea, the nankeen night heron, Nycticorax caledonicus.

Street Art

Currently in Ballarat:

A large piece of street art.

Enough room inside it for several people to take a seat, if they were so inclined:

But it was vacant today.

Monument #32 Helter Shelter by Callum Morton.

I found it a bit creepy, but I probably would have had the same reaction no matter whose giant head it was.

Springfest

Springfest is an annual market of about 500 stalls around the shores of Lake Wendouree. The market is put on by Rotary, and raises funds for charities in Ballarat. Today was a beautiful day for it.

We parked a bit of a walk from the lake, because otherwise you would never find a parking spot. Our walk to the lake took us through the "Show n Glow" car show. Hundreds of owners of "all vehicles through to and including 1980 chrome bumper vehicles" had brought them along to show off. The cars really did glow in the brilliant sunshine:

This picture because my first car was a Mini:

And this one because I think it was the ugliest vehicle on display:

It definitely meets the chrome bumper criterion!

We reached the lake and the actual market, and began the 6km walk around the lake:

Along with thousands of other people.

I always enjoy seeing the swans and cygnets on the lake:

After about 45 minutes of the market we had only made it about a quarter of the way around the lake. None of the market stalls were selling anything that we wanted, and they were all starting to look the same.

The crowds made walking difficult, and we decided we had seen enough.

It was a beautiful day for it, though.