An Afternoon Stroll

Took a walk this afternoon through a park we haven't visited before, at Kirk's Reservoir, which is part of Ballarat's water supply.

It is a lovely spot for a walk but dogs aren't allowed.
 

There are lots of ornamental trees that must have been planted many years ago, such as a huge cedar:

The cones seemed to be dripping sap. I don't know if that is normal?
 

On the way home we stopped to make sure this echidna got across the road safely:

It didn't just walk straight across, but at an angle which meant it was on the road much longer. Fortunately no other cars came along until it was off the road.

But I watched to make sure it was not going to turn back towards the road. I suppose it knew where it was going, but my heart was in my mouth until it headed off into the grass and undergrowth.

Phew!

Daylesford

This afternoon we took a drive to Daylesford. We took a walk around the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens.

Parked under giant conifers at the top of the hill:

An interesting (unlabelled) artwork:

The sun was intense (not surprising, the day after the solstice), so the shady fernery was inviting:

I found this amazing dragonfly hanging out under some brilliantly coloured lilies:

This flower was a puzzle:

I have no idea what it is. Anyone recognise it? I've got pictures of the leaves as well it that would help.

None of this was the main reason for being in Daylesford. There's a clue in this ornament hanging on my Christmas tree:

This has been the year of the vaccine. The government recently brought forward the wait time for third doses; we had been due to get them at the end of January, but suddenly we were almost eligible. We made booster bookings in Ballarat on New Year's Eve, but then came the announcement that due to the various holidays we could get them before Christmas if we wanted. Hooray! We just had to find a clinic with spots available, which is how we found ourselves in Daylesford this lovely afternoon, getting doses of the cutest-sounding vaccine, Moderna's Spikevax.

Ararat

Since I discovered earlier this year that Ararat had a gallery that specialises in textiles, I have wanted to visit it. I'm not sure why I had never known that Ararat Gallery TAMA (Textile Art Museum Australia) existed, but perhaps because it has only had that name since 2018. 

With lockdown lifted, but this morning's case numbers so high I expect it to be reimposed at any moment, we grabbed the opportunity to take a drive and check it out.

"Thread of Life" is a display of Japanese textiles, particularly of boro pieces, but also a small selection of other Japanese items from the gallery's collection.

The exhibition that we enjoyed the most was "Obsessed: Compelled to Make", which included works by 15 artists, each accompanied by a video of the artist at work. I was very glad we decided to visit today, as this exhibition closes on Monday.

One of my favourites was a group of small ceramic creatures by Vipoo Srivilasa:

Accompanying video here: https://vimeo.com/254599375

Another was a life-sized sculpture of a woman and companion animals by Tjunkaya Tapaya:

It reminded me a bit of my dogs climbing all over me when I sit down. The accompanying video is here: https://vimeo.com/254596745

We then took a walk around the town. Outside the RSL is this unusual sculpture, "Ghost of Gallipoli":

My photo doesn't quite capture how horrified he looks in real life.

The Alexandra Gardens were a nice place to walk around, with lots of waterbirds on the lake.

Volcanic-looking mountain, Mt Langi Ghiran, to the east of Ararat:

It was nice to have an outing to somewhere I've never been before. I've driven through Ararat, but I think this is the first time I've ever stopped there.

Walk at the Falls

I don't know if it is quite within the rules, but today we took the dogs to Lal Lal Falls for their walk. I thought after all the rain we have had lately that the falls would be falling, but I was wrong:

No flow at the moment.

It was nice to go somewhere a bit different, rather than just walking up and down our bit of road. There were no other people at the Falls. In fact the only living creatures we saw were a flock of cockatoos enjoying acorns.

The birds were taking bites out of the acorns, but I don't know if they were eating them or just having fun stripping them off the trees. A lot of acorns seemed to be falling to the ground, anyway.

The birds were having fun, and we enjoyed the fresh air, but no-one is allowed to have fun here at the moment:

It is hard to "close" a playground with no fence around it.

You probably can't read the sign clearly, but I think the top line could do with a bit of physical distancing itself. It reads:

LET'SALLWORKTOGETHERTOSTOPTHESPREAD

How about some distance between those words?

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.

Blue Lotus

This was the focus of my travel eastward:

Blue Lotus Water Garden. The garden is amazing, and getting there early on such a hot day was a good idea. We were able to see everything before the very hottest part of the day.

Not a lotus, not blue, but this is the plant known as the blue lotus, Nymphaea nouchali:

Native to southern and eastern parts of Asia, and the national flower of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Lotus

Lotus

Lotus

Lotus as far as the eye can see:

Several greenhouses provide sheltered environments for plants from the tropics, which need warmer water than usually found in this part of the world. This is the "crocodile plant", Euryale ferox:

Its amazing leaves unfold into a large flat disc covered in sharp spines that look like rose thorns.

The blue aster waterlily needs water over 24 degrees to survive:

Its leaves are almost as lovely as the flower.

Another tropical waterlily:

Today was such a hot sticky day that we felt like we were in the tropics even outside the greenhouses. Here's my friend enjoying one of the many welcome shade pavilions dotted around the gardens:

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may remember my disappointment last year that the Amazon waterlilies were not on display at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. But thanks to the Blue Lotus Garden, I have now seen one:

Hooray!

A leaf beginning to unfurl, a flower just opening, and what looks like a bud emerging:

The Amazon waterlily was a highlight for me.

We ate lunch at the cafe at Kuranga Native Nursery in Mt Evelyn. The nursery has a lovely display of plants and garden goodies:

  
I had to restrain myself as I had a long train journey ahead. So my only purchase was:

Melaleuca nesophila, which was labelled with the common name of Western tea-myrtle. (If you are reading this, Sue, this might be the plant in your neighbour's garden.)

When I got back to Ballarat I found that scans had uncovered some new issues with Mum. That bad news made me glad I had taken this wonderful short break away. It was easier to face the situation when feeling refreshed from spending time seeing and doing such interesting things.

Morning Tea with the Birds

We had our first frost of this winter today, with the temperature falling to -1:

It is surprisingly late for the first frost.

After breakfast we drove to Geelong. We made a few purchases at the Friends of the Botanic Gardens winter plant sale, then had morning tea at the kiosk in the gardens.

There are signs around the kiosk asking people not to feed the birds, but the kiosk staff are not very fast at clearing tables, so this happens:

Probably a Little Raven, Corvus mellori, but who can tell the various species of raven apart? There wasn't much in the way of food left on that table, but the raven spent some time shredding paper serviettes before it was joined by a red wattlebird, Anthochaera carunculata:

The wattlebird didn't find much of interest at that table, so came over to ours to see if we had anything good:

It got very close to my food while I was messing round trying to take photos.

The raven hit the jackpot on an adjacent table:

A couple of left-over scones with jam and cream.

It was slurping up cream when we left:

If the gardens really want people not to feed the birds, perhaps they need to ask people to bring their plates back inside when they have finished, or the staff need to be much quicker about clearing the tables.

Geelong Botanic Gardens

I had a reason go to Geelong today, so added in a visit to the botanic gardens because the Friends' Nursery is open on Wednesday mornings.

Perennial borders looking fantastic:

Also came across their wonderful ginkgo:

This tree is on the National Trust's Register of Significant Trees.

We enjoyed morning tea in the gardens. A few plants from the nursery came home, as well as a few more from the Wombat Gully nursery.

The main reason for my trip to Geelong will have to wait for another blog post once I have tidied up my sewing room a bit.