The Road Trip.

Chantal, starting the trip with some apple purchases.This fruit shop sells a lot of wheat grass.

At a rest area, 100 miles from no-where.

Off we go.

Second hand bookshop in rural QLD.

The girls and I have just returned from a 3,000k trip to see our daughter and sister. From Queensland to Ulladulla. From Ulladulla to Canberra. And off on some side roads. Endless undulating sugar cane, merging lanes, narrow bridges, wide rivers, road works, country towns, endless bush, caravans, coffee stops, trucks, petrol stations selling local honey and eggs and assorted weather.

Sugar cane, smoking tractor in distance.

Rural Berry

Rain coming at Berry.

Veggie pie for breakfast from Kempsey, enough for lunch too.

Basil growing in the park, old B&B in background.

Maclean, 1862,  Street signs all have Gaelic translations

Sweetness growing right up to the roads' edge, taken whilst waiting for road works. 

Food and wine, even a BBQ.

We have our favorite stops, the park on the river at Ulmarra that the locals plant with herbs, roses, pansies and whatever is in season, it has a very kitch second hand bookshop that also sells collectibles, even some religious items that look as if they've come from a convent. Maclean, the Scottish town, where every telepole has a clan tartan painted on it and you'll always get a smile from the locals. Little Italy, the rest stop that gives you a huge veranda covered in grape vines to eat your pasta and drink your coffee as you gaze at the murals of Florence and Milan, more herb gardens and a little museum of the early days. Cassograin Winery, where we think we're in France, a formal garden, roses to take your breath away, the best coffee on the east coast and somewhere to throw a ball.

Back street of Berry

Alex doing what she loves, perusing bookshops.

Last stop, Bonjour Patissere, Wahonga, coffee and cake. All the cute, pampered little dogies were out in force, the owners have their coffee brought to them along with a dogie bowl of water. Such is the life of a city dog.

And now we're home. Our adventure is over, I don't think we'll be repeating it for a while as life has changed, University next year. Our routine is firmly back in place. Chantal's 15th birthday tomorrow. What to get this youngest daughter who insists that she has everything she needs and doesn't want a thing? Except maybe an Agatha Christie book. I can't complain at all.

Hope everyone is well, thanks for stopping,

Vickixx

Art for arts' sake.

Ethel Carrick's 'French Flower Market, 1909.

There have been thousands of opinions expressed about art but I like this quote by John Updike, American writer and Art Critic...

What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit.

Chantal taking in the space of the outside area.

And so with a need to breathe, just for a few hours, we made our way to the Art Gallery in Brisbane.

The exhibition was titled, Art, Love and Life, the works of Ethel Carrick and E. Phillips Fox. What a gifted couple, studying at the Paris and London Academies, mixing with the impressionists, what a bohemian life, living in Paris at the turn of the 19th Century, painting the market and beach scenes, the flowers, the children, traveling around Europe, they had marriage, love, art, adventure and space for the spirit....but only for ten years, when sadly and to soon Emanuel passed away at age 50.

In summer the tree on the right is abundant with frangipanis. 

The Arbour. E Phillips Fox. The little boy in the sailor suit, Len Fox,  was his nephew, well known Australian Journalist, Artist and social activist who lived in Kings Cross with his wife for 50 years.

I loved the furniture exhibits, Chantal loved the sculpture gallery and Alexandria loves, loves the masters.

When our senses had had a little polish and our need to paint was at it's peak we sought out the shop for my little passion...bookmarks. The shop has jewellery, books, stationary, cute things, ceramics and glassware, fragile and delicate, the purest of colour, truly objects to be admired if not used.

Lunch in the cafe.

I don't know if any other teenagers do this but whenever we are out, at lunch, sitting quietly, the girls make up stories about people who walk past, a serious looking young man in dark jeans, dark bomber jacket and thick grey scarf was to Alexandria a highly intelligent Romanian orphan who teaches the violin and who seeks out art to satisfy his love for it, inherited from his grandfather,who was a famous portrait painter,  a 50-something couple in stylish clothes were to Chantal fashion designers from Copenhagen, she an ex-model, who live in a minimalist apartment, here in Australian to arrange an exhibition of their innovative designs at the gallery and possibly to purchase some property...etc, etc.  Imagination is a great thing!

  

...then home to the paints...we had a good time.
Thanks for visiting
Vickixx

A Day in the Life.

These days are always bright and sunny. They start off early, end late, in between morphs into a timeless mass. Sometimes I get to visit the library at the girls school and read, all the interesting books, my favorite being in the education and medical sections. If I'm treating myself I'll stay a long time.....

Drop daughters at school

quick visit to library to read for an hour

To the market

What's for tea?chose away.

Real bread

Real coffee

Orchids in the shopping centre.

Into the paper shop for some white willow branches

Baby rockmelons and passionfruit

Reply to my dear friend and a new bookmark swap.

If I ever wonder again what I do with my days I'll just take some photos. Work for family is very gratifying and I love being a cog in the wheel of the last two at home. With some flown the nest I know how quickly this time will go so I'm enjoying every day, every week and storing lots of memories.

 I'm becoming aware of not wasting time, someone said to me last week, a person who had been in a wheel chair for 24 years due to a car crash...I've been sitting down for 24 years....those words still resonate within me, I can't get them out of my head, Wayne said, I'd just like to get up and walk again, sometimes it's the most unexpected encounters that reach the heart.

Thanks for dropping in,
Vickixx  

Off the Highway and up the Mountain.

Lillies taken over the pond.

A shed that sits easily on the earth

Road just wide enough

I love driving off into the west, into the bush, finding little towns, parks, walking trails and streams. I love the wide streets, houses with huge backyards with jasmine and grape vines, the older style shops with cute curtains and tables with little bunches of herbs or roses from the garden that advertise coffee and home made cake for $5, the wild flowers, the way birds sit on the cows backs, the sunset colours across the paddocks, leaving the return home late and seeing all the lights come on in the homesteads, giving them that welcome glow and somtimes smoke curling from chimneys. 

And so a trip up to Tambourine Mountain Botanical Gardens was in order. Ten minutes from the highway the houses gave way to large hobby farms, the air was fresh and the grass was green. 

A smattering of homes

This house sits on the boundary of the Botanical Gardens

It overlooks tall palms and a little steam.

Part of the Tranquility Gardens.

The Bamboo Walk at a nursery on the mountain.

Nature is so intricate, so complex, vibrant, breathtakingly beautiful, nourishing, surprising, constant, calming...there is no need nor inclination to hurry, think quickly, plan ahead, no, just to walk and take it in is reward enough.
I'll be back!

Thanks for stopping by,
Vickixx

Health and Holidays, grateful day 14.

Banyan Figs, New Farm Park, Brisbane.
These trees watch the children at play in the amazing park. 

Chantal contemplating

The more I think about being grateful the more I realize that I have taken some aspects of my life for granted. My children's health is vitally important to me, their physical, emotional and mental health, I strive to make sure they eat healthily, I give them extra nutrients, fresh foods, I don't factor fast foods into our diet at all, if we travel by car I prepare food to take. I also keep an eye on their sleep, I try to make sure that they are well rested, there's a lot for the brain to take in at school. I also try to keep a balance with a calm, happy and peaceful home life, I play beautiful music across the spectrum, I burn fragrant oils, I have flowers or palms from the garden, I display books every week, just for interest, I plan days out at the theatre, the art gallery, the botanical gardens but yet I don't consciously acknowledge my thanks.  At school, with friends, just going about the typical day brings them into contact with all sorts of stressors, especially now as the girls are in their final year of schooling, the pressure is on the get the passes for the University courses they want to get into.  Everything just works so well when we are healthy but rarely do I give it more thought than that until I see people who are challenged with health problems and that's when I feel humble and grateful.

Alexandria with shells.

Beach flowers

Berkelouw Book Barn, Southern Highlands, such a find! Fire in winter, cafe, open paddocks...

On holidays I like to discover interesting things, and it could be anything from a bookshop or a plaque on a garden wall. I've come to realise that I'm not the exciting type of mother who takes their children on rollar coasters or camping in the wilds. Although they can all ski and sail and swim like fish, the son rides motoX and one descends from helicopters,I have suffered and taken them to the theme parks, I just prefer to have my feet planted!

The rummage shed at Berkelouw.

Pilgrams at Milton, our healthy food cafe.

Tomaree Mountain, Nelson Bay, a great walk with a view to take your breath away.

I will try to keep my gratitude in full awareness. I need to be mindful.
Take care, thank you for reading and have a lovely day,
Vickixx