Outstanding

Awesome nearly 100-year-old Japanese Maple

I had my performance review today at work. I'm "outstanding". Yay. Hopefully outstanding enough to get a pay rise, because my rent is going up soon. (Boo.)

Luke made creamy chive mashed potatoes the other night, just like you get in nice restaurants, with lashings of butter and cream. Delicious. Will eat again.  

I had a lumbar puncture on Friday (not a gleeful event, although it was much less painful than anticipated). I asked the doctor what spinal fluid looks like and she showed me a vial of my own spinal fluid, which is kinda cool. Surprisingly, it looks exactly like water: clear and...watery. I thought it would be more viscous. 

Misty, but still colourful 

Luke and I visited Cloudehill Gardens in the Dandenongs on the weekend and it was lovely, despite the rain that started not long after we arrived. It was awkward trying to juggle an umbrella and keep the rain off my camera lens, but mostly it was quite delightful being in a garden in the rain, listening to the sound of drops pattering onto leaves and seeing the clouds close in around us. 

The lyrebirds seemed to like the rain too - we saw four of them! I'd only seen four in total in my whole life until then. They look funny when they run and I never noticed before they have big feet.

Lyrebird not hanging around for photos

Magnificent Macedon and its many mushrooms

The Avenue of Honour

Luke and I visited Macedon - the township and the mountain - yesterday in search of autumn colour. Macedon's Avenue of Honour, a stretch of road lined by pin oaks, is renowned for its autumn display, but we were probably a week or so too late to see it in its full glory. A lot of leaves were already on the ground.  

But once I spotted the fungii, I didn't care about the trees and their leaves. There were some growing beside the road...

...but in a paddock beside the road there was a veritable wonderland of fungii growing, including quite a few amanita mushrooms - the red ones with the white spots - which are like something from a fairy tale.

We also visited one of the open gardens in the area, Tieve Tara, which is very pretty. 

 Autumn carpet

 Tiny snail 

 Pond 

 Geese

Fountain 

 Leaf carpet

There were mushrooms there, too

Then we drove up to the top of Mt Macedon to see the memorial cross. There were amanita mushrooms growing under the pine trees there, but you've probably seen enough fungii in this post already.

 The cross (with flowers from Anzac Day)

View from the lookout

It was a fun day out, but the fungii were the highlight for me. 

Anniversary day tripping

Jindi views

Luke and I celebrated our six-year anniversary on Saturday with a day trip to West Gippsland. Flowers? Romantic dinners? Pffft. We went to the Rare and Unusual Plant Fair in the tiny picturesque town of Jindivick. 

We parked in front of a house with a large shady garden, and a couple of greyhounds came out to eye at us warily, much to my disappointment. I love greyhounds and I don't think it's unreasonable to expect them to love me instantly in return.  They could not be won over with friendly words and kissy sounds.  

Like the city slickers we are, we forgot to bring cash with us for the market. Jindivick is too small for an ATM so we travelled the windy road to Neerim South to get some cash. We had a bite to eat while there and bought a couple of yo-yo biscuits for later. They were probably the best yo-yo biscuits I've had, apart from those made by my Nanna and Mum.    

Back in Jindi (as the locals call it) at the market I bought a couple of succulents and another plant, the name of which I've forgotten (it might be an elephant ear philodendron). My indoor garden is getting quite extensive now. I think Luke and I should move house just so we can have an outside garden too. 

After the market, we visited the cricket ground, which has one of the best views - if not the best view - of any cricket ground in Victoria.  

From the crease

On the ground

We then took a stroll through Nangara Reserve (a reclaimed quarry) where I found a really long gum leaf. It's about 25cm long! (The tiny pine cone is from the Botanic Gardens.)

We headed back home to Melbourne through the Bunyip State Park, which brought us out near Gembrook in the Dandenongs. We caught a glimpse of Puffing Billy steaming through the trees on his way to the terminal in Gembrook. 

April is a big month of anniversaries for me. Tomorrow it will be five years since I started my job. There will be morning tea and (I hope) a bunch of flowers. 

Not rare or unusual, but certainly pretty

A hot, but beautiful, day out

Luke and I visited the Blue Lotus Water Garden at Yarra Junction on the weekend. I didn't even know it existed until a few weeks ago when I saw a post about in on Facebook, which seems bizarre to me. I've lived in Melbourne a long time and it's been open for around for 10 years (although I think it's only open to the public during lotus season, which starts late December).

I love visiting the Yarra Valley/Yarra Ranges. It's just so pretty with the blue mountains lining the horizon and the (still) green fields dotted with hay rolls or lined with vineyards. I feel my yearning for a tree change rising every time we're there. (Have I mentioned before that Luke and I have been thinking of moving to the country - or back to the country, in my case - at some stage? No particular place in mind as yet.)

Anyway, the garden is beautiful. The many ponds are brimming with flowers. It was stinking hot, especially in the greenhouses, but that did not deter us. Here are some of my many photos: 

 Our lunch view 

 Giant lily pads

The lilies above are the world's largest water lily, Victoria Amazonica. The lily pads regularly grow to more than 1.2 metres across, with one said to have measured 3 metres in diameter! These ones were big, but probably a bit less than a metre wide.  

 A selection of the many water lilies on show 

 The centre of a lotus 

 Lotus flower again 

 Heart-shaped tree trunk 

 The flower of the silk tree 

 Another lotus flower centre

 A dragonfly that sat still long enough for me to zoom
in for a (relatively) clear photo

 Stripey skies 

Lotus fountain with actual lotus

After the lotus garden we decided to visit the William Ricketts Sanctuary in the Dandenongs. Despite visiting the Dandenongs many times, I've never bothered to visit the sanctuary before. The shady, ferny pathways dotted with sculptures were a welcome respite from the searing heat of earlier in the day.

  

 My favourite of the statues 

Close up 

A day out west

Luke and I went for a day trip out west yesterday. First we visited the Red Rock lookout near Colac, an area of highly concentrated volcanic activity 6,000 - 12,000 years ago. You can see several craters (or maars) from the lookout. 

You can also see Lake Corangamite, which is Australia's largest permanent salt lake, as well as lots of gorgeous green fields. 

As we approached the turn-off to the lookout I saw a big hill in the distance and said to Luke that it looked like Mount Elephant, but I didn't think it was in the right spot. Turns out that it was Mt Elephant! Go, me. I know my big hills. Western Victoria is home to hundreds of dormant/extinct volcanoes and as I grew up in that part of the state, I have seen quite a few of them. I lived near the foot of one (Mt Rouse) in my teens and my Dad built the fire lookout that sits on its summit. 

Anyway, here are my photos from the day. 

On the road again...the other side Geelong

Lots of canola fields on the way to Geelong

 Some of the craters seen from Red Rock lookout

 Looking towards Red Rock lookout, Lake Corangamite on the horizon

 So green

We had lunch at the bakery in Colac and then headed towards Beech Forest, which is on the edge of the Otway Ranges and close to several waterfalls. We visited Hopetoun Falls because it's only a short walk (downhill) to get the best view of the falls. 

Lots of steps, but it's a beautiful walk

 Look! A waterfall! 

 I enjoyed walking through mud and puddles 

 Taken from a rock that I stepped into the creek to get to. 

Yay, gumboots 

Ready to unfurl

We stopped for a little while in the redwood forest near Hopetoun Falls before heading home via the Great Ocean Road.  

The trees were planted in 1939

A creek runs alongside the forest

On the Great Ocean Road