Skip to main content

A thoroughly enjoyable away day!

At the end of last week we took a 2 hour train journey out of Melbourne to Bendigo.  It was good to get out of town and Bendigo is a very nice, small city which was built up around the gold rush of the 1850s.  It has been the second highest producing goldfield in Australia and is still the seventh largest in the world.  Bendigo is in the state of Victoria and Queen Vic was ever present - you can just see her below, presiding over the Pall Mall area of town.
We were met at the station by a cousin who I hadn't seen for very many years, and she took us back to her house on the edge of Bendigo.  She and her husband live in a lovely old house, dark inside as it has always been and full of beautiful things.  She is an artist and her work is everywhere.  It was just wonderful.  She showed us around their property which is now a protected reserve of Australian bush.  
I really love the gum trees.  There are over a hundred different varieties but I like these tall lofty ones which are so graceful and delicate.

I was absolutely thrilled to see lots of kangaroos leaping through the bush and out across an open field - I was beginning to think I might not see any other than the stuffed one in the Melbourne Museum!
We had a delicious lunch with a bottle of red wine from our host's own vines, which was extremely good, especially with this local cheese.  
Great name - and very smelly!

After lunch we went to an exhibition being held at the Bendigo Art Gallery.  'Grace Kelly - Style Icon' has been much advertised around Melbourne.  The posters were tempting so we booked tickets.
Bendigo was delighted to be hosting the exhibition, it brought a huge number of visitors to the city.  
The exhibition charted Grace Kelly's dress style from the days of Hollywood when she was immaculately but casually dressed - nice crisp white shirts and cut off trousers worn with penny loafers, to her life as Princess Grace of Monaco, long floating gowns.  Amongst other memorabilia there were several posters from some of her films, Mogambo, High Society, On the Waterfront and the Hitchcock films Rear Window and Dial M for Murder and a couple of the fabulous dresses she wore in High Society and costume from other roles.

Moving through the exhibition there were several outfits which Grace wore during her courtship and engagement to Prince Rainier of Monaco during 1955.  These were very demure dresses and classic Dior suits, nothing fussy.  She was such a beautiful woman that she really didn't need any embellishments!  And then of course her wedding dress, worn on 19 April 1956.  I tried to add a photo of this fabulous gown but it wouldn't work however Google Images has loads!  Anyway, suffice it to say, it was very beautiful and you can clearly see the influence it bore on the Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress.

A few shops had gone it bit overboard on the whole Grace Kelly thing,
but why not, she was a very beautiful woman.







Comments

Popular posts from this blog

In a vase on Monday - colour

The intense colours in my vase this week come from nasturtiums, sweetpeas and a single glorious zinnia! Their beauty and love of life speak for themselves and need no further words from me! Enjoy!

Colonsay postcards - on arrival

The first thing I do, once we have unpacked our car, which has been groaning with all the stuff we need for a week's stay in the holiday cottage, is head for the outer gardens of Colonsay House. It is a place of wonder for me! I particularly love the leaves of the giant rhododendrons. There are many different varieties, all planted in the early 1930s. The outer gardens are generally overgrown, having had little tending over the decades. That makes them even more magical! The old woodmill falls apart a little more every year, but that's fine by me because I love corrugated iron and especially if it's rusted! And of course the bees. Colonsay's beekeeper, Andrew Abrahams, has one of his apiaries on the edge of the pine wood. So lovely - the hum of busy bees and the heady smell of the pines. We are here - finally! Delayed by four months by the wretched virus, but now I am on holiday! Hooray!

Found items IAVOM

I am on holiday on the Inner Hebridean island of Colonsay. It is my happy place. Thoughts of Colonsay rattle around in my head each and every day I am not here! I haven't got a vase to share this week but some lovely things I have found over the past few days, which are just as beautiful as a vase of flowers! I hope you agree! Here are some leaves of giant rhododendrons, growing in the outer gardens of Colonsay House. Some skeleton leaves of magnolia. The dried stem of a kelp seaweed. A couple of conkers (can never resist those!), and a branch heavily populated by a number of lichens. The air on Colonsay is so clean that lichens flourish here!