HOMEWARDS

All too soon my holiday was over and it was time to head south again and after packing the car with all my purchases, plus a few plants and cuttings from Anne's garden, I gave Anne and Jack a quick hug and was on my way.

I'm not sure why but the journey home always seems to take less time than the journey away and after an overnight stop again in Coff's Harbour and a visit to the Opal Centre, before too many hours had passed, I found myself at the turn off for the Sydney/Newcastle Expressway but instead of turning left towards Sydney, I carried straight on towards Cessnock....and the Hunter Valley, one of Australia's premier wine districts.

As on previous visits, I headed straight to the Cessnock Motel on Allandale Road and booked in for a two night stay with a bus tour of the Vineyards included in the tariff. I could drive from vineyard to vineyard but in view of the number of vineyards involved and naturally wanting to taste before buying, I feel that this was the best thing to do instead of running the risk of being pulled over by the breathalyser police.

The next morning I was waiting outside the Motel for the minibus to come and pick me up and within a few minutes the bus arrived and the tour had begun.


At the first vineyard stop we saw an alternative to the minibus and I am keeping this in mind for future visits.


At the world famous McGuigan's Vineyard not only was I tempted by the wines but also by the other shops in the complex selling home made fudges, jams, conserves and chutneys as well as the marvellous Cheese Shop. I love cheese, the sharper the better, and this shop has a huge variety of all kinds of hard, curd and cream cheeses - far too many to buy a small sample of each which makes it so difficult to decide on which of the cheeses to finally purchase !


The Ivanhoe Winery was the next port of call and like all the wineries we visited everything was beautifully set out and waiting for us.




We visited three or four wineries before stopping for lunch at the Hunter Valley Gardens complex which has been built since I first started visiting this area. The tourist facilities have improved immensely over the last few years and there is now even a chapel for couples wishing to be married in a romantic setting. Following lunch, we continued the tour.




This is a new winery since my last visit and from what we were told by the tour guide, some of the traditional winemakers are not too impressed expressing the view that old and traditional is much better than new and contemporary.


As mentioned above, the gardens here have been developed recently and surround quite a few shops selling all kinds of things - including one devoted to chocolate. There is also a world class golf course close by which was designed by Greg Norman.





Some of the winemakers are very much entertainers with one of them telling us that he insists we all swallow the sample instead of spitting it out.......that it would be an insult to his art if we did that - with the added comment that he has such a hard job but someone has to do it !!!

I could have purchased some wine while on the tour but I usually wait until the following day when I am ready to leave Cessnock. This allows me to make my selection from all the vineyards and have it loaded directly into the car ready for the trip home.

All too soon the freedom of the Newcastle/Sydney Expressway gives way to the outer suburbs of Sydney and then the frustrations of bumper to bumper traffic make the last few kilometres a nightmare as I cross from the north to the south of the city. It is finally a relief as I back down my driveway and turn the engine off.

All I have to do now is to unpack the car ....... I didn't really buy all these things, did I ?

SUB TROPICAL QUEENSLAND

This will be a very difficult part of the Blog to put together ! Anne has so many beautiful trees, shrubs and plants in her garden that it is almost impossible to decide which to display and which to leave out so all I can do is to enter the photographs and label them if I can remember just what the names are !!!

The garden bed along one side of the house filled with lush tropical plants after rain.


The area between the back of the carports and garden storage shed hidden from the main garden by the large concrete rainwater tanks on the left. When they moved here the block of land was quite bare of trees and shrubs of any kind after being used for sugar cane growing. A lot of chemicals had been used during farming and it took them quite a while to regenerate the land.


A general view across the block - all this landscaping has been done over the last 12-15 years since Anne and Jack moved here from Sydney.


Hippeastrums or Madonna Lilies.


Alstroemerias.

Crucifix Orchids.

The Beehive Ginger plant.


Ixoras.


Another Ginger.


Flowering Gum just breaking out...


....and fully open.








I think this is a ginger, too.


The following plants are Heliconias.





Such a profusion of colour and variety and there are literally hundreds more of photographs that I would love to have included.

ORCHIDS

Anne's great love is her garden and particularly her orchids and I freely admit that I know nothing about them so I hope all these below really ARE orchids. She has a large shade house filled with pot after pot of them and living where she does she is also able to have a few of the hardier ones, such as the Crucifix Orchid, growing almost wild outside in the garden beds. She has told me the names of all these orchids below but unfortunately I didn't write them down and since she isn't on the Internet I cannot send these photos to her so that she can name them for me again.

I am afraid that all you can do is drool over such a beautiful display.























I wasn't all that keen on going into the shade house because it is a haven for spiders, lizards and the occasional snake. Some of the spiders are bigger than the palm of your hand and like to hide underneath the pots, so in spite of her love of nature, there are times that, when Anne picks up a pot and balances it on her hand, it can suddenly be thrown into the air when she feels some movement between it and her hand !