Sunday Fun Day - Today's Adventure

I've been a bit quiet here on my blog for the last couple of months, which might make you think that not a lot has been happening in our world.  On the contrary, we have been busy doing all sorts of things.  So, where do I start?  I suppose the best place would be today and then I will fill in some blanks.

We are at the height of autumn here, with the trees looking an absolute picture.  This made us want to visit the Cowra Japanese Gardens, about 100kms west of us.

We decided that today was the perfect opportunity, except for the fact that we woke up to a very grey morning.  Not the best for viewing gardens.  However, the weather forecast told us that Cowra would be sunny and 21 degrees, so we hopped in the car and off we headed.

It wasn't long until the cloud burnt off and we were able to enjoy seeing the colours of the poplar trees.

As we drove into Blayney we noticed a sign advising that the Rotary Markets were taking place.  Of course we had to make a little detour.  They were very nice markets indeed.  Some artisan bread and embroidered doileys and vintage tea towels came away with us.

Next stop was at the Japanese Garden.

There were a lot of visitors to the garden, but it was still rather peaceful, as the area was so large.

The background to these gardens dates back to World War 2, when Japanese prisoners of war were housed in a prison camp at Cowra.  

One night the prisoners broke out - The famous Cowra Breakout.  Many Japanese and Australians were killed.

Move forward and the town of Cowra has maintained a cemetery for the Japanese and over the years a relationship of friendship and peace has developed between Cowra and Japan. 

The Japanese Gardens, which were established in 1979, are an ongoing symbol of this relationship.

We love the way the mature Australian gum trees have been incorporated into the garden.

The design of the garden is so well thought out, taking advantage of the granite boulders and the hill.

The designer is from Japan.

The two lakes are populated with koi carp.

Of course we had to purchase a bag of fish food to feed them.  They created quite the feeding frenzy.

It is many years since we last visited.  We read that the second stage of the gardens were opened in 1986 and I am guessing it was shortly after that we last visited.

There wasn't nearly as much autumn colour as we had expected.  It is rather surprising how different our climates are, considering we are only about an hour apart.  Our elevation makes all the difference.  It was a nice surprise, however, to see some jonquils already in flower.  

After we had finished our walk around the garden we decided to have lunch at the garden cafe, but it was packed out.  Mick came up with the idea of driving over to Canowindra and getting lunch there.  I was happy to go along with that, as we always enjoy visiting Canowindra.

There is such a lovely view to the west as you drive from Cowra to Canowindra. We enjoyed a very tasty lunch and wander up and down the street.

We discovered a brand new nursery and emporium which had only opened last week.  There were some lovely items, but we just came home with two white daffodil bulbs.  It will be interesting to see how they grow.  I think they will be little ones, like tete a tete. 

On the way home we saw a stubble burn taking place in a paddock.  We had seen where many more had recently been burnt.

Across the road was a freshly planted paddock.  The season has been good for getting next season's crops in and we saw where much preparation and planting had taken place.

It was a beautiful day to be out and about.  The trees were looking their best, the paddocks had lots of feed, dams were full and stock looked nice and well fed.  We're very pleased we ventured out, rather than having a day at home.