Taking Monique to the Spa - Part 1

We made arrangements to take Monique, my Grace Q’Nique machine, to the service man in Mittagong on the Monday morning, last week.

PLAN A - Leave home at 5am and drive there and back in the day.  Not such a good idea, as we would be driving through quite a bit of scrubby country at that early hour when lots of roos are out and about.

PLAN B - Mick and my brother had planned to go fishing on the Sunday morning.  We would drive half way on Sunday afternoon and went ahead and booked accommodation at the pub at the village of Taralga, planning to travel via Oberon. Mick decided that the road via Oberon was reportedly too rough.

PLAN C -We would travel to Taralga via Crookwell instead, leaving in the afternoon.

PLAN D - The weather was forecast to be quite windy, so not suitable to take the kayaks out on the lake, so we would leave in Sunday morning and visit the Crookwell Open Garden Festival on our way to Taralga.  The Crookwell gardens have been on my wish list for quite a while, but keeps getting put off each year.  This would be a nice bonus.  This is the plan we finally went with.

Not the best photo, but we settled Monique into the back seat of the car in a nest of pillows or her trip.

It’s a pretty drive to Crookwell and the road was good.

The village of Tuena has a pretty church and nice mural.

The first garden we visited was “Markdale”.  I’ll let the brochure they gave us tell its story.

I was very much looking forward to visiting another Edna Walling garden.  We had visited another in Crookwell many years ago.  One of my very early blog posts.  Edna Walling is one of Australia’s most famous garden designers, working mainly in the mid 20th century.  Have a little read about her.  It is really interesting.

As you enter the property you firstly see the old farm buildings that are currently used as farm stay accommodation.

Let’s explore.

Immediately, you are greeted with Edna’s signature style of shallow stone steps.

The homestead was built in about 1910 and extended at about the time the garden was designed.

I was quite excited to see this lamp.  It is what we affectionately refer to as a “Ferdy Lamp”.  They were made by a man my dad used to work with in the 1960s.  Ferdy was a Yugoslav immigrant that worked at the local gas works, but made these lamps on the side.  Eventually, he was able to make the lamps his full time job.  He gave one to Dad, after Dad saved his life, by turning off the power, when Ferdy accidentally stood in some water while welding and was getting electrocuted.  A simple, but timely act to save a life.

The next country garden we visited was one of my favourites.  It featured lots of old bits and bobs, collected over many years.  The owners are retired potato growers and commenced the garden in the late 1970s.

Mick reckons this is by far the best use of a hand operated cement mixer.

Now, onto another country garden.

Isn’t this quirky.

I think this old machine is beyond restoration.

By now it was time for lunch.

I had made a spinach pie, so we found a nice park to enjoy our picnic.

While in town, we visited the Linder sock factory and bought Mick a nice pair of woollen socks.  If you visit during the week you can see the machines in operation.

There was only one open garden in town, surrounding this beautiful old bluestone house.

It had a lovely vege garden

I loved the metal arches.

Now onto another country garden.  This time only designed and started in 2015, surrounding a new home.  It was absolutely beautiful - both the house and garden.

Imagine wallowing in this pool with that gorgeous view in the background.

From here, we travelled to the small village of Laggan, where the remaining gardens were open.

The first was a compact but lovely garden.

Next was the old Willow Vale Mill.  The owner bought the derelict mill in the 1970s and has restored the building and established a wild garden with lots of trees and follies.  There was not a tree on the place when he bought it.

By now we were about gardened out, so it was time to keep on our way to Taralga.  

More soon.