Kangaroo Island rest and recreation

On Friday morning we took a  clifftop walk with one of the enthusiastic and knowledgeable young guides.

Our first sight of one of the local wallabies.



 After lunch, relaxation massage for two. A fresh experience for me- must have been relaxing, as I lapsed into noisy slumber.

Dusk is canapes with with the kangaroos

Dinner, and the chef excelled: king prawn with grapefruit, marron, Cape Barren Goose, birthday cake. We settled in the lounge for an after dinner cognac. (The bar is complimentary.)
Saturday morning we joined the 3.5 hour fauna tour to the Remarkable Rocks so named by Baudin,  the New Zealand
fur seal colony, a live goose of the type consumed

And so to home after a stay in what must be one of most enchanting venues in Australia

Kangaroo Island bush and wild flowers

We went on a 9 km bush walk. The tiny spring flowers are beginning to show. On return, with the end stage involving fording a river mouth in the bay at high tide, the late three part table d'hôte lunch ( with double rations of the hot crusty bread rolls) was particularly welcome. A sleepy afternoon and the four course dinner (up to high standards previously set- particularly the local abalone, local oysters, and slow cooked lamb completed the day.

Kangaroo Island

Our flight by a small Saab plane took less than 30 minutes. We were met by a young member of the staff of the lodge for our stay, who conversed knowledgeably about the Island for the hour's drive. On arrival other staff were lined up to greet us Downton Abbey style as we were ushered into a lounge for coffee and smoked salmon sandwich fingers while the outline of the hospitality was explained. (Our bags had disappeared into our room.)
Lunch was "light" -tasty hot bread roll and local olive oil, a cherry tomato & caper bruschetta , a generous bacon lettuce tomato sandwich, and zabaglione with poached quince.
After lunch a trip to the sea lion colony; on the way wildlife included two black snakes and an echidna.
In the evening a sparkling wine to watch dusk on the surf, followed by a four course dinner starring mixed mushrooms, smoked brassica salad, fish and 12 hour wagyu beef, local cheeses, ice creams, local honey and honey comb, matched local white, red, and dessert wine.

Adelaide nights

We dined at Celsius, in Gouger St. Our table was in an an alcove with a gauze curtain so we could see but not easily be seen. The Louis chairs could make the setup feel a bit like a scene in Rick's Café in Casablanca circa 1942 except for the modern art work. The food, including salt and pepper squid, lamb sweetbreads, and kangaroo steak, was also a work of art.
Adelaide is called a city of churches but in our neighbourhood 3 public building clock towers in 150 metres outnumbered the sole church.

Adelaide stopover

We came to Adelaide by plane and plan to stay one night. A stroll through the main shopping strip (Rundle Mall) to forage for lunch was interrupted by rain, so a sandwich in the food court and return to hotel sufficed. Adelaide architecture still has a delightful 19th century quaintness that distinguishes it from other State capitals. Below is the Beehive Cormer.

Afterwards a stroll through the City Botanic Gardens. Too early for a great show of flowers, but of interest was an Amazonian night water lily, which attracts beetles and enforces bed and breakfast before releasing them. Also a pavilion restored, it proclaims, with largesse procured by the Hon Paul Keating. We admired the succulent garden outside. We shared a coffee with native pigeons (they watched while we drank), considered a vine flower enveloping a Moreton Bay Fig, and marvelled at a palm flower.
On our way back we encountered a Boer War memorial: as far as we know the only one in Australia solely dedicated to this Colonial enterprise.

Melbourne's oldest public building still in use

With open days for many Melbourne public buildings last weekend, it could not be said that the oldest of them all attracted the longest queues.
2013 is the 100 year anniversary of the demolition of St James' Old Cathedral in the position from which it once commanded Port Phillip in 5 acres of grounds on Little Collins and William Streets. Next year the congregation can celebrate the reassembly of the stones and furniture and the re-opening on Batman and King Streets near Flagstaff Gardens.

The foundation stone was laid in 1839, and the then landmark building greeted the first bishop, young (41) Charles Perry, on his arrival in 1848 with his wife Fanny, now better remembered as Frances as a result of her hospital work.








Above is an early photo of the reassembled building. The original had an octagonal tower:

An appealing dignified modern Georgian bluestone and local sandstone basilica architectural design both outside and in, with a flat ceiling and excellent acoustics, plainly wasn't large or marvellous enough for Marvellous Melbourne, and the centre of ecclesiastical gravitas shifted to something in medieval gothic sandstone on Flinders and Swanston in the fourth quarter of the 19th century.


We were in the congregation for St James day following the open day. The congregation were entertained to learn that one churchwarden, Edward Oxford (renamed John Freeman), had been an exile from Bedlam, where he was previously long incarcerated after an attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria.

 

A small choir comprising some of Melbourne's experienced public choral singers (who regularly gather here on roster) rendered music and words carefully integrated into the congregational worship with very singable hymns and traditional Church of England liturgy. The preacher's message well captured the chequered history of the building as a parable of the transitory essence of human existence that nevertheless points to Eternity. A substantial feast at morning tea was surrounded by memorabilia of 174 years.

German wine tasting

We had the pre-lunch opportunity to sample a range of German wines, in good company, with a helpful commentary.
Some decades ago I had visited what was then West Germany in company with a friendly academic who welcomed me to his home in Würzburg (near what was the East German border),




and in the nearby vineyards through which he conducted me I learned about Frankenwein, always supplied in their distinctive Bocksbeutal:

with the most used grape being Müller-Thurgau.

In those days German government efficiency classified and registered each wine as tafel or qualitätswein, with their prädikats (if they qualified): kabinett, spätlese, auslese, eiswein. So the title on the wine bottle could extend over a couple lines (Year-Maker-Region-Variety-Quality-Predicate).

 Marketing imperatives these days have simplified all this information (though it is still discoverable).

Our tasting this week did not include any nostalgic favourite from the Franken region, but we experienced white wines from Rheingau, Nahe, Rheinhessen, Pfaltz, all modern style trockene (dry) wines with flavours ranging from flinty to tropical fruit, and to my mouth more attractive than Australian rieslings, as well as a legendary sweetish Kabinett from Doctor Bernkastler, and a pinot noir also from Pfaltz.

NGV Monet's Garden

THE NGV winter blockbuster is another case of professional excellence by our Melbourne Gallery. 

It is not a huge collection but the pictures and wall commentary give an outstanding insight to Monet and his art.
The later paintings give a moving understanding of his eyesight affected by cataracts, and the measure of improvement surgery made.

We were particularly impressed by the multimedia display after the pictures, and the large media surround tour of a day in his house and garden.

Musée Marmottan goes high onto our visit list.

 We hope to see their next exhibition