An Eating Frenzy - Flinders, Victoria, Australia
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sat 20 Mar 2010 05:55
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38:28.595S 145:01.315E
On February 7th, we left Min and her soon to be
shifting-in beau John, and continued northeast along the last of the Great Ocean Road. The beach houses grew bigger
and flashier (or more 'glam' as the Aussies would say) and the surfer towns
more touristy as we drew closer to the outskirts of Melbourne. We stopped
in the small city of Geelong long enough to see the harbor, have lunch and drop
Kate at the train station so she could get back to Melbourne in time for work on
Monday. Ah yes, some people in this world still have to work.
After hanging around with retirees so long, it comes as quite a shock when
someone actually has work obligations to fulfill.
Melbourne sits at the top or northernmost part
of giant Port Phillip bay, so to get back to the city, we had the choice
of driving around Port Phillip to the west, or backtracking a bit and
taking the car ferry from Queenscliff across The Rip (narrow and sometimes
unfriendly entrance to Port Phillip from the sea) to the Mornington
Peninsula on the east side of Port Phillip, and then on to Flinders, where
Ray and Helen have a home. Easy choice. We went for Queenscliff, the
ferry, Mornington Peninsula and a night at Ray and Helen's marvelous 'country
home'. Country home only in that it is located in the small town of
Flinders, which compared to Melbourne, is definitely country. Not so
country in that the home's design is modern - very clean, strong lines
- and it is large enough to comfortably house their two kids, spouses or
significant others and one grandchild when they visit. Or, as the case may
be.....comfortable enough to house Sue and John and another half-handicapped
couple when they visit.
Ray and Helen's Flinders home is situated near
the top of a gently sloping hill so the view from their elevated veranda
encompasses the Bass Strait (body of water that lies between the Australian
mainland and the Australian state of Tasmania) and nearby Phillip Island.
As the Kiwis would say, 'not tooooo baaaaaad'. Or, as the more reserved
Aussies would say, 'lovely'. Below are pictures.
Picture 1 - Helen in the overcast morning light, taking in the view of Bass
Strait with the small port of Flinders in the foreground.
Picture 2 - A couple of the many different
colorful, noisy and unusual Australian birds (unusual to us, anyway).
These are galahs.
Picture 3 - Ray and Helen are expert
gardeners, and this is a not-so-great picture of a portion of their incredible
garden (which has been featured in at least one Australian home and
garden magazine with much nicer pictures). The garden on the other side of
their house is mainly dedicated to edible items, but you would never know it at
first glance given the artful way it's been cultivated. The front hedge
leading up to the front door of the house is entirely composed of rosemary - no
shortage of sprigs to spice up a nice rack-of-lamb here. There are olive
trees, lemon and lime trees, basil, mint, parsley, tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkin
(Aussie-talk for squash), beans, berries, rhubarb, lettuces and on and
on. Marvelous.
Picture 4 - Starting with Don and going clockwise,
that's Helen, John, Sue and Ray. Nearly everything in the dinner Helen
prepared for us came from the garden. All was excellent, and we felt
spoiled as this was the fourth exceptional dinner in a row (ten course meal at
the Royal Mail Hotel, dinner at the Merrijig, roast beef and all the fixings
from Min and John, and chicken with garden-grown accompaniment
extravaganza from Helen and Ray). We vowed never to eat
again.
Picture 5 - We ate the rhubarb cake Helen baked for
dessert, and then renewed our vow never to eat again.
The following day, it was back to Melbourne.
This, after a compulsory stop at one of the Mornington Peninsula wineries.
Surprisingly, at noon on a Monday there was no one else there and we had the
place to ourselves. After some wine tasting and a leisurely lunch (so much
for the vow, but at least we only ate cheese and crackers and some grapes), we
arrived back at Sue and John's apartment in Melbourne -completing the long
weekend road trip circle.
Anne
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