Melbourne's Pop Up Restaurant

At the beginning of March a pop up restaurant - 'Greenhouse' appeared on the banks of the River Yarra (in the space of 3 weeks!) in the city of Melbourne as part of this year's Food and Wine festival here. Yesterday I went along as I had heard all about the Greenhouse restaurant in Sydney as it was featured in our Masterchef television programme here in Australia last year. It's a pop up restaurant with a difference though - it has been built using only recycled or sustainable materials. The structure has been formed from mostly old shipping containers stacked four-high, the floor from old conveyor belts, the chairs from disused irrigation pipes and recycled bottles and jars are used as drinking glasses! Amazing...

All the herbs are grown on site in large recycled oil drums.

The roof top bar. More herbs in containers.

Terracotta pots line the facade of the restaurant - all potted up with wild strawberry plants.

Close up of the pots above and below...

And look who my breakfasting companion was!!!

Yup, my daughter is in town - she arrived on Sunday which of course makes me so very, very happy. She's here for 3 weeks on Easter vacation from University in UK.

Our own personal pot of basil on our table, above.

The chairs !

Our food - totally and absolutely delicious - my daughter chose the herb mushrooms on flatbread with curd cheese ....

And I went for the scrambled eggs with mustard cress.

A great start to the day.

So pleased we were able to go along - the pop-up restaurant disappears tomorrow! Really hope that there might be a more permanent one in the city one day.

Quick visit into the city

Had to make unexpected visit into the city of Melbourne today. Right into the heart of the CBD. I think it's one of my most favourite cities in the world - everything is at your fingertips. It was decked out for Christmas with stars and fluttering flags.

There's a very good transport system in Melbourne. Melburnians sometimes complain about the trains and trams but I think they are wonderful. Look at this rather jolly tram in yellow above.

Outside David Jones department store there was a 'live' stone statue of F. Christmas! I love David Jones. Went in there today and bumped into such a gorgeous girl - a friend of daughter's - she is working at the MAC counter. The gorgeous girl was on the same Make Up Artist course that my daughter attended when she was here in June, July and August.......

Oh and look ! F. Christmas himself. He was starring in the window of Myers Department store...

Along with these animated lily fairies...

a prince and a princess, (Kate Middleton take note - a good dress design for you perhaps?!)

and these gorgeous white horses.

All very pretty I have to say but I cannot for the life of me really feel festive when it is warm. I imagine it must be an ingrained thing having been brought up in the Northern Hemisphere where Christmas means cold short days and long nights, open fires, evergreen fir trees and twinkly ice and snow !!

It's a different kind of atmosphere here - still fun and lovely but one of a rather long party with warm days and short nights, outside living, barbeques, beach visits and plenty of cold fizzy champagne. Not that I'm really complaining, especially about the fizzy part!

As I was in the city I called friend S who works there and we met for a healthy sushi lunch. After that the healthy part stopped as she took me to a gorgeous little cupcake place for some

and we had such a

catching up and chatting. Have not seen her for a while.

The inside of the cupcake shop - so colouful... Look at all the boxes used as decoration on the left hand side wall.

And above - 3 little cupcakes...How cute? From the left chocolate marshmallow, then vanilla creme, and on the right strawberry shortcake.

So delicious! (I had the strawberry one).

Oh and I did do a teeny bit of retail therapy too which I will tell you about in a later post. All in all a very nice day off altogether and I now feel ready to face the rest of the week.

Perfect Day

Today was beautiful. A perfect Spring day in Melbourne - the temperature topped 23 degrees and the sun shone most of the day. Just look at the lovely blue sky with the little small wispy clouds. It was warm enough to be very comfortable but not overly hot - my absolute perfect weather.

Also perfect in that I had a day off and niece (Miss Sophs) came over for dinner this evening with her man - Mr Melbs. (I am ignoring the fact that the fly in the oinment is that I am working tomorrow - Saturday!)

Hope what ever you are doing you have a lovely weekend. What temperature / weather do you love the best and what time of the year? I have to say I think this is my favourite time of the year here in Melbourne.

Art for Art's Sake

Melbourne is famed for amazing and eye catching 'Street Art' in the many small laneways and arcades in the city and whether you love it or hate it you have to admit that it is colourful and different. The dear, darling daughter LOVES it and so, before she went back, we went for a special visit to the city in order that she could take a few photographs. These she has decided she will enlarge and use to decorate her room at University when she goes in late September. Here are a small sample of the many photographs she took:

After all that we decided to go to a wonderful, hidden away little Chinese place recommended for their fantastic and tasty dumplings filled with soup and pork... Shoa-long Bao - they even have special instructions for the correct way of enjoying and eating them.....!

Above photograph - the cooks hard at work making hundreds of wonderful dumplings for lunchtime diners.

And here above are the finished article......................mmmmmm!!

They were really delicious.... Luckily I am going back there again next Friday - I have made a plan to meet my friend Shelly for lunch there - she is a dumpling 'officiando' and I am sure she will LOVE them as much as we did.

Busy Easter Day (and a special dinner last night)

It is Easter Sunday today and the weather has been glorious - a beautiful, clear, sunny sky.

However, since late morning and for most of this afternoon I have been busy getting our clothes ready and washing and ironing in readiness to pack later for our trip to UK. Am nearly there so I thought I would take a break to do a quick post and tell you about a special evening we had last night. Mr SE took me out to dinner as it is our Wedding Anniversary early next month and we probably won't be in the same country then (he being back in Australia and me still in UK) so we decided to celebrate early and went to a wonderful restaurant called No.35 (it's on the 35th floor of a high rise building) in the city of Melbourne. The view was incredible as you can see -this photographs shows the view over Melbourne looking towards the South East and the oval bluish shape to the right is the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) - a place close to Mr SE's heart !!

Interesting decor - rather liked these sort of coral inspired arrangements hanging down from the ceiling.

I wore lots of faux pearls - and mixed them up together - some more faux than others (one an 'op-shop' (charity shop) find for around a dollar!!) and another a tad more expensive - my Chanel one from Mr SE for my 50th birthday...... Oh and of course my Chanel Ballerinas came out too to enjoy the view from the 35th floor!

Little lights on the tables - rather like beehives I thought.

A delicious sparkling aperitif....

My main dish - a delicious fish with an amazing name - something like 'Suzuki Mulloway' !! Every mouthful was wonderful - Mr SE had a beef dish which although tasted fantastic wasn't very photogenic!

However, this was extremely worthy of a camera shot! Look what came with my espresso coffee - how cute are they - little homemade chocolates on sticks - what presentation!

Hope everyone is enjoying their fair share of chocolates today!

Will probably have time to do one more post tomorrow morning before I leave Melbourne for a while... Here come those mixed feelings again!! I do so love this city and am sad to leave but am excited at the thought being back in UK... And even more excited about seeing my dearest, darling, daughter again - she returns to UK in a couple of weeks from France where she has been working at a ski resort - my heart is skipping with happiness at that thought!

Beach and Breakfast

Thought I would show you three photographs to illustrate two points in my list I wrote yesterday regarding my favourite things about Melbourne.

Above and below - a beach so close to the City. In the first photo you can see the city clearly in the background - the other photo is taken looking out towards the other way...

Just lovely isn't it ?... But not quite as lovely as the breakfast below... YUM! Perfection on a plate and served with a delicious coffee - what could be nicer?

Ed Note : Not that I was beach visiting and breakfasting today... (these are photographs from my 'archives'!) It was the first day back (after the long summer break) at Peony and it was Sale time too... busy, busy busy - we did not stop all day! If you live in Melbourne definitely worth a visit before all the bargains go!

Melbourne - Australia Day

Today is Australia Day in this fair land that is my home for the time being which got me thinking... there is nothing really like it in the UK... Yes, we have St. George's Day but that is not a national holiday - here it is basically a day off and a family day (rather like Christmas) and a day to give thanks too... USA has Thanksgiving Day and France has Bastille Day - a day for families to converge and just be together.... Rather nice really...

And so then I thought well, yes.... I love my 'home' city of Melbourne, I really do - and these are things I particularly love (in no specific order....)

• The architecture (the great variety - from the wonderful modern skyscrapers to the period weather boarded homes).



• The green spaces within the city - the parks and in particular the Royal Botanic Gardens.



• The laneways and arcades.



• The cafes (and especially the lovely breakfasts available).



• The people - Meburnians are wonderful almost without exception - friendly, open and welcoming and most all with a 'can do' attitude.



• The art galleries and theatres.



• The beaches and coast line in general including the docklands area.



• The coffee (consistently good).



• The markets - from fresh food to 'flea'.



• The trams (and the transport system in general in the city).



• The River Yarra



• The fact that there are seasons in Melbourne - in fact a common saying is that you can get all 4 in one day... Or "If you don't like the weather, wait a couple of hours"..... At least in winter it is cold enough to wear tights here!



• The food - again, almost always of a good standard and what variety too!

And so there it is - my list... Happy Australia Day to all my fellow country dwellers... and a good day to you all wherever you call 'home'.

Divine Decoration in a Deli

How about this for a chandelier- talk about larger than life !

This one is in a Deli/Cafe near Mr SE's new offices in Melbourne... and apparently they do a mean coffee ... On Friday nights they transform into a bar as well....

I thought it was quite stunning (although did not get a chance to try their coffee - they had just closed - hence the photograph through the window - apologies for the reflections )

My two favourite houses in the street

The area we live in Melbourne (Canterbury) has some gorgeous old origninal weather-boarded houses and these two which I photographed today (sorry, one is on a slant - was worried about inhabitants rushing out and demanding what I was up to and so I had to take them pretty pronto!) are my absolute favourites.

Our house is at the top of the street and the local shops and station etc. are at the bottom so most days I walk past these two houses at least twice! They definitely have my vote as the 'winners' of the 'Prettiest Houses' award and yes please I wouldn't mind either! Think that they both have swimming pools too - in No.1 you can just see it on the right hand side .... but don't you just love the trellis covered with greenery on the No.2 house - I think it is jasmine as it is also covered with white little star like flowers at the moment...
Sigh.... just beautiful!
Happy Weekend to all.....

The MIL returns to UK tomorrow!

And maybe I am not being entirely honest if I say there is no coincidence that I am posting this photograph I took yesterday of the BATS (or flying foxes as they are also known as ) that roost in trees near the RIVER YARRA in Melbourne - but sorry, could not resist the temptation!!

They are actually an amazing site especially at dusk when they all take off to feed - they look like enormous crows when flying with wingspans of around a metre or so ...... (you may have to double click on the photograph to make it larger to see them all in the trees) - they also look like black handbags or moneybags all hanging upside down as they sleep throughout the day....

Hope you all had a good weekend.....