Amateur Adventures at Home #9: Magical and Mystical Gardens in the Dandenong Ranges
Hello lovely Steemians.
Well I've been off gallivanting around again and had a bit of a break from most of my technology!
But I always have the trusty camera with me so I can document my adventures.
This week we off on a quick sneaky trip down to the Yarra Valley for a wedding. Of course I managed a little bit of sight seeing in our very limited time.
Since moving on to our acreage, I've become somewhat obsessed with gardening and joined Diggers Club so I could easily get hold of heirloom seeds and plants. Diggers also maintain a number of gardens around the country - which are open for public viewing. One of these - Cloudehille was about 20 minutes away up in the Dandenong Ranges just outside of Melbourne. So packing the accompanying in-laws the car we took the windy road up the hill early one mist morning.
It was absolutely mystical!
A bit about Cloudehill
The gardens are at Olinda , in the heart of the Dandenong Ranges just outside the city of Melbourne. Whether you are into gardens or not, these are pretty spectacular - all year round. In fact the whole area is full of world famous gardens you can visit - it's one of the best areas for gardening because of the deep volcanic soil and a good amount of rain all year round.
The garden covers 5 acres - with an additional 5 open for viewing at the neighbouring Rangeview property, so take some good walking shoes.. and be prepared to get lost and just meander among the trees and flowers.
The garden was originally a 'working' garden back in the 1890s and was cleared of the old-growth Eucalyptus to grow cherries and raspberries. The bottom 5 acres (now Rangeview) was a nursery, while the upper 5 acres housed a cut flower business.
Work on the current gardens - Cloudehill - began on Easter Monday in 1992.
One of the magical things about Cloudehill is that it has a different garden every season so there is always something amazing to see and inspiration for plenty of gardeners..
Despite it being a mid spring morning when we visited the mist was settled in creating a magical atmosphere - you could well imagine fairies playing among the foliage!
There is also usually a range of art on display in the gardens - my favourite being that by Antone Bruinsma - beautiful sandstone and granite carvings in earthy colours with a focus on Mother Earth, and archetypal and mythological imagery. Ranging from $3500 to $25 000, my garden is going to have to do without!
Gardens are both planned and structured as well as natural and wild and of course I've come home with lots of ideas for the slopes around our property - and lots of jobs of course for @cryptoandzen!
After an hour or so of wandering the gardens, taking lots of photos and generally getting lost, despite our map, a great way to finish is in Season's restaurant, for home made treats and a great coffee. The fruit scones and cinnamon butter are really to die for!
If you see anything you like in the gardens - most is available in seed or seedling form back in Diggers shop and of course I took the opportunity to skip on the postage and bring home a load of plants - and a bee hotel to attract the native bees!
If you are around Melbourne, The Dandenong Ranges or The Yarra Valley - I highly recommend putting aside a couple of hours to amble through these gardens and stop at Seasons for a home made treat or lunch
The gardens are open 9-5 and entry is $10 or free for Diggers Club members - but it is well worth the entry cost which wouldn't even begin to cover maintaining these gardens all year round!
Seasons is outside the garden entry so you can still stop there for a snack or meal even without entering.
Hope you enjoyed a look at the these beautiful gardens. I will definitely be returning to see them in a different season as I am sure it will be like seeing them for the first time all over again.
Til the next adventure Steem on with Love and Light
You can find this, and other exciting adventures from some great travelling Steemians at Steemit Worldmap
!steemitworldmap -37.8613035 lat 145.3751264 long Mystical Cloudehill Gardens - D3SCR
Source:
If you enjoyed this post don't forget to UPVOTE and Hit that FOLLOW Button!
Let's All Share the Steemit Love!
Don't forget to come check out the teamaustralia tag and see what exciting things we are all up to in the land of Oz! It's full of Aussies and Aussie-lovers with great stories from when we are at home or loose in the world!
Thanks to @bearone for creating my beautiful teamaustralia banner which I love sooooo much! Don't forget to check out her posts and show her some love as well.
If you are a newbie and looking for help - or you just want to help support the minnows and grow this wonderful platform of ours - please consider checking out minnowsupportproject. This is a fantastic initiative to help everyone grow together and is full of fantastic advice for anyone starting out. You can find out more about it here.
(Logo and Banner Created By @justcallmemyth - another great Steemian you should check out and support)
My word what a beautiful spot, and your post's the prettiest thing I've seen online in like ever! Fantastic work Shelly. This gets the resteem treatment for sure 😊
aww shucks! thanks hun... all taken on my Samsung Galaxy 7... so I was pretty impressed with myself lol!
Always a beautiful place!!
it was amazing!
Wow, thats was awesome photos @shellyduncan
What software you use in editing those photo? Its absolutely beautiful. 😄
thanks so much.. took the photos on my Samsung phone and used a free app called Camera 360. pretty handy when I dont have all my camera gear and laptop with photoshop on it :) And I have to say - kinda only took my 1/4 of the time to edit. When I got home I added the signature via Photoshop but didn't do any additional editing. Might look into a way to add my signature via an app on the phone!
Missed this on our drive past Melbourne (no-city rule on our 2 month roadtrip!) so glad you took me there! Also like your add-on to start the worldmap script so have stolen it for my posts!
It is worth seeing if you ever get down that way.. and you wouldn't break the rule.. we didnt go into Melbourne at all :) The SteemitWorldMap bit usually links to the map but I must have messed up my cut and paste lol. Steal away.. that's flattery isn't it :)
I went back and used it in the posts I could still edit, and gave you credit! Thanks again.
Heya, just swinging by to let you know you're being featured in our Daily Travel Digest!
hey - thanks so much thats awsome will head on over to upvote and resteem your digest :)
Gorgeous Shelly! I look forward to voting for this post later in the Editor's Choice!
Thanks Choo... glad you like it :)
what a beautiful garden.. it look so beautiful.
thank you... it was.. now if I could get mine to look like that!
I loved the editing! Which software do you use and which settings?
Normally I'm a photoshop girl. However I didn't have the lap top with me and took these on my Samsung Galaxy 7 edge. I used a free editing program on the phone called Camera 360 and just downloaded a bunch of free filters... I will often use filters over the top of each other and decrease the percentage. It was a really misty day so the haze is actually just from the mist but the halo, light effects and vignette effects are filters :) There's just as much effort and creativity in editing photos these days I think! I added my logo when I got home using photoshop
It's great to see people using smart phones and free filters to create beautiful images. I've had people tell me that they don't have a nice camera, so they can't post pictures. Mobile phone cameras have gotten WAY better in the past few years. They will never equal DSLRs in the hands of experienced photographers, but most people aiming DSLRs are not experienced photographers. Great pictures. Cheers, @rebele93
Thanks so much.. sometimes it just seems so much effort to pull out the SLR - though often I will do photos on both - so I can bring back and edit RAW photos for blogging and prints - but quickly get some decent photos on FB and Insta straight from the phone. I was on a bit of time pressure (ie other people who don't get the need to spend an hour taking a photo of a flower lol) so I'm finding the phones these days do a quick but decent job that is more than acceptable for social media posting.
This post has received a 1.62 % upvote from @buildawhale thanks to: @goldenarms. Send at least 1 SBD to @buildawhale with a post link in the memo field for a portion of the next vote.
To support our daily curation initiative, please vote on my owner, @themarkymark, as a Steem Witness
This wonderful post has received a bellyrub 2.54 % upvote from @bellyrub thanks to this cool cat: @goldenarms. My pops @zeartul is one of your top steemit witness, if you like my bellyrubs please go vote for him, if you love what he is doing vote for this comment as well.