Melbourne and surrounds

We have just returned from a few days in Melbourne which was wonderful except for the weather which was TERRIBLE. Freezing cold, wind, rain and bleak. I took basically no photos which is unusual but it was not very picturesque. We spent time with number two every day, which was really really nice. This did mean a lot of amazing food - we had fabulous Thai, Vietnamese, Korean and an excellent cafe where number two goes for business meetings ... theatre people like a good coffee shop. I took a photo of my meal.

We also did a fair bit of shopping, including some very groovy shops that I would never have found on my own, and then boring grocery shopping to fill up the share house fridge in the time honoured parental way, and op shopping for two dining chairs which they needed. Ten dollars each, bargain. Number two also got the three of us free tickets to this play - it was definitely more peculiar than we are used to but funny and interesting and we really enjoyed it (or my husband and I did, our playwright child was a bit more judgy).

My husband had the Australian Model Expo to visit (he entered a model, got a Commendation which was very pleasing) and I had a quiet poke around and lunch by the river ... I sat outside even though I got a bit rained on.

And we did a day trip up towards Daylesford where friends have recently retired to a seven acre block, although they've had the block for years. It is basically the complete opposite of us - it was a sub-divided farm, so a completely blank canvas, and they built a hempcrete house themselves, and various sheds and outbuildings and planted everything new ... they are going as self-sufficient as possible so goats for milk, alpacas for wool (she spins and knits), ducks and chickens for eggs, huge gardens of vegies and fruit ... it is amazing and we were in awe. They built a greenhouse using recycled materials, have solar panels, feed the goats from farm waste and only need to heat the house when it's not sunny because the insulation is so good!!!! Utterly diametrically opposite to what we are doing (they don't even have a chipper because they are growing not chopping) but it still looks incredible and they are having so much fun. Just like us.

This is feeding the goats. It SNOWED when we arrived. Not much, just flurries, but my god it was cold. We went into town for lunch though and it was so pretty. I would like to return when the weather wasn't so awful.