Pam and Jamie's holiday snaps

Everyone comfy on their bean bags? Good. Settle back and relax as we bring you the latest holiday snaps from Garden Amateur's two little garden/art/nature lovers as we tour southern Australia in very early spring. First slide please, projectionist!

What a colourful way to announce to the world that we have left the city and are out in the country. All through our trip we saw huge, far-as-the-eye-can-see fields of canola crops in flower. This is where we first saw them, in Cowra, about 4.5 hours west of Sydney, where our real objective was to see the Japanese gardens there.

We stayed at the Vineyard Motel, which is far enough out of town to make us feel like we were among the paddocks. As well as enjoying its cool misty mornings, Pam and I almost froze to death at night, standing outside looking up at the dazzling Milky Way on a perfectly cloudless, starry sparkly night. It's good for the soul to stare at the Milky Way.

Next morning, straight off to the Cowra Japanese Gardens, which were a couple of weeks short of being in full bloom, but still beautiful to behold with their clipped balls of greenery and tumbling streams.

They don't just plonk seats here and there at Cowra. Each is perfectly placed to take in a wonderful view of the garden, and this one high on the hill has its own little bamboo-posted walkway that feels almost ceremonial.

Taking advantage of a perfect seat placement, en plein air watercolour artist Pammy spent some very productive time capturing the scene. Wherever we travel, she takes a small painting kit with her.

Late September and early October is the peak blossom-filled time to visit the Cowra Japanese Garden, but we've been there at other times of year and it's always a wonderful place to wander for a few hours.

Next stop, Mitta Mitta in Victoria. In the same mountain zone as better-known Beechworth, Mitta Mitta is in a lush valley, from which you can see snow-covered Mount Bogong looming large.

Lucky us! We stayed at this cottage that is part of the Witches Garden (about which I will be doing a separate posting in a few days, as it has a large, gorgeous garden which will be open to visitors in early November). 

This cottage was a city couple's 'escape to the country fantasy' come true: beautiful stream flowing behind it, superb garden, log fires, big country kitchen, total privacy, native birds galore. We could've stayed for weeks.

As well as these rosellas, there were kookaburras cacking their heads off and dazzling king parrots hanging around, knowing that we had been given a big jar of birdseed to keep them happy.

However, we weren't just in Mitta Mitta for fun. Pam was there to teach a watercolour art class organised by her great mate, Marg (left), and the snazzy new Mitta Mitta Community Hall was a perfect venue.

Mitta Mitta has some very dedicated artists, but they weren't so familiar with watercolours, and that's where Pammy showed them the ropes. Here's one of her 5-minute quick landscape demos that she did for them.

That cane chair on the verandah proved to be the perfect spot for Pam to whip out the painting kit one day and enjoy some quality time painting that birch tree and those camellias.

She's only half-way finished at this stage, and I might be biased but I even love what she does with her watercolour palette — she ought to frame that as an abstract work, too.

After Mitta Mitta we headed through Bendigo and Castlemaine to see our dear friends Amanda and Mike in Kyneton, but on the way we stopped off in Bendigo to see the Chinese gardens there. We were the only ones there ... so serene.

If I was ever going to remodel a garden and its outdoor spaces, I think I'd ask a Chinese architect to come and lend a hand. Pammy could do the frescoes.

We stayed in Melbourne a few days, saw more old friends, and on our way out we stopped off at Ballarat. Why is it that houses by the water (actually rowing sheds on Lake Wendouree) seem so perfectly tranquil?

Lots of Aussies would know that Ballarat in not the most direct way home from Melbourne, and that's because we headed way out to western Victoria, where these elegant, gently weeping yellow-flowered gum trees proliferated.

We were venturing out west to ride the "Silo Art Trail" which features a set of six very large silos painted with portraits of local people by street artists. This one above is my favourite, and it's in Brim. 

This one, in Rupanyup, features a local netballer and a footballer. The whole trail of six silos is about a 200km drive, but out there the roads are straight and empty, so each leg of the journey doesn't take long.

It gets so amazingly flat out here, real "big sky country" that at one stage Pammy said "I think I can see the curvature of the Earth on the horizon." For really big skies, you need clouds, of course, so thanks Huey.

This area is so flat and outbacky that it even has several salt lakes. This is Lake Tyrrell, which was still carrying some water from winter rains when we visited, but the summer's heat bakes it white and shimmery. 

From the Wimmera Region and its painted silos, we had many more miles to cover before we made it back to Sydney, but on the way as we crossed the Murray River at Barham, we spotted some river boats sitting on the slowly moving river and fantasised about maybe floating down the Murray some time in the future. Who knows?

As I mentioned earlier in this posting, I'm planning on doing something about the wonderful Witches Garden at Mitta Mitta soon. It's open under the Open Garden Scheme in early November, so if you can somehow manage to be there, do not miss out on the chance to visit Mitta Mitta, see the garden, and maybe even stay a while in the gorgeous country cottage there.

On the road again

It's been quite a while since Pam and I hit the road on holidays, but last week we managed to squeeze in a very enjoyable 2000-km ramble from Sydney down to see old friends in Kyneton, Victoria (hi Amanda and Mike!), then back home the long way through inland New South Wales. It's high summer here at the moment, and the whole of south-eastern Australia is a pale straw colour, thanks to drought and heatwaves. And yet we managed to find a beautiful cool, green oasis in the midst of this sunburnt summer, at the Japanese Gardens in Cowra. 

Designed by Japanese master gardener Ken Nakajima (whose
ashes are now buried here) this Japanese garden design follows
traditional principles which are best summed up by saying they
seek to symbolise a whole country, with hills and mountains, rivers
cascading down the slopes to the foothills, then onto the sea.

This view from the township side of the garden looks over to the
lofty, rocky hills in the distance.

And here's the view from those hills, looking across the lake
to where I stood to take the previous photo. Many existing native
gum trees are part of this garden, and they also form a boundary
screen that smooths the transition from this stylised mini Japan to
the wide expanses of Australia beyond.

Stepping back a few feet from that hilltop view and you can
see that Mr Nakajima has once again placed his garden seats
perfectly, for visitors to enjoy the views as long as you like. All
around the gardens, the seat placements are many and perfect.

Some of the seats are simple plank benches, others more deluxe
affairs, but they all provide a view that invites you to rest a while.

It's true the gardens are at their best in autumn
and spring, but part of its design is to have
something in flower at all times, and the loftier
summer colour comes from the red, white or pink
flowers of the crepe myrtle trees in bloom.

And the ground-level colour department is handled capably
all through the hottest summer by white or mauve agapanthus.

At this time of year, pleasant as the little patches
of flower colour can be, the real colour heroes
are the many different shades of green foliage.
There are conifers of so many varieties that I
was out of my depth recognising them, and so
I am sorry to say I liked this one the best and
haven't got a clue what it's called.

Discreetly half hidden from view, this bonsai house is like a
very large matchstick model. It's all frame, no roof.

It was hard to photograph any of the many
bonsais here, due to the sharp black shadow
lines cast by the 'roof' frame, but both Pam
and I loved this 'forest' of half a dozen
bonsai trees in the one wide, shallow pot.

So, if you're from Sydney and are ever driving west, or coming from interstate, or travelling our fair land while visiting from overseas, see if you can work Cowra and its Japanese Gardens into your plans. 

Here's a link to the gardens website: http://www.cowragarden.com.au

The good news is that Cowra offers several lovely places to stay, some great restaurants (try Niela) and several vineyards to visit. While out there you could try ballooning at Canowindra (we didn't!), and also head to Orange, another great foodie destination.