Saturday Song - WES CARR

Never been much of a fan with talent shows these days but Australian Idol this particular year had some very good performers.
Wes Carr came from South Aussie -  For some reason  Adelaide seems to have more than its fair share of talent, don't know why.
This bloke enthralled the judges from his very first audition and went right through to the finals to become the eventual winner. I quite enjoyed his songs, mostly covers from my favorite artists. Despite doing covers he was an accomplished song writer  played guitar and piano. You can find more of Wes Carr on You-Tube.

Funky Friday Fotos

 

Not my photos. These are from my son Mitch who spent some time at the Melbourne Aquarium.

Not too shabby - hey?

Chateaux of the Loire

Can you imagine Sleeping Beauty in one of those rooms?

We drove out from Chinon along the straight flat highway towards Azay le Rideau but turned left to drive into a dark forest road to discover Chateau d’Usse. This narrow road through the forest certainly gave rise to the “Sleeping Beauty” persona of Usse. You could imagine an evil witch living in this dark forest. On arrival, even though we were in the shoulder season, we could see many of the tourist buses parked outside the Chateau boundaries. One could imagine what it would be like in the peak season during the middle of the day.



The views up here were rather fantastic.




OK, maybe a little cheesy but the children I saw, loved it.



The gardens take on a different perspective from up here.

Sitting beside the Indre river with the dark forest behind, Usse as you walk towards it has a magic feel. Not as large as some of the other grand Chateaux of the Loire, it feels comfortable to explore. To realize that to this day it is still privately owned and lived in makes it more real.

Built in the 15^th century, its turrets and pointed towers gave inspiration to the novel of Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault.

As we walked by the moat to the Chateau, the water was bubbling and swarming with movement. It wasn’t until we looked more closely that we discovered it was full of hundreds of fish expecting a feed from us. As we walked beside the moat, these fish followed us. Quite an amazing sight!



Modern contraptions do the work these days.



Further up the road the Chateau de Villandry was our next stop. Villandry is a little more austere than Usse but it is their ornamental, kitchen and water gardens that draw the tourist trade. Built during the 16^th Century, the Chateau was one of the great Chateaux built in the Loire. The gardens are built on three levels and from the Water Garden you can look down upon the grounds and get a great view of the shapes of the ornamental garden. I read somewhere in our box of souvenir literature that the gardens were restored by a Dr Joachim Carvallo sometime in the late 1800s and is cared for by his Grandson. We didn’t enter the Chateau itself and just wandered through the gardens before heading off to Chenonceau.

Maybe Chenonceau is one of the grandest of the Loire Chateaux but the crowds - even in the off-season are many.

Chateau de Chenonceau had several famous women who brought her to the grand Chateau she is today. In 1513 the wife of Thomas Bohier, Catherine Briconnet rebuilt the existing buildings with a Renaissance theme. Catherine Catherine de Medici the wife of Henri II was responsible for the bridge being turned into a grand Italian gallery, then Diane de Poitier added the formal gardens, but she was evicted after Henry's death by Catherine. Yes, evicted to Chateau de Chaumont. Poor old girl, I imagine it was quite cramped after Chenonceau.





The great hall spanning the river.



Just amazing - I think we spent more time down here than in the rest of the Chateau. The produce could be hauled up from the river below directly into the kitchen.



One of the openings above the river to the kitchen.





Sue was enthralled by the kitchen but she does love her modern appliances




How strange is it that I found the smaller buildings in chateau farm more interesting. Far from the crowds, it was quite peaceful and relaxing.



I have to admit that I was pleased that Sue talked me into seeing these three grand Chateaux of the Loire - so much so that we revisited the Loire the following year. We stayed at a lovely little cottage in Thenay, a few kilometres from Pontlevoy. That year we had the chance to see Chambord, Montrestor, Cheverny and Azay le Rideau. But I'm getting ahead of myself. We were leaving Chinon for Le Mans and on to Normandy, not without a little problem on arrival - more on that next Wednesday. 

BIG WEEKEND - remembering a friend and joining others...



Starting with farewelling a special lady on Friday, it was a big weekend. My special friend was a special friend to many of us in the Cycling Community. We met while training under the same coach for the World Master's Track Cycling Championships in 2007. The group was quite close and we spent a few years together every Saturday morning and Thursday evenings honing our skills. Karen Munro was a pursuiter but rode all events. She was happy, funny, determined and great company. She particularly enjoyed the company of my Dad Jack (remember, he's 90) who would watch each training session and we'd enjoy a little socialising after training. Karen was diagnosed with lung cancer maybe two years ago and in that time she formed "Ride Hard - Breathe Easy" to bring awareness to the public and raise funds for research.
Read more here.
http://www.ridehardtobreatheeasy.com.au/

Karen and with her Husband Steve rode with the Warragul Cycling Club and the service was held nearby - after the service Steve had organised for Karen to take one last lap of the Velodrome as her family and friends placed a rose on the track in her memory. She leaves a legacy of a junior cycling program within the Club that I would imagine will carry her name onward.

MELBOURNE celebrated the end of the footy season with the Grand Final between two Melbourne clubs this year despite it being a national competition. Collingwood, last year's Premiers were beaten by Geelong in a hard fought game. We were invited to join friends to watch the big game. Now I need to say the Sue and I have very little involvement with the sport, we don't even know the names of all the clubs let alone the names of the players. BUT, this is the pinnacle of the sport and its always good to spend time with friends, good food and a glass or two of your favorite beverage.

As it all turned out, Geelong were able to defeat last year's champions. After the match, it was back home to prepare for another friend's 50th birthday celebration - it was a fancy dress in a fairy tale theme and Julie's guests went all-out.



Julie is one of my morning ride partners - she loves pink and has the most infectious laugh.



These pics were taken on my mobile phone - not great quality but they do show the fun we had.



Some really took the theme to extreme as did my mate Darren (Mad Hatter) , another morning rider.



A few of the guests tried to bite on this fellow.



Kings, Queens, noblemen,they were all there.

SPRING with SUMMER on its way.Being the start of a new month, its great that our broadband is back at normal speed. Its allowed us to read some of our regular blogs. With the start of October and daylight saving, its noticeable that Spring has sprung in Melbourne. The blogs that we take an interest in are mainly from France and we see that they are now preparing for winter. One of our readers requested that we post lots of photos of our summer garden, BBQ's in the yard and all things to remind them of their summer that is now fading into Autumn and then Winter.
We'll do our best in the coming months but here's a few photos of our spring.



Some green now welcomes us to the front door.



This tree is affectionately known as the "Stick". It sat in our front yard for years without growth so I replanted it in the back yard. Every year I have to cut it back. Being inspired by our trips to France and seeing how trees in the squares are trimmed, I give it a regular French trim every autumn.

Its Sunday arvo and the clouds, rain and thunder of the last few days have travelled on. I sit here looking out our study window while listening to Bruce Springsteen - the sky is blue and cloudless - green, yellow, purple and dark reds all fight for recognition in the yard - it will be a good spring/summer.
It gives me time to reflect on the good friends that Sue and I are grateful to know and have known.

Yaaaaay! Broadband back to normal.

Yes, that's right - 1st of the month and the broadband is back to normal speed.
I've been having Blog withdrawels. Not only have I not been able to blog but even reading my favorite Blogs has been so slow that I gave up - much reading to do this weekend but so much is happening.
Tell you all about it Sunday night.
Meanwhile here's a Saturday song from another Aussie artist. This is a much rearranged version.

Mike Rudd formed Spectrum in the 60s - he still singing "I'll be gone" almost 50 years later and I still love it.