Modern Classic

We've always liked pre-loved furniture, weather that was a preference or just more suitable to our budget is a subject for discussion. Moving into our new life it seems our tastes are changing. After 30 plus years of maintaining a period home - I must have painted the timber Californian Bungalow period home 3 times on the outside......The interior saw many changes and renovations. In fact it got to the stage that I was renovating the renovations.

With the sale of the Cal Bung, we are now in the stage where we can treat ourselves a little in retirement. The new house is now coming down the home straight to the finishing line although we are still anxious to see if the builder meets our need for a pre-Christmas move-in.

If you have been following our saga, you would agree that our new home is designed for modern living and so we find ourselves moving towards a new style of decoration and furnishings.
Last Sunday we needed to be in Melbourne and so decided to look at a modular suite for the family area. We initially saw it in a magazine we regularly buy called Country Style.

We needed the versatility of a modular suite so that we could rearrange furniture to suit our various needs as a new home will become a party house. Since moving to the country, we have a constant stream of visitors. The suite can be converted from a full size one piece L-shaped couch to two 2-seaters. If we have more than two couples stay in the 2 guest rooms, we can convert the suite to a double bed or even two single beds...
It will be covered in mid-grey fabric rather than the leather shown below.

 But then as Sue walked around the showroom, she discovered a chair she just fell in love with. Once she sat in it, put her feet up, she decided it just had to be part of our family room as well. The fabric will be in a teal colour and I hear her planning to have some teal cautions or maybe a teal throw-over for the long suite to pull the two pieces together. How exciting?

We may have some more news on the house later in the week as the inside painting and tiling is coming to a close. We do have a few problems to sort out with the builder however it was always expected that the occasional stuff-up would happen somewhere - more on that subject later.

TURPIN FALLS

Only late last week we took a drive to another waterfall in our area. There are three that we aware of. Trentham Falls near our future home town is running well with the Coliban River flowing over the falls.

Another river, the Campaspe runs through Kyneton where we currently live. The Campaspe River runs from the Central Highlands and meanders all the way to Lake Eppalock where it meets the Coliban River then flows on to the great Murray River. With the historic rainfalls this winter, the Campaspe has widened its banks and is flowing very quickly. This creates some stunning scenery, especially as it reaches Turpin Falls.
These falls are nowhere near the height of Trentham Falls which are the highest in Victoria. Nevertheless they are stunning with the amount of water that is currently flowing over them.

I'm told that the falls are very popular with rowers being brave enough to take a leap of faith.

Looking down on the falls

Once over the falls, the Campaspe River runs to the next catchment area of Lake Eppalock. 

Our House is a very nice House

Today we had to meet the window furnishing people on site and it gave us an opportunity to see the progress on the inside. A few glitches have arisen however I guess when you get to this stage, it is expected. Unfortunately the Tilers discovered that our Builder under-estimated the amount of tiles to complete the job. Painters had not completed their work which also slow down the Tilers (probably an additional week).
I must say though that up until now, progress has been excellent and I think our Site Manager, Clinton is pushing hard for us.

However we forge on and keep the pressure on the Builder to perform to meet our expectations. I keep telling Sue, "We are the customer and we hold the purse strings". I figure that's good incentive for performance.

En-suite vanity and floor have now been tiled. The floor is a charcoal grey which is not unlike the floor tiles in our old home.

The splash back has been tiled in a herringbone layout.

All of our en-suite and the second bathroom have floor to ceiling clean white tiles.

Second bathroom is in keeping with the en-suite theme.

I now know how the tradies keep up their energy.

OUR LOCAL FOODIE DELIGHTS

Only recently our very good friend Ell came to visit us - she still berates us for leaving Mentone and Melbourne, our home by the Bay but on each visit understands the joy we have in this transition.
Yes, we do miss many aspects of our former life. The Bay is beautiful as are our friendships however as retirement drew closer and our home was being hemmed in by high rise and high density living, we found that we didn't fit the square anymore - we had become the square peg!!!

Smiles and friendly gestures are all part of the day here, even in Kyneton which is a small regional town on the way between Melbourne and Bendigo which is a large regional city. The region where we live is known as the Central Highlands - Macedon Ranges. Trentham is part of the region and in fact pretty much slam bam in the middle. We have our fair share of culinary delights within the local area and several of them have been featured in the recently published book,

FLAVOURS of VICTORIA.

It takes in the towns and villages of Kyneton, where we currently live, Trentham where we will be living and the lovely towns of Daylesford, Castlemaine, and Gisborne. The smaller villages of Trentham, Musk, Sailor's Falls, Shepherd's Flat and Smeaton are way up there.

Our new home town of Trentham which probably has a population now of 2000, has four listed Cafe's/Bakeries/Restaurants which is excellent when other larger towns were less. We are spoilt in the region for great food and wine.
That's not to say we thought after reading the book, we thought many more should have been included. Note our comments in the photo captions.

The book is called "Flavours of Victoria" - our blog deals with our own region of the Macedon Ranges.

We discovered the book while catching up with Rhys at "The Collective" in Trentham. Along with David the Barista and the friendly staff, it has become a favourite spot for us. This photo was taken by our friend Ell without knowing. You can tell how friendly the place is by the laughter.

The Macedon Ranges takes in a region of an upside down triangle spreading from Gisborne via Kyneton to Castlemaine , across to Daylesford to Trentham, Woodend and returning to Gisborne. Within that triangle, a weekend does not pass with the local producers bringing their wares to the Saturday/Sunday markets every weekend.

The Collective is a family concern with Rhys and his mother Joy. It's our local for the best coffee by David the Barista. Breakfast is a treat. There are another two Cafes we enjoy in town being Chaplin's which is my Thursday morning place for breakfast before playing Petanque. The other is Wylde Thyme, recently replacing the former establishment, The Colliban Food Store which up until its closure was our Friday afternoon place to be.
We are spoilt for cafes in Trentham.

The "Cosmo" has been reborn after a fire burnt part of it. Built in 1866, the owner, Rod Hughes breathed new life in to the derelict, fire damaged building and every weekend it is full of travelling tourists. There's a leafy tree shaded garden out back to enjoy a cool beer or wine in the summer and inside during winter you can enjoy a tender steak with a glass of the many local reds available. Our local car club meet here once a month. Oh, yes and there's Trudie behind the bar whom I met at the Collective when dressed in my full cycling Lycra kit.
The Cosmo is not our only local Pub - The Plough which has won many awards for the food and front of house staff is our favourite although disappointingly was not featured in the book. The food is superb and again washed down with local wines. We met Mitch, the front of house guy in our early visits through Trentham before we bought in.

Kyneton's Duck Duck Goose is not only a great breakfast spot but out the back, you can wander looking at produce, gift ware, foodie books and be tempted to spend that little more than you intended. Across the road is my very favourite bakery in GRIST. Chris was probably one of the first local proprietors that I warmed to. He makes an unbelievable Cornish Pastie, his pies are great and he also makes a croissant that I would be prepared to say are the best I've tasted compared with the local French bakeries.

Now Tim at La Bonta is a great host. His menu is based on modern Italian with some great local as well as Italian regional wines. When ever we drive down Piper Street, Kyneton, Sue will always say - we need to go back to La Bonta. I think we will this Friday night.
There's also "The Source" and " The Midnight Starling" for fine dining. There are several other more casual dining places in Kyneton along with the local pub meals which are way up there on the foodie scale.

Trentham's Red Beard Bakery is renown for their sour dough bread but some of their more sweet delicacies are worth a try.
I love their Autumn Spiced Pear Cake with my Latte or Cappuccino. I've also had their Bread and Butter Pudding - Yum!!
Red Beard run baking classes so that you can take their secrets home with you.
Red Beard is not the only local bakery as in the main street there is a long term local baking bread and making pies which I  often buy to fill that empty spot. Not as good as Grist, but not far behind. 

I'm pleased we bought this book as it will open up new delights in our region - the ones mentioned in this Blog Post are the ones we frequent. Victoria is a rich foodie state within Australia and this book will take us further from our local area to explore further afield.

MOUNT ALEXANDER

It never ceases to amaze us when driving on unfamiliar roads within the region that there are these wonderful surprises. Only 30 minutes from home is Mount Alexander. Previously we'd been to Mount Macedon in the other direction towards Melbourne but this is a township where Mount Alexander is purely a reserve.

Mount Macedon has rich soils and is very much known for the beautiful private gardens which are open to the public once a year. Mount Alexander on the other hand has a beauty quite different from Mount Macedon. It is rugged bushland and covered in granite outcrops and the most magnificent boulders, very similar to Hanging Rock.
It is located between our current town of Kyneton and Bendigo and is only a slight diversion from the freeway.

The day was wet so we didn't leave the car - the photos are from my iPhone 

Before it's discovery by European explorer Major Mitchell in 1836, the local indigenous tribe, the Jaara Jaara people used it as a sacred ceremonial site and as a lookout. We arrived at the very top in the car and had a clear view for as far as the eye could see. The drive to the top took us by mobs of grazing kangaroos and towards the very top amongst the granite boulders we came across wallabies.

Over the the early years, the rock was quarried and used for buildings in the district and in Melbourne. Today it is purely a recreational reserve for abseiling and bushwalkers.
I'm sure we will return to take further photographic opportunities very soon.

We'll return on a more friendly day and post more soon of Mount Alexander.