Parks, Picnics and Pretty Things

This past weekend, we decided to do something different and outdoorsy.

On Sat, we decided to visit Chancery Gardens, which we had driven past on our way to Glen Waverley and Moorabin (Plenty Rd=>Albert St=>Bell St=>Manningham Rd=>Doncaster Rd=>Balwyn Rd). CG is at the bottom of a hilly road (Balwyn Rd) lined with beautiful mature trees and stately houses, all very English looking, next to Chancery train station and right across from the main street and its very charming shops with delightful names like Grape and Grain (selling wine and beer!).

CG turned out to be quite tiny. You can walk all around it in maybe 30 mins, but it's got such gorgeous flowers, the softest grass to sit on even without a picnic mat (which some pple did), a pavilion to rest in, and lots of benches.

Beth plumped for the first bench we saw to set up our inaugural picnic, but we walked out the exit and found a playground in a really quiet residential area, bordered by a spanking new apartment complex called The Abingdon, a Maternity and Child Health Centre, 1 or 2 home businesses, and houses with views of the park.

In a corner of the playground was the perfect picnic setting: a picnic bench underneath a sail-like marquee (how thoughtful!). We laid out the goodies we'd picked up at Coles: bread, ham, butter, grape tomatoes, apples, kiwi fruit, apple juice, and set to with relish.

Halfway thru', as Beth had dashed off to the playground after gulping down a mouthful of ham sandwich, we heard a humming noise overhead which grew louder and louder. "Hmm....hope it isn't bees," I muttered, thinking of Clifford the Big Red Dog and the time he and his dog friends ran into a hive of bees (a story in Beth's collection).

We looked up and Cheng Ann shouted,"Bees!"

And that was the end of our picnic. We packed in a hurry and left for the park. Thankfully, the bees didn't follow, and we were able to enjoy the park for a while more (including an impromptu concert by Beth at the pavilion, involving Wo Shi Xiao Bao Bei, Incey Wincey Spider, Mary Had A Little Lamb and an assortment of other nursery rhymes).

Today, we missed the Greensborough Market (which closes at 1 pm, so you can imagine how late we were getting out of the hostel), so we went down the list, and decided to drive on to Hawthorn for the craft market at the Town Hall, which closes at 3 pm.

It was a lovely warm day (20 deg), the kind that has pple walking around in tank tops, 3/4 cargoes and sandals.

Hawthorn is near Melbourne city and south of Bundoora where we are. After a series of hits and misses, we realized that it was actually a straight southward drive along Highway 21 from Albert St down towards Preston, Fairfield, Thornbury, Alphington, Kew... right into the centre of Hawthorn.

The Town Hall was packed with stalls selling all sorts of homemade things: baby overalls and dresses (inc the most darling smocking dresses), accessories, toys, books (I even got to meet an author who was selling her first book - The Hidden Realm by Lynn Wilmott), knitwear, crafts, coffee from East Timor, biscuits (lemon bracelets, amaretto, yo-yos, melting moments) made by an Italian mama, decorative cupcakes for parties, children's decorative names.

We sampled the biscuits, bought a jar of homemade cherry jam, and Beth fell in love with a reversible hairband (her very first, as she is a strictly no hairclips/ribbons/hairbands type of girl) - pink polka dots on one side, blue checks on the other.

The market was closing as we left, so we hopped across to this discount art supplies store which sells different types of art paper (for oil painting, for watercolour painting, for pastels...), scrapbooking kits, bead and trinket kits for kids, palettes and easels and portfolio cases, books on appreciating Picasso and Van Gogh and Monet et al. I know 2 friends who would just LOVE to hang out in here.

Beth was starving when we were done, so we had tunch at the Chinese restaurant on the same side of the road as the Swinburne Uni of Technology. It's quite dingy, but offers a selection of Chinese, Malaysian and Indonesian dishes (6 sticks of satay chicken @ $11.40). We tried the KL Hokkien Noodles (thumbs down from CA) and Cha Hor Fun (ok, but salty). Beth had her usual beancurd and vege soup.