Sundays

M asked for a knife for cutting all five pieces into smaller pieces!

All five of us ended up tasting a piece of cake of most of the different pieces!

All this happened on Sunday the 28th of December 2014 at the Monarch Cafe in St Kilda, Melbourne.
It was our morning coffee break so to speak. Later on we drove on to Essendon to have lunch at the cafe of the Poynton Nursery. This is where these cakes were available for desert.

However we ordered only lunch with drinks and no deserts. After lunch we had a look around the nursery.

http://www.truelocal.com.au/business/poyntons-nursery-and-garden-centre/essendon

Walking out of the Cafe we inspect bottles of wine.

Good Morning, all Bloggers!

This picture I took more than a week ago one early morning in Essendon. I love the early mornings. Especially in summer.

Peter took this picture and the following ones. He was waiting for Martin and me in Queen Park, Moonee Ponds, while Martin and I had a dip in the near by open air pool. Caroline and Matthew had gone to the city by train to meet some Melbournian friends for lunch.

A Friday in December 2013

This was the last Friday before Christmas where I could play Scrabble with my friends. Early in the morning I had gone for a walk in Lakelands Park. Again I took quite a few pictures. I can’t help myself, when I have the camera with me, I usually start taking some pictures and then it just goes on and on.

We deserve a coffee break. — We had a coffee break.

Today is again the last Friday before Christmas where we can meet to play our games. We actually do not play only Scrabble, we do also play a few games of Rummy.

Next Friday is going to be the 19th of December. On that day we are going to have a Body Corporate meeting in Wollongong. The following day, on the 20th, we are going to have a Christmas Party for the residents and some previous residents. And for Sunday, the 21st, Peter and I are being invited to a Christmas Luncheon in Sydney.

Christmas Eve we are going to have the family at our place as is traditional for us. Early the following morning on Christmas Day Caroline, Matthew, Peter and I are going to travel to Melbourne in a rented car.

Ah, and I forgot, this coming Sunday, which is the third Sunday of Advent, we are also going to be in Sydney to belatedly celebrate Caroline’s birthday. Last Sunday we went to see Monika for her birthday.

EASTER 2012

I just had another look at Peter’s post about Easter Sunday, the 8th of April 2012, which happened to be our son Martin’s birthday. I just loved looking at all the pictures again. Reblogging it on auntyuta gives me the opportunity to share it with my blogger friends. I think the pictures are very lovely! 🙂

Berlioz1935's Blog

After our not so French coffee break we continued our drive up the mountain road. Thanks to GPS, installed in the car, we were always sure where we were and where we were heading. Martin had no trouble finding the place we wanted to go to, while Uta and I enjoyed the scenery. Suddenly we were stopping at the drive way

We could hardly see the house for the trees. Somewhere up the hill it must be, we thought.

Somehow we found a way up there and sure enough the reception committee was waiting for us.

We hadn’t seen our Grandson and his young family since the Christmas holidays and they had moved to a new location. There are still a lot of things to do for Tristan and he looks like a pioneer of time long gone. Still, he found the time to read his girls a story and…

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On the Calder Highway to Melbourne

As I said in the previous post we left Mildura before sunrise and were soon on the Calder Highway heading towards Melbourne. This was on Saturday, 13th April 2013.

As the sun showed itself above the horizon we had already left Mildura well behind. Melbourne here we come!

After a couple of hours this sign caught our attention.

Looking forward to getting coffee and a piece of the famous vanilla slice.

This break after two hours driving is quite welcome!

We are about to go inside for our coffee and vanilla slice when we notice . . .

. . . this sign next door. Anyone for a meat pie? No, thanks, not this morning. We stick with coffee and cake for now.

You can really get a good feed at malleedeli.

We are quite happy with our decision. The vanilla slice turns out to be just heavenly! No wonder it has become famous.

Apparently truckies can get a good feed here and they can rest in the Truckies Lounge.

After this nice coffee break we keep going. Melbourne is getting closer. 442 km to go.

We drive through rather desolate country.

And then we reach the LIZARD ROADHOUSE. Looks good for another break.

We buy cold drinks, Hamburger and Hot Chips. And we eat some of our own food as well.

And on we go. We pass Melbourne Airport in the early afternoon and soon after reach Essendon where Martin, our son, is very happy to see us. He is surprised that we made it in such good time. Yes, we had a good run. No problems whatsoever. Martin straight away offers us tea and something to eat. In the evening he is going to drive to the airport to pick up daughter Lauren who’s on school holidays and going to stay with her Dad for one week.

Peter and I are very glad we’ll be able to stay with our son and granddaughter Lauren for one week. We haven’t seen Lauren for more than a year except for photos on facebook. She looks very beautiful. Soon she’s going to be fifteen. She’s our youngest granddaughter. But then we also have great-grandchildren already. Two of them we are going to see during our stay in Melbourne. The plan is, that we are going to see them on the following day, a Sunday. We are very much looking forward to this. We know that Lauren is also looking forward to see her two little nieces.

P.S. In another post I mentioned already our visit to Warburton where we saw Tristan, our grandson, his wife Stephanie and their two little daughters, our great-granddaughters. Today’s post about our trip from Mildura to Melbourne is an afterthought because I hadn’t published yet the pictures from that trip and I thought it would be nice to be able to share them. I really enjoyed this trip because everything went so smoothly and the trip didn’t take too long. When we travelled back home a week later from Melbourne to Dapto everything went smoothly too but that trip of course took much longer because it was a greater distance we had to cover within one day.

Thursday in Melbourne

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Uta at the entrance of the State Library, Melbourne Thursday, 18th April, 2013 — Uta at the entrance of the State Library, Melbourne
Thursday, 18th April, 2013

That Thursday was Lauren’s last day in Melbourne. She wanted to go to the Queen Victoria Markets on that day. Martin said he’d go with her. Peter and I announced that instead of going to the markets with them we’d pay the State Library a visit. Later on we could meet to go by tram to St. Kilda and splash out on some cake there!

We all caught the train from Essendon to Melbourne Central. The State Library was a few steps from there and the markets weren’t far away either. Before we went to the library Peter and I first of all looked for a place where we could sit down and have some morning tea. We soon found a lovely place that was just right for us.

During the early afternoon we met up with Martin and Lauren again and caught a tram to St. Kilda as planned. I’ll show pictures of St. Kilda and all the lovely cakes and Lauren’s departure to Newcastle in my next post.

When we met Noeleen the other day in Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, there was a Readings Bookstore. We found out that in the State Library in Swanston Street, there is also a Readings Bookstore. I bought another book. It’s called a ‘Text Classics’. (textclassics.com.au) Copyright Robin Boyd Foundation 2010. They say ROBIN BOYD was arguably Australia’s most influential architect.

Somewhere near Swanston Street Peter saw these bikes that are apparently for hire.

Where we had morning tea there were a great many mirrors.

There are some shops near this courtyard where we found this sign:

All these monuments are to be seen near the library entrance. Opposite you see an add on the facade of a house.

Morning Tea!
This is our tea tray at that nice place with the mirrors.

Poyntons of Essendon

Essendon is part of Melbourne. We went there to a beautiful Garden Centre called ‘Poyntons’. We admired all the wonderful displays and flowers and shrubs for sale. We went a bit further up where the cafe is situated. We had lunch there but no desert even though there was a good selection of cake available. They had some specially brewed local beer. Also freshly squeezed juices. Where we were sitting in the cafe we had a good view of the river Yarra. Our son Martin and granddaughter Lauren came with us to Poyntons. Martin drove the car there. Ample parking was available in a separate parking area.

A red capsicum filled with rice and meat.

Diary

Here’s Bulli Beach again! We had another lovely time there last week on Tuesday. We decided we would stay there for lunch. And of course we had some coffee as well.

From where we were sitting we could look down to the swimming-pool.

Yesterday, that is on Sunday, 7th of April 2013, I opened another “Page”. It’s called Uta’s early Childhood. I was able to retrieve some of my early childhood pictures and published them in this “Page”. I have heaps and heaps more childhood pictures in my album, which is of course ancient. The pictures start with the day of my birth, which was on 21st of September 1934. I have at the moment some difficulties with my scanner. With Peter’s help I may eventually work something out how to do further scanning. However, for the next two weeks or so I can’t do anything about it. It’ll have to wait!

We have plans for the next two weeks! Early on Wednesday, this is the 10th of this month, we’re going to leave for a lovely little holiday in the country. We’re also going to spend some time in Melbourne with our son and his extended family. We are very much looking forward to finally see all the Melburnians again. Also going to see another granddaughter who’s coming to Melbourne from Newcastle during her school holidays. This granddaughter we missed out on seeing a year ago. So we’re glad we can finally see her again.

We plan to be back home on Saturday, 21st of this month.

EASTER MONDAY 2012

Easter Monday was our last day in Melbourne. Not far from where our son lives in Essendon there’s a nursery, called the POYTONS NURSERY. Martin drove us there. This really made my day. It is such a lovely place. It has a NURSERY, A CAFE and a GARDEN ROOM.

First of all we made it to the cafe. Afterwards Martin selected a huge blueberry plant from the outside nursery.

www.poyntonsofessendon.com.au

At the cafe I had a pot of tea and a wonderfully fresh fruit salad with a selction of about seven different fruits. I shared it with Peter and Martin since it was more than enough for the three of us. P and M had some cake and coffee. The display of cakes looked heavenly.

Here are the names of some of the cakes that were available: Mixed Berry Cheesecake, Gluten Free Orange Clementine, Gluten Free Chocolate Addiction, Heaven Sent Nougat Fudge . . . .

I felt I would have loved to take lots of photos of the place. However none of us had thought of bringing a camera along. Looking up the above website you get a very good impression what the place looks like. We talked about it how Tristan, Steph and the girls would love the place. At the cafe you can also have a very good lunch.

Easter Monday was the day for Peter and me to go back on the nighttrain. Martin dropped us off at Southern Cross Station. Our train was due to leave at 8 pm. It should have arrived from Sydney at 7 pm. But it wasn’t there! They announced a delay. Then they announced another delay and another one.

It was a cold night. However we found room in a heated waiting room. Finally the train arrived at a quarter past 9 pm and was ready for departure back to Sydney at 10 pm. We got off at Moss Vale. By that time it had lost another one and a half hours because of speed restrictions on the way. Long before Moss Vale we could see from the train already some morning light. It looked very beautiful. I tried to capture it with my camera. However it didn’t turn out to look as good.

Our railway coach, that was supposed to take us down from Moss Vale to Dapto, had long gone of course. But another smaller bus had been organised and straight away took all the passengers along who wanted to travel to Albion Park, Dapto or Wollongong.From Dapto Station we went home by taxi.

We arrived home at 10 am. Just three and a half hours later than we thought we would arrive. It was good to be back home!

On the Way to Whoop Whoop

Easter Sunday, 8th April 2012

This is our son’s birthday. We are with him on our way to his son’s place in Whoop Whoop. Martin is 52 today and he drives us all the way to Whoop Whoop. On the way we stop at a cafe. We have home-made scones with home-made jam and fresh cream. Instead of tea we have filtered coffee. It’s still early and we are the only customers.

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Some time later we arrive at our grandson’s place. Tristan, his wife Stephanie and their children Kia and Jaki are already expecting us. We are lucky with the weather. It’s still a bit chilly, but there’s sunshine and it doesn’t look like it’s going to rain as has been forecast.

We bring our son’s birthday cake along which Peter baked the previous day. It’s a ‘Baum-Kuchen’, that is a ‘Tree trunk cake’ because when you cut it, it looks like the inside of a tree trunk. Peter found the recipe in one of our very old German cookbooks. Steph and Kia watch how Great-Granddad carries the cake up the escarpment.

Tristan’s family, they live high up. Very steep property. The cars have to be parked at the bottom. The family only moved there very recently. A little while ago they lived on their property in Tasmania, which they sold. So now they live in the vicinity of Melbourne.

We love being able to visit them. Towards the end of the year we’ll probably book a cabin nearby. Then we can visit them again. It is such a beautiful area. I am very much looking forward to go there for a visit in our Australian summer.

In one of my next blogs I am going to publish some more photos of our visit with the family. We had a lovely barbecue with them. And there are going to be pictures of the cake too with a sparkler and the little girls in their fairy dresses enjoying holding sparklers in their hands.

For today I have only the pictures of Peter carrying the cake and Steph and Kia watching.