Valentine's Day
The weather forecast looked promising today - not too hot, no rain - so I persuaded Ken to spend the afternoon in one of Victoria's beautiful country towns. I'd given him a Valentine card (we exchange them every year), and I'd written inside "Let's do something together today", because I knew he'd planned to spend all day working in the bird aviaries. No way to spend Valentines Day!
It didn't take much effort to persuade him, as like me, he was tired of working around the house every weekend. He said "Where do you want to go?" and I replied "Kyneton. LeeAnn has her collection of Crinoline Lady china on display in the Kyneton Museum for the next few months, and I don't want to miss out on seeing it by leaving it until the last minute". So we set off just after 2pm, and arrived in Kyneton around 3.15. Kyneton is one of the undiscovered gems of Victoria. The entire town of Maldon was classified by the National Trust in 1966, and as a result it is still on everyone's list of somewhere to go on a weekend. Daylesford and Castlemaine are fast gaining similar reputations, but Kyneton doesn't seem to rate a mention as a special place to go. Well, for those of you here in Victoria, if you haven't been to Kyneton, you should! We've driven through it on the way to somewhere else, many many times, but today we took the time to stop and look around.
The Museum is housed in a bluestone building that was originally a bank, and it has a fascinating history. The ground floor has various displays that are changed around every so often, and at the moment includes LeeAnn's fabulous collection of china. I took photos, but won't post them here until LeeAnn gives her OK. Upstairs is a static display of the living area as it was when the bank manager and his family lived there. In the grounds around this building there are various outbuildings, all with their own history and artifacts. We spent over an hour looking around, and although we saw everything, we would have liked to spend much more time browsing.
After we left the Museum, we wandered around that part of the town which is designated the Churches Precinct, for good reason. We looked at about six churches, all within the proverbial stone's throw of each other. They were all built in the 1800's and although we couldn't go inside, it was worth just looking at the exteriors. There are so many beautifully preserved old buildings in Kyneton; I took about 60 photos - far too many to post here! So I'm going to create one of my 'temporary blogs' to post my photos along with descriptions. But I'll wait until I hear from LeeAnn before I go ahead with it. In the meantime, if you can make it to Kyneton one weekend to see her collection, it is well worth the visit. I knew she had a lot of this Crinoline Lady china, but not THAT much!!!
It didn't take much effort to persuade him, as like me, he was tired of working around the house every weekend. He said "Where do you want to go?" and I replied "Kyneton. LeeAnn has her collection of Crinoline Lady china on display in the Kyneton Museum for the next few months, and I don't want to miss out on seeing it by leaving it until the last minute". So we set off just after 2pm, and arrived in Kyneton around 3.15. Kyneton is one of the undiscovered gems of Victoria. The entire town of Maldon was classified by the National Trust in 1966, and as a result it is still on everyone's list of somewhere to go on a weekend. Daylesford and Castlemaine are fast gaining similar reputations, but Kyneton doesn't seem to rate a mention as a special place to go. Well, for those of you here in Victoria, if you haven't been to Kyneton, you should! We've driven through it on the way to somewhere else, many many times, but today we took the time to stop and look around.
The Museum is housed in a bluestone building that was originally a bank, and it has a fascinating history. The ground floor has various displays that are changed around every so often, and at the moment includes LeeAnn's fabulous collection of china. I took photos, but won't post them here until LeeAnn gives her OK. Upstairs is a static display of the living area as it was when the bank manager and his family lived there. In the grounds around this building there are various outbuildings, all with their own history and artifacts. We spent over an hour looking around, and although we saw everything, we would have liked to spend much more time browsing.
After we left the Museum, we wandered around that part of the town which is designated the Churches Precinct, for good reason. We looked at about six churches, all within the proverbial stone's throw of each other. They were all built in the 1800's and although we couldn't go inside, it was worth just looking at the exteriors. There are so many beautifully preserved old buildings in Kyneton; I took about 60 photos - far too many to post here! So I'm going to create one of my 'temporary blogs' to post my photos along with descriptions. But I'll wait until I hear from LeeAnn before I go ahead with it. In the meantime, if you can make it to Kyneton one weekend to see her collection, it is well worth the visit. I knew she had a lot of this Crinoline Lady china, but not THAT much!!!
posted by Gina E. | 10:48 pm
3 Comments:
That sounds like a beautiful day. :) I hope you get an OK to show the pictures. I'm not sure what we're going to do today. It's only 12 degrees F. so outdoor activities will be at a min.
Happy Valentines to both of you. :)
Have a great week. -Patty
Happy Valentine's Day to you! That sounds like a fun outing.
Hi Gina,
A day out together, sounds like the perfect way to spend Valentine's
Day to me. There's always so much
that needs doing when you own a
house, but sometimes you just have
to leave it all behind and get
away from it.
I've checked out the pictures that
you posted on your temporary blog
and enjoyed them immensely. I
love seeing old houses scattered
around a small town. It makes you
wonder who use to live there, and
what kind of history the places
might have. There are certainly a
lot of different styles of building
in Kyneton.
We have quite a few historic, old
houses in Ontario that have been
restored to their original state,
furnished with period furniture,
and are open for visitors to
explore.
In fact one of my own favorite places to visit in Toronto is Black Creek Pioneer Village, which is an entire village made up of buildings that are well over 100 years old. Most have been rescued from sites around the city where they faced certain destruction in the name of progress and were rebuilt in the old village setting. It's a great place to spend the day. Like time traveling back to the 19th century.
The Crinoline Lady china is quite
an incredible collection. I've
seen variations of this design
here in antique shows and such but
it's fascinating to see so many
pieces all together and see the
different variations on the theme.
I was interested to read that you
go grocery shopping late in the
evening when there are no crowds.
If I were retired I think I'd do
that too. A leisurely walk through
the store, not having to fight and
dodge the crowds, picking out what
I need and then checking out. I do
enjoy grocery shopping but it's
usually a mad rush in a crowded
store and no fun at all.
I don't exactly plan my menu in
advance for the week since I've
never been that organized. But
I do keep a record of my food
intake, because of Weight Watchers,
and for that I pre-plan my breakfast and lunch meals during the week, a day in advance.
There's nothing like sharing a bed
with two cats. For whatever reason
the cats prefer to sleep on or near
me as opposed to Phil. Between you
and me I think he bribes them to do
it. Anyways, I've learned to sleep
in the pretzel position and to ask
permission before turning over or
shifting my legs.
I've never stopped to figure out
how much I have spent on Ebay since
working up the courage to start
using it a few years ago. But I
have gotten some nice, older charts
and things at decent prices. The
only thing is that the shipping
costs to Canada are exorbitant
compared to the cost for shipping
in the States so I pay more there.
I used Ebay at Christmas to buy
some collector Barbies for a friend and probably spent more then I should have then. You tend to get
carried away at times bidding on
things. The trick, I guess, is to
set a price and not go over it.
But I do so love getting parcels
in the mail, don't you???
Well, here's another of my epic posts that sort of evolved without my realizing it. Hope it'll all
get delivered in one piece and not
too chopped up.
Cheers!!
Oh!! Almost forgot!!
Love your finished bookmark with the silhouettes of the two dancers
on it. How cool. Sort of puts me
in mind of Fred Astaire and Ginger
Rogers you know. And the Bush Fire biscornu is going to be gorgeous when it's put together. Those colors are beautiful!!
Okay now I'm done. Really. Bye!!
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