Springtime is Festival time

in Melbourne. Sometimes there is so much happening that it is very hard to decide what to see first. It was this dilemma we faced on Saturday when we decided to drive into the Dandenongs to have a look at the Spring Garden Festival. Once there we found so many places open we didn't know where to start. We stopped first and had lunch at Immerse, a great little Cellar Door cafe in Olinda and while there decided that we would have a look at the gardens at Cloudehill where there was a Garden Sculpture Exhibition as well.

Cloudehill is a beautiful garden, with nursery & Restaurant, found at the top of The Dandenongs where a maze of stone walls and jewel like garden rooms are set within woodlands of magnificent and historic, cool climate trees. There are more than 20 garden rooms threaded through wonderful 80 year old European beech, magnolias, maples and a collection of fabulous Himalayan tree rhododendrons. The garden is highlighted by lovely colourful borders which focus on two of the finest Japanese weeping maples to be seen anywhere in the world. The spring bulb meadows just bursting with bluebells, snowdrops, daffodils & freesias where a delight to walk through as well.

Our afternoon started and finished at Cloudehill as it was such a lovely place we never made it to see any of the other gardens open that day. Next year we shall go a bit earlier or perhaps stay in one of the many B & B's in the area to at least try and do it justice.

Saturday night we had decided to wander into town and see what the Melbourne International Arts Festival had to offer. Our first stop was an installation at the NGV Forecourt called Valhalla. This strange looking wreck is Morton's three-quarter scale rendition of the family home his architect father designed. A piece you can walk around and through, it is both sculpture and architecture. On the inside it is a gleaming office foyer and on the outside a crumbling decaying building. Once again proving that art is definitely in the eye of the beholder. I must have missed something I think.

From there we continued on to Federation Square where we saw dozens of light shades hung along St Kilda Rd. Once at Fed Square we found ourselves in the thick of another festival. It was the official opening of Deepvali, a Hindu festival commonly known as the Festival of Lights. Hmm, is there a connection to the mystery light shades, I wonder. We passed through the crowd here on our way to Birrarung Marr where we were going to see another of the MIAF attractions.

The Strange Fruit were a wonderful troupe of acrobats on five metre sway poles playing the Federation Bells. These bells are perched like pots on tall steel columns overlooking the Yarra. The acrobats like metronomes swaying in a forest of bells beat out a beautiful composition called 'Ringing the changes'. Dressed in workman's overalls & boots, all holding little music books, the bell ringers looked wonderful if a little strange. The conductor also standing on a sway pole dressed in an acubra hat & dri-as-a bone added an air of importance (?) to the whole thing.

After being mesmerised by the bell ringing, we were brought back to the present by the loud bangs from fireworks on the Yarra. From there we walk over the Swan St bridge and around to the Alexandra Gardens to watch the 'main event' of the evening. At 9pm the French company Transe Express performed 'Mischievous Bells' a spectacular light & music show to finish off the night. As the night grew darker they lit up the gardens with their medieval style mayhem, running around with flaming torches and ringing bells. The highlight of the performance was when the Percussionists, bell ringers and acrobats floated 40 metres above the ground suspended in a giant metal contraption that opened to resemble a lotus flower. It was from each petal that these musicians & acrobats hung and performed to the huge crowd gathered to watch. A truly magnificent performance and really worth braving another cold night to see it.

Catching up with Andrew from Sydney & Greg from Darwin for dinner over the next couple of weeks was great fun and of course Melbourne was the butt of all the 'cold' jokes as both places had been far warmer than they both experienced here. I'm sure it will warm up soon. At least the late rain is falling in all the right places and the dams are heading in the right direction for now at least.

With road works scheduled for the coming weekend, right outside our window, it might be time to head back to the country to avoid the noise.

until next time............