Last weekend, after farewelling Deb's parents in Bunbury (60km north of Busselton), we headed east in pursuit of the cult-status civilization called "Gnomeville". Simone, from Enjoy Perth had directed us there after some comments I made in another post about garden gnomes and so we have been eager to find this place ever since.

The story goes that one person placed a gnome on the side of the road and over the years people from all over the globe and every walk of life has since been adding to it. Today, there is estimated to be more than 1000 gnomes of different shapes and sizes decorating the local landscape. After our visit, I would say this figure is a tad conservative as we guessed there might be at least double that number now.

We didn't just want to turn up empty-handed, so on the trip we thought we might just grab a gnome from a local nursery and headed off to Bunnings. How astounded were we when this mecca of hardware and nursery supplies didn't stock them? (They have certainly moved up in my opinion!) We continued driving, detouring a little to stop at Waldecks, a large nursery in Bunbury that had a few but were only concrete with no colour.

At this point we were becoming a little discouraged contemplating the notion that we may end up going to Gnomeville with nothing. However, on the way we stopped by our favourite nursery outside Picton and to our relief were met with a plethora of options. Now which one do we choose? We don't want to be seen as scungy and yet we don't want to pay a fortune for something that is going to sit in the bush. Such a dilemma.

That was until we found "Bruce" and we knew he was the one for our family. So we took him under our careful love and attention (the kids only dropped him a couple of times) and continued the journey. Less than half an hour later we come upon the 8th (Gnome-made) Wonder of the World thinking we would be the only ones to have traversed this trek, but soon found we would have to search for a parking spot.

These gnomes were just everywhere. Up trees. In groups. Under fallen logs. In their own custom-built houses. Wherever your eye could see stood a gnome of some description. And many of them had been inscribed upon or carried signs of their individual quests to arrive at Gnomeville. Scottish gnomes. Italian gnomes. Gnomes from every corner of the globe.

After admiring all these little critters and what they had to say to the world we found a special place for Bruce near a group of other gnomes who were fishing near a rambling creek. Fortunately Bruce is an extrovert and made friends easily so saying our good-bye's wasn't hard.

One day we'll travel back to Gnomeville to check how Bruce is going but I have no doubts that he's happy now. This is the perfect place for garden gnomes.

Posted by Stuart | Permalink | Comments (6)

Last week we braved the winter onslaught (it happened to be the first rainy day in almost 2 weeks) and headed off to Perth's botanic gardens, King's Park. The park envelopes 400 hectares of Mt Eliza in the middle of the city and gives breathtaking views of the Swan River below.

It's a great place for the family, so our extended mix (including the grandparents) embarked on a picnic in the park.

Here's my wife Debbie, her parents and her grandmother - (There I've done it - Hi Mum!)

Kings park has an array of different gardens which span the site. These are interlocked with roads or bicycle paths and many people prefer to use the paths for walking; stopping every now and then to gaze on or draw in the fragrance of a local native. As we had the kids with us we decided that the Western Power Playground (formerly the Children's Playground) was probably the safest place to head.

Here are my two beautiful daughters atop a rock dinosaur

The views of the city and surrounding Swan River are incredible and there are many lookouts to avail yourself of some great photos.

The city backdrop to the left, the Swan River below and the Darling Scarp in the background.

One of the major features of King's Park is the suspended tree-top bridge. It meanders slighltly through the top of some great marri and eucalyptus trees and offers visitors a great birds-eye view of the understorey.

The suspended tree-top walk

One of the highlights for me is the dedicated Banksia garden. These would have have to be a top 10 plant in my book and I haven't found a varietal that I haven't loved. If you haven't experienced Banksia flowers then I would highly recommend organising a trip here. They amaze me with their softness and vivid colours while the foliage can seem so harsh. Here's what I mean...

Aren't they delicious?

King's Park is also a vast memorial for fallen war heroes. There are many monuments and statues that dot the park and this is the 'mecca' for Anzac Day parades.

This monument remembers the Vietnam campaign

Throughout the park, each road is lined on both sides with various species of trees. Eucalypts are the predominant planting and there are many varieties of these. In front of many of these trees are memorial name plates honouring those servicemen and women who had fallen during the various wars that Australia has been engaged in. It's a very sobering drive as you read the names and visualise friends who are similar ages. Each tree was planted by a friend or family member in their honour.

This one reads, "In Honour of Lieut. V. Walker, Killed in Action, May 28th 1917, Aged 21 Years"

King's Park is Perth's Botanical Garden and is wonderful to visit. It predominantly grows plants and trees that are native to WA while vast sections of the park are still virgin scrub.

Posted by Stuart | Permalink | Comments (1)

On Saturday we took a trip to Mandurah (a bustling city of 60,000, 80km south of Perth) to Abingdon Miniature Village where we met my parents and my grand-parents (I told you I was still a spring chicken!). It was inspired by the owner's visit in 1999 to Cockington Green in Canberra (Alice will have visited here) and they began construction in March 2000.

Most of the miniature models are exact replica's from some of England's more well-known areas and are hand made using a 1:10 scale.

It's not clear enough to see in this picture but nestled amongst this flowering groundcover is a little village set to appear as though it were built in a valley.

This lake has a model train running around the perimeter of it which does two circuits and then stops at the train station. It then waits a couple of minutes and for someone to walk across the bridge and trigger a sensor before it starts it's journey again.

As you can see, conifers are a big inclusion in this garden with more than 2,500 from over 100 varieties it is the largest conifer display in WA.

This maze was incredible and we almost lost a couple of kids in it. I usually baulk at these as being a little gimmicky but this one was quite hard to work out. They are currently developing a circular one in another part of the garden.

Posted by Stuart | Permalink | Comments (2)