October long weekend!

How time flies when you’re having fun! It’s hard to believe the October long weekend is over, and now everyone is looking forward to Melbourne Cup. I think this will be a long post because I’ve had a few really wonderful weekends to tell you about.

One weekend a year, the historic trust that administers Camden Park House invites the public to the mansion for an Open Day. It’s a beautiful, enormous old home with servant quarters and a guard house and everything. The Trust usually picks a spring weekend, when the wisteria that covers the back of the house is blooming.

Wisteria at Camden Park House

My favourite part of the property is the grounds – acres of landscaped gardens, lawn after lawn, an orchard with dozens of varieties of apples and pears (some the only remaining plant of its species), swimming pool and tennis court and the grounds went on and on. The footpaths were all lined with these vibrant clivia plants.

Clivia flowers at Camden Park House

You can do a tour of the house and see the famous wood collection (seriously, it’s a collection of different kinds of wood) and they really make a day of it with a sausage sizzle, Devonshire tea and little market stalls. To end the day, we had tea and scones on the lawn.

Scones on the lawn!

A fortnight ago, my sister celebrated her 30th birthday party by hosting a weekend festival which involved a lot of eating. She started with a lunch of wonton noodles, roast duck and pork; the next morning we had a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, mushrooms, onions, toast and fruit; then we all drove down to the Southern Highlands for lunch.

Her husband had organised a table at a very gorgeous restaurant at the Bendooley Estate. It’s attached to a winery and is a bit café, a bit bookstore, ALL class. The food was divine – I ordered their shellfish chowder to start and was very impressed. I’d definitely go back again – I want to try their enormous beef burger and their giant grilled prawns.

Bendooley Estate cafe + bookstore

Last weekend, I invited my family over to celebrate my birthday a little early. I was very blessed to have the sunniest Saturday for entertaining! We had an afternoon tea of prosciutto, salami, olives, cheese and bread and then went for a quick dip in the pool. The water was pretty chilly!

I wanted to show my Dad the walking trail through the bush at the back of our place. As we started walking away, my toddler niece Zara (who was in the process of getting changed after her swim) thought we were leaving her behind and came running after us stark naked. She wouldn't stay put so we wrapped her in a towel and carried her with us.

That evening, we dined at Trattoria La Vinga, an Italian restaurant and winery in Camden. Such a great place and so perfect for a special occasion! If you’re looking for somewhere yummy and a bit fancy in this area, definitely consider Trattoria La Vinga.

Spaghetti marinara at Trattoria La Vigna

Happy birthday to me!

On my actual birthday, the girls at work took me out for Japanese - at one of my favourite places, Musashi at Capitol Square. The restaurant has changed hands since the last time I was there, but the meals are still really delicious and very affordable. I had their miso roast duck breast and noodles:

Miso roast duck breast and noodles at Musashi

The girls followed that up with a selection of ice cream cakes from Messina! So I had a really great birthday and a really great few weekends before that! There are some pretty exciting things on the horizon too - I'll save those for next time ;)