A RELAXING SATURDAY

The weather in Melbourne today was very warm, with the temperature reaching a maximum of around 30˚C. This was quite a contrast form yesterday and the day before where we had overcast, showery days with the temperature struggling to reach 20˚C. Such is late Spring, here in the Antipodes, with quite an unpredictable course and never a dull moment. We made the most of the weather by driving up to the Plenty Gorge, in the North of Melbourne and visited a beautiful nursery and garden shop called Rivers.

The garden centre is built in the middle of paddocks and surrounds a pond on the shores of which there some gum trees. As well as the nursery and shop there is a restaurant and café where one may have a nice morning or afternoon tea, or something more substantial at lunchtime. Even though we are in the midst of a drought, undaunted gardeners were purchasing plants and the nursery has been keeping up with the times by encouraging people to buy drought-tolerant plants, natives and also water tanks for recycling of gray water.

We spent a very pleasant hour do so there, enjoyed a nice cup of coffee and then drove to the Mill Park Library. This is a newly built library that was established to service the new suburbs in the North. The building is circular, large and very well designed. One can easily spend several hours in there enjoying the books, magazines, newspapers, music and video collections. As well as the books on offer for borrowing, our libraries here have occasional book sales where used library books are sold to the public. We were very lucky today as they were selling some books from their Greek collection, some of which were in excellent condition and sold quite cheaply. Needless to say that we bought these books with great alacrity!


By the time we got home, it was hot outside and it was quite a pleasure to have a cool drink at home and eat some fruit salad for lunch. The afternoon was spent relaxing and, what else? Going through our newly-acquired treasures, reading, listening to music and enjoying the weekend.

For Music Saturday today, a beautiful extract from Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. Soprano Katia Ricciarelli and Contralto Lucia Valentini sing the first movement of this work, with the Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, in Milan, conducted by Claudio Abbado. 1979.