Out and About: Daylesford

PICT0223, originally uploaded by Franky.

This comes to you from a house on a hill in icy old Buninyong, Victoria. She’s a pretty little town south east of Ballarat and right now, though her inhabitants shiver and brace against frosty winds, her charm is not diminished by the gloomy cold of winter.

A little explore here will turn up old stone walls snuggled round the grassed over mounds of discarded dirt left by miners decades ago, pockets of kangaroos grazing with their families, quiet patient horses with heads over fences for an interested greeting, tangles of old blackberry bushes and the leafy shores of the glassy “Gong”, home to cormorants and playground for several local dogs.

Today, Matt and I ventured further a field to Daylesford where the Matt’s father, Ol’John, was born. Daylesford once made a name for the mineral spring water you can collect there but these days has gathered a thriving strip of boutiques, cafes and galleries with several of the neatly painted wooden cottages sporting guest house signs to entice visitors to rest at the appealing little spot.

What a way to spend a freezing winter day. We got happily lost thumbing through the titles in the great big second hand shop bursting with old books, records, CDs, magazines and postcards. A hearty café lunch, a brisk walk around the calm waters of Lake Jubilee and a little explore of the old convent gallery, left poor Franky dozing in the passenger seat on her way home to Buninyong, still clutching her new jar of Des O'Toole's Orange Blossom honey, fresh from his roadside stall…