merri trail

Winter grooves

| poppypeach

Another whirlwind of a week with wrapping up the week after submitting my essays with some volunteer work. I helped out with an excursion for my daughters school to the local historical society. This was fascinating as I always like to find out the history of where I live. The above pic is of the prison in Pentridge and the clocktower is still there on Champ Street, Coburg.

After the excursion as I was out an about and the afternoon was sunny and beautiful I volunteered at the local community nursery to do some weeding and chatting to my fellow volunteers. Every time I go to Peppertree Place I find something cool, like this bamboo sculpture of a spider.

Over the weekend I had planned to catch up with friends for a picnic and bike ride off the Merri Trail. It was exciting as the four of us got on our bikes and rode towards the city on the trail. I am still in awe of the beauty of the trail and how much nature there is as you ride along. The bike trail leads off to some dirt tracks and killer hills where I had to push my bike uphill. I had the picnic goods on the back of my bike and the kids then stop half way up the hill so it was hard to work the momentum to get up the hill. Still the ride is just stunning with Ceres Joes Market Garden where we get our veggies on the trail and just down the road from our house was a super cool find. I noticed they had volunteer spots but I have to watch my time now that Uni is out and there is a lot to catch up on for this month!

Monday was a day off – yay here’s to long weekends!! My friend and I went out to lunch with the kids and afterwards took them wall climbing. It was so exciting to see the kids get up so high and then slowly come back down in their harness. I reckon it would be fun to try one day and get over my fear of heights.

Tuesday was the day for me to go out and enjoy some mama time. So I made a booking at my hairdresser who I love, with their flamingos on the ceiling. I decided to do a brilliant red I have been coveting for a while now. As I walked along Smith Street the changes are intense with Vegan Wares – a super cool shoe shop, leaving the hood. Lots of little cafes and other stores have come up in the time we were away but still tucked behind the main drag on Oxford Street I found Proud Mary Coffee. I had been wanting to visit the Melbourne shop after I went to the Portland cafe with my Aussie friend! I loved the Melbourne cafe with the wonderful staff, kick arse lunch with local pine mushrooms and delicious coffee with a local almond milk. The coffee is the biz and I knew I shouldn’t have coffee after 12pm but I had to try it and it was amazing in a perfect flat white! The building above is an apartment complex I imagine as Oxford Street is lined with the beautiful red brick buildings.

Finally with some time to go through my wardrobe and boxes from California, I am ready to pass on some goodies to the world. These are some pieces that need new homes and can be found on Etsy and Ebay – all links are here => https://linktr.ee/poppypeach_goodness

Grab some goodness to jazz up your winter if you are in the Southern hemisphere.

Brunch is the best

| poppypeach

It is so beautiful to be living so close to nature and having the walking trail just 5 minutes away. Living just 8 kilometres from the city and enjoying this much nature it makes me so happy. The weekend was a bit chaotic as I was busily getting the last edits on my two assignments, so to go for a bit of a walk on my day off the gym was a good thing to do for a bit of a brain break.

As I was wandering I was learning about the indigenous people of the area and the how important it is to respect the land. Wandering along I was discovering many native gardens and trees to inspire the garden for our house. We need to plant a tree in the outdoor entertaining area, it is such a difficult choice as there are so many amazing native trees around the place.

Sunday was a good day to have off as I had made plans to brunch with my friends at a place they recommended in Carlton. Humble Rays had something for everyone the guys had eggs benedict, my friend enjoyed a beautiful GF feast of salmon and I enjoyed seasonal mushies on toast – so good, as I hardly get to eat mushrooms at home! The kids enjoyed sweet treats and Ash ordered the Matcha Bingsu and it was a treat alright, we had no idea it would look so extravagant. The green is matcha shaved ice which had a jug of condensed milk to add some sweetness, he said it was yummy – though a bit too sweet for me. He is always daring when we go out to eat and likes to try new things.

My time with Uni is nearly over I just need to wrap up my readings for my last week and I am on holidays for a month until the next teaching period kicks in. I have many plans like going to Sydney for a couple of days for a trip by myself to see the Akira Isogawa exhibition at the Powerhouse museum – yes!! For the school holidays I will head on up to Queensland to visit my family with the kiddos, so looking forward to escaping Melbourne winter for 10 days. And then it will be back to reality and study for another 12 weeks. The time is fleeting by and I cannot believe half the year has flown by and we have been back in Australia for 6 months already – it is starting to feel like home again.

“Speak good words or remain silent”

| poppypeach

Stealthy like this cat who lives near our other house is how I felt this week – into a routine of gym in the morning and back afterwards to study and write and edit my assignments for Uni. I can see the light at the end of the teaching period now with just one week to go!

Friday I found an injured possum on the road and called Wildlife Victoria to help but their volunteer did not arrive in time and the poor creature had died when I came back after the gym. The little fella got run over by a car outside my daughters school and I did not want the school kids to see it so I had to get a box to dispose of the poor fella. So he was put in the big bin at the school, so sad! Later that arvo I need to be with some peeps and volunteered with some lovely people at Peppertree Place Nursery just up the road from my house. It is a very special place which has been reopened recently and I serendipitously wandered by one day and asked if I could volunteer with them, Friday I was weeding and digging in the earth for nasturtiums and chatting about possum proofing their garden beds.

My community circle is opening up now and my daughters friends mum has a local business called Smalt (Smoked Salt) and it is just delicious. So on Friday I ordered some and it was exactly what I needed to inspire me in the kitchen for Friday nights dinner. I made an amazing tzatzaki with locally made felafel and a huge salad it was so delicious. And for dessert Smalt fudge which is divine, we have managed to eat most of it this week – we will be ordering some more soon! Such an splendid end to the day.

Oh and my bike is back with me, it is so good to be back on the trail with my bike and over the weekend I went on the bike track that goes for kilometres right next to our house. The ride on Sunday in between assignment writing was perfect for a brain break and it was so fun, there were hills and it was then I realised my tyres needed to be pumped and my chain needs to be greased after its journey across the sea.

I went on my first excursion with my daughters school on Wednesday to the Islamic Museum of Australia. We went by tram with 21 kids and 2 teachers and 4 parent volunteers in the icy cold winds of Melbourne winter we walked to the tram, hopped the tram, walked again, hopped another tram and walked again – the kids were done by then! Still they were excited to be there and so was I.

It was such a wonderful experience learning about Islamic religion and culture. The educator Sharene was so engaging with her anecdotes and stories. I enjoyed hearing about a story of the Prophet Muhammed and how he would not even kill an ant to start a fire. To me this resonated with my knowledge of Buddhism and not killing any living things. After the presentation and the museum I had greater insight of Islam and how important it is for me have an understanding of neighbours in my community.

This man on the ceiling was an Islamic inventor who tried to fly off a mountain in Morocco – he tried but failed but what was missing on his flying contraption was the tail.

There were so many informative displays explaining Islamic faith and the 5 pillars in one gallery space where a friend of mine was explaining in greater detail about each one to me about praying 5 times a day on their prayer rug and its connection to yoga, which I connected immediately with my yoga mat.

Another space focussed on art and this was my favourite area. The beautiful embroidered piece of cloth is from Mecca and is only a part of a massive detailed piece which you see later in the museum in the architecture area.

The art was charming with the peacock mosaic catching my eye – it was an art piece that you could touch to feel the detail in the tile and mosaic. The arabic calligraphy is another element that I was enjoyed and the detail in the geometric art and tessellation in design detail is what I love. The surfboards were created by an artist in Sydney, with another interesting story which I will have to research next time I visit.

Presented in this display is the history of calligraphy in Islam and is viewed as and expression of the highest art form, again this was interesting to me as I always viewed it purely as Chinese calligraphy. In this calligraphic style I am drawn to the swirls and interesting pattern detail.

The connection of Islam to Australia was fascinating as I had read about this in my Indigenous studies but it only touched on the connection with the trading of the sea slugs with the Aborginals of Australia. The gallery space shared greater insight with the connections to famous Australian Muslims and the cultural connections to Australia. It is interesting how this connection can spark such a fascinating display of culture that everyone needs to experience – this is what education is about to break down the walls of ignorance and open our eyes to others. And in our education session, the kids played a game to sort out this quote, by Prophet Muhammad “speak good words or remain silent”. Just beautiful. Peace.