The Dubbo Chronicles No.11: Cotehele Interiors, Wineries, and Kanga Chaos.

The other day, when my friend Fran and I went to Orange, we stopped into Cotehele Interiors, run by Margie Sampson. I had ordered 60 metres of a gold damask patterned fabric on a previous trip. It was  initially destined for the master bedroom, but am now thinking it may be more suited to  the Brideshead suite.

It had arrived, and having bought it based on a 4"x 6"sample, I was keen to see what it looked like on the roll. Margie has a lovely shop, and is able to source many European fabrics. It has worked out much more reasonable to buy fabrics in Australia and ship them back to NZ, rather than buy them in NZ. 

These are the fabrics I had ordered for the Master Bedroom - a damask/striped pattern fabric in gold, and a gold silk for accent pillows etc...

Whilst I still like the fabric, it is not exactly right for the master suite, and so I will keep looking. It will, however, look great in the Brideshead suite.

It was a busy day all in all, but there was enough time to stop somewhere nice for lunch; to discover a cooking shop called The Essential Ingredient, where I bought a few little things including this great book on baking sweets and pastries:

and a couple more homeware stores inc. The White Room...

We took a detour on the way back to Dubbo to visit Ross Hill Winery, which my friend Dan had recommended for their Shiraz and their Pinot.

We bought a couple of bottles of the Pinnacle Series Shiaz

It was a great day all in all except for what happened on the way home from the winery. High-tailing it home at dusk on the country roads, which for a good part cut through bush and scrub, I rounded a corner to find a Kangaroo in the middle of the road. I managed to slow down and miss him, but then a second dashed out from the bush on the side of the road and right into the front of the car! Quite the fender bender, but we were both unharmed. I wish I could say the same for the Roo!