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!

The Dubbo Chronicles No.10: Riddle me this...

What is that which in the morning goeth upon four feet; upon two feet in the afternoon; and in the evening upon three?

Recently I went to a town called Orange with a friend from Dubbo. Orange is a country town one third of the way towards Sydney from Dubbo.

As some readers will know, I have been looking for a pair of giant sphinxes for quite a while, and I managed to find them in Orange. I found them at a shop called The Complete Garden.

Annie and Rob, the owners, were extraordinarily helpful. There was actually only one in the shop and the line had been discontinued. So, they did some calling around and found another one up in Queensland, and Rob drove up and collected it and united it with the one they had in their store, and then he drove both of them down to Sydney and dropped them off to the cargo company at the port. They should be on the water to WBP this week!

Above: One of the sphinxes. It is a French Mannerist-style Sphinx.

Below: The eventual position of the pair.

They were very excited about our project, and had sent a photo into the local newspaper along with an explanation that they were supplying the sphinxes to WBP in NZ!

Below: Another Mannerist-styled sphinx

and some more sphinxes...

The answer to the well known riddle of the Sphinx: Man.

The Dubbo Chronicles No.3 ... Kangaroos

 

Life in Dubbo ticks by. I spent my day off on Tuesday shopping. I bought some nice art for the walls of the flat, and a few object d'arts to make it feel more homely. I thought that I should buy some really nice things, that I could bring home with me for the manor house, rather than decorating with a few cheap and disposable pieces that I would choose to leave behind. I compromised on a few things, such as crockery and glassware; but somethings, like good quality bed linen, really aren't negotiable.

Anyway, this blog is dedicated to one of our newest followers, Fran (from Dubbo!) who wanted another installment of The Dubbo Chronicles. So, here it is: my exciting first encounter with Kangaroos!

Last night on my way to dinner I drove past 2 Kangaroos on the road. I [not so gently] applied the brakes and ground to a halt. I had heard about herds of 'Roos' all over the place but had yet to see any. Most of the vehicles around town have mightily industrial 'Roo-Bars' on them, because if you hit one of these creatures it can do some serious damage to One's grill. Anyway, these two little blighters hopped happily away through the fence and into the twilight, but not before I had managed to take a few snaps...

The weather here remains as dry as back home. We have had a few storms around the region, but no significant rain in Dubbo. I went to Orange with a friend last week. Orange was a lovely town. It was much greener than Dubbo, and had a lot of nice restaurants and wineries; but perhaps that should be the subject of a future post...