bishopstone

bishopstone
our home in the bush

garden man

garden man
Just to sit a while and enjoy

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Redlands visit

 I went for a trip to visit Redlands with my parents and the boys. My Dad had been there before on a painting trip so we thought we would go back and see what inspiration we could find amongst the old buildings. Redlands is an old estate dating from the 1820s. In its hay day it had 200 workers and their families living on the estate. Today its a distillery that grows its own barley.
 This is the old Oast house where the hops were once dried. I was standing in the secret garden at the time, this garden was the one place the owners of the estate could be alone from all those workers.
 This row of houses used to house convict labour, we are talking before Port Arthur was built.
 A fragment of window netting made from wool.
 And what is up these stairs?
 The upstairs room. I was very disappointed not to have found a ghost in the photo as the room was pitch black.
 I loved this piece of wallpaper edging in one of the convict homes, later used by workers. It looked had painted and very out of place in such a rustic setting but I guess the owner of this house once had a very fashionable décor.
And to the end of our trip.

sculpture trail

It is that time of the year again and I headed down the channel with the boys to have a look at the sculpture trail at Birches Bay and then have lunch at the Pepperberries café. here is just a highlight of some of the art works we saw.