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| The 'big lawn' now covered with garden beds |
One of the highlights of our trip to Hobart was visiting the house that our family built and grew up in. Every time I'm in Hobart, I like to drive by and see how the garden has grown. This time, we had a second reason for visiting. On our trip to Tassie, we were carrying the ashes of our dear family dog, Charlie. It was a strange experience, approaching my childhood home to ask permission to scatter Charlie's ashes. But, luckily, the owners were dog people and understood our request. It was a sad but freeing experience to scatter Charlie under his favourite possum-hunting gum trees.
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| The bottom of the 'big lawn' |
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| Many hours were spent on this swing set as a child |
The owners of the house were very kind to us and let us have a wander around the gardens, giving us a bit of a tour and explanation of what they've done to the gardens as well as allowing us (well, me) some time to reminisce about the great times I had in the house, garden and horse paddocks. The garden has been expanded to take over all of the horse paddocks, but I was pleased to see that they had left the fences, stile, stable and water troughs and incorporated them into the gardens.
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| Looking back to the sun room and BBQ area |
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| The horse paddock |
To say that the new owners are enthusiastic gardeners would be an understatement. They have taken the rather amazing gardens that my grandparents and parents worked so hard on and, with a combination of their creativity and the mature trees and plants already in place, turned the property in a wonderland of garden. In fact, the gardens are often open to the public to enjoy, with much money being raised for a variety of charities.
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| Horse paddock again |
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| The stile to get into the second horse paddock and the water trough in the background |
Whilst the real reason for our visit to my childhood home was a sad one, it was wonderful to spend a few hours in the garden reminiscing about my childhood. And, that brings our Tasmanian adventures to an end. I'm off to Melbourne tonight for some much needed family time and time at the Australian Open. Next week, I'll be back blogging in the present.
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| Our old stable is now a fernery! |
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| The other horse paddock |
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| Entrance to the horse paddock |
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| Old vegetable gardens |
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| The orchard |
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| Scattering Charlie's ashes |
(By the way, Zoli is my grandfather and Garry is my father ... and they, with the help of my grandmother, mother and a few others, built this house)
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