2 exams down, 2 more to go. One piano exam tomorrow and 1 more on Monday.
Today's paper was probably not the best - that's the nicest way I can describe it. Brain is currently fried now and I'm hoping for the best. I was so much more confident for last week's paper, compared to today's.
Anyway the last trip I made before the study "break" was to Fitzroy Gardens. Here I am combining pictures from my last trip and pictures which I took before. I think I managed to cover almost all sections of the garden in the 2 trips. It's big, actually.
So...the first spot I visited was the Tudor village, near the visitor's centre. They had cute miniatures of half-timber houses (something like Shakespeare's house in Stratford-upon-Avon) but much more adorable.
Oh, and every pathway in the garden was lined with massive trees - possibly 100 over years old. These were taken near the Tudor cottage.
Destination 2 - the cottages. James Cook's cottage (which I went into and explored), and another one near James Cook's cottage. Apparently James Cook's cottage is a popular landmark in Fitzroy Gardens, and lots of people go to Fitzroy Gardens to visit it. Well - great things come in small packages! I also bought a mini-telescope (it's about the size of my finger) from the souvenir shop - highly adorable!
One of the fountains tucked away at the corner of the Gardens.
And back on the footpaths I went. Somehow the trees reminded me of Gothic arches - or maybe that's how Gothic arches were designed? Just guessing. Anyway I think most of these trees would have been "bald" by now.
Destination 3: The Sanctuary.
I really love the Sanctuary. Besides housing tropical and unusual plants from places like North Queensland, and besides it being a (literal) sanctuary from the frigid Melbourne winter, it has awesome classical music! When I first stepped in, they had Bach's Suite No.3 in D (Air on sol G), then it changed to Bach's Bradenburg Concerto (the G major one), then Liszt's Liebestraume, and if I'm not wrong the 2nd movement of Beethoven's Pathetique sonata was in the playlist too. Oh, and best part - they had a Chopin waltz on the playlist! Music therapy for the plants, possibly? No wonder they looked so happy.
Ok, enough gushing over the music. Here's the statue outside the Sanctuary.
Cute little goldfish who came up to the water surface to say hi. :)
And here are the plants themselves!
Unusual purple leaves hanging from one of the pots.
Oh my gosh - I haven't seen a pitcher plant for ages! I was so fascinated by them anyways...
Small flowers from yet another hanging plant. There seemed to be lots of purple plants around.
Had to step out of the Sanctuary shortly after as I had to get back to college. Wish I could stay longer and enjoy even more classical music, but oh well.
One of my buddies said this reminded him of a post-human world - the empty benches, autumn trees etc...looks pretty lonely, actually.
And yeah, not too far away, someone was taking a short nap on the bench. I was quite tempted to do so too. But it was too cold.
One of the best parts about autumn - making "leaf castles" (a term I coined which is somewhat analogous to sandcastles). People make massive piles from autumn leaves, then bury themselves in it and basically throw the leaves around like snow. Can't do it in Singapore - firstly it's tropical. Secondly, to make something like this, you need A LOT of leaves.
So here's the building process...just dumping leaves on top of each other...
And then pretending to be some monster emerging from the leaves (for some of the kids, but not all).
Others pose for the camera.
There was also this bunch of kids who were speeding up and down the footpath, so I took a number of shots of them having fun. Oh, and the one in yellow is the eldest.
And I guess that sums up my Fitzroy Gardens' trip! Will be bach (I mean back!) soon!