Today we spent the morning with our friend Margaret ....she picked us up from the Newtown train station and drove us to her new house in Melbourne ....

....in Middle Park ....we had a tour of the suburb, Pete and I had never seen Middle Park....such a beautiful suburb...had a coffee and cake in the small collection of shops ...Both Pete and I loved her new house and are glad that she has settled so well after leaving Perth.

After saying goodbye to Margaret , Pete and I caught the tram into the city ...I wanted to go to the South Wharf DFO. It was quite cloudy in the morning...

....we had blue sky in the afternoon, perfect for a walk along the river after a very unsuccessful visit to the DFO.

Chris and Michelle cooked a delicious dinner for us this evening...chose two salad recipes from a new cookbook that Chris received for his birthday....

Pete looked after the wine ....

Fabulous dinner...perfect for a warm summer night ... and to top it off there was home made ice cream ...(my favourite food...lucky me)

 

What are you reading Pete?

A beautiful table setting at Julie Restaurant at Abbotsford Convent ...Pete, Michelle, Chris and I had a wonderful lunch there today. Thanks to Jeremy and Paul for the recommendation. 

We took some photos after lunch ....

Beautiful Cherry Lake, Altona ...It was such a glorious day, Pete and I took Monty for a walk around the lake ..

...so many birds...

 

They are looking at a video of a house they are interested in buying....

Ready to go and celebrate Chris' birthday at Harley and Rose Restaurant with family and friends...

Mandy, Graeme and Paul.....

The service was wonderful and the food delicious....Pete and I enjoyed catching up with several of Chris and Michelle's friends....

....photo taken when we arrived home....

Good morning Monty....

While Chris and Michelle were working today, Pete and I spent the day in Melbourne city centre...first stop was the National Gallery of Victoria....above is the artwork of the famous Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama ....it was huge....

A pumpkin...apparently Kusama is mad about pumpkins...

....and polka dots...

We spent some time looking at  the art that is on permanent display...which we had never seen before. I took these photos of those that I spent the most time studying.

Mae West's Lip Lounge.....

This is only a quarter of the number of the trees that were wrapped in pink material outside the Gallery...

I can't walk past a Messina ice cream shop without having some...

Pete and I met Jeremy at the Grace Darling Hotel....

The hotel's stained glass windows are beautiful...

  

On our way home....Flinders Street train station .....

It was raining this morning so we were pleased when the sun came out...

 

Off to Melbourne today ...were lucky to travel on a 787 Dreamliner....it had some fabulous movies available to watch....I watched  "Emilia Perez" ...which I thoroughly enjoyed...Pete watched "Anora" and was very disappointed.

Waiting for our baggage....

It was raining when we landed but on the way to Chris' house we saw this stunning sunset....thankyou Melbourne.

Not a cloud in the sky....

....and then this !

Robin, Ruth, Lee and I had a lot of laughs on the course today....

 

Pete, Flynn and I made another visit to Cowaramup Bay....Flynn insisted that we climb the rocks....

Enjoying the spray from the waves crashing on the rocks...

Flynn and his tunnel...such a happy child...

Eating his lunch and doing a puzzle with mum....

What a fabulous few days we had with the Stokes family ....

We had some rain on our way home ....but missed the deluge in Perth....