Melbourne's "Secret Gardens" Walk - May 23

While Rick was away, I began work on my school report cards. It was a steep learning curve for me to understand and master an online system that was totally new to me. I had already become familiar with the Victorian Educational Learning Standards (VELS) which students need to attain at every grade level. For me the most daunting thing was to come up with individual comments for 350 students whose names I hardly even knew! There is always a Harry, Will, James or Chloe in every room (or derivatives thereof), and sometimes two or three! There are also two sets of identical twins that are almost impossible to tell apart. Thankfully the school gave me a copy of all the students’ pictures and that helped immensely to write the correct comment for the correct student! Of course there were much-needed diversions in between all this work, just to keep my sanity intact! In fact, I indulged in a big break on Sunday afternoon, May 23, to take a walk around Melbourne with Grace Jones, another Canadian exchangee, who was in the same dilemma as I was with report cards. We just needed to get out!

As part of Melbourne’s tourism industry, there are seven different self-guided walks that one can take to explore sections of the city. Grace and I decided upon Walk #2 entitled “Secret Gardens” which promised a walk to the Arts Centre, then past sculptures and monuments to the beautiful Royal Botanic Gardens. It was a lovely afternoon as we began our trek along the Yarra River. People were out in droves, enjoying the warm sunshine. When we left the road to enter the Royal Botanical Gardens,

it was as though we had entered a hushed sanctuary inside the city that blotted out all the noise and the hustle and bustle of life outside its gates. We were amazed! Each area of the garden had a different focus. Thus we came upon the giant River Red Gum trees,

the bamboo forest, the cypress garden,

and an ornamental lake with its tea house.

The gardens were established in 1846 and cover 38 hectares. There are supposedly some 52,000 different plant species in the garden, but we were unable to capture them all on film for you, so please settle on these few that I have included here as a small sample to whet your appetite for the stunning flowers, growing here even in the season of autumn. Buildings like the William Tell Rest House

and unique statues sprinkled throughout the garden

added to the charm and beauty of the place. What solace for the report-card stressed soul! Just to see the gorgeous flowers will bring solace to your souls as well, dear reader!

We were tired, but also so revitalized and invigorated , as we clambered onto the tourist shuttle bus to take us back to the train station. We had tramped some 6 kilometres over almost three hours and were exhausted! It was time to head home and get back to work! Well, thankfully the reports did eventually get done!