more than a shop

journey break

coffee scones and peace

recharging

Whenever we travel to Bendigo The Merchant of Malmsbury is where we break the journey. Len has made this wonderful place his business for travellers like us to stop off and enjoy coffee and home made scones, jam and cream in the garden. His shop is crammed with interesting curios  and his own brilliant photography artwork. In another life Len once worked in a Melbourne drafting office which he shared with an Afghan Hound. Hence there was always a warm welcome for Charlie and now Maggie. There is some fascinating historic C19th architecture including The Merchant’s in this small village. The Botanic gardens are also historically significant. Malmsbury is a lovely place to escape the monotony of the Calder Freeway.

This is my contribution to the one a week Photo Challenge and this week for number  44 the challenge is SHOP . For this years 52 weekly challenges planned by Cathy and Sandra visit Cathy’s blog at  https://nanacathydotcom.wordpress.com/one-a-week-photo-challenge-2017/

cheer the call

Three contributions this week to RonovanWrites Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge 67 with key words Cheer & Call. Learn more about this creative haiku challenge and see great poetic minds at work  here https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/category/haiku-prompt-challenge/

The first is for nature lovers, the second for people power lovers and the third for food lovers.

cheer us up

young one needs feeding

its your call

This family of magpies regularly arrive on our front fence and proceed to perform for food. The baby (on the right) soon learnt to be particularly acrobatic and is performing a half roll along the bricks. If there are no dogs or cats around they become very brave  and actually wander into a house half a block away looking for food.

call and cheer

so politicians hear

the people

In September 2013 a conservative government was elected in Australia. They proceeded to govern by attacking  opponents, critics and most elements of equity and fairness in  Australian society and generally acted with divisiveness and deceit . This July 2014 image shows people protesting against the 2014 budget that was so horrendous it contributed significantly to the collapse of support and trust for this government by a huge majority of the population. Recently the governing party acting in survival mode replaced the prime Minister  and the Treasurer subsequently resigned. We have basically the same governing politicians with much the same policies however there is now an element of inclusiveness and concern, even a little humanity from the new leadership team. Very soon there will be many books released analysing this last two years of political experimentation in Australia.

call in here

for coffee and scones

to cheer up

The Merchant of Malmsbury, a wonderful relaxing break for delicious home made scones and jam and cream on the Calder Highway journey to Bendigo.