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Leura village prepares itself for the 2018 Garden Festival. On its 54th year it promises to be as exciting as ever with 9 private gardens opening to the public, plus the well known “Everglades” a large National Trust property. Visitors will have a unique opportunity to see a great variety of the very best the region has to offer, as well as the chance to interact and get some ideas with some of the garden owners, who may be present during the Festival.

The gardens will be open to public in new format from this year, but nothing changes in goodwill. All proceeds raised from the gardens will benefit the Blue Mountains District Anzac Memorial Hospital and Blue Mountains health related organisations.     

Dates for Open Gardens : Saturday 29 & Sunday 30 September , and  Monday 1 October 2018. Friday 5, Saturday 6 & Sunday 7 October 2018.  The gardens will open from 9:30am to 4:30pm daily.

Entry Fees: $25 pp for a multiple entry ticket to all the gardens, and $8 pp for a single garden entry ticket. FREE entry for children under 16 years old. 

The Plant Sales: Open everyday from Saturday 29 September to Sunday 7 October 2018.

Pre-Festival Tours: From Monday 24 to Friday 28 September 2018.

For further information, please visit the official website.

Once again Sydney-siders' favourite event in the winter months Vivid Sydney is back, now as the biggest event of its kind worldwide!

At Katoomba Scenic World, the Scenic Skyway will be closed for maintenance during the dates as shown below. The Scenic Train and the Skyway will remain open as usual.

For the period of the Skyway closure, Scenic World offers discounted prices for the tickets.

DATES: from Monday 9-October to Monday 13-November 2017 inclusive.

TICKETS: Adult $33.00 (usually $39.00), Child $18.00 (usually $21.00)

Once again the time to forward the clock in Sydney and the state of New South Wales is approaching. On Sunday the 1st of October at 2:00am the clock will be forwarded by one hour, so please don't forget to adjust yours! And we shall enjoy the longer daytime during summer in Sydney.

From Friday the 26th of May to Saturday the 17th of June once again Vivid Sydney is back, now as the biggest event of its kind worldwide! 

It is not long for the Easter celebrations to take place,  with Good Friday being on the 18th of April .

On Good Friday all shops will be closed, it is the only day of the year when newspapers are not available.

During Easter we also have the Sydney Royal Easter Show, Australia’s largest annual event which attracts close to 900,000 people each year! 

The Sydney Royal Easter Show is a national icon which was first held in 1823 to promote and rewards agricultural excellence, celebrates all that is Australian, from our bush heritage to the latest entertainment and technology.

The show runs from the 10^th of April for 2 weeks. There will be lots and lots of cattle, horses, sheep, chickens, flowers, vegetables, fruits, pies & jams, cheese & wine, spices & herbs, oysters & prawns, arts & crafts….. The best of the best sourced out from all over the country will be there for you to experience.

Popular entertainment such as pet farm for children, the parade, rodeos, wood-chipping competitions, cattle dog skill challenge, cooking / fishing / tools demonstrations ….. There will be everything for everybody!

P.S. Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (a.k.a. Will & Kate) will visit the show on the 18^th during their Royal visit to Australia!

For further information regarding the Sydney Royal Easter Show please visit its official site.

Lovely hand painted glass mobiles in a shop window, Paddington Sydney.

Have you ever experienced Christmas in Summer? If you are the lucky one to visit Sydney during Christmas season, why not  go city sightseeing with tthe theme.

Sydney's favourite Christmas trees are;
@ Martin Place, 20m tall! Beautifully decorated with hundreds of LED lights. Touch Pad Kiosk allows you to interact and control coulour settings of the tree decorations. You also can send your own christmas messages up its branches by texting from your mobile! 

@ Queen Victoria Building, 24m tall (Ground floor to 2nd floor), covered with 60,000 lights and 144,000 Swarovski Christal ornaments. Start form the trunk at the ground floor level, then climb all the way up to see the star on the top of the tree! (Do not forget to admire the historical architecture of Queen Victoria Building itself and its artefacts, including Queen Elizabeth the II's letter to the citizens of Sydney as well as the clocks.)

Tall outdoor tree decorations can be found in other locations such as Hyde Park North or Governors House.

@ Pitt Street Mall, in front of Westfield, a NEW Christmas Sleigh appears made entirely with LEGO blocks, using over 10,000 pieces of them!! There are many shining Christmas trees floating in the air all the way through Pitt Street Mall after dark, as part of "Christmas Light Forest" installation, together with digital projections on the buildings.

@ Darling Harbour, a modern tree decorated with lots of lights can be found at the Convention Centre Courtyard. There is a NEW Floating Christmas Tree suspended in the air @ Palm Grove as well! Carols is on everynight at various locations around Darling Harbour, Palm Cove & Cockle Bay throughout December. For the event detail, please refer to the other post titled "Sydney's Christmas in Summer!"

And we should not forget David Jones's window decorations on Elizabeth Street! Each of the six windows on the Elizabeth Street Store are filled with different carols with puppets singing, sharing warm wonderful christmas spirit with all the viewers young and old. (Window display will be on up to the 25 december.) Also do not miss the Magic Cave on the 6th floor in Elizabeth Street Store, to see Santa and the elves working hard preparing the presents for the children. (Open everyday till 24 December). It is a great place to find Chrissy Souvenir as well.

Walking around the City you will find lots of Christmas decorations in a very Australian style, in shops and restaurants. If you visit the suburbs, you can find some magnificently dressed up homes with wonderful luminous decorations brighting up the streets. You might also meet Santa Clause riding his surf board in his summer gear!

It is a great season to go sightseeing!
   

(From L to R) David Jones' window decorations. / It could be the tallest indoor Christmas tree. @QVB / The top of the Christmas tree in QVB. 

Hunter Valley is famous for its wine. Grape vines are growing rapidly in a strong sumer sun at local vineyards, but look around! Beautiful rose bushes are very eye catching too!

Some of our clients in the past have asked us if growing roses is also famous in the region. Well, not as a commercial business but they do act as a health barometer for grapes. Roses are very sensitive plants towards to any slight change of  conditions caused by soil & nutorition balance, weather and humidity, disease, and pests. So having roses nearby and observe them, is a common thing to do in vineyards in order to grow fine grapes.   

At one of the wineries we visit on our tour, they also plant roses to observe the condition as well as for name plates to indicate the varieties of grapes. (e.g. red roses for shiraz vines, pink for cabernet, yellow for semillon, white for chardonnay.   

Year 2016 bottles are appearing already in Hunter Valley. Come and join us in our Hunter Valley Winery tour which is full of variety of local wines and produce, as well as amazing sceneries of vineyards with roses.
Just delicious in taste and delighful for your eyes!  


  

(Image right) The Broken Back Mountains Range at the back.