Sweet Wayfaring

I retire from the workforce this week and to celebrate have decided to retire my current blogs and start afresh with a single consolidated blog -  My Bright Field  - to record the delights of my new life adventure. If you are interested follow me over there.  I will still be Sweet Wayfaring and collecting Royal Hotels.  The delights I discover along the way will appear together with my gardens and towns where I live.

And I wrap up this trip with the Royal Hotel at Ganman.

But wait, no trip is complete until a Royal or two has been added to the collection.  This one is at Grong Grong.

Trains, old and new, are another favourite with us so we checked out the Goldfields Railway before heading back home to Lawson.

At the Read Heeler bookshop in Echucha their thing is dogs.

With me begonias come a close second to roses.  The begonias in Ballarat are awesome.

Over the road from the rose gardens in Bendigo, a beaut second hand bookshop.

I am not sure which obsession is greater with me ... books or roses.  Either way I loved the rose gardens in Bendigo.

Back at the van with all our packages.  It's a bit like going on a shopping trip in Tokyo.

I loved the Hill of Content bookshop.  I am wondering however whether it is 'con-tent or con-'tent. I will settle for the latter.

I was trying to explain to hubby which one was the Kay Craddock Antiquarian Bookshop.  It's the one with all the owls, I said.  I don't remember any owls, he replied. He must be blinded by the book selection.  There are owls all over the place.

Waiting for the train to arrive.  We are on our way to Melbourne to check out the bookshops.

When I was furnishing our 120-year-old home I frequented antique shops.  Now I am trying to downsize to a 60-year-old home I don't do it much anymore.  But the Restoration Barn in Castlemaine was pretty special.  I love the chandelier of old lamps.

Back in April we took a tour down to Victoria and camped at Castlemaine for a few weeks. We chose Castlemaine because it is nice town with a caravan park near the botanic gardens but more importantly it is central to quite a lot of small towns all with bookshops - so I am calling this our Bookshop tour. This is Stonemans in Castlemaine.