Dunolly open garden, Belleville

Belleville is an 1860s house which has been lovingly restored by the current owners.   The garden was open as part of the Open Gardens scheme, and the owners were generous enough to also show us inside the house, which had been restored to original features where possible.  Particularly interesting was the entryway, which had plaster which had been painted and burnished so that it looks like stone.

There was also an art exhibit at the old courthouse next door – I was very impressed by the photos by Richard Tatti, who takes spectacular long exposure photographs at night.   The building was originally a Town Hall.  Apparently Dunolly has had a  umber of Town Halls, each of which has been repurposed.

Next to the courthouse they were selling wood fired pizza, so I of course had to try them.   It was a good decision, as this was where I met a group of women who told me about the house being open for a tour.  These ladies have been going to open gardens together for 15 years.

On the way home I decided to drive through Tarnagulla to see if there were any interesting buildings there.  There was not a lot in Tarnagulla, but I did get the experience of driving through a FFMV controlled burn.   The smoke was so thick I could not see very far ahead, and there was fire burning right  up to the road, which made me pretty nervous.  I certainly would not have driven through the area if the controlled burn signs were not there, and there were a couple of times I wondered how controlled it really was and if I would have been better going a different route.   But I survived to write about the experience, so I guess everything was ok.   I did take a different route home though.