My husband and I were exploring Selby which is where our new home will be and we discovered only 5 mins drive away a lake park we didn’t know existed. It’s at the top of Cardinia Reservoir and is called Aura Vale Lake Park.  It’s apparently the run off water from nearby areas which is prevented from entering into the reservoir. So it was quite full, and really lovely to visit.  You can go canoeing, kayaking, walking, have picnics and just enjoy the scenery.

Approx 54kms from Melbourne itself, it can be easily reached via Wellington Road for a lovely outing.

While it was a cool afternoon it was certainly pleasant and there were few people around as we visited it.  A couple of pics below but if you want to see more then visit my blog at KathiesPhotos.com.

I absolutely love Melbourne’s Autumns.  The colour displays as the leaves turn to gold, brown, orange, yellow, etc are beautiful.  And often we have pleasant and slightly warm days with quite cold nights – makes it easy for sleeping but still good during the day.  We’ve even had some rain this year which is nice as we’re still very short of water in our state.

The following photos were taken at the George Tindale Memorial Garden which is in Kallista, almost 40 kms out of the city, in the Mt Dandenong ranges. Graham and I visited there on Mother’s Day and enjoyed our time in that area, visiting a couple of grounds and looking at houses.

If  you want to get away from suburbia and enjoy our lovely countryside, you could head up towards Kallista and visit the many gardens and grounds there.  One of them, Grant’s Picnic Ground, has a large variety of birds that happily visit with the visitors in return for food.  There is a cafe there, walking tracks and lots of photo opportunities for those who are keen photographers.

Below are just a small selection of photos I took when we recently visited the picnic grounds on Mother’s Day. There were a lot of people there and it was a beautiful day to make a visit.

I’ve driven past this park many times over years as I’ve gone about my business or visited my family but it never occurred to me to visit it till this past week.

I knew it was reclaimed land that had been turned into a wetland reserve and this occurred sometime after 1994 when we’d shifted into this area.  But this week as I dropped into a business across the road from it I decided this would be my next planned photography shoot and I’m so glad I did.

Here are two links that tell you more about it:

Parks Victoria

Fisher & Fisher

For the first time in my life I saw a Flame Robin and that was thanks to a couple who regularly walk their dogs there. They’d seen me taking pictures of the birds and they pointed me towards a path they’d walked on where they had seen the robin. So when I went looking it was very obvious as the bright colour showed up easily amongst all the greens and browns.

I belong to the Southern Suburbs Photographic Society which meets in East Brighton regularly and am currently participating in a beginners course.  Why beginners? Well, even though I’ve been taking photos for over 30 years as an amateur I’ve never learnt the terminology or the intracies of using a camera so I’m now learning what Fstops mean, and aperture and all those other words.

Today we had a field trip and went to a park I didn’t know existed only a few minutes from my home because it’s hidden away from main roads and in the middle of a residential suburb.  It was a cold crisp and very clear morning and we all had a good time playing with our cameras.  I was hoping for some fog but another time.

Anyway, hope you like these shots and you can see more at my photoblog.