Singing in the Rain...

As Natalie put it I was now off 'my leash' and would be able to venture out around Melbourne seeing what I wanted to see.  So I decided to head out to the Fitzroy Gardens near downtown Melbourne and with my cameras and backpack in hand off I headed to the train station.

Near as I could tell I would head to Flinders Square on the train and then walk over to the Fitzroy Gardens.  As I was soon to find out I would have probably have been better off if I had gotten off at Parliament Station but figuring it shouldn't be such a long walk I stuck to getting off at Flinders...silly girl I am!

Cook's Cottage

It was a bit more of a walk than I expected and the muggy day was now becoming overcast and it looked like possible showers but I continued on.  Finally I arrived at Fitzroy Gardens and took one of the pathways into the gardens and found myself by Cook's Cottage (also known as Captain Cook's Cottage).  This cottage was constructed in 1755 in the English village of Great Ayton in North Yorkshire by Captain James Cook's parents and in 1933 was sold to the highest bidder which was Russell Grimwade of Australia who, in turn, donated the cottage to the people of Victoria.  The cottage was taken apart brick by brick and shipped to Melbourne where it was reconstructed at what is now Fitzroy Gardens and has been a popular tourist attraction since then.

From Cook's Cottage I headed to the heart of the gardens as I saw that there was a cafe located there and it was past time that I had a bite to eat.  I ordered a sandwich and as it was still nice enough though overcast and threatening I went out onto the patio area and upon looking around saw a corner of a table that might be available and asked the gal sitting on the other end if she minded my sitting there.  Much to my surprise (and delight) she invited me to join her while she had her lunch. I noticed she had a Nikon digital camera on the table as I set my Canon Rebel near hers and in no time at all we were talking photography and places we had been, where we were from and everything in between. 

Rohani was from Malaysia and was just finishing up a working holiday and had, like me, decided to go to the gardens for the day.  We talked for quite a while and had just finished our lunch and the heavens decided to open up and we found ourselves in a downpour.  Fortunately we were able to position ourselves under several umbrellas and stayed put while most everyone else around us scrambled for indoors.

It turned out to be quite a pleasant afternoon despite the rains sitting out under the umbrellas chatting with a complete stranger about each of our travels in Australia and photography.  Rohani had been having problems getting clear pictures with her camera and it really was a simple fix as she wasn't allowing the camera to finish focusing before she took the picture. 

We must have looked quite silly each with our cameras in hand focusing on plant leaves and rain droplets and even her latte' that had a wonderful design on it and comparing our pictures.  I am not a guru with cameras by any means and if you start talking technical with me my eyes will glaze over...I just am not technical...I just take what I see and how I see it and let the camera do the work for me but Rohani made me laugh with her excitement at finally getting clearly focused pictures with her camera with just a simple adjustment.

We sat there probably a good three hours as the rains continued until they had dwindled to a drizzle.  In one of my smart moments I had put one of those flimsy rain ponchos in my backpack so I wasn't going to get too wet and also had a plastic bag I gave to Rohani to cover her camera and we bid farewell.

I was soon going to be very glad that I had a rain poncho on as the rains started to increase from the drizzle to a gentle, soft rain as I struggled to find my way back to Flinders Square.  It probably took me a good hour to finally find my way back to Flinders Street in what should have been a 15 or 20 minute walk but I had a guardian angel of sorts watching over me as I kept running into the same gal I had asked directions from initially...I actually think she was just keeping an eye on me to see that I found my way and finally I was to the station.

To say my internal compass was all messed up in Australia would be an understatement and my inability at reading any type of map while there it was really quite amazing that I never found myself wandering into the outback.  If I had been there longer that just might have happened but this day was probably the most mixed up I had gotten.  Even so I was still able to find my way back to Natalie's after a fashion.  Of course...days earlier I had managed to get turned around heading back to her place but come to think of it I never did tell her about that time..shhhhh!!  Anyways...

Until next time...wherever you are...have a great day!!

If you would like to see what few pictures of Fitzroy Garden I took here is a link to that photo album on Picasa:  Play slideshow