Japanese Gardens

The Smaller Portion has been telling me for a while 'We never go anywhere, we never do anything.'  He is right.  Guilt got to me this week and I agreed to go on an outing with him.

He chose to go to the Japanese Gardens at Cowra, some two and a half to three hours drive away.  We have been there before years ago and both liked it.

The gardens were established to recognise and build on a relationship between the people of Cowra and the people of Japan - a relationship which has its origins in the Prisoner of War Camp which housed Japanese Prisoners or War during World War II.

In 1960 the Japanese Government decided to bring their war dead from across Australia to be re-buried in Cowra.  

The Japanese Gardens and attached Cultural Centre support and advance the friendship between Japan and the town of Cowra and promote Japanese design, culture and crafts.

Choosing to go to gardens in winter might seem odd, but we thought that we would see the bones of the garden.  And we were right.  There are some things in bloom, but we revelled in the shapes and structure of the gardens.

The gardens were beautifully laid out.  Most of the pathways were wheelchair accessible (well over 90 per cent), you could hire a wheelchair or an electric scooter and there was plenty of seating to sit, look and dream.

As always, many, many photos follow.

Sunday Selections #339

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.
 
The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen.

Like River I usually run with a theme.  This week?  Some photos (with more to come later) from a day-trip we took last week.  Himself often complains (with some justification) that we never go anywhere.  So we headed some 200 kilometres (124 miles) away to the Japanese Gardens at Cowra.

In my usual restrained fashion I took literally hundreds of photos.  This week I am going to mostly focus on ducks and koi - and will put up a post about the gardens themselves next week some time.  (We haven't forgotten Tidbinbilla and will get back there soon.)

Even in winter, with very little in bloom the gardens are beautiful.  Sculptural.  Architectural.  Lovely.

The 'fruit' in this tree is Crested Pigeons.

The koi were enormous.  And challenged the ducks (and each other) quite forcefully for food.

Many of our native birds are not particularly musical.  The magpie (and the currawong) are exceptions to that rule.

See what I mean about the sculptural quality to the gardens?

A red-rumped parrot (aka bum bird) showing how it gets its name.

And the serenity of 'more typical' Japanese gardens. 

It really is a lovely place and we were lucky with the weather too.  Clear skies, no wind and cool enough for walking to be pleasant but by no means cold. 

Sunday Selections

Sunday Selections, brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, is an ongoing theme where participants post previously unused photos languishing in their files. 

Anyone can join in, just post your photos under the Sunday Selections title, link back to Kim, then add your name to her Linky list at Frogpondsrock.

On Thursday of last week I went to the Japanese Gardens at Cowra and took many, many photos.  The lovely Ms O'Dyne liked the ducks and carp I featured in the post about that trip, so I am putting some of the other photographs of them for her.