Friday, November 26, 2010

At our leisure

Our homeschool picnic was cancelled today (*sob!), and we had our hearts set on an outing. So, I decided we'd go to the location anyway. I'd been to Werribee Mansion (also known as Chirnside Mansion) a few times, but my children had never been. There is also free admission until the end of this month, so why waste an opportunity on such a lovely day?

I'll warn you now, that we took LOTS of photos. I won't put them all up here, but yes, a good number are. To try and not make this post to long, I'll minimise most of the pictures. Just click on them to see the larger version.

When we arrived, the place seemed so quiet. Hardly anyone was about. The gardeners were quietly working away, hoeing the newly planted beds. So we stopped under a tree and enjoyed some sandwiches for lunch before venturing inside.


Once inside, we were given a brochure which gave an overview of the mansion's history. You can view it HERE on pdf. As the brochure contained a map, Maestro quickly adopted it and decided to guide us around.

Here is the drawing room, moving from left to right (and a silly snap of Mariposa on the sideline!):



Trophies ornamented all the doorways:


The Main Bedroom, with dressing room and a 19th Century ensuite!:


Morning Room:


Dining room:


 The Library:  
(the marbling on the books were very interesting)


If there's a ballroom (well, this was the saloon, but there were mirrors and polished floor!):


The Guest Rooms:
(by this stage both of the children were saying they'd love to live here, especially if they could have all their friends come to stay over in all the available rooms)


Victorian paper dollhouse:
(and yes, someone DID want to make this when she got home)



Lots of 1800s clothes on display:



 What a great sized kitchen!  I should have taken photos of the larder too, 
with shelves all the way up the ceiling.


In the Conservatory:



We had a lovely time, just the three of us. Then we happened to meet another homeschooling family in the cafe' who decided not to waste the opportunity either.  What a perfect way to spend the day, relaxing, learning about more local history and coming home on a buzz.

6 comments:

Joyfulmum said...

Cool! The day turned out perfect I think despite the initial disappointment. BTW, that's great they let you take photos inside. I'll have to keep this on my to do list for the next time we're in Victoria, looks like a great place to visit.

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, this is so gorgeous!!! Thanks for sharing!

Ruby said...

Fabulous! It's great that you all got to enjoy an end of year outing anyway. Are you done with school for the year yet?

Catherine (Alecat Music) said...

Hi Ruby,
No, we're not quite done with our school year yet. But we are very close!! Over the next 3 weeks we're tapering off, and should have maths over with next week.

Clare said...

Oooh thank you for posting! I have heard about this but have not been yet.
Loving looking at the pictures. I LOVE the kitchen! What a great size.

Glad to hear you still enjoyed your day :)

Tonya @ The Traveling Praters said...

Wow! That is so beautiful! My family loves to tour old mansions and of course we always talk about what it would be like to have lived there. How can you resist? Too bad it wasn't closer, we'd love to visit. Of course, Austraila is on our list of places we hope to visit....:)