treats from toowoomba

Julian wanted a new pushbike … a special pushbike from Italy … there was only one left on Australia’s eastern seaboard … it was in Toowoomba - a regional town, 2 hours drive away.

So Saturday morning, bright and early, the Boot trio set off in our little Black Betty (a.k.a. small stationwagon) to climb the Great Dividing Range and liberate the Italian pushbike.

Easy peasy - all done in 2 hours. Now what to do. Given the advantageous position I was in (i.e. I hadn’t just spent thousands of dollars and dragged the family to Toowoomba), I got to call the shots! ;-)

So we headed further out to Crows Nest - a tiny village famous for it’s antiques centre that I have never visited when OPEN! It was mildly entertaining - mostly early 20th century imports from Europe - a nice bureau/bookcase thingy, and a lovely English oak drinks cabinet (but we had no room in Black Betty, no money in the wallet, and no room back in the tumbledown house - maybe it’s time to move?!?!), and a whole, huge section of the shop (formerly a series of four warehouses) devoted entirely to gate-legged tables - bit odd!

Unsatisfied, we headed back home, stopping on the way at the German Cuckoo Clock Centre - I know, odd concept in rural Australia - and despite it looking a wee bit twee from the outside it was GORGEOUS inside with the most exquisite array of hand carved German and Austrian wooden Christmas decorations, linen and wool tableware, and the cuckoo clocks of course. I brought home these three fellows …

the postman,

the clock maker …

and the musician. Aren’t they dear little fellows! And, there’s a whole patriarchal town to collect! Their label reads - Erzgebirgische Volkskunst Seiffen Handarbeit - my highschool German tells me they’re handmade but apart from that … I’ll need to google them. They come in a variety of sizes - these are the smallest - and the bigger ones can be wound up and then they play tinkly tunes! Ah I’m in heaven! (can’t you just see a needlepoint of these fellows - thinking, thinking …)

Update: Okay!  I’ve just spent a good hour reading about German Smokers (my little men - who have been made - originally from dough - for a few hundred years - you pull them in half - and yes mine do, didn’t realise until a moment ago - and place a burning incense cone on a little metal plate and the smoke comes out his round mouth!), and Richard Glasser who is one of the most well-known manufacturers of these wooden men, the Christmas Pyramids and the Nutcrackers (since the 1940s).  Apparently Erzgebirgische is a mountainous region in Eastern Germany famous for its fierce winds that blow down from Russia.  Anways, there’s so much to read and hundreds of beautiful carved figures and pyramids and music boxes etc. to look at that you can start here … German Handcraft
And I’m laying down the rules of Christmas 2008 now - the only new Christmas decorations to grace the tumbledown house this year will be either handmade by Little A or I, or bought from this darling shop - and instead of adding to Little A’s mass produced electronic Christmas Village from Myer (big department store), we are going to treat ourselves to a handcarved, traditional wooden Christmas Pyramid. Oh what glee! I’m getting into the Christmas spirit already!

After such Germanic delights, we continued heading east until we came to the Danish Flower Art Centre - I know, strange cultural thingy again - but if you ever happen to visit the area and checkout the old cemetries, you will see that the area was settled by farming families from Germany and Scandinavia. Well this was a lovely spot for lunch - there were ducks waddling past the kitchen door, a lemon and orange orchard, rows of beautiful vegetables - and all the food was home produced. YUM! They also grew gourds - there were fields of them - in fact, I thought they were ducks at first. Gourds are so bizarre aren’t they!?! Such odd shapes and colours. And several followed us home …

including a lookout duck …

and her sleeping sister …

Julian tells me the little round one is Monkey’s water flagon - you know, the weird and wonderful Chinese folk series about the travelling monk Tripitaka and the animal gods Monkey, Piggsy and Sandy who had been thrown out of heaven and were trying to find redemption! He is threatening to paint it red, cut the top off and add a cork. Mmmm…

We’ll definitely be stocking up on gourds for Halloween this year - they’ll be perfect for turning into lanterns!

Comments

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website