An interesting background to the photo exhibition is the history of the building — a 1916 house with many of its original artifacts. Sinks, light switches, high ceilings and the chill of an old building — all reminders of Leura’s past. The front windows have a charming window seat — great for the afternooon’s revealing light on the photographs.

The curator, Rosalind McKelvey is the founder of Hearts For Healing, a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting the healing power in art. HeARTS seeks out charities (other non-profits) who have a mission of empowerment and of social change and who struggle (as do most non-profits) — to deliver their mission.

HeARTS for Healing sponsors and plans public events that will promote links between contemporary art and social awareness and raises funds for specific organisations.  At this Leura exhibition with every artwork sold, 30% of the profit will  be donated to Blacktown’s Alice’s Cottages Inc. Alice’s Cottages has developed a housing scheme for women suffering from psychiatric and emotional distress and for their dependent children. Alice’s Cottages is jointly funded by the NSW and Australian Government under the SAAP programme.

The exhibition “Capturing and Creating Realities” is open through June 3rd at Gallery Lane (Thurs-Sun), 87 Railway Parade. For more details call 0421 495 081. Rosalind will answer and you’ll be enchanted by this young woman with such passion about art and it’s healing power!

Leura still holds its charm on so many of us — locals or visitors … tables were full at Silk’s Restaurant, that Tuscan icon on The Mall and Megalong Books had such a queue, we decided tomorrow we would arrive early. We briefly stopped in at Gifts ‘n Things — new colourful lounge pillows were so tempting. Look up as they are on display above your head at the cash register! Finally, we made our way into Cicero — we’ve been eyeing a terrific pair of short boots for some time now. Perhaps tomorrow?

Back in a fortnight!

We suggest that you turn off of Great Western Highway at the first entrance into Leura (Scott Avenue),  Scott becomes Railway Parade and before passing St. Bonaventure Church, colours are magnificent. The big homes and great gardens along Railway Parade before the round about at The Mall are great for yet more variety.

We met friends at Leura Garage (Railway Pde) for a terrific chai and a long discussion about our next update of our website. Popularity of the cafe continues — we carried our discussions into the dinner hour and before 6:30pm, diners occupied most tables.

Later we moved on to the Waldorf Leura Gardens Resort for dinner and entertainment.

The three-Star Waldorf is under new ownership and the renovations and upgrades continue. From a scan of the car park, management has made a successful turnaround. Not an empty slot available.

Dinner in the Jasmine Room was also popular among the hotel guests. Our group chose the oven roasted pork or the beef tenderloin, but we saved room for the French Apple Tart which was divine — it is all in the pastry!

The entertainment began at 7:30 — some diners were still verociously consuming their mains but managed to equally divide their attention between food and frivolity. Theatresports BlueMountains are an unlikely combination of usually reticent mountain folk, thespians of Greek tragedies and comedy central.

Yes, the comedy is homespun and “you take your chance” impromptu, but after a very long day of work, we found ourselves relaxing, laughing at the funny bits and marveling at actors who will forsake all dignity in front of total strangers without a second thought.  Occasionally, an impromptu fell flat, but our favourite —  the one sentence or command, a series set in 3 scenarios — was quite charming. Each group’s version of a nightmare, was very good. Perhaps a second glass of vino would have prodded the audience to participate more easily.

The MC is a bundle of quite funny one-liners; several of the actors are more than talented at responding, on the spot, to some nutty request from the audience. It is all in good fun. Dinner and entertainment are good for the spirit and the tummy!

TheatreSports perform monthly at Leura Gardens Resort. Check http://www.leuragardensresort.com.au for the schedule.

Let’s change our habits; slow down and look at some photos of beautiful Everglades House & Gardens, part of the National Trust Houses at 37 Everglades Ave in Leura. Leaves are changing to their autumn shades while some late summer blooms still look fresh. The early morning hours are perfect for photo taking and the quiet of Everglades is peaceful– even birds are amazingly silent. The Gardens are open to the public (Fee) and winter hourse are 10am – 4pm. The tea room serves a lovely lunch or tea and a new gift shop is a collection most garden lovers will enjoy.

Everglades Gardens in blooms

                           

April Colours in Everglades

Those Autumn Leaves

When you have a 13 1/2 hour flight staring you in the face (and derierre), you must have a gripping book to ease away the hours. Airline flick choices just don’t hack it!

The novel takes place in 1974 when a young man walks in the sky — walks on thin wires strung between New York’s Twin Towers. He twirls through the air, meanwhile, below disparate lives collide and are transformed.

Acrobat, magician, tight rope walker — or merely a sensationalist, he stuns New York with his daring — a moment captured by photographer Fernando Yunque Marcano. Eerily, the photo forcasts the moments of 9/11/2001 that are burned into our memories.

However, so much of McCann’s plot takes place far below in the seamy streets of 1974 New York. There are turns and twists and emotional surprises throughout.

We loved it. Thanks Megalong Books

We’re back after a long break. . . more on that in a future post. And, Leura was gorgeous on Friday — comfortable temperatures. The Mall was bustling, many sales and many shoppers. We’re always amazed at the sheer numbers of visitors to Leura.

Lunch was perfect at Hana, Leura’s wonderful Japanese restaurant. Tachashi’s menu has a new addition (since our last visit) — a beef curry. We stayed with our favourite — a beautifully displayed smoked eel, but next visit we’ll report on the curry.

Met up with artist and graphic designer Jane Canfield — it is time to freshen up our Leura website and with Jane’s eye for detail, the end result will be good. We’ll keep you posted.

 While at Jane’s studio, a short downpour occurred — a heavy rain, then the sun reappeared and some minutes later, another rain — this time, not quite so heavy. The scent of rain and grass in a short summer burst  reminded us of childhood summers, but on a coastal island. Perhaps weather, no matter our location, is similar and has the ability to draw forth distant memories.

One last reminder: Winter Magic (Katoomba) is not too far away. We received phone calls this week from those who are well organised (we don’t fall into that category) and are planning their participation come July. Recommendations for restaurants and accommodation in Leura were their request and we were happy to oblige! We suggest you, too, make your reservations early.

Rachael, the terrific chef at the Fairmont was present and is she a winner — the appetisers were smashing and such an array of choices! We were also treated to the “high tea” menu of lemony (our favourite) meringues and deep decadent chocolate along with scones, of course ladened with jam and heavy cream. Fairmont held its inagural High Tea weekend just prior to Cup Day.  Consequently, the Cup Day party seemed a celebration of many earlier Fairmont traditions in a beautiful new setting.

GM Geoff York, with the smiles of a proud father, welcomed the party-crowd to the new look on the entry level lobby and bar – stunning chandeliers throughout the room and above the beautiful new bar. . . this is a perfect room for an evening event. New lobby furniture was in place, and we could see the Fairmont has returned to its casual elegance — a terrific resort for couples or families.  

We made some terrific new acquaintances — some very special people live and work in Leura and we plan on many more Cup Day parties. A really great Aussie tradition!

We caught up with Sophie Seeger of SeegerbyDesign and this is what we learned. Sophie, in collaboration with The Eco Collective, was invited to exhibit at Grand Designs Australia this past weekend. This is/was a BIG deal.  The three artists, Sophie, Phillipa and Karen work in soft furnishing fabrics that are 100% natural and sustainable.

The Eco Collective offers clients personalised eco friendly textiles for homes — detoxing your home is probably a very good idea. No lead or chemical inks in their natural fibres and the piece de resistance!  You can choose patterns or colours or weight of materials. An order of more than five metres gets you the trade price of $65. per metre.

Their link: www.ecoinspired.com.au/the-eco-collective    Stunning! We love the “trees” pattern.

Purchase the fabric by the metre – min 5m – starting at $65 per metre – trade price!

Back in Leura, the weekend is always fun and frantic, so we asked a number of Leura-ites to give us a run-down on happenings. The second annual Dog Show was huge success as written here by organiser, Barry Jarrott.

The Alexandra Hotel played host to the second annual Leura’s Best In Show last weekend, on the afternoon of the second day of the Leura Village fair. The ‘Alex’ was overrun with dogs & dog lovers with around 60 dogs competing for fabulous prizes, including a portrait in oils by prominent artist and dog lover Jane Canfield.

Some twenty entrants vied for the title of Leura’s Next Top Model without any signs of face slapping or pulling of hair, although with so many entrants in the ring at the one time, bottom sniffing was mandatory; whilst the Best Dressed Class saw Super heroes and a rather ingenious ‘mash-up’ of Stevie Nicks & Dr Frankenfurter.

One of the contestants in the Inaugural Jack Russell race broke his trip to the finishing line with a quick detour to the bar for a ‘bevvy’.  He didn’t post a terribly good race time, but still won a prize for the most novel route to the finishing line.

An entrant in the Constant Companions class watched intently as her handler delivered a heart-wrenching a Capella version of an old French standard, peppered with outbursts of “she lurves sis song – she sing it wis me all ze time” – all the while her canine companion keeping a stoic silence.

And a display of obedience by the Blue Mountains Dog Training Club gave most of the entrants in Leura’s Best In Show something to aspire to, or their handlers something to be embarrassed about.

 A fun time was had by all, both by those with two legs and those with four. And as an added bonus $500 was raised for the local RSPCA.

Next week we’ll hear from others who turned out for this most talked about event in Leura. However, today, Oct 16, the mountain weather was simply smashing and we hope there will be more — blue skies and lovely temperatures.

Jane’s petite studio is highlighted in the recent publication, “Leura Blue Mountains Streetscapes & Landscapes” (Early copies are available at Gifts & Things,134a The Mall.) As we are not an educated critic of art, we hesitate to delve too deeply into Jane’s work, but her themes always delight us — mountain villages, beaches and city scenes. We love the geometric look in her watercolours — always bold. For details on the Sunday open house call Jane 0409 692 780 or contact: http://www.canfield.com.au/ 

Later, we sauntered up and down the Mall as it was too beautiful to be indoors. At Princess Pantry, Cathy Armstrong now has vintage inspired children’s clothes in stock. We should have a photo for you next week.  In the meantime call Cathy for details: 4784 1930

Up on Railway Parade, a terrific new shop, Zuri open a week or so ago. (Next door is Ochre, the Aboriginal Gallery & Gifts.)

At Zuri, we love the beautiful look — dark floors, stained beveled glass above the entry door and an artistic display of homewares and clothing. There is a tall metal-framed mirror in the corner that we long for and a marvelous large Colombian ceramic pitcher in a stunning charcoal. Clever environmentally-friendly products are stocked. Zuri is the sister shop to Zuri in Katoomba. For details 4784 2448.