I have been lamenting the state of the winter weather probably a little too much lately, but as August clocked over into September last week, and winter into spring, Sydney seems to have shaken off those slightly frosty shackles and fully embraced the warmer months ahead. Yesterday was a prime example. As well as being Father’s Day in Australia, the sunshine was on tap and it was officially T-shirt weather.
Mr Perfect has bought himself the Sydney Morning Herald Good Pub Food Guide app, and we’ve been testing out a few good food pubs. Apparently the Drama Queen “loves the Pub”, which may not be a great thing for a 3 year old! But, having found a few new gems closer to home, we decided it was time to branch out a little further. To celebrate Father’s Day we loaded ourselves into the car and headed down to Burrawang in the Southern Highlands to the Burrawang Village Hotel.
I was attracted to the idea of this pub because of the description of the history, the view and the gardens. While the food was OK, we had to wait a while because it was Father’s Day and they were busy, the garden was a glorious spring setting (well, at least for a pub’s beer garden!). The Drama Queen and the Daredevil loved the space to run around, and we all enjoyed the sun on our face.
In terms of the space and the design, the heritage pub featured an upper decomposed granite terrace, doubling as a petanque yard (yes, the boules are available at the bar), that opened down to a cascading lawn. The lawn was punctuated by hedges, sculpture and simple, low maintenance garden beds. The gardens provided a perfect setting for the 1920′s pub building and were well worth the trip from Sydney. Next time I think we might bring along some picnic blankets and let the munchkins roam free.
I forgot the camera, but Mr Perfect had his i-phone, so he took some photos and then I took over…
The Drama Queen posing for Mr Perfect in the garden
The lawn and hedging gardens leading up to the 1920's hotel
The Drama Queen posing again!
The Hebes were in flower
The trees are still waiting for their leaves, but I don't think they are too far away.
The deciduous vines are just starting to come into leaf.
The Petanque rink / deco granite terrace is punctuated with pots and hedges.
It was a hard day. good food, good wine and a great view.
And the best part of all was we had a happy dad, and a great Father’s Day.
Sam
