On our number plates for our cars it used to say “Victoria, the Garden State”.  Melbourne was quite famous for its gardens and I suppose it still is.  We do seem to have them everywhere.  Another thing we seem to have lots of is children’s farm.  I know of at least three not far from me, Collingwood, Bundoora and Edendale at Eltham.  I was charged with taking some photos for Living Learning Nillumbik last year, and while I was at Edendale I took some images of the farm for myself.

The goats are one of the first things you see.  They are very cute and you can pat them through the fence.

This is a cut out of a cow and it has teats that you can milk.  Great idea for children who might be afraid of the real thing.  I am sure something comes out, but I don’t know what.

This looked so cool in the heat of the day, the chooks talking to one another under the shade of the tree.  I think you can go into some of these places and see them, but you have to be very careful of the gates.

There is a nursery for Indigenous plants that you can buy for your own garden.  I must confess I didn’t go into it to check out the prices, but I am fairly certain they would have been very reasonable.  I suppose it is a normal thing for a farm to sell plants.

This is the outside of the reception building.  You can see what a beautiful day was in the reflection of the window.  The building is quite new and I love the way it has been done.

You can see the reception area off in the distant on the right.  Te butterfly on the building has been made from recycled items.  It’s really good.  There are a few pieces of art work that are made out of recycled items.

I do love this building.  I don’t know what the wood is, but I am pretty sure it is made out of some sort of gum tree.  The red is very distinctive in it.

The farm is not huge, but it does now have a cafe, and you can see under some lovely trees and enjoy a coffee or a bit of lunch.  It has improved a lot since my children were little and I think if I had small children now I would spend quite a bit of time there.  It is free, which makes it even better.

I imagine the inner city farms have come about to help city kids understand about farms and the animals on them.  It does seem strange as I grew up on farms and was around animals all the time, that when I was younger I couldn’t understand how city kids didn’t know milk came from cows.  Even recently I saw a program where someone was asking city kids questions about farms and they had no clue.

If you like farms and animals, it isn’t a bad place to take photos either.  There are some interesting things to photograph.  I have got some interesting shots from there in the past.  Though picking a day when there aren’t a lot of people around is a good idea.

Tomorrow is the Marysville Challenge, and I have been given the task of photographing it.  It is a recreational cycling ride.  It will be interesting to see Marysville and how it has developed since it was decimated by the Black Saturday fires in 2009.  I was there a couple of years ago, but it will be nice to see how much has changed since then.  It is in a lovely area, so I might try and get some scenic shots as well.

As I will be doing that, I will have to do my post for tomorrow ahead of schedule, no idea what yet, but I am sure I can come up with something.