On our recent road trip to the farm we are presently looking after, we stayed 2 days in Dubbo. A township in the western outback of New South Wales. Miles from anywhere but a bustling and busy centre where 5 main road systems bisect. It is linked by national highways north to Brisbane, south to Melbourne, east to Sydney and Newcastle, and west to Broken Hill and Adelaide. Trucks far outnumbered cars on the road.
It also had a Botanic Gardens, always a magnet for me.
Within the gardens was a Japanese Garden.
“Shoyoen” is the name of the Garden. ‘Shoyoen’ means ‘strolling and refreshing garden’. Shoyoen is recognised as being one of the most authentic Japanese Gardens in Australia. It was gifted to Dubbo by our Sister City Minokamo, Japan.
I was entranced by the beauty of this garden and spent hours wandering around absorbing the perfection and tranquillity.
Every where the attention to detail and the love of gardening was evident and I stopped to talk to this gardener.
He told me that a team of gardeners came from The Japanese sister city, Minokamo, each year to prune and train the Japanese Black Pine into large forms of Bonsai and supervise the training of the local gardeners in Japanese methods.
As I strolled around I thought of Jude and her love of gardens and passion for benches. Look how many I found here.
It was a morning filled with pure sensory delight. The shapes, the textures, the gentle perfume from the many
gardenia, the play of shadows across rock, the ripples across the pond, the sound of the waterfall as it cascaded over the rocks.
This is the best Japanese Garden I have seen in Australia…
On the way out past the sensory garden look what “EYE” saw…
gypsy life 