Poppys Cottage
6 km out of Armidale, down a dirt lane, over a grid and up a long driveway scattered with cattle, to a country homestead with ‘Poppy’s Cottage’ in the back yard. WOW! Just my style – tiny old cute cosy, surrounded by a beautiful country garden, ducks, cows, barn, friendly farm dogs, the cat…so homely! Breakfast out in the garden in the morning sun was a delight – just magic. And the gossip is…..I just slept in the same bed as ‘Sting’….or…. ‘Sting’ slept in my bed once…..heheh
Autumn is the best time I imagine…sooooo beautiful…the golden colours of the trees and paddocks….after my sunny garden breakfast the clouds crept in and it started to drizzle – not good for a photographic excursion of the area…. so I headed into town, the top temp all day was 10 – yay!! Nice and fresh. I can’t say the town centre is great – though the architecture of the inner suburbs is – lots of different styles of buildings. Back to the cottage for an afternoon nap and out again for dinner….my first night was ‘The White Bull’ on poppy’s recommendation which was lovely – open fire, large leather chesterfield lounge, local red wine…..steak mignon….ahhhh…but my second night I thought I would just head out to a local restaurant. Like the cafes in Armidale, there are not a lot of options, and I bummed out – I felt like I was caught in a time warp…..I ate and ran…Bellingen was unusual in that it had lots of quality restaurants and cafes to choose from.