A Perfect Pairing
One weekend I went to visit friends in Kallista in the Dandenong Ranges to the East of Melbourne. In their garden they grow Nasturtiums.
These two blooms seemed to be a proud and perfect pair: a married couple as it were.
Nasturtium is the common name for Tropaeolum, which is also known commonly as Nasturtian. Nasturtium translates literally as "nose-twister" or "nose-tweaker". It is a genus of roughly eighty species of annual and perennial herbaceous flowering plants. Native to South and Central America, the genus includes several very popular garden plant. The Nasturtium's leaves and flowers are edible: the leaves having a hot onion-like taste and the flowers a sweetness.
Kallista is a pretty little village in te heart of the Dandenong Ranges with an appoximate population of 1,400 people. Along with the other towns of the Dandenong Ranges, Kallista is celebrated for its picturesque natural setting, wealth of heritage and luxury houses and gardens, and country atmosphere all within commuting distance to inner Melbourne. The Post Office opened around 1902 and was known as South Sassafras until 1925. Australian Impressionist artist Tom Roberts lived in Kallista between 1856 and 1931.
Australian poet and author C. J. Dennis wrote much of his "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke" in Kallista between 1913 and 1914 at a grand property called "Sunnyside" (sadly long since burned down). In the early part of the Twentieth Century, Kallista was a a distant holiday hill town popular with wealthy Melbournians who wanted a country escape. It wasn't really until the Great Depression when the wealthy could no longer afford the upkeep on their holiday homes and sold them, that a more permanent populace moved in, hoping to live off the rich soils of the area. Today Kallista still carries an air of exclusivity with large blocks, many old houses and large blocks of land filled with stunning gardens.
A Perfect Pairing
One weekend I went to visit friends in Kallista in the Dandenong Ranges to the East of Melbourne. In their garden they grow Nasturtiums.
These two blooms seemed to be a proud and perfect pair: a married couple as it were.
Nasturtium is the common name for Tropaeolum, which is also known commonly as Nasturtian. Nasturtium translates literally as "nose-twister" or "nose-tweaker". It is a genus of roughly eighty species of annual and perennial herbaceous flowering plants. Native to South and Central America, the genus includes several very popular garden plant. The Nasturtium's leaves and flowers are edible: the leaves having a hot onion-like taste and the flowers a sweetness.
Kallista is a pretty little village in te heart of the Dandenong Ranges with an appoximate population of 1,400 people. Along with the other towns of the Dandenong Ranges, Kallista is celebrated for its picturesque natural setting, wealth of heritage and luxury houses and gardens, and country atmosphere all within commuting distance to inner Melbourne. The Post Office opened around 1902 and was known as South Sassafras until 1925. Australian Impressionist artist Tom Roberts lived in Kallista between 1856 and 1931.
Australian poet and author C. J. Dennis wrote much of his "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke" in Kallista between 1913 and 1914 at a grand property called "Sunnyside" (sadly long since burned down). In the early part of the Twentieth Century, Kallista was a a distant holiday hill town popular with wealthy Melbournians who wanted a country escape. It wasn't really until the Great Depression when the wealthy could no longer afford the upkeep on their holiday homes and sold them, that a more permanent populace moved in, hoping to live off the rich soils of the area. Today Kallista still carries an air of exclusivity with large blocks, many old houses and large blocks of land filled with stunning gardens.