postcard from adelaide

Holiday - without a camera. Even though I left it handy by the front door I still managed to leave it behind as we rushed out early for the airport. So these few shots are from my phone.

Best things about Adelaide:
+ late afternoon walks along the River Torrens
+ the Art Gallery of South Australia 
+ drinking champagne at the rooftop Hennessy Bar, Mayfair Hotel
+ browsing secondhand books at O'Connell's Bookshop and the Oxfam Second Hand Bookshop
+ lunch at the Seasonal Garden Cafe at Hahndorf
+ meeting the only giant pandas in the southern hemisphere, Wang Wang and Fu Ni, at the Adelaide Zoo (probably my most camera-missing moment)
+ getting lost at the Central Market
+ the JamFactory galleries and studios
+ federation architecture

I'd been wanting to visit Adelaide for ages - for no particular reason. It was cold and grey most of the time and, maybe because I was so hyped up about it, a bit disappointing. But after making the list of best things I'm beginning to see that for a small city it has a lot to offer. Perhaps a few more sunny days... Or another time of year...

I popped into The drapery while I was there. Such lovely fabrics. I was really tempted to stock up. Instead I bought a Merchant & Mills pattern - "the fielder" dress/top. Have you made it? Or any of the Merchant & Mills patterns?

Reading: True stories by Helen Garner. I enjoyed Everywhere I look so I'm now reading another collection of her non-fiction essays.