Last weekend Elaine and I visited the Abbotsford Convent on a scouting trip for this weekend’s wedding. It’s an old convent that’s been converted into an arts precinct. There’s a really cool vibe about the place. It’s going to make for great photos.

This weekend’s wedding is between Melanie and Lucan, and they’ve requested that we also drop by The Retreat for a few photos before the reception. It’s so great when couples request a location that has a particular meaning to them. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s one of the best looking pubs I’ve seen.

Beyond photography and golf, poker would have to be up there as one of my all time favourite distractions. Because we’re going to have a rumpus room in our new house, I thought it would be great if we could have a proper full-size poker table. So after quite a bit of research and a car load of supplies, I finally knocked a table together. It’s got a fully padded rail with a cut out for a dealer, and the padded playing surface is covered in suited speed cloth imported from the USA. The casino-grade cloth is made specifically for poker tables and is way better than the Crown Casino felt. The whole thing is about 1.2m by 2.4m which is enough to hold 8 players.

The only thing I didn’t make was the pedestal base (not pictured). For that I’ll be using an antique table I managed to get for a steal off eBay. It’ll be mated to the playing surface when we get to the new house. I’ll be sure to take more pics then.

Elaine and I have been on quite a few wine related sojourns this year. We’ve been in just about every direction out of Melbourne in search of the next great drop. Our latest trip on the weekend took us to the newly opened Balgownie Estate Vineyard Resort & Spa.

On the way we managed to drop by the Sunday market at Yering Station to check out the local produce. We also got to visit De Bortoli for the first time. The wines there were not only outstanding, but they were consistently good throughout the range. If you stop by there you’ve got to try their Sticky Experience which allows you to taste their full range of dessert wines.

A quick walk through the Toolangi Forest allowed a little time for photography, and time to sober up. After photographing a few forests they all begin to look the same, so to keep things interesting I tried to capture some interesting textures.

Then it was time to visit a couple more places. Shantell is a small boutique winery run by a doctor and a physicist. Nice place, but the wine was just so-so. Fergusson’s wine was much better, and they had some great facilities for a wedding which included accommodation, a chapel and manicured garden.

Balgownie Estate Vineyard Resort & Spa offered up some really sweet accommodation, and it’s all new so the facilities are all top notch. Elaine somehow convinced me to spend the afternoon in the gym. It felt great at the time being back on the bike and the weights, but damn I’m still feeling it right now. The Experience Pool at least offered up some relief with what can only be described as water-jet overkill.

Dinner was simple, dessert was extreme.

The next day we checked out the wine at Balgownie. The list was great from top to bottom so we made sure to pick up a case of their finest. That also qualified us for their wine club for the next 12 months, so I’m sure we’ll be reordering more discounted bottles soon.

We’re really lucky to have some of Australia’s best wine regions within an hour’s drive of Melbourne. So if you haven’t yet taken the opportunity to visit these places you should really consider taking advantage of what Victoria’s wine regions have to offer.