Wendy's garden

We got going early on Saturday after two rainy, cold days in Sydney and found a good (free) park in Lavender Bay. We walked east along Lavender St admiring the view.......

This gentleman's reverie between the palms in Clark Park drew me in.

I walked to the edge of the grassed area and found little pathways inviting me into a much wilder area of garden.....then more pathways and winding rustic steps......then little clearings with picturesque mould covered seats, tables and quirky sculptures...opening up to....what had to be a Brett Whiteley carved wood sculpture.

Then looking up, we saw Brett's and Wendy's Lavender Bay house and realised we were in the garden Wendy has created over the past decade or so..........

WENDY WHITELEY: I'm obsessive about it. It was all landfill originally, for the railway line, and subsequently over 50, 60, 70 years, it was dumped, a lot of rubbish and weeds, old fridges and bits of metal and broken bottles and plastic bags full of clothes, and it was just impenetrable and quite dangerous. And I just started at one end and I've now gone right to the other end and it's still all railway land, but, you know, it's now got a garden. Bit of engineering skills have come into it too, from...must have inherited it.

The garden, the studio, friendships, somebody's life, are all those things that keep you going. I don't feel any great urge to actually paint again. I want to just go and be the mad old bag lady in the garden. I love the fact that Arkie participated in it a bit and loved it. Sometimes I suddenly realise I'm talking about her or Brett or anybody else in my life as though they're still alive. And in a way they still are. And then you realise that they're not there anymore, except in your memory. Or in your bones. In Arkie's case, she'll always be there. And in Brett's case, he'll always be there in part of me. You know? But in her case particularly.

Outside the side door (next to the turret) was a blue and white pale wood handled umbrella. Everything looked neat, ordered and architectural. The house was a symphony of perfectly maintained and freshly painted white.

At the bottom of the Walker St steps - no road - just steps - we saw the wooden pier, stretching out into the harbour, a favourite subject of so many of Brett's beautiful Lavender Bay paintings.

Eventually we remembered we'd actually come to visit the Kirribilli Markets: full marks for the setting but quite dreary with its focus on tacky wardrobe clear outs for the fashionable young set on the inner north shore.

We know that K Rudd does weekend quality time with young Marcus around here when he is in Sydney. Was this K Rudd in disguise?

In heavy rain we checked out the Italian eateries in Haberfield on Thursday - saw Helene Chung (SBS) sitting in the sublime Sulfaro Pasticceria Italiana drinking a solitary coffee and no doubt thinking about the release of her memoir of growing up in Hobart in the 50's: "Ching Chong Ching Girl".

We didn't eat in Haberfield, preferring to head over to Drummoyne for some couscous at La Kasbah in Victoria Rd. We're still hoping to find the "La Graine et le Mulet" (The Secret of the Grain), but no luck yet!

Still raining, and cold as well, we explored Eastwood on Friday - a bit like suburban Hong Kong but without the mayhem. We decided not to go Chinese and chose Korean instead for lunch: Insadong. It was an amazing meal and we loved it.