The next Elgin Open Garden we headed to was Elgin Vintners, which has a deck outside their wine tasting room
and a very competent young violinist entertaining the visitors
The Manor House has recently had its gardens "refreshed"
What are these three looking at? Could they be witches? White witches? Just Fairy godmothers
It's the magical Fairy garden
Enchanting for the younger visitors
A trip through the classic rose garden
All in bloom. We sometimes wish we could import a few truckloads of Elgin soil to Sea Point
so that we could succeed with rose growing. Roses do not like our soil
Time for a dip in the pool?
A large, completely white rose,
a perfect red
and a lovely pink
Old roses climbing up the pergola
and roses for vases
It was time for lunch and we decided to risk going to the Melting Pot restaurant at Oak Valley,
even though we hadn't booked
They very kindly managed to find us a table in the garden and we enjoyed studying the menu
which has lots of "small plates" for small eaters (and large ones too)
A bottle of one of our favourite Elgin Sauvignons blanc, the Oak Valley Fountain of Youth (wishful thinking.....)
The vegetarian Mezze platter was for sharing and was much enjoyed
and a plate of excellently crisp chips to share
A bowl of dim sum Szechuan chicken dumplings in a broth
It came with a very hot and crunchy chilli dip. It did need some umami soya sauce..
Bun Thit Nong, Vietnamese Pork skewers on a bed of nuts and crisp salad with a chilli dip
Sautéed Baby Squid and potatoes; so tender and full of flavour
The bill for four satisfied customers
As we were enjoying lunch, this freight train came through on its way to Cape Town, possibly full of coal for export
Talented Chef John van Zyl in his kitchen
and on our way out this peacock spied us and decided to give us the full treatment with his magnificent tail
Such iridescence on his body and on the "eyes" on his tail
Truly a spectacle
Next, we headed to the Elgin Market, which is just down the road from Oak Valley;
one of our number had never visited there before
They have a library on the way in and the manager was taking advantage of a quiet afternoon
We had not seen this new covered seating area before
Live music in the main hall
Inside, it is very lively, with lots of different places to buy food and drinks and places to sit to enjoy them and the atmosphere
We were, however, very sad to see that the fruit and vegetable stand was no more
Such a pity, they had some of the best locally grown fresh produce, which we bought often
Onward to Auldern next
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