Preserved flowers, a stable and a game of chocolates

I hope you enjoyed the long weekend! Mine was filled with reading and chocolate. How about yours?

🐎 We spent the long weekend at Langhorne Creek, where we stayed in a converted stable. There were lots of games, including Pythonopoly and Scrabble, and we visited local wineries and a horseradish place. Now I just need ideas for what to do with horseradish! Lots of reading was done and on the drive home we dropped into a secondhand bookstore and a couple of antique shops.

🍫 With plenty of chocolate around for Easter, we tried a new game: Azul Master Chocolatier special edition. The original of this game has been recommended to me and I hadn't got around to playing it yet. In this limited edition version the players get points for filling a box of chocolates in specific patterns. It turns out there's quite a bit of strategy involved, and I think it might become an Easter weekend tradition in the Bevilacqua household.

☕ I like a good hot cross bun, and this year I may have gone a little overboard with the theme. I tried multiple bun varieties (the sourdough with a good dose of citrus was my favourite) as well as a hot cross bun hot chocolate, hot cross bun macaron and hot cross bun truffles.

🎩 I've started listening to State Library Victoria's podcast called The Chapters. The episode I picked this week was Marvellous Melbourne's own Willy Wonka, which it turns out is about books, not chocolate.

🐭 Out and about in Melbourne this week I visited the NGV Triennial, and specifically this mouse (a cousin of which now lives in my office, by invitation of my colleague). I found these flowers in resin fascinating. I also enjoyed the Watercolour Country: 100 works from Hermannsburg exhibition over at NGV Australia.

I'm hoping to see a few more exhibitions in coming months and, as always, there are lots of books on my reading list.

Looking forward to sharing more fun things with you next week.

Thanks for reading 😊