Winterwood
After two days of a cold, furious wind more than 50 members of the Garden group visited the beautiful garden of Diane and Michael Ellis at Winterwood in Brogers Creek. There was not as much evidence there of the Simpson Desert dust on the leaves and that whole part of the Valley seemed to be more sheltered.
Thanks to the organising skills of Wendy and Dave Christian, we were able to spend the morning wandering around this delightful garden, which will not be open to the public again for quite a while. Even the drive down the 2.5km of dirt road to reach the front fence is one of wonder. My favourite story is that of Diane's father who, over thirty years ago on first visiting the 40 acres said, "It's the biggest waste of ten thousand dollars I've ever seen". Now of course their foresight and hard physical work have turned this into a sanctuary where there are numerous garden rooms that flow into each other and provide moments of "Oh look at that!" for visitors. 
Michael is a stonemason and there is plenty of his work on display, artfully blended into the garden themes, whether it is a boulder containing a small bubbling fountain or a fence around another artwork or three enormous rocks sitting on top of each other planted with rock orchids. There are other sculptures in nooks and crannies and many places where there are vistas of the surrounding escarpment, including the mysterious Cook's Nose.
We enjoyed a morning tea as we wandered around or took a moment to sit peacefully and look at the view, listening to the wandering guinea fowl. Diane spoke to us about the changing nature of a garden: theirs has gone from a dry cow paddock to one with a sand pit and swings for children to the more mature and complicated garden that it is today. There is never finality about a garden though, she also told us to look out for the poisoned sections of lawn that have a promise to be more garden beds in the near future.
Thank you Wendy and Dave for suggesting this garden for us to explore and enjoy.