"Embrace hope, all ye who enter here."

Because it's so lovely in so many ways. Every moment of the day is different. It's throbbing with life and spontaneity and very peaceful.

The idea of a NE-SW creek bed garden, where grey-green Australian and vivid Himalayan (essentially) plants get along aesthetically seemed a bit unlikely to me, when I moved in a few doors away 30 years ago. But they've done a remarkably good job of it and it works.
I am told, by those who ought to know, that if this garden were in Europe, it would be crowded with not only tourists, but locals regarding it as their backyard (with free gardeners) - as I do. But, despite the occasional wedding or maintenance party, at even the most popular times of day, even in peak season (Spring), you can still find a quiet, private spot.
There are tracks that go through groves of rhododendrons and azaleas, specimens of European deciduous trees, lawns, little bridges, a very interesting reed bed, a creek, a dam with wild ducks and irises, a discreet shelter shed (lovely to sit in to watch it rain on the forest) and a generous 40 hectares (or is it 40 acres?) of tall to medium sclerophyll woodland. A garden stroll becomes an exciting bushwalk in moments and there are quite comfortable, discreet seats, just where you want them for looking down on the dam, across to the tracks and gardens on the opposite side, down the creek into the forest or back across the water in a choice of directions.
In this kind of woodland, there are normally two dominant Eucalyptus species (mostly E. mannifera or related species here) and two dominant Acacia (mainly A. terminalis here).
Up the hill on the left, I once had occasion to easily find 20 different (native) plant species in an area of about 20 square metres. I found Eucalyptus (gums), Acacia (wattle), Protea (Banksia, Waratah, Isopogon, Grevillea...), herbs, forbs, grasses, mosses, lichens, ferns. It was easy.
In fact, for my plant taxonomy, entomology and fungus collection assignments, I had to go no further than 100 metres down the road to enter a cornucopia of biological minutiae.
This is the lower gate, at creek level. The 'proper' gate is up on the ridge to the right. With tearooms.

(Thanks, Hobbs, for picking a subject I could manage on bump-out day!)

Blackheath blippers challenge, week 2.