THE ABBEY

I never thought  I would be privileged to visit an Abbey. 

On a lovely Sunday morning, Our" Garden Cub Members"  headed off quite early on a 48 seater bus 

Our destination - to visit 2 beautiful gardens, a nursery, an art gallery, and an abbey.

This magnificent organ was transferred and assembled here

I Ioved the Abbey , and being an artist, just loved,loved this painting

Her eyes just followed us everywhere some members found her a bit creepy

We had just left an Art Gallery, it looked like a big new concrete grey prison on the outside,

and most of the paintings inside looked very dark, angry, abstract  crap (the Tarrawarra Art Gallery )

And then to walk into this Abbey and see this beautiful painting simply took my breath away

Brother Joseph said the girl who painted her was only in her early 30 's

Brother Joseph, (now 80 ) pictured with Dianne , arrived  at the Abbey 50 years ago, as a 30 year old from Ireland. He explained to us the life, and the purpose of the Order, and the Abbeys history

Some Cistercian, or Trappists Monk,s arrived in Australia in 1954 from the original order established in Ireland, to set up a Monastery..
The Monks purchased the property, which had a large  rambling homestead, built in1900.
In 1958 The Monastery was raised to Abbey status, this is the only Trappist in Victoria, Australia, and 15 Monks live here.