Anne here, and today I'm talking about a little excursion I took recently with a small group of writer friends. It's still a huge and rare pleasure to get out of the house and meet up with friends, and we were lucky to have gorgeous weather for it as well.
Ripponlea is a National Trust house and garden in Melbourne and they are currently showing an exhibition of costumes used in the film Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears.
It was supposed to be staged last year when the movie was released, but because of CoVid and Lockdown it was postponed. But now things are loosening up again, and the exhibition has finally opened.
Some of you will know the Phrynne (pronounced fry-nee) Fisher books by Kerry Greenwood, and also the Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries TV series. The Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears movie is the latest development.
Last year I attended an opening of the movie presented by Sisters of Crime, and Kerry Greenwood and Fiona Eagger, the film producer spoke afterwards. It was a fun night and I blogged about it here.
That was early March 2020 and it was almost the last time I went out with friends for more than a year.
In my blog I described the movie as "Indiana Jones with fabulous frocks" and as you can see here, there were indeed fabulous frocks galore.
The staging consisted of scenes set up, with mannequins wearing the fabulous frocks and other costumes, and big blown up images from the movie also helped set the scene.
There were fun little touches, like the occasional sinister silhouette of Phrynne pointing a gun.
There were interiors of the kind of tent she stayed in for a while, and a glamorous outfit in a pilot's leathers. I took heaps of photos, but alas can't fit them all into this blog.
After we'd looked our fill at the costumes, we wandered around the garden, which is beautiful and amazingly extensive for what is now a suburban area.
A favorite area of mine is the ballroom, which opens out onto a terrace and what was once one of the first swimming pools in Melbourne/ It is so easy to imagine a warm summer's night, music playing, and couple dancing out onto the terrace.
Less easy to imagine — still keeping romantic thoughts in mind — was the idea of the same couple slipping into the conservatory for a few kisses.
It's a beautiful conservatory, but though we loved wandering through it and admiring the tall tree ferns and lush green vegetation, we all shook our heads at the thought of being in there on a warm summers evening in a low-cut dress. Almost as one, we said, "Mozzies!" (Mosquitoes) LOL.
We walked around the lake and watched the ducks, and peered into the water to see the fish and eels (I don't like eels)
We thought about spending a few hours sitting on one of the small islands and writing there.
There's even a man-made "mountain" to climb and you can see the sea from the top.
Afterwards we went to a nearby hotel for a meal and a good catch up — we're all writers so there was a years worth of talk to catch up on. New covers were passed around and it was all very satisfying and fun.
All in all it was a lovely escape from our everyday lives. And so nice to catch up with friends.
What about you — have you managed to get out recently? Have you read the Kerry Greenwood books or watched the Miss Fisher TV series? Seen the movie yet? And do you have a favorite National Trust or historic house?