Fight the Flower Power: Glenhaven

So a few weeks ago I was petsitting a geriatric cat in Northwest Sydney. This means that my weekends were spent doing Northwest Sydney things, like driving to garden centres, and looking at huge houses. 

Glenhaven

As a suburb, Glenhaven straddles the Hills District, and the vaguely defined Northern and Northwest Sydney regions. 

And as alluded to my visit to Glenhaven begins at Flower Power, 

a plant shop where Mrs Completing Sydney wanted to have brunch. 

The restaurant in this garden centre is inexplicably gorgeous, with high ceilings, plenty of natural light, plants draped from the lights, 

and even a lake. 

The restaurant additionally has a playground inside, complete with merry-go-round, presumably to help capture the target market of places like this: older millennial and younger Gen X yuppies who have had children and moved to the suburbs but are clinging onto their brunch days. 

Anyway, we sat down at this spade, 

ordered some drinks, 

and some brunch. At brunch, they usually have an assortment of savoury breakfast items, and one or two mental dessert items disguised as breakfasts because they use pancakes or waffles as a base. 

We shared one of each.

The savoury breakfast was a super delicious concoction of sourdough, smoked salmon, avocado and numerous other ingredients, 

and the over the top sweet one were these tiramisu pancakes, which were okay but not as good as tiramisu or pancakes. 

After brunch, we spent a few minutes looking at pot plants, homewares and garden statues, 

and this sign with Spot the Dog gone rogue,

before heading out to explore the non-garden centre parts of Glenhaven. 

It started off with this shrimpy cul-de-sac we pulled into to turn the car around, 

in front of an immense white house, 

and continued with the tall and surprisingly scenic Glenhaven Road. 

Glenhaven Road features all the essentials - a ducky crossing sign, 

fancy houses, 

faraway views (just a glimpse), 

and even some hobbyist farmland. 

And I say hobbyist because nobody's running an actual farm on Sydney land prices and three cows. 

Also on Glenhaven Road, R2D2 made its appearance, 

as didn't this electrical box. 

I carried on down the hill. 

Finding this wood paneled church, 

a delightfully ironic number plate, 

and what is I suppose Glenhaven's CBD, if you can call it that. 

The CBD features the sports oval and community centre, 

as well as Glenhaven Court, a small shopping village.  

This features a non-garden-centre-affiliated brunch spot that I remember eating a burger at many years ago (I think it was good), 

an entire plaza of sandwich boards, 

and a door which must never be left open. 

Satisfied I'd covered enough of Glenhaven, I figured it was probably time to head home to give the cat her arthritis medicine. 

Glenhaven: Because is there anything more comfortably middle class than brunch in a garden centre?