Change of blog

Because I have been having problems with the Blogger site, and can't seem to get the help needed to rectify this, would any of you who have followed me on Facebook please bookmark the following site for future use:

http://ytaba36.wordpress.com/

Thank you! By the way, I love hearing from my readers.

Brrrrrr

Lots in the news about the wintry conditions in the Northern hemisphere, with the cold weather and snow snarling life for many people. Trains, planes and automobiles are not getting their way; they're having to bow to the superiority of that white stuff.
Hah! It's summer in Australia, right? (Summer begins on December 1, by the way.) Yes, and it's time to romp on the beaches, right? And celebrate Christmas with at least 30 degree (Celsius) temperatures, right?

Wrong, at least down here in Victoria. I awoke to the following news on the radio "Light falls of SNOW (!) have been reported at Mt Buller." This is one of the ski areas of Victoria, about 3 hours drive from Melbourne. But, this is NOT the ski season.

 Makes me glad I made this cozy, down filled  purchase yesterday.

Garden

Near one of the libraries I frequent, there is a HUGE apartment block.



Today, I spied something really heart warming: the residents have established a community garden.



As I admired the garden, and took photos, a bloke came along and told me a bit about it. Many of the people who live in the apartment are elderly, on their own and from overseas countries: Greece, Croatia, Italy, Russia. He said they really take pride in it, and welcome people who come to look.  "They can teach you a lot", he commented.

Here are some images of the gardens (with raised beds .. no stooping for older backs), and some of the artwork they have installed to liven up the link fence.



 


 

A tavola

The pasta is cooked al dente

The sauce is ready

The wine is poured

Buon appetito!

Perspective

Perspective (from Latin perspicere, to see through)
As I walked past an apartment building, I idly glanced at the ‘decoration’ along one side, and the front.

It looked like this:





“Kinda neat, nothing special”, I thought.

Thank goodness I happened to turn around and see them from a different point of view!

Refractions, shadows and reflections

Morning in the house of cats. The sun is shining brightly through a prism  suspended in the kitchen window.

Here is the result, refracting  onto the candles, and casting a shadow onto the nearby drawers.



Later the same day, at the house of the cats. The sun has disappeared, the skies have opened. But a reflection of beauty has been left to admire.

Artisans

It seems even the storm water gutters in this part of Melbourne are protected by Heritage regulations.

On a side street not one minute from where I'm staying, the gutters had become clogged with weeds, and the blocks of bluestone originally used to construct these channels for storm water, had become disrupted by the probing roots of the Plane trees lining the street, and also by greatly increased vehicular traffic.

It was not a simple matter of pulling up and tossing out these old bluestone blocks, and then replacing them easily and quickly with concrete. Heritage protection said "Replace them as they were, with the same materials."

So, in came the machinery, to lift and stack the stone blocks, to carefully re-contour the base of the gutters, to place a compacted base of aggregate.

Then came the human factor, with artisans from Italy and Croatia, who knew just how to replace those heavy blocks, how to provide spaces for storm water to percolate to the roots of those Plane trees, how to ensure the correct inclination of individual blocks and the total gutter to ensure the proper flow of the storm water.

The crew took obvious pride in their work, and were happy to share information about what and how they did this. How wonderful to stumble across this example of skill and craftsmanship, in this throw-away 21st century.