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.

Nice things.

Aren’t people nice! In many locations around this suburb, I’ve noticed water bowls put out for pooches.

 

And, someone has a sense of humour:



I liked this philosophy:





And, I tried to follow this "order":

Signs, again

I wonder when this was first painted? (No, I don’t mean the One Way sign.)

Well, this one gives a strong indication as to when it was done.

How can we resist?

I believe this one, for sure.

Trash or Treasure?

There are so many interesting things to see in Melbourne.

Every day, you will see discarded furniture, toys and other goodies, left on a nature strip. Next day, you go back and most of the “trash” has been rescued, to become someone’s “treasure”. What a wonderful way to recycle!

Here is an old dressing table, complete with two mirrored drawers:


Next day, it was gone to a  new home.

I’m not sure about this little tricycle, it might be sort of hard to ride with the lack of a seat. It was still there the next day:



This little heap of offerings held a few treats:



Which would you choose? I have my eye on the little wooden chair.
Do you want the scooter?

Victoriana

If you take a walk in the inner suburbs of some of our older cities… Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide for example, you may notice that some of the homes have a distinctive ornamental/architectural feature:

 

These are examples of cast iron lace, used to enhance the beauty of homes from about the mid-1800s.  Don’t they remind you of crocheted edging on a Victorian petticoat?

Here is a link to an explanation of this lovely stuff:

http://hiddendocumentary.com/?p=599

Random acts of kindness

Don’t you love it when you happen upon someone doing something totally unexpected and kind for someone else?

The other day, while I was out to get some groceries,  it suddenly started to absolutely bucket down with rain. Happily, I had an umbrella with me.

As I walked past a small corner grocery, an elderly lady came out, and stopped abruptly, looking quite distressed. She didn’t have an umbrella. The owner of the shop appeared with a brand new umbrella, still in its wrapping, and gave it to her to use. She said she’d bring it right back, he told her not to worry, next time she was that way would be just fine.

I wish that nice man many blessings.

A quiet day

That old smooth voiced Garrison Keillor would say "It's a quiet day in Lake Woebegone". Well for me, it's a quiet day in South Melbourne.

The sun came out for a little while, and I spied Fletcher, the gentleman cat, taking advantage of this to have a little catnap in one of his favourite spots, a cozy hammock formed by part of the shade cloth that covers the back deck. He made me quite envious.


My presence must have wakened him. A slightly grumpy feline face appeared over the edge of the shade cloth.



My apologies, Fletcher.

Rivalry

There are many types of rivalry: sibling, political, social and so on.


But, here in the south eastern part of Australia, you'd go a long way to encounter more avid partisan rivalry than that found between the football teams of Sydney and Melbourne. (There is rivalry between the Melbourne teams, also, but that's a whole different story.)


This football is AFL (Australian Football League), not to be confused with rugby or soccer. Sydney has one team: the Sydney Swans. Melbourne fields 10 teams, I haven't got the energy (nor interest, if truth be told), to list them.

So, here am I, walking down a quiet residential street in Melbourne, when I noticed this sign, attached to the wall of a private driveway.

I dips me lid to these brave (? foolhardy ) folks!

Odds and ends

There is a lot of good street art in Melbourne; it has been encouraged in some areas, by the city council. When it's not  so hot, I'll get out and capture some more. But, here's a little sample:

There are 2 lovely cats at the house I'm minding. They are Fletcher, the former male, and Weaver, the little lady. Here is Weaver in her post-prandial contented phase:

This morning, she burst into the house with her tail about 3 times its usual size. I went to see what had given her a boost of adrenalin, and found a very handsome Siamese cat trapped atop the fence  between me and Fletcher. The Siamese tried to leap onto the roof, missed, scrabbled down the wall, did a half pike with twist from the clothesline, then quickly did a standing high jump that took him over the fence and off to freedom. Three very agitated cats!

November 21, 2010 Vale, lovely old German gentleman

Today, the most loyal, gentle friend you could ever know quietly  slipped away from us.

Booka, I hope you're up in canine heaven, with a never ending supply of juicy bones, balls to chew and water holes to swim in.

November 20, 2010 Where in heck am I???

So, first of all, I saw this paved street:

Next, I noticed this pretty sculpture, guarding a house:

Then, I spotted these zucchini blossoms:

And, finally, was that really some Nesti Dante soap?

Had I fallen asleep and dreamed I was in Italy? A little pinch soon told me I was awake. All of these photos were, in fact, taken here in Melbourne. The first 3 I found within 5 minutes walk from my home for the next 2 months. The soap was a gift from my son: he'd found it while out for a wander.

PS I have managed to disrupt the format of this blog, and have lost some of the features: blogs I follow, people who follow my blog, and so on. I'm waiting for some help to get things back on track again. (Cross your fingers for me, please.)



November 19, 2010 Almost back!

Tonight, I start my house/cat/goldfish sitting stint. And, I’ll have my little laptop back on line, so I can begin to share some of the delights of Melbourne.

This morning, a friend in Connecticut sent me the following link, and I was delighted to find that it was written by none other than the bloke whose house I’ll be minding. Another small world happening. He writes so well, I’ll have to nag at him to start a blog.

http://www.fodors.com/community/fodorite-lounge/a-journey-with-leonard-cohen.cfm

For something completely different, we attended a rock concert last night: a tribute to David Bowie. Very energetic, very loud .. my ears have finally stopped ringing.

November 12, 2010 Blog Break!

I'm in Melbourne now, and can't get my laptop onto the network. So, no access to photos for now, and therefore, no illustrated blogs!

Tonight, I'm going to see and hear Leonard Cohen: what a treat that will be.

My grand cat and 2 grand dogs were underwhelmed to see me again. I may have to work harder on the bribery.

So, until I can work out what's wrong with the laptop, good bye, faithful reader(s). Don't abandon me, please.

October 23, 2010 The seat of learning?

We have quite a neat little library in town, and with a new librarian, and a newly combined Regional Council, more funding.

They have upgraded the Junior Readers' section, which is very well used. Even the parents get into the act when there are computer games to be mastered!

And, is this not the coolest library chair? I rather covet that.