Viburnum tinus (Laurustinus, Laurustinus Viburnum, or Laurestine) is a species of flowering plant in the family Adoxaceae, native to the Mediterranean area of Europe and North Africa. 'Laurus' signifies the leaves' superficial similarities to bay laurel.
It is a shrub (rarely a small tree) reaching 2–7 m tall and 3 m broad, with a dense, rounded crown. The leaves are evergreen, persisting 2–3 years, ovate to elliptic, borne in opposite pairs, 4–10 cm long and 2–4 cm broad, with an entire margin. The flowers are small, white or light pink, produced from reddish-pink buds in dense cymes 5–10 cm diameter in the winter. The fragrant flowers are bisexual and pentamerous. The flowering period is from October to June. Pollination is by insects. The fruit is a dark blue-black drupe 5–7 mm long.
This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.
The Royal Melbourne Zoological Gardens, commonly known as the Melbourne Zoo, contains more than 320 animal species from Australia and around the world. The zoo is 4 kilometres north of the centre of Melbourne. It is accessible via Royal Park station on the Upfield railway line, and is also accessible via tram routes 55 and 19, as well as by bicycle on the Capital City Trail. Bicycles are not allowed inside the zoo itself. The Royal Melbourne Zoological Gardens is a full institutional member of the Zoo and Aquarium Association (ZAA) and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
This post is part of the Waterworld Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.
The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites. The main gallery, known as NGV International, is located on St Kilda Road, in the heart of the Melbourne Arts Precinct of Southbank, with a branch gallery at Federation Square.
The St Kilda Road Gallery, designed by Sir Roy Grounds, opened in 1968. and redesigned by Mario Bellini. The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square was designed by LAB Architecture Studio. At the time when the gallery opened, Victoria was an independent colony for just ten years, but in the wake of the Victorian gold rush, it was easily the richest part of Australia, and Melbourne the largest city.
Besides donations of works of art, donated funds from wealthy citizens have been used by the Gallery to purchase large collections of overseas works from both old and modern masters. The Gallery currently holds over 65,000 works of art.
The Great Hall, created by Leonard French between 1963-1967 is a magnificent space, often used for performances, concerts and all sorts of other functions. The ceiling is high (13.72 metres), vast (60.9 x 15.24 metres) and so heavy with glass and steel that its downward projecting triangles need to be held up by a series of slim steel columns.
This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme.
Oakleigh is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 15 km south-east of Melbourne's central business district. Its local government area is the City of Monash. At the 2011 Census, Oakleigh had a population of 7,535.
Once a large independent city, Oakleigh was absorbed into Melbourne as part of the eastward expansion of the metropolis in the 1950s. As a result, it once had its own large historic Central Business District, its own municipality in the former City of Oakleigh and its own suburbs.
The area is traditionally known to have a strong Greek cultural influence, largely due to the influx of said immigrants to Australia in the mid-20th century. Fourteen per cent of those living in the suburb speak only Greek at home. It's always great to visit one of the cafés there, sit outside and order a cup of coffee and a pastry or cake...
This post is part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme,
The Albanian-Australian 'Prespa' Association at 111 Blake St, Reservoir, Victoria is in charge of a Mosque there. According to the 2011 Australian census 2,398 Albanians were born in Australia while 13,142 claimed Albanian ancestry, either alone or with another ancestry.
As in Albania and Kosovo, 80% of Albanian speakers in Australia subscribe to Islam. The predominance of Islam gave the Albanian population a degree of unity and the ability to build their own mosques, as in rural Mareeba, Shepparton and Melbourne metropolitan areas. The Shepparton Mosque was the first mosque built in Victoria and the Carlton Mosque was the first mosque built in Melbourne. Other mosques now exist, including this one in Reservoir.
This post is part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme.
A twilight walk by the Yarra River soon turns into an evening stroll in Winter. The cold weather ensures that most people avoid the riverside, but the lights and their reflections on the water are worth the effort!
This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Weekly TopShot meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme.
A walk in suburban Fairfield, taking advantage of a few hours of winter sunshine. However, the sun had sharp teeth... It was quite cold!
This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.
This striking shrub is blooming in a neighbour's garden at the moment. I was tempted to say it was the New Zealand native Brachyglottis to which the flowers bear a resemblance, but the leaves are all wrong. It could well be a species of Senecio. If anyone has any more definite ideas, please enlighten me.
This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.
In the City, at the corner of Elizabeth and Collins Sts: Alston’s Corner is a red brick, low-rise building located on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Collins St in CBD of Melbourne, Australia. It is currently used as residential apartments, now named Cashmore Apartments, but was originally built as offices with a tobacconist shop at ground level. Tobacconist Henry Alston originally commissioned architect Nahum Barnet to design the building.
The building was constructed in 1903–1904 by master builders Clements Langford Pty Ltd with additions completed in 1913. The scale of the building made it a statement in Melbourne architecture of the time, evoking and elements where typical commercial buildings of Melbourne were previously of neoclassical style. The architect, Nahum Barnet was a respected architect of the time and a lot of his work can be found throughout Melbourne, having completed a range of commercial, residential and religious works.
This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme.
