GLADE

A digital collage/mosaic of three different photos from the same area, stitched together with Photoshop.

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,

and also part of the Seasons meme.

RUBBISH NIGHT

Taking out the rubbish and enjoying a view of the moon amongst the clouds as it goes towards the West to set.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

GOOD DOGGIE

Lovely dog waiting patiently outside the library.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

SUNDOWN

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

SPRING FLOWERS

August 2024 across Australia was the warmest on record by a considerable margin, with a mean average temperature that was 3.02°C above the long-term average, while the 2024 winter was the second-warmest on record nationwide. That's an entire month that was three degrees warmer than average when you factor in both minimum and maximum temperatures at over 100 Australian weather stations across each state and territory.

This may explain why we are seeing early flowering of many Spring flowers in Melbourne, with the gardens already filling with lawn daisies, daffodils, tulips, anemones, primroses, polyanthus, freesias, hyacinths, violets, stocks, etc. In the countryside, one may see three-cornered leek ("onion-weed"), dandelions, buttercups, wattles, gum flowers, and many other natives.

However, every now and then we have a spate of cold, stormy weather with rain, hail, or even snow on the nearby mountains. A couple of days ago a heavy hail storm damaged plants in our garden with hailstones the size of peas. Climate change is a fact of life...

This post is past of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

Pigface (Carpobrotus glaucescens)

Dandelion

Flowering peach

Buttercup

Sparaxis in the hail

DEMOLITION ZONE

As old buildings get demolished, it is has become important to be aware of potential hazards encountered in the process. Often, crews find caches of dangerous materials lying long forgotten in attics or basements; ricketty structures that could easily collapse and cause injury or damage to workers or adjacent buildings; rotting timbers and mouldy or vermin-infested interiors (rodents, spiders, snakes, termites, ants) pose a health risk to workers or even passers-by.

A special hazard that causes many problems is asbestos, which was widely used in the past as an insulating or building material. Asbestos is a risk in demolition work because disturbance of asbestos-containing material can release countless, deadly, microscopic asbestos fibres. During work, building materials are disturbed, cut, crushed, knocked down. This is the type of work that releases asbestos fibres. You might just see dust and particles, but that dust can kill you if it contains asbestos. Not right away. But years or decades later, causing deadly, highly malignant cancers in exposed people.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme

IN THE CITY

After the cold, wet, windy, stormy weather we've had the past few days, people were advised to work from home if they could. This is certainly a very sparse-looking City streetscape early in the morning, which means that many people did indeed stay away. Gave me the willies, as it brought back memories of COVID lockdowns...

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

WIRY EGG

Having a bit of fun with some lengths of rusty wire and stones I had found on a walk. I imagined a wiry egg in a stone nest and made it so... I wondered if cast iron ducks lay wiry eggs?

Melbourne is having a severe weather event these past few days - high winds with gusts up to 145 km/hr, wild rain, hail and snow in the mountains, flooding and cold. Winter is leaving us with a vengeance. The days previous to this event misled us into thinking Spring had come early - Wrong!

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

DAREBIN CREEK

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

QUOKKA

 The quokka (Setonix brachyurus), the only member of the genus Setonix, is a small macropod about the size of a domestic cat. Like other marsupials in the macropod family (such as kangaroos and wallabies), the quokka is herbivorous and mainly nocturnal.

Quokkas can be found on some smaller islands off the coast of Western Australia, in particular on Rottnest Island just off Perth and Bald Island near Albany. A small mainland colony exists in the protected area of Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve, where they co-exist with the critically endangered Gilbert's potoroo.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme