AT THE PLAZA

At the Northcote Plaza shopping Centre.

This post is part of the Weekend in Black and White meme,
and also part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

SOUTHBANK REFLECTIONS

View from Southbank towards the South and Port Phillip Bay.

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.

AUTUMN SKIES

View from my window, late on an Autumn afternoon.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

MELBOURNE STREET TREES 114 - TIBOUCHINA

Tibouchina is a genus of about 350 species of neotropical plants in the family Melastomataceae. They are trees, shrubs or subshrubs growing 0.5–25 m tall, and are known as glory bushes or glory trees. They are native to rainforests of Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America, especially Brazil. The name comes from an adaptation of the native Guiana term for these shrubs. In Brazil, people use the massed purple blooms to decorate churches at Easter time. Here in Australia tibouchinas also make quite a statement in autumn, with their riot of purple flowers.

This particular plant is Tibouchina 'Alstonville', probably the best of the larger growing kinds, and common as a garden and street tree in Melbourne.This plant was produced at Alstonville, on the New South Wales North coast, by the late Ken Dunstan. It is an evergreen small tree which usually grows to about 5m tall. The foliage is dark green in colour with a pale reverse. 'Alstonville' puts on a brilliant display of violet/purple flowers in late summer and autumn. It makes an excellent street or specimen tree, and responds very well to pruning.

This post is part of my Floral Friday Fotos meme.

AT THE TRAIN STATION

A foggy early morning at the Fairfield train station.

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho
It's off to work we go
We keep on singing all day long
Heigh-ho!

This post is part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

CITY DUSK

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

YARRA BEND TREES

The large area of parklands along the Yarra River is a wonderful oasis of green amongst the built up metropolitan area of Melbourne.

This post is part of the Scenic Weekends meme,
and also part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Nature Footsteps Trees & Bushes meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

WESLEY CHURCH, LONSDALE ST

Wesley Church is a Uniting Church in the centre of Melbourne, in the State of Victoria, Australia. Wesley Church was originally built as the central church of the Wesleyan movement in Victoria. It is named after John Wesley (1703–1791), the founder of Methodism. Today Wesley Church is the home of two Uniting Church congregations, the English-speaking Wesley Church, and the Chinese-speaking Gospel Hall. In 1902, the Wesleyan Church in Australia combined with four other churches to form the Methodist Church of Australasia. In 1977, the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational Churches further combined to form the Uniting Church.

The present Wesley Church, in Lonsdale Street was built in 1858. The Superintendent, Daniel Draper, strongly proposed a grand gothic design with high quality architecture. This design was criticised by many Wesleyans as too ornate, too Gothic and too Anglican for a Wesleyan Church. However, Draper's design prevailed. The foundation stone was laid on 2 December 1857, and the Church was opened on 26 August 1858. This Church was the central congregation of the Wesleyan Church for Victoria, where the Conferences met, and where ministers were ordained. It was located in a poor part of Melbourne, and pioneered many initiatives in Community Service. In the 1880s, a team of Biblewomen were appointed to work with people experiencing serious poverty. One of these was Mrs Varcoe, who established Livingstone House, a home for homeless boys in Drummond St, Carlton.

Wesley Church was designed by Joseph Reed, who also designed the Melbourne Town Hall, the Scots' Church and the Independent Church (now St. Michael’s in Collins St. The church is in the English Gothic style and takes the shape of a cross. The church is 50.3 metres long from north to south and 23.5 metres across at the transepts. It has an octagonal spire rising 53.3 meters above ground level. Wesley's organ was the first pipe organ in Melbourne. It was built in England, and arrived in Melbourne in 1842, being moved to the present church in 1858. It was largely rebuilt in 1957. Inside the church are two paintings by the noted Australian painter Rupert Bunny (1864–1947): "The Prodigal Son" (Luke 15:11-32) and "Abraham's Sacrifice" (Genesis 22:1-14), which Bunny gave to Wesley Church in 1934. The statue of John Wesley A statue of John Wesley stands in front of the church. It was sculpted by the British sculptor Paul Raphael Montford in 1935.

This post is part of the Spiritual Sundays meme,
and also part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme.

NOISY MINER & GREVILLEA

The noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala) is a bird in the honeyeater family, Meliphagidae, and is endemic to eastern and south-eastern Australia. This miner is a grey bird, with a black head, orange-yellow beak and feet, a distinctive yellow patch behind the eye and white tips on the tail feathers. Males, females and juveniles are similar in appearance, though young birds are a brownish-grey. As the common name suggests, the noisy miner is a vocal species with a large range of songs, calls, scoldings and alarms, and almost constant vocalisations particularly from young birds.

Noisy miners are gregarious and territorial; they forage, bathe, roost, breed and defend territory communally, forming colonies that can contain several hundred birds. Each bird has an 'activity space' and birds with overlapping activity spaces form associations called 'coteries', the most stable units within the colony. The birds also form temporary flocks called 'coalitions' for specific activities such as mobbing a predator.

Foraging in the canopy of trees and on trunks and branches and on the ground, the noisy miner mainly eats nectar, fruit and insects. Most time is spent gleaning the foliage of eucalypts, and it can meet most of its nutritional needs from manna, honeydew and lerp gathered from the foliage. This bird was feeding on a beautiful yellow grevillea, which is currently in full bloom in Melbourne.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme,
and also part of the I Heart Macros meme,
and also part of the Weekly TopShot meme.

ROWING ON YARRA AT SUNRISE

The quietly flowing waters of the Yarra River provide marvellous opportunities for Melbourne's rowing enthusiasts to practice and enjoy the river. A number of rowing clubs with historic clubhouses can be found alongside the River, close to the City.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Weekend Reflections meme.

MELBOURNE STREET TREES 113 - RED FLOWERING GUM

Eucalyptus leucoxylon 'Rosea' or the "Red Flowering Yellow Gum" is currently in bloom all over Melbourne. It belongs to the family Myrtaceae, along with the other eucalypts and a very large number of these species are native to Australia. Eucalyptus is from Greek, eu, "well" and calyptos, "covered" referring to the cap which covers the developing flowers. leucoxylon is from Greek, leuco, "white" and xylon, "wood", referring to the timber colour. Rosea is from Latin and means "pink".

It is a medium-sized tree which reaches 10-30 metres in height. The bark is retained on the lower trunk but the upper trunk and branches are smooth-barked and cream to grey in colour. The adult leaves are lance-shaped to about 200 mm long. The flowers are usually seen in autumn and winter and are pink or red in the 'Rosea' variety.

This is a popular tree in cultivation, particularly the red-flowering variety. It is generally regarded as a more reliable red-flowered species for humid climates than Corymbia ficifolia, the Western Australian red flowering gum. However, as it is native to a dry-summer climate, it is not reliable in tropical areas. It performs best in well-drained, moist soils but, once established is tolerant of extended dry conditions.

E.leucoxylon is regularly planted for windbreaks, shade, honey production and for ornamental purposes and it grows well in alkaline soils. It attracts native birds, which feed on its flowers. Propagation is from seed which germinates readily. The flower colour of seedlings cannot be guaranteed but red-flowered forms often produce red-flowered offspring.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

SUNSHINE IN YARRA BEND PARK

Continuing from yesterday's post, some more shots from Yarra Bend Park, that beautiful natural reserve in the midst of Melbourne's urban sprawl.

The glorious sunshine of a fine and warm late Autumn day made of the river and trees a wonderful backdrop for an invigorating walk and a healthy dose of rest and relaxation!

This post is part of the Wednesday Waters meme,
and also 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.

YARRA BEND RELAXATION

Yarra Bend Park has been one of Melbourne’s largest expanses of inner suburban parkland for nearly 150 years. Yarra Bend Park and neighbouring Studley Park were reserved in 1877. Both park areas and several reserves were combined in 1929 to create one large park. The combined area became known as Yarra Bend National Park despite never being raised to formal national park status.

During the 1930’s additions included picnic and sporting grounds, toilet facilities and a public golf course. The Yarra Bend Golf Club House, officially opened in May 1936, is an original example of American ‘Country Club’ type architecture. The Park provides a great open space for walking, bike riding, riverside cafes, golf, boating, BBQs, picnicking and a host of other leisure activities.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Trees & Bushes meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

RAINY DAY

As Autumn progresses, we expect more of these rainy days. The rain radar is predicting some rain tonight and tomorrow...

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Nature Footsteps Inspiring Photography meme.