YARRA VALLEY VISTA

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Greens meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme.

SOUTHBANK SILHOUETTES

This post is part of the Saturday Silhouettes meme,
and also part of the Weekend Reflections meme.

MORE SUMMER RAIN!

We've had another rather humid and grey day today in Melbourne, with another Summer storm in the afternoon. There was lightning and thunder and of course lots of rain...

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Greens meme,
and also part of the Pippa's Week That Has Been meme,
and also part of the Weekend Reflections meme.

And José Feliciano's "Rain" (1969) came to mind...

SUMMER BOUQUET

One of the joys of having a garden is that one is always able to cut flowers and transfer the great outdoors into the house, bringing wonderful fragrances and colours indoors. This is a simple mixed flower bouquet of summer flowers growing in our garden. They smell wonderful and they brighten the room up.

You can see these flowers in the bouquet:
White summer jasmine (Jasminum azoricum)
Orange montbretia (Crocosmia spp)
Red beardtongues (Penstemon hartwegii)
Orange calendula (Calendula officinalis)
Pink cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus)
Red/pink desert saviour (Echeveria spp)
Red rose (Rosa spp)
White double daisy (Leucanthemum 'Ice Star')
Pink zinnias (Zinnia x hybrida)
Mauve lily turf (Liriope muscari)
White feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium)
Basil foliage (Ocimum basilicum).

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

SUMMER STORM

Grey skies, thunderstorms and heavy rain covered Melbourne for less than half an hour this evening after wild weather had been predicted to hit a lot harder. The storms came across the west of the state after a deluge hit Geelong earlier today. The weather bureau said the storm and heavy rain hit Melbourne about 6pm but the CBD only received 4 millimetres of rain. Traffic was heavy, nevertheless, and many police cars and ambulances with flashing lights and sirens wove in and out of lanes to attend emergencies.

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.

CITY LANES AND ARCADES

The lanes and arcades of Melbourne have collectively become culturally important. The Melbourne central business district's numerous lanes mostly date to the Victorian era and as a result of the original Hoddle Grid, they evolved as service laneways for horses and carts. In some parts of the city, notably Little Lonsdale area, they were associated with the city's gold rush era slums. Among the most notable are Centre Place and Degraves Lane.

Melbourne's numerous shopping arcades reached a peak of popularity in the late Victorian era and the interwar years. Among the most notable include Block Place and Royal Arcade. Some notable demolished arcades include Coles Book arcade and Queens Walk arcade. Since the 1990s, Melbourne's lanes, particularly the pedestrianised ones, have gentrified and their heritage value officially recognised as well as attracting interest from Australia and around the world. Some of the lanes, in particular have become particularly notable for their acclaimed urban art. The city has several festivals which celebrate the laneways, they are major tourist attractions and frequently feature in tourism promotions, film and television.

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 Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

AT THE VIC MARKET

The Queen Victoria Market (also known as the Queen Vic Markets or the Queen Vic, and locally as '"Vic Market"') is a major landmark in Melbourne, Australia, and at around seven hectares is the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere. The Market is significant to Melbourne's culture and heritage and has been listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.

The Market is named after Queen Victoria who ruled the British Empire, from 1837 to 1901. The Queen Victoria Market is the only surviving 19th century market in the Melbourne central business district. There were once three major markets in the Melbourne CBD, but two of them, the Eastern Market and Western Market, both opened before the Queen Victoria, closed in the 1960s. It also forms part of an important collection of surviving Victorian markets which includes the inner suburban Prahran Market and South Melbourne Market.

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,

and also part of the Blue Monday meme,

and also part of the Through my Lens meme.

MELBOURNE BY NIGHT

View towards the City from Alexandra Avenue on the south bank of the Yarra.

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme.

SOUTHBANK SILHOUETTES

Southbank at night, along the Yarra River esplanade, in front of Crown Hotel. The little lights on the trees always add a playful touch, I think.

This post is part of the Saturday Silhouettes meme,
and also part of the Weekend Reflections meme.

VIEW FROM MY WINDOW

We have been having some amazing sunsets lately. This is a view towards the northeast from my window, showing the rather odd orange light.

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

MELBOURNE STREET TREES 142 - LACEBARK TREE

Brachychiton discolor is a rainforest tree of eastern Australia in the family Sterculiaceae. It grows in drier rainforest areas, scattered from Paterson, New South Wales (32° S) to Mackay, Queensland (21° S). There's also an isolated community of these trees at Cape York Peninsula. Common names include Lacebark Tree, Lace Kurrajong, Pink Kurrajong, Scrub Bottle Tree, White Kurrajong, Hat Tree and Sycamore.

An attractive tree up to 30 metres tall featuring pink flowers without petals. The trunk is straight, grey and cylindrical, up to 75 cm in diameter. Not buttressed at the base. Twigs hairy, brown and smooth. Leaves are hairy; lobed in three, five or seven points, 10 to 20 cm in diameter. Whitish underneath, dark green above. Leaf veins visible on both sides.

Flowers form from November to February. The flowers are pink, almost without stalks, 3 to 4 cm in diameter. Separate male and female flowers without petals. The fruit is a hairy boat shaped follicle maturing from December to July. 7 to 20 cm long, containing up to 30 seeds, 9 mm long. Germination from fresh seed occurs without difficulty. It is widely planted as an ornamental tree. Wood used as shields by Indigenous Australians. Roasted seeds edible by humans.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

BRIGHTON BEACH

The City of Bayside is a Local Government Area in Melbourne. It is located in the southern suburbs, with an area of 36 square kilometres and an estimated population of about 100,000 people. It comprises the City of Brighton, City of Sandringham, City of Moorabbin, City of Mordialloc and City of Bayside. As well as having quite exclusive and very expensive real estate by the seaside in Brighton, for example, it also has areas of industrial and business park usage, as in Moorabbin, for example.

The last few days we had gorgeous Summer weather and we went for a drive down the coastal road, visiting Elwood, Brighton, Hampton and Sandringham. The sea was perfect and there were many bathers, sail boat and motor boat enthusiasts, as well as the jet ski devotees. Many lovely beaches exist along this stretch of Melbourne's suburban coast, so it is a popular are for fun in the sea and sun. Add to that large numbers of great cafés, restaurants and all sorts of other eateries and you have the recipe for a perfect weekend outing.

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.

FAIRFIELD BOATHOUSE

Fairfield Boathouse was established in 1908 by John St Clair as a picnic, camping and refreshment room area. John St Clair was a piano tuner from Smith St, Fitzroy, with a vision. He firstly wrote a letter to the Premier suggesting that he open a refreshment room and boat shed area, with motor boats at Fairfield Park. The Premier had to seek the approval form Yarra Bend Hospital of the Insane because the proposal for the boat shed was actually on the hospital grounds. The Premier gave his permission for the boat shed project to go ahead.

Mr St Clair built the boat shed and six years later Fairfield Park was set aside from the same grounds. However Mr St Clair had seven troubled years with Crown Bailiffs over building permits. Eventually in 1915 the Heidelberg council bought him out. In 1923 the boathouse was raised by 12 feet to help minimise flood damage, a frequent threat to boathouses along the Yarra. Boat and canoe carnivals and open air carnivals were common sights at Fairfield until the 1950’s. Boating popularity declined until finally the Fairfield boathouse was closed in 1980 as it was declared unfit for human habitation.

In 1985 the boathouse was restored and re-opened. The derelict building had recently housed squatters and possums. The project took 30,000 hours of restoration work. Meticulous work and an eye for detail was required for rebuilding. Even the gardens have been restored to encourage native birds. It now enjoys renewed popularity and is a pleasure to visit.

This post is part of 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 Travel Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.