MORNING WALK

Enjoying the Winter sunshine, even though it's cold!

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the My Corner of the World meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

BLACK SWANS

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

NIGHT OUT

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

MUSHROOMS

Mushroom season it is, but what a pity I do not know with certainty which are the edible ones, except for one or two highly characteristics ones. I do know a lot about edible wild greens, though, and a young, tender, luscious wild lettuce plant (Lactuca serriola) is seen on the left of the photo.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

LORIKEET

The rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus) is a species of parrot found in Australia. It is common along the eastern seaboard, from northern Queensland to South Australia and Tasmania. Its habitat is rainforest, coastal bush and woodland areas. Several taxa traditionally listed as subspecies of the rainbow lorikeet are now treated as separate species. Rainbow lorikeets have been introduced to Perth, Western Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; and Hong Kong.

Rainbow lorikeets are true parrots, within the Psittacoidea superfamily in the order Psittaciformes. They include two subspecies: Trichoglossus moluccanus moluccanus and Trichoglossus molucannus septentrionalis. The rainbow lorikeet is a medium-sized parrot, with the length ranging from 25 to 30 cm, including the tail. The weight varies from 75 to 157 g. The plumage of the nominate race, as with all subspecies, is very bright. The head is deep blue with a greenish-yellow nuchal collar, and the rest of the upper parts (wings, back and tail) are deep green. The chest is red with blue-black barring. The belly is deep green, and the thighs and rump are yellow with deep green barring.

In flight a yellow wing-bar contrasts clearly with the red underwing coverts. There is little to visually distinguish between the sexes; however, to a keen observer of their colouring and behaviour, their dimorphism is readily apparent.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

SUNSET

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

WILD ROCKET

Rocket or arugula (American English) (Eruca vesicaria; syns. Eruca sativa Mill., E. vesicaria subsp. sativa (Miller) Thell., Brassica eruca L.) is an edible annual plant in the family Brassicaceae used as a leaf vegetable for its fresh, tart, bitter, and peppery flavour.

Eruca sativa, which is widely popular as a salad vegetable, is a species of Eruca native to the Mediterranean region, from Morocco and Portugal in the west to Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey in the east.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

SCRYING POOL

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the My Corner of the World meme,

and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

SEAFARERS BRIDGE

The Seafarers Bridge is a footbridge over the Yarra River between Docklands and South Wharf in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The bridge connects the north and south banks of the river while providing a formal entrance to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The bridge main span is supported by steel ties connected to elliptical arches, with three arches on the north side and four arches on the south side. The bridge was named in homage to the ‘Mission to Seafarers’ centre located nearby on the northern bank of the Yarra River and to represent Melbourne’s rich maritime history.

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

WINTER SOLSTICE

Today's Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, marks the shortest day of the year and the longest night. The opposite is true for the Northern Hemisphere, where the Summer Solstice marks the longest day and the shortest night. The southern seasons are explained in the diagram below.

In Melbourne the sun rose at 7:35 am and set at 5:08 pm today. Solstice sunset photo below with a mosaic of some of my "astronomical" art pieces (see more on Instagram @jammysevenk).

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

SOUTHERN CROSS STATION

Southern Cross railway station (until 2005 known as Spencer Street station) is a major railway station in Docklands, Melbourne. It is on Spencer Street, between Collins and La Trobe Streets, at the western edge of the Melbourne central business district. The Docklands Stadium sports arena is 500 metres north-west of the station. The station is owned, operated and maintained by Civic Nexus, a subsidiary of IFM Investors and operating as Southern Cross Station Pty Ltd, under a 30-year lease to 2036 from the Victorian State Government, as part of a public-private partnership.

The station is the terminus of the state's regional railway network operated by V/Line, The Overland rail service to Adelaide, and NSW TrainLink XPT services to Sydney. It is also served by suburban rail services operated by Metro Trains, being one of five stations on the City Loop, a mostly underground railway that encircles the Central Business District. It is the second busiest railway station in Melbourne's metropolitan network, with 18.614 million passenger movements recorded in 2017/18. This figure excludes V/Line passengers who use the station.

Southern Cross was redeveloped by the Civic Nexus consortium, following an innovative design by Grimshaw Architects and Jackson Architecture which features an undulating roof. Construction began in October 2002 and was completed in late 2006, with the majority of the transport facilities finished in time for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The central features of the design include a wave-shaped roof, a new entrance and concourse on Collins Street, a new coach interchange, a new food court, a bar/restaurant, separate retail outlets inside the station and a separate shopping complex between Bourke and La Trobe Streets.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

POND LIFE

Today was a sunny and fine Winter's day so I went for a walk in the Parklands. There was a water quality test and pond life tally going on, so I stopped and said hello to the person in charge who explained what was being done and showed me some pond life critters.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme.

Dragonfly nymph

Dragonfly nymph

Juvenile yabby (left) and water boatman (right)

Juvenile galaxiid fish

Juvenile yabby

RAINY DAY

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

BLUE SAGE

Salvia azurea, the azure blue sage, azure sage, blue sage or prairie sage, is a herbaceous perennial in the genus Salvia, family Lamiaceae, that is native to Central and Eastern North America. Its thin, upright stems can grow to 1.8 m tall, with narrow, pointed, smooth-edged to serrated, furry to smooth green leaves, connected to their stems by petioles to 1.0 cm long. There are no basal leaves.

The blue (rarely white), flowers  nearly 6.4 to 12.7 mm long, appear summer to autumn near the ends of their branched or unbranched spikes; their calyxes are tubular or bell-shaped and furry. Two varieties are Salvia azurea var. azurea (azure sage) and Salvia azurea var. grandiflora (pitcher sage). It is found on the wild on roadsides, glades, fields and pastures.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

RIPENING OLIVES

It has been a good year for olives (Olea europaea) in Melbourne this year and our olive tree in the back yard is absolutely laden with a heavy crop of fruit. It's a sure sign of Winter when the olives are bigger and darker on the tree...

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the My Corner of the World meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

AT THE UNIVERSITY

A month ago I had to go the University of Melbourne, my alma mater, and as always found many changes, especially so as the last time I had been there was about 5 years ago. Nevertheless, some things had not changed and one of them was the art around the campus. The gallery of the University is the Ian Potter Museum of Art. It is worth visiting both for its collection and its own architecture. Designed by one of Melbourne's most interesting contemporary architects, Nonda Katsalidis, it incorporates parts of older university buildings such as the Napier Waller Art Deco stained glass window from the old Wilson Hall (which burnt down).

The gallery is a bequest to the university from the businessman, Sir Ian Potter. The very distinctive façade has this striking sculptural mural, where classical art burgeons forth from the interior of the museum! A tribute to the excellent collection of Greek pottery housed n the museum, perhaps. There are some very good 19th century paintings and many contemporary art pieces. Temporary exhibitions make the bulk of the exhibited material.

Whenever I visited the Baillieu Library as a student I could not help but notice the monumental sculptural group (picture below) just outside, on the lawn adjacent to the library. The bronze sculpture known as “Charity Being Kind to the Poor”, was originally the “crowning piece” of the massive entrance portico of the Equitable Life Assurance Society headquarters in Collins Street. The building was demolished in the late 1950s and the owners presented the sculpture to the University. Created by architect Edward W Raht and sculptor Victor Tilgner at the Imperial Art Foundry in Vienna in about 1893, the substantially-scaled Charity, sheltering a huddled family, is a clear statement on the advantages of buying life insurance. Originally situated at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning’s Mount Martha site, it was relocated to its present location in 1981.

The University as a place of intellectual pursuits, a temple of learning, a refuge for the arts and sciences, teaching and research, ensures that art will always have a place in its environs.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

YARRA WINTER

As we are coming out of Lockdown #4, some restrictions have been lifted, but we still have a 25km containment around us, meaning we cannot venture out of metropolitan Melbourne. This has scuttled the plans of many Melburnians who had hoped to get away from the city for the Queen's Birthday long weekend. So much for the opening of the skiing season in the snowfields, or the numerous getaways to country Victoria that are on traditionally this time of the year.

Nevertheless, there was much to do in the city, and the cafés, restaurants and pubs were doing a roaring trade, although early on this Winter morning, most people were sleeping in!

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,

and also part of the Blue Monday meme,

and also part of the Seasons meme.

NIGHT SHOWERS

Make the leaves sparkle with water droplets.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

PET RABBIT

Meet Arthur, the pet rabbit, at our local pet shop. He lives in the window and always says hello when you walk by!

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

FOG AND SUN

A foggy morning causes the sun to shine silver. A wintry morning in Melbourne today!

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

WILLOW-LEAVED WATTLE

Acacia iteaphylla, commonly known as Flinders Range wattle, Port Lincoln wattle, winter wattle and willow-leaved wattle, is a shrub belonging to the genus Acacia and the subgenus Phyllodineae that is endemic to South Australia.

The shrub has a weeping habit and typically grows to a height of 2 to 5 metres with a crown width of 2 to 5 m. Young plants are glabrous and have greenish coloured bark that later becomes brown in colour as the plant ages. The slender grey-green foliage has pink-red tips of new growth. The long slender phyllodes are arranged alternately and have a prominent single vein running lengthwise and grow up to 10 centimetres in length.

It produces yellow flowers from March to September (Autumn through to Spring). The flowers are arranged into small spherical clusters that are found in short compound clusters in the phyllode forks. The flower heads have a diameter of 5 to 8 millimetres and contain 12 to 17 pale to lemon yellow flowers. The thin leathery light brown seed pods that form following flowering are elongated and flat usually 5 to 13 centimetres in length and 6 to 12 mm wide. The pods contain hard black ellipsoidal shaped seeds that are 6 mm in length and half as wide.

The shrub is sold commercially for cultivation in seedling or in seed form. It can take full sun or partial shade, can grow in saline soils and is frost tolerant and drought tolerant once established. Used in gardens as an ornamental screen or as a low windbreak, as it is fast growing and has attractive foliage. The best known cultivar of A. iteaphylla is a low-growing form called Acacia "Parsons Cascade". Seeds need to be scarified or treated with boiling water prior to planting.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

STORMY WEATHER

We've had some quite bad weather in Melbourne over the last couple of days. Cold, rainy and windy, with hail in some parts and heavy snow up in the Victorian Alps. Winter is definitely making its presence felt. Glad to be indoors in the warmth tonight...

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the My Corner of the World meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

CELEBRATION

We are in the midst of our fourth COVID Lockdown here in Melbourne after community spread of the Delta strain was found with several community acquired cases recorded. No we cannot go out to a restaurant, nor can we travel, nor can we even go to the local pub, nor enjoy our City's usual effervescent night life.

Nevertheless, while hunkering down at home, there was reason to celebrate and celebrate we did! Enjoying some excellent Yarra Valley Domaine Chandon sparkling wine with various cheeses and tasty nibblies... Lockdown? Who cares?

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

DAISY SULPHATE

A digital collage made in Photoshop with three images: Lawn daisy and Gerbera, on a background of crystals of copper sulphate ("blue vitriol").

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

WINDOW

How fortunate I am to live in a place where the Winter is mild enough to allow flowers to bloom, and even on the greyest Winter day to be able to look out of the window and be cheered by splashes of vivid colour!

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme,

and also part of the Photo Sunday meme.

FIND THE DOG!

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

Peek-a-boo!

SUNSET FLIGHT

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

THE LAST ROSE

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DANDELION

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the My Corner of the World meme,

and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

YARRA VALLEY

The Yarra Valley is the name given to the region surrounding the Yarra River in Victoria, Australia. The river originates approximately 90 kilometres east of the City of Melbourne and flows towards it and out into Port Phillip Bay. The name Yarra Valley is usually used in reference to the upper regions surrounding the Yarra River and generally does not encompass the lower regions including the city and suburban areas, where the topography flattens out, or the upper reaches which are in inaccessible bushland. Included in the Yarra Valley is the sub-region of Upper Yarra (or the Upper Yarra Valley) which encompasses the towns of the former Shire of Upper Yarra in the catchment area upstream of and including Woori Yallock.

The Yarra Valley a popular day-trip and tourist area, featuring a range of natural features and agricultural produce, as well as the Lilydale to Warburton Rail Trail.The Yarra Valley is host to a thriving wine growing industry. The area's relatively cool climate makes it particularly suited to the production of high-quality chardonnay, pinot noir and sparkling wine. Vine-grazing is a popular activity for Melburnians and there is a large selection of excellent vineyards making world-class wines in the Yarra Valley. 

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