YARRA RIVER SUNRISE

The city is certainly more lively now that most of the COVID restrictions have been lifted. The Omicron strain is causing some worry and many people are reacting by doing very silly and risky things. My favourite time in the City is at sunrise. Quiet, with few people around and lovely light!

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.

NATURAL HISTORY

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

THE CREEK

Edgars Creek flows along a 17km course from its headwaters in Wollert through the highly urbanised suburbs of Epping, Thomastown and Reservoir, finally joining the Merri Creek in North Coburg. It is a seasonal creek, susceptible to drying out during the hot seasons and flooding during periods of high rainfall. Parts of the storm water management systems in the Cities of Whittlesea and Darebin drain directly into the creek.

In the vicinity of Craigieburn Road East in the City of Whittlesea the creek runs through the 9000 dwelling Aurora estate development in Epping North. Here the creek is characterised by shallow banks and is often dry. Although sections of the creek around Coburg remind us of how the creek once was before urbanisation, much of the creek between the headwaters and Edwardes Lake Park in Reservoir is now artificially channelled.

Only 55% of the creek remains in semi-natural form with approximately 11% of the creek no more than a concrete drain. Nevertheless, the water attracts many birds, including grey gulls, ducks, brown ducks, purple swamp hens, moorhens, coots, and crested pigeons.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

ROSELLA

The eastern rosella (Platycercus eximius) is a rosella native to southeast of the Australian continent and to Tasmania. It has been introduced to New Zealand where feral populations are found in the North Island (notably in the northern half of the island and in the Hutt Valley) and in the hills around Dunedin in the South Island.

The eastern rosella is 30 cm long. It has a red head and white cheeks. The beak is white and the irises are brown. The upper breast is red and the lower breast is yellow fading to pale green over the abdomen. The feathers of the back and shoulders are black, and have yellowish or greenish margins giving rise to a scalloped appearance that varies slightly between the subspecies and the sexes. The wings and lateral tail feathers are bluish while the tail is dark green. The legs are grey.

The female is similar to the male though duller in colouration and has an underwing stripe, which is not present in the adult male. Juveniles are duller than females and have an underwing stripe. The diet of eastern rosellas mainly consists of fruit, seeds, flowers and insects.

The natural range of the eastern rosella is eastern Australia, down to Tasmania. The species is found in lightly wooded country, open forests, woodlands, gardens, bushlands and parks. Eastern rosellas usually breed in spring but if needed summer as well. They can have 2-9 eggs. In the wild their breeding hollow is 1m deep and 30m high up a tree. The sign the eastern rosella mostly shows that they would be breeding is that they give food to each other.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme.

AFTERNOON MOON

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

ALNWICK ROSE

The Alnwick® Rose is an English Shrub rose bred by David Austin in 2001. It is an exceptionally reliable rose with richly fragrant blooms. It produces pretty, many petalled, cupped blooms of soft pink. There is a rich old rose fragrance with raspberry notes. It flowers in flushes from early summer until the first frosts. It forms a nicely rounded, slightly upright, bushy shrub with plentiful, glossy green foliage.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

TREE EMBRACE

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.

ALMOST BACK TO NORMAL

As Victoria and Melbourne approach the magic 90% COVID double vaccinated, things are getting back to near-normal, slowly... Hopefully, Christmas will be almost normal this year!

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

MAGICAL

A digital collage of three different photos taken within 50 metres. It's interesting joining the three in such a way so as not to get an uneven and jarring seam.

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,

and also part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

AT THE MARKET

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

HORSES

A couple of horses in a paddock. For a moment, I thought I had caught sight of a unicorn!

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

CRESCENT MOON

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

ROSA 'EBB TIDE'

 Rosa 'Ebb Tide' was bred by Tom Carruth, USA, in 2004. It is a wonderful rose, which created a massive impact for the intense colour and fragrance which was rarely seen in modern roses. This very free-flowering rose bears flowers in small clusters with an amazingly intense clove fragrance throughout the flowering season

Ebb Tide has beautiful, medium sized, glossy and dark green foliage which is highly disease resistant. The bushy growth is around 90 cm in height with flowers all over the shrub. The striking purple colour and the intense, spicy fragrance will make this rose variety a delightful addition to the rose garden.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

AT THE PARKLANDS

Finally, a fine sunny and warm Spring day today, after many days of grey skies and rain, rain and more rain! But it's not over yet, apparently we have a La Niña summer ahead this year. Don't put away your brollies just yet!

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.

LET'S GO TO PARIS!

Parisian Artist, Yves Damin

Today I have something deliciously different on my blog! I am happy to introduce to you, Yves Damin, who is a Parisian artist and is my guest on my website today. Just like me, Yves likes to travel, and to also sketch his daily life. He’s never been to Melbourne, but Australia is on his top list of travel destinations. I’ll let him introduce himself and his work to you in his own words. Please visit his sites (links below) and enjoy his wonderful art!

"My name is Yves Damin, I was born in 1973 in Lyon, France. I come from a family of artists, as my father is also a painter. In my early years I was more happy drawing, rather than studying I must say! I could spend hours sketching secretly in my notebooks with my coloured pencils.

When it was time to enter secondary school, I opted for Art School, which was an obvious choice for me. I studied one year at the Ateliers de Sèvres in Paris, where I learnt the fundamentals of drawing and painting. I then studied in a specialized Art School of Graphic Design and Illustration at ESAT (Ecole Supérieure des Arts et Techniques), also in Paris. After graduating, it was time to find a job and I first worked as a Graphic Designer, and then as an Art Director for communication agencies. As this was mainly a digital job, I was a bit disappointed not to practice enough hands on painting.

So I decided in the 2000’s to challenge myself by doing more and more sketching so as not to get frustrated. It was a relief to be back on track with my sketchbooks and my canvases. I joined a few collective exhibitions to find a home with kindred souls.  As a big fan of architecture design, my passion was always to sketch in the city. I became very active doing some paintings of Paris, but also of London (my wife is English) or other big cities like Berlin or Barcelona.

I became part of Paris Urban Sketchers having a few meetings with fellow sketchers. It’s such a strange combination, because for me sketching is a very lonesome activity, and I discovered a very passionate community of people who enjoyed painting as much as me. It was wonderful to meet local artists in various places, such as England, Italy or painting in Greece.

An American publisher contacted me for the book Sketch City, and I was very pleased to be part of this project.  I have the privilege to be also an illustrator for magazines, I collaborate from time to time with French and American magazines: This is a good way to look for interesting topics to illustrate, such as History, Gastronomy or Culture in various articles. I like the journalistic approach of this kind of illustration.

Painting equipment: Most of the time, I use Indian ink for drawing, and I really love watercolour. I think it’s a fast, very expressive technique. It’s easy to carry everywhere, and it gives the artist a lot of freedom. As it dries quickly, it is quite convenient to draw somewhere quite fast and then to move on. It is useful when you like to sketch and paint on location.

For drawing, Pentel Pen brushes are amazing. I use them with Indian ink cartridges. As the ink is waterproof, it won’t smudge with watercolour, even when a lot of water is used. Otherwise, I discovered recently glass pens and coloured inks. It is interesting, because I can choose the colour of the ink; not only deep black, but also sepia, blue, whatever colour I like.

I really wish to come to Australia, the landscape are so different from Europe. Thanks to people like Nick, writing for Melbourne Daily is way to travel virtually for me. I just hope one day to be there and to sketch in Melbourne, it would be truly wonderful!

Thanks a lot for reading, feel free to discover my artwork at www.lexposition.fr

You can also follow me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/yvesdamin or on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yvesdam1

Kind regards,

Yves

Yves Damin painting on location in Bali

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.

TEMPUS EDAX RERUM

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,

and also part of the Seasons meme

SUNSHINE

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

BEE

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

SUNRISE ON THE RIVER

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

REMEMBRANCE DAY

Papaver rhoeas (common names include common poppy, corn poppy, corn rose, field poppy, Flanders poppy or red poppy) is an annual herbaceous species of flowering plant in the poppy family, Papaveraceae.

Remembrance Day is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces members who have died in the line of duty. Following a tradition inaugurated by King George V in 1919, the day is also marked by war remembrances in many non-Commonwealth countries. The red Flanders poppy symbolises remembrance, as the battlefields of WWI were filled with red poppies in the spring following the war, reminding survivors of the blood spilt on the battlefields.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

SPRING PLANTING

It's Spring and it is the time for putting seedlings into the garden so that we have some fresh vegetables on our table in the Summer. Silverbeet, beans, cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes have all gone in. Now we water and wait! 

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

IN FLIGHT

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

CITY VIEW

At Southbank, looking southwest. The multicoloured building is the South Melbourne Primary School, a new state-of-the-art Prep to Year 6 primary school located on Ferrars Street. The school opened in 2018. It is the first vertical government school in Victoria, and accommodates more than 525 students.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

AUSTRALIAN WOOD DUCK

The Australian Wood Duck (Chenonetta jubata) also called the Maned Duck is very common throughout Australia and can be found in most suburban parks and waterways. They are also seen in woodland areas often perching in the trees. The male is on the left, front and has the darker head, while the female behind to the right is more speckled and has a lighter-coloured head. Here they are seen in the Darebin Parklands in Melbourne.

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

RIDER IN THE SUN

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

CATTLEYA HYBRID

Cattleya is a genus of orchids from Costa Rica south to Argentina. The genus is abbreviated C in trade journals. They are epiphytic or terrestrial orchids with cylindrical rhizome from which the fleshy noodle-like roots grow. Pseudobulbs can be conical, spindle-shaped or cylindrical; with upright growth; one or two leaves growing from the top of them. The leaves can be oblong, lanceolate or elliptical, somewhat fleshy, with smooth margin.

The inflorescence is a terminal raceme with few or several flowers. Flowers have sepals and petals free from each other; the lip or labellum (lowermost petal), usually has a different coloration and shape from the rest of the flower and covers in part the flower column forming a tube. There are four polliniums (bag-like organs that contain pollen). The fruit is a capsule with many small seeds.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

RAIN !

After a brilliant Spring day yesterday with the temperature rising to nearly 30˚C, today the weather turned and we have rain, rain and more rain! The temperature fell also. In any case, the coots seem to be enjoying it...

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,

MELBOURNE CUP

The Melbourne Cup is the horse race of all Australian horse races. Every year when this race is run around 3:00 pm, it literally stops the entire nation. Melbourne Cup Day is fixed on the first Tuesday in November and although it is a public holiday only in the Melbourne Metropolitan area, Australians all over the nation are glued to their television screens or listen on the radio (or on the internet too, nowadays, I suppose) to watch this historic race.

The race is held over a distance of 3,200 meters, the traditional two-mile cup distance, for horses three years and older and is the richest and most prestigious “two-mile” handicap in the world. It is held in Flemington Racecourse, located in Flemington, one of Melbourne's inner city suburbs, which is named after a butcher who lived there in the 19th century. I certainly hope he didn't sell horse meat - that would be grand irony!

The first Melbourne Cup was run in 1861. There were 17 starters and the prize was 170 pounds and a hand-beaten gold watch (this was the trophy given before the traditional Loving Cup which the Melbourne Cup is known for). “Archer”, the first Cup-winning horse, had been walked to Melbourne from its stable in Nowra, New South Wales, a distance of about 800km. “Archer” won again the following year to a prize of 810 gold sovereigns (£810) and a gold watch. “Archer” went on to win the race the following year once more, making him one of the five horses to win the event more than once.

Champion mare Verry Elleegant has taken out the G1 Melbourne Cup in sensational fashion, romping home to defeat boom horse Incentivise by 4L. Verry Elleegant, ridden by James McDonald, settled in a midfield position before entering the Flemington straight under a hold out wide.

After the pandemic essentially stopped Melbourne for more than 18 months, Victoria's COVID-19 restrictions eased just in time for the race that stops the nation. About 70 per cent of spectators at Flemington were Victoria Racing Club (VRC) members, with only 5 per cent of tickets offered to the public — equating to a few hundred ticketholders. The rest of the crowd was made up of horse owners, corporate sponsors and trainers.

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.

TRIPTYCH

Spring brings flowers, but also some seeds! From left to right: Ipheion (starflower); Eucalyptus seeds; Echium.

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,

and also part of the Blue Monday meme,

and also part of the Seasons meme.