LAW ABIDING...

...Pet!

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

WINDMILL SKY

Iconic to outback Australia are the old windmills. They stand tall and proud in a vast field. There is the characteristic sound of metal creaking as the blades rotate round and round, ever so slowly as the wind blows...  Invented in America the 1850’s, windmills have been a huge part of Australian history.

The windmill meant people could access water without being anywhere near surface-water sources. With windmills, people could inhabit and develop new areas of country by drilling a bore into an artesian deposit and the wind-powered pump could draw the water up to a reservoir for livestock to access.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

FLORIST FLOWERS

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

SUMMER'S END

We are seeing more and more signs of Autumn approaching and whatever few hot days may linger on, Summer is well and truly leaving...

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

WILSON'S PROM

Wilsons Promontory is a peninsula that forms the southernmost part of the Australian mainland, located in the state of Victoria, about 200 km southeast of Melbourne CBD. Coastal features include expansive intertidal mudflats, sandy beaches and sheltered coves interrupted by prominent headlands and plunging granite cliffs in the south, backed by coastal dunes and swamps. The promontory is surrounded by a scatter of small granite islands which, collectively, form the Wilsons Promontory Islands Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance for breeding seabirds.

Wilsons Promontory is home to many marsupials, native birds and other creatures. One of the most common marsupials found on the promontory is the common wombat, which can be found in much of the park (especially around campsites where it has been known to invade tents searching for food). The peninsula is also home to kangaroos, snakes, wallabies, koalas, long-nosed potoroos, white-footed dunnarts, broad-toothed rats, feather-tailed gliders and emus. Some of the most common birds found on the promontory include crimson rosellas, yellow-tailed black cockatoos and superb fairywrens. There are also many pests, including hog deer, foxes, feral cats, rabbits, common starlings, and common blackbirds.

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

and also part of the Roentare’s Water Meme.

MY NEW NOVEL

My new novel "The Nursing Home" has been published and is available on Amazon. I've been told by several people that it's a good read :-)

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

KITTY

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

FOUR O'CLOCKS

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

SCARY...

Asbestos was banned in Australia two decades ago, but there remains more than six million tonnes of the dangerous material in buildings across the country. Experts say the asbestos is deteriorating, increasing the chance of exposure and putting lives at risk. The cost of removal remains a barrier to the disposal of asbestos, and advocates are pushing for a streamlined approach to making it easy, safe and affordable to remove.

Although the numbers had been expected to drop, about 4000 people still die each year in Australia from asbestos-related diseases, including mesothelioma, asbestosis and asbestos-related lung cancer. That's about three times the national road toll.

Asbestos-related diseases account for the highest number of work-related deaths, but exposure outside of the workplace is also a concern. There has also been an increase of cases among people who've been renovating old homes, without bringing in licensed asbestos removalists.

Scary...

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

COUNTRYSIDE IDYLL

A bucolic landscape in Central Gippsland, with a view towards the south. The Strzelecki Ranges are seen and are a set of low mountain ridges located in the West Gippsland and South Gippsland regions of the Australian state of Victoria. The Ranges are named after Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, a Polish explorer, who with the assistance of Charley Tarra the small party's Aboriginal guide, led an expedition through this region in 1840.

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

COASTERS

An amazing variety of coasters for sale at the South Melbourne Market.

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

RICHMOND TRAIN STATION

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

PIGEONS

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

SUNSET SILHOUETTES

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

ALSTROEMERIA

Alstroemeria, commonly called the Peruvian lily or lily of the Incas, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Alstroemeriaceae. They are all native to South America although some have become naturalised in the United States, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Madeira and the Canary Islands. Almost all of the species are restricted to one of two distinct centres of diversity, one in central Chile, the other in eastern Brazil. Species of Alstroemeria from Chile are winter-growing plants while those of Brazil are summer-growing. All are long-lived perennials except A. graminea, a diminutive annual from the Atacama Desert of Chile.

The genus was named after the Swedish baron Clas Alströmer (1736 – 1794) by his close friend Carolus Linnaeus. Many hybrids and at least 190 cultivars have been developed, featuring many different markings and colours, including white, yellow, orange, apricot, pink, red, purple, and lavender. The most popular and showy hybrids commonly grown today result from crosses between species from Chile (winter-growing) with species from Brazil (summer-growing). This strategy has overcome the florists' problem of seasonal dormancy and resulted in plants that are evergreen, or nearly so, and flower for most of the year. This breeding work derives mainly from trials that began in the United States in the 1980s.

The flower, which resembles a miniature lily, is very popular for bouquets and flower arrangements in the commercial cut flower trade. Most cultivars available for the home garden will bloom in the late spring and early summer. The roots are hardy to a temperature of −5 °C. The plant requires at least six hours of morning sunlight, regular watering, and well-drained soil.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

FISH LADDER

Fish ladder in the Darebin Creek, at Darebin Parklands, Alphington.

A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass, fish steps, or fish cannon, is a structure on or around artificial and natural barriers (such as dams, locks and waterfalls) to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration as well as movements of potamodromous species. Most fishways enable fish to pass around the barriers by swimming and leaping up a series of relatively low steps (hence the term ladder) into the waters on the other side. The velocity of water falling over the steps has to be great enough to attract the fish to the ladder, but it cannot be so great that it washes fish back downstream or exhausts them to the point of inability to continue their journey upriver.

This post is part of the Roentare’s Water Meme

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme

and also part of the Nature Notes meme

TWILIGHT

The City viewed across the Yarra, at twilight.

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

YARRA BEND MOSAIC

More from this wonderful urban nature park in metropolitan Melbourne, a stone's throw from the CBD. Enjoying the last few weeks of Summer...

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

YARRA BEND PARK

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 My Sunday Best meme

DAWG

Waiting patiently while his human shops.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

SKYSCAPE

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

ROSES, ROSES, ROSES

Roses are in season and every florist shop is full of them. Especially so, this time of the year, with Valentine's Day tomorrow. If you celebrate it, Happy Valentine's Day!

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

LANTERN FEST

The Lantern Festival (traditional Chinese: 元宵節; simplified Chinese: 元宵节; pinyin: Yuánxiāo jié), also called Shangyuan Festival and Cap Go Meh, is a Chinese traditional festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar Chinese calendar, during the full moon. Usually falling in February or early March on the Gregorian calendar, it marks the final day of the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations. As early as the Western Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 25), it had become a festival with great significance.

We celebrated it in our garden as it was a warm Summer night and it was fun to light up the lanterns and sip cool drinks.

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

YARRA RIVER

The Yarra River at South Yarra, looking toward the East in the morning. Taken from a moving train and shooting into the light, pressing my photographic luck...

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

EVENING FALLS

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

AT THE GREENGROCER'S

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

"IT'S MY RUG!"

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

BUSHFIRE SKY

And the stars shine on...

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

SPANISH JASMINE

Jasminum grandiflorum, also known variously as the Spanish jasmine, Royal jasmine, Catalan jasmine, Sicilian jasmine, Greek jasmine, is a species of jasmine native to South Asia, the Arabian peninsula, East and Northeast Africa and the Yunnan and Sichuan regions of China. The species is widely cultivated and is reportedly naturalised in Guinea, the Maldive Islands, Mauritius, Réunion, Java, the Cook Islands, Chiapas, Central America, and the Caribbean. It is closely related to, and sometimes treated as merely a form of, Jasminum officinale.

Jasmine has been made into a well-known scent around the world. It was introduced as a perfume in Europe in the 16th century. The flowers create an aroma that exudes a calm atmosphere, relieving mental and emotional strains. Due to the pleasing scent, J. grandiflorum are commonly made into essential oils, perfumes, soaps, and cosmetics worldwide.

Here it is seen growing in our garden, where it forms a luxuriant climbing shrub, flowering profusely in Summer and whose delicious perfume is intense during the evening. In the Summer afternoons, my grandmother used to pick the burgeoning buds of this flower and thread them with a needle, forming the festoon you see below, which was brought indoors. As the flowers opened later that evening, the perfume filled the house.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

MORDIALLOC

Mordialloc is a beachside suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 24 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Kingston local government area. Mordialloc recorded a population of 8,886 at the 2021 census.

The namesaked Mordialloc Creek (seen here) is arguably the most significant feature of the suburb. Home to Pompei's boat works, Mordialloc Creek has a rich history of traditional wooden boat building. Many classic boats line the banks of the creek. The creek mouth section below Nepean Highway is also home to the Mordialloc Motor Yacht Club and Mordialloc Sailing Club, and the creek drains into the Beaumaris Bay flanked by the Mordialloc Pier.

This post is part of the Roentare’s Water Meme

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme

and also part of the Nature Notes meme

INVERLOCH BEACH

Inverloch is a seaside village in Victoria, Australia. It is located on the Bass Highway 143 kilometres southeast of Melbourne, at the mouth of Anderson Inlet, in the Bass Coast Shire and is located close to Australia’s southernmost stand of mangroves. At the 2021 census, Inverloch had a population of 6,526 people.

Inverloch is a popular tourist destination, particularly for surfers, kitesurfers, windsurfers and fishers. The town hosts a jazz festival each Labour Day long weekend in March. Inverloch's amenities include a visitor information centre, two Pubs, three motels, seven bed and breakfasts, three caravan parks and a foreshore camping reserve.

Like most other Australian coastal towns Inverloch has a local surf lifesaving club. During 2005 and early 2006 the RACV built an eco-village holiday resort on the Cape Paterson Road near Inverloch. Inverloch is a popular holiday resort town for Melbournians and many of them have holiday houses here.

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

AT THE SUNDAY MARKET

There are relatively few Trash-n-Treasure markets left in Melbourne these days and this is one of them, in the Coburg Drive In Movie Theatre (another of the very few such places left in Melbourne too!). Although mostly trash, once I picked up a wonderful Australian landscape painting here, at a very reasonable price.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

SOURPUSS

"Go away, you've disturbed my catnap!"

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

BALLOON

 This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

ZUCCHINI FLOWER

Macro of female zucchini flower with two native bees. At the moment, our garden is producing many Summer veggies: Zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, capsicum, Warrigal greens, blitum greens.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

FUN IN THE SUN, MORNINGTON

Mornington is a seaside town on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia, located 57 km south-east of Melbourne's central business district. It is in the local government area of the Shire of Mornington Peninsula.

Mornington is known for its "village" atmosphere and its beautiful beaches. Mornington is a popular tourist destination with Melburnians who often make day trips to visit the area's bay beaches and wineries. The town centre runs into the foreshore area and local beach. Several conserved areas on the waterfront and hinterland preserve native flora and fauna.

Mornington is an attractive destination for shopping and features some excellent restaurants and cafes. The north of Mornington is also home to several horse breeders and stables. It has a modern library, cinema and numerous parks, gardens and historical buildings, many of which are open to the public. It holds several annual festivals, and holds a market day in the main street every Wednesday, which attracts hundreds of people.

Mornington has an active Yacht club (Mornington Yacht Club), located at Schnapper Point, catering for sailors of all levels and abilities, from beginners - “Tackers”, through to those competing at ocean racing level. The club hosts many state, National, & International regattas, as it provides a good location in sheltered, pristine waters. 2014 saw the successful running of the largest single class Yachting regatta ever held in the Southern Hemisphere - the Optimist National Championships. The Optimist is a youth class and drew over 2000 people to the Club and Mornington shire.

This post is part of the "Roentare’s Water Meme"

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the Nature Notes meme

AT THE PARKLANDS

Summer day in the Darebin Parklands in Alphington, an inner city suburb, about 7 km from the city centre.

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

SUMMER DAY

We've had a typical Melbourne Summer day today: Overcast, muggy morning with a sudden semitropical downpour that refreshed the gardens. Then, the clouds disappeared, the sun started to climb in the sky and the heat intensified, reaching a high of 40˚C. Then, fortunately, in the evening a cool change rolled in and the temperature fell, with a more comfortable 22˚C now at night. The temperature is predicted to fall a few more degrees later tonight and a maximum of 22˚C tomorrow... Never a dull moment!

Needless to say, this being a long weekend (on account of Australia Day yesterday), the beaches were packed full of people seeking some relief and unfortunately, there a few spot fires around the City, with one of them at least suspected arson. Fortunately, no casualties and no houses lost. Thank you, Fire Brigade!

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

CHANGING SEASON

The first sign of Summer's passing...

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

NIGHT HERON

The nankeen night heron (Nycticorax caledonicus) also commonly referred to as the rufous night heron, and in Melanesia as Melabaob, is a medium-sized heron. It is found in Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Melanesia, and throughout much of Australia except the arid inland. A small colony has also established near Wanganui, New Zealand.

The nankeen night heron stands about 60 cm tall with a stooped appearance. It is a stocky heron with rich cinnamon upperparts, white-buff underparts, a black crown, and yellow legs and feet. The head is large, the neck short (giving a stooped appearance), and the legs relatively short. During breeding the back of the head bears three white nuptial plumes. The bill is dark olive-green, and the eyes are yellow. Young birds are heavily spotted and streaked white, brown and orange-brown. As they mature, the black cap of the adult develops first, with the body plumage remaining streaked for some time. It is not strictly nocturnal. It often feeds during the day, especially during wet weather.

The bird is dependent on a diet of small fish, reptiles, insects and sometimes eggs. It can be seen around freshwater rivers, lakes, bulrushes, estuaries, harbours and in residential fishponds for goldfish. The species breeds in the period from September to April, building a nest platform out of sticks. It nests communally, near water. Two to five light green eggs are laid, with a 22-day incubation followed by a 42- to 49-day fledging period. Widespread throughout its large range, the nankeen night heron is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

I've enhanced this photo in Photoshop as it was taken with the highest zoom on my phone camera and it turned out a little blurry.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

NIGHT SKY

View from my window after the cool change moved through and the clouds started to fill the night sky. Jupiter is shining out brightly from a peephole in the clouds.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

DAHLIA HYBRID

Dahlia LABELLA® Maggiore Fun Flame is a variety of dahlia that has dazzling flowers with bright red-orange petals, evoking the flames of a fire. Its remarkable flowers add an explosion of colour and life to any garden space, making it an ideal choice for flower beds, borders, or floral arrangements.

Easy to grow and maintain, the Dahlia LABELLA® Maggiore Fun Flame is a must-have for any gardening enthusiast seeking a dash of vibrant colour in their garden. With 4-inch diameter flowers in vivid red-orange colours and bright yellow centres, this dahlia blooms on strong, sturdy stems. The flowers also fade more slowly and retain their colours longer.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

MERRI CREEK IN SUMMER

Merri Creek is a waterway in southern parts of Victoria, Australia which flows through the northern suburbs of Melbourne. It begins in Wallan north of Melbourne and flows south for 70 km until it joins the Yarra River at Dights Falls.

The area where the creek meets the river was traditionally the location for large gatherings of the Wurundjeri people and is suspected to have been the location for one of the earliest land treaties in Australia between Indigenous Australians and European settlers.

This is Merri Creek at Clifton HIll, along the Merri Creek Trail. This is a 21 km shared use path for cyclists and pedestrians that follows the Merri Creek through the northern suburbs of Melbourne. It makes for a pleasant walk along the creek and one can pretend that one is walking in the wilderness, while still in the heart of the City!

This post is part of the Roentare’s Water Meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme.