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