MELBOURNE GPO

Melbourne General Post Office (also known as Melbourne GPO) is located on the corner of Elizabeth and Bourke Street in Melbourne CBD, Australia and is currently listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The former purpose built post office building currently functions as a shopping mall, having been redeveloped by adaptive reuse in 2004.

The architectural style of the building is Classical with French Second Empire influences and was designed in the Victorian period by architect A.E Johnson. Its historical significance is also due to incorporating distinct sections built over a period of 48 years between 1859 and 1907, and multilayered architecture, as a result of the four floors being constructed at different times. A distinctive architectural element is the clock tower which dominates the intersection of the two streets. Its location is still used as a point of reference for the measure of distances from the centre of Melbourne.

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.

SIGNS OF SPRING

August is the last Winter month in Australia and typically, it still carries a bit of oomph in terms of cold and wet weather. This year, we've had early signs of Spring, including some windy weather, which we more often see in Spring. Nevertheless, it's good to see these signs of Spring, especially as we are going through COVID woes...

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

and also part of the Seasons meme.

ACCIDENT !

I don't know if it's just my impression, but I think now with all the successive lockdowns, I've become aware of more accidents of all kinds occurring. The other night we were disturbed by a bang outside and going out we saw that a car accident had happened up our street. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, but the cars were a bit of a mess.

Lockdown fatigue has been described worldwide as a state of exhaustion caused by the long-term effects of COVID-19 and the changes it has caused to every aspect of your life. It is a state experienced when people have had to come to terms with a virus that has affected their life, including their freedom, and which has continued for months, sometimes with no end in sight until vaccination has become widespread or an effective treatment is in wide use.

If you are feeling demotivated, sluggish or exhausted despite potentially having more downtime due to a disrupted routine, you could well be suffering from lockdown fatigue. If your nerves are on edge, if you feel jittery, if you get into more arguments, behave in uncharacteristic ways, yes, you guessed it, you could have lockdown fatigue. No surprise then of news of more accidents, more affrays, more crimes...

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

KOOKABURRAS

Kookaburras are terrestrial tree kingfishers of the genus Dacelo native to Australia and New Guinea, which grow to between 28–42 cm in length. The name is a loanword from  the Wiradjuri language guuguubarra, onomatopoeic of its call. The loud distinctive call of the Laughing Kookaburra is widely used as a stock sound effect in situations that involve a bush setting.

They are found in habitats ranging from humid forest to arid savanna, as well as in suburban areas with tall trees or near running water. Even though they belong to the larger group known as "kingfishers", kookaburras are not closely associated with water. This laughing kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) is a large robust bird occupying dry eucalypt forest, woodland, city parks and gardens. Here they are perching on a gum tree in the Darebin Parklands in Melbourne's inner northeastern suburbs. 

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme.

AT THE NEST

"The Nest" is a sculpture made by artists David Bell and Gary Tippett from recycled materials and is located in the Darebin Parklands, in suburban Melbourne.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

FRENCH LAVENDER

Lavandula stoechas (French lavender, Spanish lavender, or topped lavender) is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, occurring naturally in Mediterranean countries. It is an evergreen shrub, usually growing to 30–100 cm tall and occasionally up to 2 m high in the subspecies luisieri.

The leaves are 1–4 cm long, greyish and tomentose. The flowers, which appear in late spring and early summer, are pink to purple, produced on spikes 2 cm long at the top of slender, leafless stems 10–30 cm long; each flower is subtended by a bract 4–8 mm long. At the top of the spike are a number of much larger, sterile bracts (no flowers between them), 10–50 mm long and bright lavender purple (rarely white).

This species is more fragile than common English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), as it is less winter hardy; but harsher and more resinous in its oils. Like other lavenders, it is associated with hot, dry, sunny conditions in alkaline soils. However, it tolerates a range of situations, though it may be short-lived. Selected forms are grown as ornamental plants. The cultivar 'Willow Vale' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

FERN

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.

IN THE LANE

With COVID restrictions easing, life in the City is returning to some degree of normality. A return to pre-COVID life may still take a few years, however, we lose no opportunity to take advantage of what we now can. A stroll in Melbourne's famous, stopping to drink a coffee or enjoy lunch are some of life's little pleasures that one does not fully appreciate until they are denied one.

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 FLOWERS

We've had a very mild Winter this year and venturing out into the garden, fills me with gratitude for our climate, which allows the flowering of all sorts of plants in Winter.

From left to right, top: Chimonanthus; Correa; Arisarum;

From left to right, middle: Protea; Magnolia; Viola;

From left to right, bottom: Eriostemon; Erythrina; Eryops.

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

SECRET

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme