BAY VISTAS

South Melbourne Town Hall is a civic building located at Bank Place in South Melbourne, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. It is of state heritage significance to Victoria being listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The building can be seen in the centre of the first photograph, with its characteristic, prominent clock tower.

The hall was built between 1879-80 to the design of local architect Charles Webb in the Second Empire style, and is considered one of the grandest examples of this style in Australia. The building is on the Victorian Heritage Register and is part of the important Bank Place precinct, one of the best preserved Victorian era conservation areas in the world.

Port Phillip Bay shown here and around which Melbourne is built, covers 1,930 square kilometres  and the shore stretches roughly 264 km. Although it is extremely shallow for its size, most of the bay is navigable. The deepest portion is only 24 metres, and half the region is shallower than 8 m. The volume of the water in the bay is around 25 cubic kilometres.

This post is part of the Water World Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,

and also part of the Nature Footsteps Waters meme.

IN ST MARY'S, W. MELBOURNE

St Mary Star of the Sea is one of the most beautiful and historically significant churches in Australia. The foundation stone of St Mary's was laid in 1882 and the building was completed by 1900. Since 2002 restoration has been ongoing to restore the church to its original splendor. Built with seating for over 1,200 people, it has been described as the largest parish church in Melbourne, in Victoria, or even in Australia.

The church is quite splendid and unusually for churches in Australia, contains a grave, that of Monsignor Matthew Carey (1848-1928). He was a man of extraordinary vision and competence. He was given the distinguished title of Monsignor and was appointed as Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Melbourne in 1926 by Archbishop Mannix. He was appointed to the parish of West Melbourne in 1898. He oversaw the final stages of construction of the splendid church of St Mary Star of the Sea. He was no doubt involved with the installation of the significant three-manual Fincham organ in the west gallery, as he was very musical and encouraged fine performances of religious music in churches.

This post is part of the Taphophile Tragics meme,
and also part of the Our World Tuesday meme.

THE GREENERY NURSERY, HEIDELBERG

The Greenery Garden Centre has been operating on a gentle bend of the Yarra river for over 35 years. It has two convienient locations, one in Heidelberg and one in Lower Templestowe, both of them quite extensive and where one may find all sorts of gardening needs: Outdoor furniture, homewares, plants, water features, pots and planters, garden tools, indoor and outdoor garden art and cast iron urns and fountains.

I always enjoy visiting there and at the back of the nursery, where the seedlings are displayed there is a large "trompe-l'oeil" mural of verdant countryside abloom with all sorts of plants. It blends in well with the surroundings. Forgive the poor quality of the photos, it was very difficult to do the mural justice on account of the strong dappled sunlight and shadows.

This post is part of the Monday Mural meme.

HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, SURREY HILLS

Holy Trinity Surrey Hills & Mont Albert, in the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne, is a faith community in the liberal Anglo-Catholic tradition. The parish began Surrey Hills in 1885 and has occupied the current site for over 100 years. It was a two-church parish until the closure of the original church building, St George's Mont Albert, in 1998.

The church community is warm and caring and the parish is a place to meet neighbours and to explore the Christian faith together in a rational and open-minded fashion, and with a sence of enjoyment as worship is as much about laughter, as it is about solemnity. There is a strong sense of community in the parish and there are many opportunities to be involved with each other through parish activities.

Holy Trinity is a place where God is encountered in ‘the beauty of holiness’, in the honesty of preaching and discussion, and in the lives of those trying to respond to God’s call. All who enter God's dwelling place are home to a varied and friendly community that includes, in its own way, the diversity of the greater community.

Psalm 76 begins:

1	In Judah is God known:          his name is great in Israel.
2	In Salem also is his tabernacle,          and his dwelling place in Zion.

This post is part of the Spiritual Sunday meme,
and also part of the Psalm Sunday meme.

Here is Psalm 76 set to Music in Dutch:

MORE CITY RAIN

Melbourne gets quite a few Spring showers, which ensures that we always get a good show of Spring flowers. There are also lots of photo opportunities with the puddles that form!

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme.

RAINBOW

My office window faces south and I can see the Eureka Tower (Melbourne's tallest skyscraper at nearly 300 m) in Southbank. After a Spring shower, it is good to see the rainbow come up.

This post is part of Sylvia's Skywatch Friday.

MELBOURNE STREET TREES 19

Flowering crabapples (Malus species) are popular ornamental trees in the Melbourne urban landscape. Some crabapple varieties bloom relatively early, others bloom mid-season and some bloom towards the end of crabapple season. Crabapple flowers may be single (5 petals), semi-double (6 to 10 petals) or double (more than 10 petals).

Single-flowered crabapple varieties tend to bloom earlier than semi-double or double-flowered varieties. Actual dates of blossoming can vary each year depending on weather conditions. The length of the blossoming period can range from 1 to 2 weeks, depending on the variety and weather conditions. Crabapple flower buds are attractive even before they open, developing color as they swell - called the balloon or bud stage. The balloon may be a different color than later flowers. For example, the balloon may be red-purple but flowers open later to pink or white.

Crabapple trees are closely related to apple trees (also Malus) grown for fruit. The main difference is that crabapple fruit is 5 cm diameter or less; fruit greater than 5 cm diameter is classified as an apple.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

MITRE TAVERN SIGNS

Bank Place is a street in Melbourne, Victoria. It is a short, narrow laneway, running south from Little Collins Street between Queen Street and William Street in the central business district of Melbourne.

Located in the heart of the financial sector, Bank Place (which incorporates several smaller lanes, such as Mitre Lane) is an oasis of heritage pre-war buildings dating from the 1860s through to the 1920s. Looking north, a vista is framed by Normanby Chambers.

The precinct is subject to heritage restrictions, and some of the significant buildings including, the Mitre Tavern, a historic pub established in 1868 and remodelled in the Queen Anne style between 1900 and 1910. Mitre Tavern was a popular 'bohemian' hangout for many of Australia's most prominent artists of the early twentieth century, alongside the neighbouring Savage Club.

Inside the tavern one may enjoy local brews on tap and have a meal, as well as see the numerous old and new signs of pubs on display. In clement weather, the area around the pub fills up with tables and chairs for the patrons' enjoyment.

This post is part of the Signs, Signs meme.