SUNRISE ON THE YARRA

Sunrise on the Yarra River in Melbourne, Australia.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Saturday Silhouettes meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme.

FRIDAY GREENS #61 - CURTIN UNIVERSITY

Welcome to this meme active every Friday. The theme is "Friday Greens" and you can post images, art, photos where the predominant colour is GREEN!

GREEN is the colour between blue and yellow in the spectrum; coloured like grass or emeralds.

Curtin University is an Australian public university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. The University is named after the 14th Prime Minister of Australia, John Curtin, and is the largest university in Western Australia, with over 50,000 students (as of 2014) at locations including Perth, Margaret River, Kalgoorlie, Sydney, Malaysia and Singapore. 

Curtin was conferred University status after the legislation was passed by the State Government of Western Australia in 1986. Since then, the University has been expanding its presence and currently has campuses in Sydney, Singapore, and Sarawak. It has ties with 90 exchange universities in more than 20 countries.

The University comprises five main faculties with over 95 specialists centres. Curtin was awarded five-stars overall in the annual QS Stars university ratings for 2014. Curtin is ranked 284 by QS World University Rankings 2015. As of 2013, the University is also ranked in The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) as one of the top 500 world universities.

This post is also part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

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DELPHINIUM

Delphinium ‘Blue Bird’ is a Pacific Giant Delphinium in the family Ranunculaceae suitable for USDA Zones: 2-9. Delphiniums are the stars of the early summer border. Plants form a low mound of deeply-cut green leaves, bearing tall spikes of satiny flowers. This selection has beautiful clear blue petals, with a white centre, or “bee”. Removing faded spikes at the base will encourage repeat blooming in Autumn. In hot, humid summer regions, plants do not usually last more than 2 to 3 years. Plants are often attacked by mildew in mid summer; simply cut back hard to encourage fresh foliage. Use a high phosphorus fertiliser each year, in early spring. Take caution, as this plant is harmful if eaten!

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

HARBOUR CENTRE, VANCOUVER

Harbour Centre is a notable skyscraper in the central business district of Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The "Lookout" tower atop the office building makes it one of the tallest structures in Vancouver and a prominent landmark on the city's skyline. With its 360-degree viewing deck, it also serves as a tourist attraction with the Top of Vancouver Revolving Restaurant, offering a physically unobstructed view of the city. During the dot-com boom of the 1990s, it served as the headquarters for several up and coming tech firms, including Stormix Technologies, NetNation and others. Harbour Centre opened in 1977.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Saturday Silhouettes meme.

FRIDAY GREENS #60 - YARRA BEND

Welcome to this meme active every Friday. The theme is "Friday Greens" and you can post images, art, photos where the predominant colour is GREEN!

GREEN is the colour between blue and yellow in the spectrum; coloured like grass or emeralds.

Yarra Bend Park is a 260 hectare (642 acre) park in the Melbourne suburb of Kew. Located 4 km northeast of Melbourne's CBD, it is the largest area of natural bushland left in inner Melbourne. The most notable feature of the park is the Yarra River which flows for 12 km through it. The park hosts two golf courses, two historic boathouses, sheds and a number of cycle and walking trails. It receives approximately 1.5 million visitors per year. (The green contraption in the foreground is a lawn roller - just in case you've led a sheltered life...)

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AGAPANTHUS

Agapanthus is the only genus in the subfamily Agapanthoideae of the flowering plant family Amaryllidaceae. The family is in the monocot order Asparagales. The name is derived from scientific Greek: αγάπη (agape) = love, άνθος (anthos) = flower. Some species of Agapanthus are commonly known as lily of the Nile (or African lily in the UK), although they are not lilies and all of the species are native to Southern Africa (South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique) though some have become naturalised in scattered places around the world (Australia, Great Britain, Mexico, Ethiopia, Jamaica, etc.).

Species boundaries are not clear in the genus, and in spite of having been intensively studied, the number of species recognised by different authorities varies from 6 to 10. The type species for the genus is Agapanthus africanus shown here. A great many hybrids and cultivars have been produced and they are cultivated throughout warm areas of the world.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

FLORIST FLOWERS

It is a very civilised thing to be able to go into a florist shop and buy fresh flowers on any day of the year. Flowers not only make fantastic gifts, but they are also indispensable in one's own home as a means of cheering people up and beautifying one's interior spaces.

This post is part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Nature Footstep Digital Art Meme,
and also part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

FREMANTLE SUNRISE

Fremantle is a major Australian port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829. It was declared a city in 1929, and has a population of approximately 27,000. The city is named after Captain Charles Fremantle, the English naval officer who established a camp at the site on 2 May 1829. The city contains well-preserved 19th century buildings and other heritage features. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for Fremantle is Freo. The Nyungar name for the area is Walyallup.

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,
and also part of the Trees & Bushes meme.

EVENING TRAIN

Home-time for the commuters returning from work...

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Saturday Silhouettes meme.

FRIDAY GREENS #59 - PICKLE PLANT

Welcome to this meme active every Friday. The theme is "Friday Greens" and you can post images, art, photos where the predominant colour is GREEN!

GREEN is the colour between blue and yellow in the spectrum; coloured like grass or emeralds.

Delosperma echinatum (Pickle Plant) is a low shrubby sprawling succulent shrub, often prostrate but can grow to 30-40 cm tall, with thin wiry stems holding pairs of 2.5 cm long barrel-shaped green leaves that, like the younger stems, bristle with soft spine-like white hairs. From late Winter through Autumn, with a peak in Spring, appear the 2 cm wide pale yellow flowers held at the stem tips.

Plant in full sun to light shade and irrigate occasionally to very little. Hardy to around -4˚C. This plant grows well in the garden in a well-drained soil in near frost free gardens or as a potted plant. In nature this plant grows as in the shrub understory from around 500 to 3,000 feet in elevation in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The name for the genus comes from the Greek words 'delos' meaing "visible" and and 'sperma' meaing "seed" in reference to the seed capsules not having a membranes over the top so that the seed are exposed when the fruit capsules opens. The specific epithet comes from the Greek word 'echinos' meaning "prickly" in reference to the thick hairs on the leaves. The shape of the leaf has earned this plant the common name of Pickle Plant or sometimes the confusing name of Pickle Cactus.

Delosperma echinatum was originally described by Martin Heinrich Gustav Schwantes, a German archaeologist and botanist specialist of Aizoaceae in 1927 as Mesembryanthemum echinatum in Möller's Deutsche Gärtn.-Zeitung but this plant has since been placed within several other genera in the Ice Plant family, the Aizoaceae, with names such as Delosperma pruinosum, Mesembryanthemum echinatum, Trichodiadema echinatum and Drosanthemum pruinosum. While the name Delosperma echinatum seems to be the one currently considered correct, The Plant List (the collaboration between Kew and Missouri Botanic Garden) has this name as "unresolved".

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

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MARVEL OF PERU

Mirabilis jalapa (the four o'clock flower or marvel of Peru) is the most commonly grown ornamental species of Mirabilis, and is available in a range of colours. Mirabilis in Latin means wonderful and Jalapa is a town in Mexico. Mirabilis jalapa is said to have been exported from the Peruvian Andes in 1540. The flowers usually open from late afternoon onwards, then producing a strong, sweet-smelling fragrance, hence the first of its common names.

It belongs to the Nyctaginaceae family. A curious aspect of this plant is that flowers of different colours can be found simultaneously on the same plant. Different colour variation in the flower and different colour flowers in same plant. Additionally, an individual flower can be splashed with different colours. Another interesting point is a colour-changing phenomenon. For example, in the yellow variety, as the plant matures, it can display flowers that gradually change to a dark pink colour. Similarly white flowers can change to light violet.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

ENGLAND, LONDON, WESTMINSTER

The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Commonly known as the Houses of Parliament after its occupants, It is also known as the 'heart of British politics'. The Palace lies on the northern bank of the River Thames in the City of Westminster, in central London.

Its name, which derives from the neighbouring Westminster Abbey, may refer to either of two structures: The Old Palace, a medieval building complex that was destroyed by fire in 1834, and its replacement, the New Palace that stands today. For ceremonial purposes, the palace retains its original style and status as a royal residence and is the property of the Crown.

The first royal palace was built on the site in the eleventh century, and Westminster was the primary residence of the Kings of England until a fire destroyed much of the complex in 1512. After that, it served as the home of the Parliament of England, which had been meeting there since the thirteenth century, and also as the seat of the Royal Courts of Justice, based in and around Westminster Hall.

In 1834, an even greater fire ravaged the heavily rebuilt Houses of Parliament, and the only medieval structures of significance to survive were Westminster Hall, the Cloisters of St Stephen's, the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft, and the Jewel Tower. The subsequent competition for the reconstruction of the Palace was won by the architect Charles Barry, whose design was for new buildings in the Gothic Revival style, specifically inspired by the English Perpendicular Gothic style of the 14th-16th centuries.

The remains of the Old Palace (with the exception of the detached Jewel Tower) were incorporated into its much larger replacement, which contains over 1,100 rooms organised symmetrically around two series of courtyards. Part of the New Palace's area of 3.24 hectares (8 acres) was reclaimed from the Thames, which is the setting of its principal 266-metre (873 ft) façade, called the River Front.

Barry was assisted by Augustus W. N. Pugin, a leading authority on Gothic architecture and style, who provided designs for the decorations and furnishings of the Palace. Construction started in 1840 and lasted for thirty years, suffering great delays and cost overruns, as well as the death of both leading architects; works for the interior decoration continued intermittently well into the twentieth century.

Major conservation work has been carried out since, to reverse the effects of London's air pollution, and extensive repairs took place after the Second World War, including the reconstruction of the Commons Chamber following its bombing in 1941. The Palace is one of the centres of political life in the United Kingdom; "Westminster" has become a metonym for the UK Parliament, and the Westminster system of government has taken its name after it.

The Elizabeth Tower, in particular, which is often referred to by the name of its main bell, "Big Ben", is an iconic landmark of London and the United Kingdom in general, one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city and an emblem of parliamentary democracy. The Palace of Westminster has been a Grade I listed building since 1970 and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.

This post is part of the Wednesday Waters meme,
and also part of the Waterworld Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday Meme.

CHINESE NEW YEAR

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.

RECLINING KITTY

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme,
and also part of the Camera Critters meme.

TRAIN STATION

The Fairfield Train Station early in the morning. Commuting into the City for work...

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Saturday Silhouettes meme.

FRIDAY GREENS #58 - GREEN ART

Welcome to this meme active every Friday. The theme is "Friday Greens" and you can post images, art, photos where the predominant colour is GREEN!
GREEN is the colour between blue and yellow in the spectrum; coloured like grass or emeralds.

I appreciate your comments, and please add a link back to this page from your own Friday Greens blog post.

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'JUST JOEY' ROSE

'Just Joey' was bred by Cants of Colchester, United Kingdom, in 1972. It was named for the wife of the Managing Director of Cants of Colchester, Joey Pawsey. This Hybrid Tea rose performs well throughout Australia and there are many fine specimens in Melbourne gardens, beginning with ours, where we have no less than four bushes of this variety.

The plant is vigorous and grows well, achieving a height of 1.5 m and width of 1.2 m. Flowers are borne one per stem and can be of an impressive size (up to 20cm in Spring and Autumn, slightly smaller during Summer). The bush is disease and heat resistant and tends to survive well with a little care.

The flower is an eye-catching ripe apricot colour with a loose, informal display of pretty frilled petals. Probably its most seductive feature is its intense, spicy fragrance which will quickly fill a room, when a bunch is placed in a vase. This perfume is inherited from its parents (Fragrant Cloud x Dr. A.J. Verhage) also renowned for their strong scent.

It has been awarded the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit 1993 and World’s Favourite Rose 1994.When introduced, its colour and size of flowers were considered breakthroughs. This lovely rose is readily available and will reward and delight any rose lover!

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.