MORNING COFFEE

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YARRA SUNSET

Sunset on Melbourne's Yarra River, with the Seafarers Pedestrian Bridge.

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ORANGE STORY

Love amongst the clivias...

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PIGEONS

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and also part of the Saturday Critters meme.

YARRA SUNRISE

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FRINGE-LILY

Thysanotus tuberosus, known as the common fringe-lily is a perennial herb in the Asparagaceae family, which is endemic to Australia. The generic name comes from the Greek θύσανος (thysanos) and means "tasselled", while species name tuberosus refers to the crisp tasting edible root.

The leaves are linear in shape, and round at cross section towards the top. The plant reaches a height from 20 cm to 60 cm tall and grows in a wide variety of situations, from semi-arid parts of south eastern Australia to coastal areas receiving more than 1300 mm of rain per year. The plants are often found in open country, heathlands or in dry sclerophyll woodland.

Flowers form from September to April. The three-petalled flowers are purple, with frilly edges, and only last for one day. They are among the more colourful wildflowers in Southeastern Australia. There two sub-species: The tepals are somewhat longer and wider in subsp. tuberosus, being 10 to 19 mm long, and around 10 mm wide. In subsp. parviflorus the inner anthers are smaller, and straight to slightly curved. Fringe-lilies are not often seen in cultivation despite their obvious beauty. Generally they have proved to be difficult to maintain in cultivation.

T. tuberosus should be grown in a well-drained sunny position. It is also suited to growing in a container. Propagation is relatively easy from seed which does not require any special pre-treatment.

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AUTUMN HARBINGER

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TIME

“We can live in none
but the present

the past is past
the bygone days

cannot be filled with life
we are no time travellers” ― Dahi Tamara Koch

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TIMBER

This post is part of the Weekend in Black and White,
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GILT STATUE

In January 1911, the Archbishop of Melbourne, Archbishop Carr appointed Fr Joseph King as founder and first parish priest of the new parish of Our Lady Help of Christians East Brunswick. Fr King celebrated the first Masses in the parish on 22 January 1911, on an altar made up of packing cases, in Excelsior Hall at 767 Nicholson Street. At a parish meeting 10 days later, on 1 February, a decision was taken to build a church-school on a block of land, bounded by Barkly, Dean and Holden Streets, which Archbishop Carr had given as a gift to the new parish. The Sisters of Mercy were appointed to teach at the school and the church-school building was blessed and opened on 5 November 1911.

The statue of Our Lady, on top of the church tower in East Brunswick was carved by a Sydney artist from Queensland beech wood, covered with copper and then gold leaf. The statue was blessed and installed in October 1918 when Mr W. (Tas) Lennox and assistants hoisted it to the top of the tower with a wooden crane. It was the first statue of its kind in honour of Our Lady Help of Christians to be erected in Australia.

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PINK LAKE, AUSTRALIA

A few kilometers west of Dimboola, Victoria, next to the Western Highway, you can find Pink Lake. This lake is easily viewed from the rest-stop beside the highway and you can walk down the path to the edge of the lake. As you walk along the path to the lake, you will see yellow gums, buloke trees and paperbarks, giving way to the smaller and very distinctive salt tolerant plants that grow in this unique environment. The pink colour of the water comes from a pigment secreted by microscopic algae.

The intensity of the pink varies with the amount of water in the lake. When the lake is drier more light is reflected from the white crystallised salt reducing the impact of the pink. The salt was commercially harvested from the lake for many years and some of the relics from that time can still be seen near the edge of the lake. Harvesting and selling of Pink Lake Salt is now carried out again.

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GREAT HALL, NGV

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites. The main gallery, known as NGV International, is located on St Kilda Road, in the heart of the Melbourne Arts Precinct of Southbank, with a branch gallery at Federation Square.

The Great Hall, created by Leonard French between 1963-1967 is a magnificent space, often used for performances, concerts and all sorts of other functions. The ceiling is high (13.72 metres), and vast (60.9 x 15.24 metres) and so heavy with glass and steel that its downward projecting triangles need to be held up by a series of slim steel columns. Looking up, one becomes aware of the wonder of one of the largest glass ceilings in the world. The kaleidoscopic tent of light suspended high above the NGV International's Great Hall is part of the building's fabric and an iconic part of the National Gallery of Victoria.

Leonard William French OBE (born 8 October 1928) is an Australian artist, known principally for major stained glass works. French was born in Brunswick, Victoria. His stained glass creations include a series of panels in the cafe and foyer of the National Library of Australia in Canberra, and this stained glass ceiling for the great hall at the National Gallery of Victoria.

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RED DOOR

If one lives in a house with a red door, one must wear red pants!

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AORAKI, NEW ZEALAND

Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park is in the South Island of New Zealand, near the town of Twizel. Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand's highest mountain, and Aoraki/Mount Cook Village lie within the park. The area was gazetted as a national park in October 1953 and consists of reserves that were established as early as 1887 to protect the area's significant vegetation and landscape.

Even though most of the park is alpine terrain, it is easily accessible. The only road access into Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park is via State Highway 80, which starts near Twizel, at 65 kilometres distance the closest town to the park, and leads directly to Mount Cook Village, where the road ends. The village is situated within the park, however, it consists only of a hotel and motels, as well as housing and amenities for the staff of the hotel and motels and other support personnel. The park stretches for about 60 kilometres along the southwest-northeast direction of the Southern Alps, covering 722 km2 on the southeastern side of the main spine of the Alps.

The valleys of the Tasman, Hooker, and Godley glaciers are the only entrances into this alpine territory that lie below 1,000 m. Glaciers cover 40% of the park area, notably the Tasman Glacier in the Tasman Valley east of Aoraki / Mount Cook. Eight of the twelve largest glaciers in New Zealand lie within Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, all of which terminate at proglacial lakes formed in recent decades due to a sustained period of shrinking.

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A SMALL WORLD

View from my window through a small crystal ball. Note the photo is rotated 180˚ as the image through the glass is normally seen upside down.

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YARRA RIVER

The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, (Aboriginal: Birrarung, and Wongete) is a perennial river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river are where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches. From its source in the Yarra Ranges, it flows 242 kilometres west through the Yarra Valley which opens out into plains as it winds its way through Greater Melbourne before emptying into Hobsons Bay in northernmost Port Phillip.

The river was a major food source and meeting place for indigenous Australians from prehistoric times. Shortly after the arrival of European settlers land clearing forced the remaining Wurundjeri to neighbouring territories and away from the river. Originally called Birrarung by the Wurundjeri, the current name was mistranslated from another Wurundjeri term in the Boonwurrung language; Yarro-yarro, meaning "ever-flowing".

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BLUE LITHODORA

Lithodora diffusa ‘Grace Ward’ (also called blue lithospermum, USDA Zone: 5-9) in the Boraginaceae family is a choice ground-cover or rock garden plant, making an unforgettable display when grown well. Plants form a low, creeping mat of hairy dark-green leaves, studded with sapphire-blue star flowers from late spring through summer.

The Greek lithodora literally means "stone gift", referring to their preferred rocky habitats. Plants must have a well-drained, acidic soil in order to thrive. Heavy clay soils are sure death. In colder regions this plant will benefit from a light covering of evergreen boughs as soon as the soil is frozen in late Autumn. Combines well with heaths and heathers, since plants have similar requirements. Evergreen where hardy. Not especially vigorous.

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FED SQUARE, MELBOURNE

Federation Square in Melbourne's CBD, is a mixed-use development in the inner city, covering an area of 3.2 hectares and centred on two major public spaces: Open squares (St. Paul's Court and The Square) and one covered (The Atrium), built on top of a concrete deck above busy railway lines. It is located at the intersection between Flinders Street and Swanston Street/St Kilda Road in Melbourne's Central Business District, adjacent to Melbourne's busiest railway station.

The geometric shapes that make up the buildings of Fed Sq are not only an external decorative feature, but they figure prominently in the architectural construction of the buildings and covered spaces within.

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LARGE

The Abu Simbel temples are two massive carved rock temples at Abu Simbel (أبو سمبل in Arabic), a village in Nubia, southern Egypt, near the border with Sudan. They are situated on the western bank of Lake Nasser, about 230 km southwest of Aswan (about 300 km by road). The complex is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Nubian Monuments," which run from Abu Simbel downriver to Philae (near Aswan).

The twin temples were originally carved out of the mountainside during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II in the 13th century BC, as a lasting monument to himself and his queen Nefertari, to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Kadesh. Their huge external rock relief figures have become iconic. The complex was relocated in its entirety in 1968, on an artificial hill made from a domed structure, high above the Aswan High Dam reservoir. The relocation of the temples was necessary to prevent their being submerged during the creation of Lake Nasser, the massive artificial water reservoir formed after the building of the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River.

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MACHINE

Machine | məˈʃiːn | noun:

An apparatus using mechanical power and having several parts, each with a definite function and together performing a particular task: A complex machine with many small moving parts is difficult to fix if it breaks down.

Etymology:

Mid-16th century (originally denoting a structure): From French, via Latin from Doric Greek makhana (Greek mēkhanē, from mēkhos ‘contrivance’).

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