EMPTY

As our lockdown continues, the City remains deserted and a lonely figure on this pedestrian bridge over the Yarra River is testimony to the fact that our lives have been changed quite radically in the last three months or so. Normally, this part of the City would have been crowded and buzzing with life. Despite the Spring sunshine, the newly sprouted vegetation and flowers on the banks of the river are more like a funereal wreath on the expiring body of our once lively metropolis... The new COVID-19 cases are almost down to zero now and we have few deaths lately, but nevertheless our restrictions remain Draconian and millions of Melbournians are suffering as a result.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

COVID CITY

Deserted Melbourne City devoid of traffic during the COVID Lockdown...

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

QANTAS

Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an acronym for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, New South Wales, with its main hub at Sydney Airport. It is Australia's largest airline, the oldest continuously operated airline in the world and the second oldest in the world overall. Qantas headquarters are located in the Qantas Centre in the Mascot suburb of the City of Botany Bay. Qantas still retains a 65% share of the Australian domestic market and carries 18.7% of all passengers travelling in and out of Australia.

With the COVID crisis, QANTAS like most other airlines around the world is struggling to survive. Most of its flights have been suspended and most of its planes are languishing in the airports, being maintained and hopeful for a return to the skies. It has shed one-fifth of its employees while keeping another 15,000 stood down. Government support is the only way the company and its employees can weather the COVID storm. 

Here's to happier days, when the kangaroo can fly again and we can travel to our destinations of choice around the world!

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part fo the Ruby Tuesday meme,

and also part fo the Travel Tuesday meme,

and also part fo the Wordless Wednesday meme.

ANDEAN SAGE

Salvia discolor (Andean sage) is a herbaceous perennial growing in a very localised area in Peru—it is equally rare in horticulture and in its native habitat. William Robinson wrote of its charms in 1933. The plant is scandent, meaning that it climbs without the use of tendrils, with wiry white stems growing from its base. Mistletoe-green leaves of various sizes grow in pairs about 1-2 in apart on the stem, with the undersides covered in white hairs. The leaves, stem and flower buds all exhibit a strong and distinct odour of blackcurrant.

The 2.5 cm long deeply saturated dark purple/blue (almost black) flowers are held in a pistachio-green calyx, growing on 30 cm or longer inflorescences. The stems of the inflorescences are shiny and covered with glands, which frequently have insects stuck to them. It blooms during hot spells through summer and autumn and is a frequently grown ornamental on the French and Italian Rivieras, where it grows 1 metre high and wide. It has begun to be a popular ornamental plant in Melbourne gardens, currently.

A FLORAL TRIBUTE TO BLACK LIVES UNJUSTLY LOST & WASTED

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

VEGETABLES

Now during these dire days of COVID19, with more and more people confined at home, it's important to look after our diet. If you are lucky enough to have a garden in your back yard, eating fresh produce is a lot easier, as planting a few vegetable seedlings can give you edible results within a few weeks. Other keen gardeners grow their salad in pots on balconies, terraces and rooftops. The rest of us may need to venture out and shop for our health-giving meals at the supermarket or greengrocer. In any case, eating fresh, seasonal produce can only help your body be protected from all sorts of ills!

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,

and also part of the Seasons meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme.

SOCIAL DISTANCING

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme.

LAS VEGAS, USA

Las Vegas (Spanish for "The Meadows"), officially the City of Las Vegas and often known simply as Vegas, is the 28th-most populated city in the United States, the most populated city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area and is the largest city within the greater Mojave Desert.

Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and nightlife. The Las Vegas Valley as a whole serves as the leading financial, commercial, and cultural centre for Nevada. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous for its mega casino–hotels and associated activities. It is a top three destination in the United States for business conventions and a global leader in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any other city in the world.

Today, Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the world's most visited tourist destinations. The city's tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, films, television programs, and music videos.

Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated American city founded within that century (a similar distinction earned by Chicago in the 1800s). Population growth has accelerated since the 1960s, and between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85.2%. Rapid growth has continued into the 21st century, and according to a 2013 estimate, the population is 603,488 with a regional population of 2,027,828.

"Las Vegas" is often used to describe areas beyond official city limits—especially the areas on and near the Las Vegas Strip, which is actually located within the unincorporated communities of Paradise, Winchester, and Enterprise.

On October 1, 2017, a mass shooting occurred at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. During the closing performance by singer Jason Aldean at a packed outdoor concert, a gunman located on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino across Las Vegas Boulevard opened fire into the festival crowd.

The shooter was identified as 64-year-old Stephen Craig Paddock, who lived in Mesquite, Nevada. He was found dead in his hotel room with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. With at least 60 fatalities (including the perpetrator) and 527 injuries, the shooting surpassed the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting as the deadliest shooting by a single gunman in United States history.

Unfortunately, this is the second mass shooting in recent history in Las Vegas. The 2014 Las Vegas shootings occurred on June 8, 2014 in northeastern Las Vegas, Nevada, when a married couple, Jerad and Amanda Miller, committed a shooting spree in which five people died, including themselves. The couple, who espoused extreme anti-government views, first killed two Las Vegas police officers at a restaurant before fleeing into a Walmart, where they killed an intervening armed civilian. The couple died after engaging responding officers in a shootout; police shot and killed Jerad, while Amanda committed suicide after being wounded.

It is sad to see these mass shootings being repeated every now and then in the USA, in large cities and small towns. Looking worldwide, the USA leads in such violence and it seems that its, history, its laws and powerful lobbying perpetuate the problem. An interesting case is made here. One can only sympathise with the plight of the family and friends of the victims in these tragic circumstances and hope against hope that something may be done about these outrages by US lawmakers.

The USA could have been and should have been the best country in the world to live in. When we visited there several times in the 1990s and up to the early 2000s we were amazed by the country and its people. It is sad to see it slipping into a downward spiral simply because a few bad apples are ruining the whole crop and nobody is willing to take those bad apples out of the bushels...

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.

REMEMBRANCE DAY 2014

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

This post is part of the Nature Footsteps Floral Macros meme,
and also part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

OCCUPY MELBOURNE

"Occupy Wall Street", which commenced on September 17, 2011, is a protest that began as hundreds of people descended on the streets of Manhattan's financial district. Since then, the movement has spread to dozens of other cities. And, on October 15, the movement went global with protests in dozens of countries. In Melbourne, Australia, protesters occupied Melbourne City Square on Swanston Street since Saturday 15 October. Melbourne Mayor, Robert Doyle, said that the activists who had camped in the City Square for nearly a week had caused at least $15,000 damage.

This morning, October 21, more than 100 police swooped on City Square at 7:00 am, giving about 120 anti-capitalism demonstrators until 9:00 am to leave. The protesters refused to leave and by mid-morning about 20 protesters were arrested. By lunchtime, more police officers, the anti-riot unit, dog squad members and mounted police had come into the area just as lunchtime crowds swelled around the Collins St/Swanston St intersection.

At lunchtime as I walked down Swanston St, the very large number of police cars  parked everywhere alerted me to the events around the City Square.

Increased security outside the Melbourne Town Hall as one approached the City Square to the South.

More police cars parked on Swanston St, looking to the south towards the City Square, where one can see the crowd in the distance.

Police barricading Swanston St at Collins St. Traffic had completely stopped and tram services were severely disrupted.

Police on Swanston St, directly in front of the City Square.

An enthusiastic protester who lost no opportunity to explain to everyone who approached him why this event was occurring and why he was there.

The police meant business. Nobody got past them!

An observer atop the traffic lights at the corner of Collins and Swanston Sts.

Motorists had a very hard time in the City today as this poor woman found out, the hard way!

The dog squad were also there in full force. The dog sculpture adjacent to the City Square provides an ironic touch!

And then the police moved in to clear the intersection...

Nothing like the mounted police to move the crowds! I always feel sorry for the poor horses...

And the poor dogs...

The Europe XXL festival in 2009 saw the French city of Lille inundated with striking, six-meter-tall sculptures – colossal jet-black infants with bat-like wings and reptilian tails. This October these mischievous monstrosities descended on Melbourne, as the city's CBD became a playground for a flock of fiendish cherubs. Along Swanston Street and St Kilda Road the demonic angels manifest themselves, surveying the city's occupants with otherworldly eyes. The parade is the handiwork of subversive Russian art collective AES+F, an outfit known for their irreverent hybrid works incorporating a broad spectrum of imagery – from pop culture and Hollywood cinema to religious iconography, mythology and classical art. The angelic demons seemed a very appropriate backdrop for the goings on below them...

The police and the crowd get right up close and personal. Good to see at least one policeman is enjoying himself!

This poor young chap got a little too close to the pepper spray and had to receive first aid.

On Collins St, looking towards the west.

There certainly was no shortage of police there today!

City Square was quickly and completely fenced off. The truck is full of the protesters' belongings, tents, rubbish, etc.

"City Square is temporarily closed off for maintenance...

"Occupy Melbourne" was a token gesture of solidarity with the people of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement by a few political activists. It is fortunate that Australia is not going through as tough an economic time as other countries are, otherwise if it were different I am sure the police would not have had such an easy time budging a much, much larger crowd of malcontents...