YOU HAVE MAIL

Making some stamps from various places in Melbourne! Good fun...

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

EQUINOX SKIES

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

MORNING COFFEE

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme,
and also part of the Photo Sunday meme.

MOROCCO

Visual travel candy...

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

URBAN ANIMALS

We live in a big metropolis of over five million people, and yet we are lucky to have many parks, parklands and nature reserves right in the midst of the urban area. Within walking distance of our house is the Darebin Parklands, which straddle Alphington and Ivanhoe, approximately 10 kilometres northeast of the City of Melbourne. Darebin Creek flows through the Parklands, to join the Yarra River, at Alphington.

Darebin Parklands comprises an area of approximately 40 hectares of urban bushland, containing much native flora and fauna. The park is highly accessible being both on a bus route and adjacent to the Hurstbridge railway line. The digital mosaic below shows some of the fauna inhabiting the park.

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,

and also part of the Blue Monday meme,

and also part of the All Seasons meme.

VICTORIAN TERRACES

Terraced houses in Australia refers almost exclusively to Victorian and Edwardian era terraced houses or replicas, almost always found in the older, inner city areas of the major cities, mainly Sydney and Melbourne. Terraced housing was introduced to Australia in the 19th century. Their architectural work was based on those in London and Paris, which had the style a century earlier.

Large numbers of terraced houses were built in the inner suburbs of large Australian cities, particularly Sydney and Melbourne, mainly between the 1850s and the 1890s. The beginning of this period coincided with a population boom caused by the Victorian and New South Wales Gold Rushes of the 1850s and finished with an economic depression in the early 1890s. Detached housing became the popular style of housing in Australia following Federation in 1901.

The generic Melbourne style of terrace is distinguishable from other regional variations, often reflecting the popularity of Italianate villa architecture in the city.  Many Victorian era Melbourne terraces are built on foundations of bluestone, a solid and porous local rock quarried from the volcanic plains to the north and west of the city, although it is rare to find terraces completely constructed of the material due to the difficulty to mould it.

The majority of designers of Victorian terraces in Melbourne made an effort to deliberately hide roof elements with the use of a decorative parapet, often combined with the use balustrades above a subtle but clearly defined eave cornice and a frieze which was either plain or decorated with a row of brackets (and sometimes additional patterned bas-relief. Chimneys were often tall, visible above the parapet and elaborately Italianate in style.

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

and also part of the Seasons meme.

FRUITING SEASON

It's fruiting time for many decorative plants in the gardens, and as if to compensate for the relatively fewer flowers, this season brings us a wealth of fruits, nuts and seeds. From left to right: Victorian box (Pittosporum undulatum); Broad-leaf Privet (Ligustrum lucidum); Stinking Iris (Iris foetidissima); Indian hawthorn (Rhaphiolepsis indica), and Hawthorn haws (Crataegus monogyna).

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

and also part of the Seasons meme.

WOMEN'S DAY

HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY 2021

A day to:

• celebrate women's achievements
• raise awareness about women's equality
• lobby for accelerated gender parity
• fundraise for female-focused charities

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,

and also part of the Blue Monday meme,

and also part of the Seasons meme.

FOUR SEASONS

The changing moods of the big pond at the Darebin Parklands in suburban Melbourne. Different seasons change the atmosphere, but it's all beautiful!

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,

and also part of the Blue Monday meme,

and also part of the Seasons meme.

HEXAGONS

This is a digital manipulation and collage based on a drawing I have done using coloured pencils and watercolour. The edits using Photoshop and digital photos were merged with the original drawing.In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek ἕξ hex, "six" and γωνία, gonía, "corner, angle") is a polygon with six edges and six vertices.

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

More of my art here.

PINK

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,

and also part of the Seasons meme.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

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and also part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

CIRCUS MOSAIC

The circus mosaic in Melbourne's Victorian Arts Centre commemorates the important association between the site now occupied by the Victorian Arts Centre and the development of circus in Australia., The area referred to as "near Princes Bridge" was favoured as a circus location and "outdoor Playground" from the 1870's. One of the first tenants was the American circus, Cooper and Bailey`s which pitched its tents on the banks of the Yarra in 1877. Wirth Brothers Circus took over the lease in 1907 and demolished the existing temporary building erected earlier by Fitzgerald Brothers Circus. They built their own Olympia on the re-named Wirth Park, complete with a circus hippodrome, roller skating rink, race track, water chute and lake. It remained Wirth's Melbourne headquarters until 1953 when the buildings were destroyed by fire.

Wirth Brothers` Circus was billed as "the greatest show on earth" and became an Australian institution during its long history ( 1858 - 1953). Conveyed by its own special trains and drawing upon the major circuses of the world for its performers, it was a circus in the grand style. May Wirth ( 1895 - 1980 ) first performed with Wirth`s as a child and displayed an outstanding talent for horseback acrobatics. She went on to great international acclaim and was widely acknowledged as the finest circus equestrienne in the world. Unveiled on 7 June 1988 to mark the 150th anniversary of circus in Australia. A joint project between the Circus Fans of Australasia Inc. and the Performing Arts Museum, Victorian Arts Centre. Created by Joe Attard and David Jack of the Melbourne Mural Studio. Supported by the Commonwealth Department of Communications and the Arts.

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,

and also part of the Blue Monday meme,

and also part of the Seasons meme.

MOSAIC ART

This is a portion of a mosaic art piece on the sidewalk outside a primary school in our suburb. The children were involved in designing and making it, thus taking a prime role in beautifying their everyday surroundings in their school. A wonderful way to teach art techniques and art appreciation early on in life, as well as fostering creativity and developing talents.

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,

and also part of the Blue Monday meme,

and also part of the Seasons meme.

SPRING YELLOWS

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and also part of the Seasons meme.

DRY & WET

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and also part of the of the Seasons meme.

TRIPARTITE

Beauty is to be found all around us, provided we slow down and open our eyes so that we can look for it.

Echium flower cluster, gumnuts (seed pods of eucalyptus) and Ipheion (Star of Spring).

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

WASHINGTON SOUVENIR

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and also part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
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and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

CALENDULAS

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and also part of the Seasons meme,
and also part of the My Corner of the World meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

CHESTER, UK

Chester (Welsh: Caer, Welsh pronunciation: ['kai̯r]) is a walled city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales. With a population of 118,200 in 2011, it is the most populous settlement of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 332,200 in 2014. Chester was granted city status in 1541.

Chester was founded as a "castrum" or Roman fort with the name Deva Victrix in the reign of the Emperor Vespasian in 79 AD. One of the main army camps in Roman Britain, Deva later became a major civilian settlement. In 689, King Æthelred of Mercia founded the Minster Church of West Mercia, which later became Chester's first cathedral, and the Saxons extended and strengthened the walls to protect the city against the Danes. Chester was one of the last cities in England to fall to the Normans. William the Conqueror ordered the construction of a castle, to dominate the town and the nearby Welsh border.

Chester is one of the best preserved walled cities in Britain. It has a number of medieval buildings, but some of the black-and-white buildings within the city centre are Victorian restorations. Apart from a 100-metre (330 ft) section, the listed Grade I walls are almost complete. The Industrial Revolution brought railways, canals, and new roads to the city, which saw substantial expansion and development – Chester Town Hall and the Grosvenor Museum are examples of Victorian architecture from this period.

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,

and also part of the Blue Monday meme,

and also part of the Seasons meme,

and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme.