The House(s) of Fran_mart

 This morning I took myself to the back of the WWTP for an exercise walk on which I would note the birds I saw.  To give added aerobic benefit I schlepped a couple of kgs of scope and tripod.  Initially I thought there were few fowl around, but it turned out they were all on the rocky banks hiding from the wind.   I was particularly pleased to see a pair of Musk Ducks on the Big Pond. A Jacky Winter - one of at least 8 in the area - posed nicely. The total list of species seen is https://ebird.org/australia/checklist/S89171254. In the afternoon we  went for another walk on the beach at Bastion Point. At the foot of the steps Frances noticed a White-fronted Chat perched on a clump of washed up seaweed.  As we peered at the weed and sand we realised there were Chats everywhere. The highest count we got to here was 33, which is an exceptionally large flock for this species.  As we got to the mouth - which was very wide - there were another 6. Returni...

 The following are my photos of the eclipse on 26 May 2021.  All hand held so a bit fuzzy. The first image is at 20:20hrs and the last camera one is 21:08.  Roughly 5  minutes between these images. As the event proceeded other celestial bodies became visible. I also took a couple of shots with my phone, just to see what it could do.  Not much was the answer! The moon seemed to be giving some sort of message in this one!

 In English "Indiana Butterfield and the City of Mysterious Road Signs".   An index page for our trip to Melbourne.   Day 1 to MacLeod Morass and Sale. Day 2 Sale Common and into Melbourne Day 3 Chaos and confusion on Melbourne's parking lots (formerly known as roads). Day 4: Melbourne Zoo Day 5 Botanic Gardens Day 6 Fitzroy and St Kilda Day 7 Home again.  

25 May was the date of return.  It got off to a more exciting start than we had expected when Frances found water all over the bathroom floor at about 0600.  That  had been there when I went at 0200.  I got a security dude up - check-in desk was not staffed until 0800 (!!!!!) - and it seemed to be coming out of the wall and dripping off the vanity unit.  This explained why the door frame looked to be water damaged.  Problem not bilong youme. We packed up to leave as soon as we got back from the QVM.  We got a trolley full of nice fruit, lots of sausages and some baked goods for lunch.  The market was still setting up before sunrise. We had checked the route out of town and it all seemed fairly straightforward.  It got a tad bizarre around Sale (about 200 km out) as Google Maps dived off on to a  series of country roads which saved 2 km - remember that - and 2 minutes.  There was of course the potential that if we missed a turn - or ...

 As the traffic management systems of Melbourne have beaten us into submission we decided that rather than attempt to go to the You Yangs we would walk SP1 to school at Carlton Gardens and explore some territory nearby.  I thought that if things worked out we could also take a tram out to St Kilda. The day began with a quite pleasant sunrise sort of visible through the buildings. It was quite a short walk to school with SP1 - a little surprising as she was in penguin mode.  On arrival there were already a few punters on the street.  (Obfuscation added by me.) When the gate opened the horde poured in towards the new school building. This is the old school building  dating from 1884. We then headed off into Fitzroy.  For some reason I had thought of that as being in the Western suburbs rather than the inner East.  This means that in the 1989 or 1990 the answer to Wendy Harmers question "What are the three VFL teams whose name begins with F?" had 1 entry ...

 Back in the day when I was a runner no visit to Melbourne CBD was complete without a jog across the Yarra and a lap of The Tan.  That is a circuit of track which (I think - it was 25 or more years ago) used to be covered with tan bark.  We went in that direction on Saturday to meet our daughter and the SPs. I had guessed it would take us close to an hour to walk down Swanston St and across to the floral clock, which I had designated as the meeting point.  In fact it was only about 20 minutes - more to do with it being basically downhill than me being fitter than I thought! To my surprise the illuminated birds outside the Art Centre were visible in daylight, although not as impressive as after dark (which it had been when we came past a couple of days ago on our way back from Werribee).  Of course the image doesn't show the Ibis apparently walking ... ... nor the pigeon turning round and pecking. While trying to see some birds perched in a tree I was nearly blin...