The House(s) of Fran_mart

 The warmer weather, and earlier rain, have got a lot of flowers happening in our garden.  Here are some photos  (including a couple of ring-ins from next door).

The weather looked good on 10 September so we headed for the You-yangs and because it was close thereto a couple of sections of  the Western Treatment Plant.  A couple of navigational snafus added a little to the drive over but we got there OK.  We went to the Visitor Centre first but it was closed and their info stand was of course empty.  Must be run by Parks Victoria. We decided the first walk would be the Big Rock Track.  We didn't have to go far up the track (100m?) to spot a Koala in its usual state of activity. The vegetation was puzzling.  This area - a few Hectares -had no litter and no understorey and with the trees in nice orderly rows has obviously been planted.  No idea what is going on. Its a rock! It's big!  When we got there the group on top seemed to be doing a cultural tour. A view towards Geelong from the top of the Rock.  I am not sure if we have been to this area previously in Spring: I have no memory of so much canola in flower. A clan of 15 Choughs taking

 Our first full day in Melbourne on this trip we went to the Kew-Abbotsford area bracketing the Mighty Yarra.  We had four aims for this trip. Meet up with Ed Williams, a friend from Bird-A -Day; Be guided by Ed to a site in Yarra Bend NP where a Red-backed Kingfisher has been hanging out, and twitch same; Go to the Abbotsford Covent to view an Ikebana Exhibition.  As the Convent is now a Community Art Centre there was limited likelihood of ticking a Penguin; and Visit Dights Falls to look at some geology  There was a small amount of confusion with point 1.  This arose as I had been told where to park by a friend from Pakenham who had already twitched the Kingfisher.  That is in front of a gate at point 1. Denizens of Kew, such as Ed, know that the better gate is point 2 so he was parked there.  Fortunately we had swapped mobile numbers so were able to sort things out fairly quickly.  We then took off to the area of interest:  as this is Ed's home patch he was able to pass on lots

We are back at 505 after a curates egg of a drive.  Those who are (a) of English ancestry and (b) old, will know that the curates egg was "good in parts".  A couple of the other parts: an extraordinary number of road maggots around  These are:  mainly white; and Crawl up hills well below the speed limit. The information display going blank at one point.  No idea why, but it resolved itself to normal by me stopping at Bruthen and turning the ignition off and back on!  It is good to have worked with IT Professionals for whom that is always step 1 (and sometimes also steps 2 & 3). Finding that the Kingsway exit is just as one emerges from the Burnley Tunnel, rather than 200m down the road as our satnav announced as we drove past! Despite the best efforts of the road maggots and having to do a Tour de Southbank after the Kingsway fiasco we only took a smidgin over 6 hours for the drive.  A curious sight was - what looked like - about the staff of VicPol lurking by the back do