The House(s) of Fran_mart

 This is pretty much our morning on 8 August.  It begins looking out the windows towards the CBD, with some light clouds well below the tops of the high rises.  My guess would be the 60th floor. On our walk we saw some signs of Spring! And a very nice display of orchids in a front yard near South Yarra Primary. On the other side of the Park the Tonka trucks were still at play.  There is much scope for further photos as they knock down this building.  (I don't know how the punters work in the white building while this is going on,) I have activated Google Lens on my phone, and it identified Clivia miniata for me! We have watched the demolition as it has proceeded.  By 11 September (a month later) the high stuff has all gone and only cleaning up the ground is needed.  (Frances took this image from St Kilda Rd - the opposite end of the site to my earlier photos.)

 We sit out in the Winter Garden most evenings unless it is too hot.  On 5 August it was very pleasant and we got a strange view of a tug out in the Bay.   (Note the blue cast is due to the tinted windows not my camera failing.) I assume that they were testing their firefighting capabilities.  According to my Marine Traffic app there was a Police boat close by, but I couldn't see it: presumably to keep rubberneckers at a sensible distance. Proving that it is now a garden, here is a panorama.  The Bay is visible even when sitting down.  The woodland visible between the buildings and the Bay is Albert Park. Most of the plants were chosen for drought tolerance as they don't get watered for 2-3 weeks while we are in Mallacoota.  This zygocactus appears to be happy in its work. A new building is being erected opposite and giving much interest watching members of the CFMEU at their daily toil. I think they have got to full height now.

 I was unsure whether to compile this post here or in Melbourne adventures.  In the end I decided that it had a focus on the area close to 505, and I covered a few topics, so here is where it fits best. The story begins with me being alert as we left beautiful downtown Traralgon on 3 August and passed the Hazelwood Open Cut, getting a couple of photos.  The first shows some of the faces of the cut: The second image a little further along the M1 shows the water in the bottom of the pit. For a different perspective the next image is an April 2024 snip from Google Earth showing the mine and the M1, with my best guess at where the above snaps were taken. We now move to Fawkner Park on the morning of 4 August.  The first sighting was a fellow walker being bailed up by a family of Magpies.  He was equipped with food for them (and a rug rat) so I suspect they recognised him as a regular. Heading towards Toorak Rd the daffodil bed is beginning to get its act into gear. ...