To 505 April

 We decided to avoid driving on the Easter weekend, and to give ourselves a gap between driving days so headed for Melbourne at 0624 on 12 April.  Thanks to swapping back to normal time it was reasonably daylight by then, albeit rather cool (~7o C).  Genoa Rd was in quite good condition with a major pothole filled in and many unnecessary signs removed.  We didn't see another car on that stretch.  In fact by the time we got to Orbost (150km) we had only crossed with 10 vehicles, overtaken 2 and been passed by 1. 

The weather started to get ungood as we got towards Orbost.  As Frances took over occasional sprinkles of rain began and continued through her 2 hour spell to Rosedale.  We stopped to refill with diesel at a Mobil station in Bairnsdale where the price was only horrendous (309.9 c/l)) - in that town prices varied between that and 315.9c/l. The pumps for 95 octane were flagged 'Empty'.  There was a bit less traffic around, but not as dramatic as the first leg.  From Rosedale onwards the weather was awful, with rain varying from drizzle to bucketing, but we made it.  As we got on to Kingsway I noticed the fuel prices - 315.9c/l for diesel but 'only' 212.9c/l for regular unleaded.  

After unpacking I headed for the Prahran Market area.  On the way I decided to see if the Greek Orthodox Church was open for a look round.  After crossing the railway and getting to Grosvenor St I noticed a small Salvation Army building.

This is the church which was well locked up.  It seems only to be open on Fridays and Sundays from 0730 to 0930, so I might take a stroll down next weekend
While there a couple of folk who looked as thought they might know stuff turned up.  The reason they had come was because the woman's parents had been married in the church 65 years ago!  Her dad was Constantine and her mum Helen  so they matched the Saints after whom the church is named and who are shown on a banner.
There is a lot of street art in the area.  Snowball Lane has a number of garage doors most of which have been quite skillfully decorated.

These are on/near the junction of Barry St and Chapel St,

This statue is intriguing as there is no plaque to suggest who it is or what it is commemorating.  I have sent a query to Stonnington Council and will ask at the Library when we visit later today.
Looking out from the Winter Garden the Bay was very rough but the kite surfers looked to be having fun.  Less amusing was the very poor performance of AGPC in not having removed the Grandstands erected along Pit straight for the Grand Prix 5 weeks ago.
A shocking photo, through the tinted glass, but the white dots in the trees are the flock of Corellas which have moved into the Park.
We can see part of the Lake and in this image I can ID Black Swans and Great Cormorants!





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Insects from pine trees

Image
This afternoon (13/1/2015) we were looking out of our sunroom and noticed a strange bit of mist.  On getting my binoculars on the case I found it to be a cloud of tens of thousand of insects.  They appeared with naked eye to be flying away, but with binoculars I thought they were circling. Here are some images In the second one it may be possible to see there are two streams coming from the top of each tree. There was a loud buzzing noise but that could just be several thousand wings. Earlier in the day Frances had been to some nearby willows and they were infested with many little black soft bodied insects.  Perhaps they shifted to the pines and were swarming? Help!! Any information welcome. A colleague, from Wamboin, had noticed a similat phenomenon, but involvng eucalypts rather than pines!  Here are the photos he took with his phone. I have consulted some expert friends.   Their responses were: I would have gone for chironomids. I rec...
Read more

More in the vicinity of 505

Image
 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.)
Read more

Maslins beach rules

Image
Anyone who was in Adelaide in the 1970s will be having a good nudge nudge at that title.  However the beach is really nice even though it is the haunt (in Summer ) of naked people.  (As an aside one of the 'van park staff was talking to some other guests and commented that the sights on the beach in Summer were not at all exciting.)  In April it is the haunt of seniors, many of them exercising their dogs, and thus a far more attractive place. Getting to the beach was a walk of about 1km along roads, from our van.  The second half of this went past a rather daggy looking paddock with many formed ridges in it, as though it was irrigated, although a water sources wasn't evident.  The paddock got interesting towards the end as some green parrots appeared.  Thanks to Frances eye for detail we have subsequently identified these as Elegant Parrots: my first lifer for 2014.    The locale is indicated by the red lines in this mudmap: Here are the bird...
Read more