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An exciting time in Fawkner Park

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 To begin with, many thanks to Wildlife Rescue Victoria and Fire Rescue Victoria whose efforts made this story have a happy ending.  On our morning walk this morning we were on the Punt Rd side of Fawkner Park when my attention was grabbed by a lot of noise from Noisy Miners.  On peering into the afflicted tree I spotted a Tawny Frogmouth tangled in some line. I rang Wildlife Rescue who asked for help from the Fire Brigade, and sent a volunteer.  The volunteer rang me to say he was incoming.  He received a call from the fire people to say they were coming as well and found a bug red truck in his mirrors.  They all arrived pretty promptly from St Kilda. Initially with some basic equipment. Then some more advanced equipment arrived from a specialist unit in Richmond. Lots of expert help! It was very impressive watching how they set about this task. Lots of onlookers! The Frogmouth flapped about a bit at this stage - proving it was still alive.  The climber captured it and calmed it down.
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Start of a Melbourne fortnight

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 By way of getting a bit organised on 2 November - and being focussed as the passerine broke wind on 3 November - we pulled out of our drive at 0655.  We got to Orbost by 0730 without seeing a single car going in our direction - and very few going the other way.  Overall there was very little traffic and we got to 505 in just over 6 hours, including a 15 minute stop at the Yarragon spud shop to grab a few interesting sauces as well as 10kg of Sebago. Temperatures along the way had been interesting.  Very warm overnight so it was about 19C as we left home, rising to 21Cas we got to Genoa.  By Bairnsdale (0845ish) it was up to 29C.  However by the time we left the Latrobe Valley it was down to 22C where it stayed.  The apartment was also at 22C. We went shopping in Prahran, making it across Fawner Park despite much of the grass being taken up by flannelled fools.   We sat out in the Winter Garden with the louvres open, letting in a very pleasant breeze. About 1730hrs I was struck by the
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Rooftops and Chimney Pots (Pt 1)

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 We have become quite interested in the roof tops, chimneys and chimney pots seen around in the various areas of Melbourne we have visited.  This post is going to be a repository of photos of those parts of houses.  At present I won't have much to say about them but have included a map to show where we went: the blue arrows are our walk from 505 and the red arrows show the streets in which the photos were taken. The area overall has quite a few 'original' houses as well as a few modest-sized apartment  blocks and rebuilds.  Towards the top (Northern) end of Domain street quite a few of the houses seem to be owned by Melbourne Grammar (which is the large block on the Western side of Domain St). This chimney is pretty standard but I liked the brick work. With a date of 1890, this is not a particularly early building: the suburb began in the 1840s . I shall have to pay more attention, but reviewing these images very few of the houses have iron rooves, suggesting the area is s
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The Shipping Olds

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Can't call it the shipping news as E Annie Proulx has claimed that one! One of our interests at 500 is sitting in the Winter Garden looking out at what is going on on the Bay.  A highlight on this trip was the arrival of the Cunard Petri Dish "Queen Elizabeth" at Station Pier.  This caused me to recall a visit to Sydney in about 1985 when we stayed in a high room in a recently opened motel in Milsons Point.  When we got to our room the curtains were drawn and as we opened them there was the QE 2 sailing out under the Harbour Bridge!  (Then the 18-footers were racing a bit further up the Harbour - rather hard to leave this and go for a walk over the Bridge.) Getting back to this trip and the current tub, it got in a bit earlier than on the Vic Ports website so was almost moored for my first snap. At berth. At least I got a decent snap of her leaving at 1700 hours.  There had been many many tourists in the CBD when we visited around noon.  I had wondered who used all the Ya
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