Muesli, eagle-eyed Luke, a birthday

Mini muesli mountain with minty peak

(second breakfast at Café 117, Richmond)

I went back today and took photos of those two old signs I saw yesterday while travelling past in the car. 

Windsor at the top and a word ending in ING down the side

 (Union Street, Windsor) 

Something ending in E and then Yeringa Wines

 (High Street, Windsor)

But wait! There's more! I also took photos of several other old signs while we were out and about today. I have to give high praise to Luke, who has turned into an eagle-eyed sign spotter. I think he's even better at it than I am. He spotted the first sign yesterday and also this one on Highett Street in Richmond. 

 It says McNiven Pty Ltd at the top

The degree of difficulty on spotting this sign was high. Not only is it on the side of a building that is almost rubbing shoulders with the one next door, a tree was obscuring our view of it from the other side of the street. When Luke first pointed at it, I had no idea what he was pointing at. 

Luke also spotted this great sign, also on High Street in Windsor. 

  

And this one on Swan Street in Richmond (although I'd seen it before, but not taken a photo). 

Aston maybe? 

And this one on Malvern Road, Hawksburn, not that you can tell what it says. 

100 years of dome

The marvellous domed reading room at the State Library - one of my favourite places in Melbourne - is turning 100. It was officially opened on 14 November 1913 and the library has kicked off a year of anniversary celebrations. Just before it opened, The Argus had this to say about it: 

Standing in the centre of this great room, it is almost awe-inspiring in its proportions. Up under the arcades of the galleries, the stacked books are dim ¡n a blue haze of distance. We certainly have nothing so wonderful as this reading-room in Australia in its suggestion of bigness and space.

When I was at uni, I did the research for my third year research project* in the reading room of the State Library, but  the dome wasn't visible then. It was covered over in 1959 because it was leaking, and wasn't unveiled again until 2003.  I still remember the first time I went back there after the dome was re-opened - only I didn't know that it had been re-opened, so I got quite a surprise.  I couldn't believe it was the same place.  If you live in Melbourne and have never been, you really should. I insist. 

* My project was about how women's magazines - specifically New Idea - had changed over the past 30 years and it was called New Idea: From Handicrafts to Hollywood. I must see if I can find it somewhere...