Fake Friday, birds and buttercups

It's (fake) Fridayeeeee for meeeeeee! Got my annual leave day tomorrow. As I mentioned, Luke and I going on a Round-the-Bay in a day jaunt (only we'll be jaunting by car and ferry, not by bike and ferry). I'm really looking forward to it.

There's a new duck couple in town. Or maybe I just forgot they were in town already.

 Acting natural by the boatsheds

"Whaddya lookin' at?"

I also saw a duck family of mum, dad and two ducklings swimming on the river on my way home.  Again, hopefully not the same duck family I saw a few weeks ago. 

And Mr and Mrs Swan have built another nest.   I think it's the same pair that built a nest right on the river bank last year  - the male has an identifying tag around his neck. It seems swans are not very smart or have short memories because they've built their nest in another spot at risk of being washed away if the river rises after heavy rain. I won't get my hopes up about seeing cygnets. 

The floral displays in front of the Melbourne Town Hall at the moment are gorgeous. So colourful and cheery. 

I especially love these flowers (below). I knew them only as ranunculus, but, thanks to Google, I've learnt that ranunculus is a genus of more than 600 varieties. This particular variety is a Persian Buttercup. That's a much nicer name for such a pretty flower.  

My Saturday in photos

The fog still lingered over the city when Luke and I walked along the river this morning. I took a photo of ducks (surprise!). It's so cute the way they tuck their beaks into their feathers to sleep. 

There was a rainbow in the spray from the Hochgurtel Fountain in the Carlton Gardens.

Here's a close up. 

We went to the Finders Keepers Market at the Royal Exhibition Building, although the opportunity to photograph the building's beautiful interior was the biggest drawcard. The market only took up one end of the building, with the rest of it screened off. But there were gaps  where the screens joined so we squeezed through and snapped away. It's not that often you get  the chance to take photos inside the Royal Exhibition  Building without hordes of people getting in the way. 

Click here for more pics

Luke spotted an old sign on a building opposite the Exhibition Building.

Bantown House? 

We popped into the Botanic Gardens on our way home. The Ornamental Lake is covered in a thick carpet of algae. 

It's a swanvoy

I took more photos of ducks (and the algae).

The ducks were funny.  I saw a gap in the algae where the surface of the water was disturbed. 'Ooh, there's something in the water over there!' I said to Luke, just as a duck popped up in the gap. 

We saw swans making a love heart. Unfortunately they were rather inconsiderate swans and didn't hold the pose for more than a nanosecond, so my photo is fuzzy. 

We took some more photos and then headed for home. 

Icy treat, Bippolo Seed, evil babies

Federation Square baby

I made granita on Sunday for the first time (it's an Italian Slurpee-style dessert). I made blood orange and lemon flavour, mostly to attempt to recreate the dessert I had at an Italian restaurant late last year which was so delicious I still occasionally think about it. Mine was very tasty - sweet, tangy and tart - and I'm not just saying that myself. Luke also said it was delicious. (He's very effusive and generous with his appreciation of my culinary efforts, which is nice.)

My copy of the new Dr Seuss book, The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories arrived yesterday. It was sitting on my desk when one of the people I work for approached. She asked me who it was for, and I said (a little bashfully) that it was the new addition to my collection. She said, "Oh, cool. I like you even more now." Haha.

The swans mights not have lost their eg after all. Luke and I passed one of the same pair sitting on a new nest on the south bank of the river when we walked into the city on Sunday. But I can't imagine how they could have rescued their egg and moved it to a new nest, and I'm not confident the new nest is above the tide line either. I won't count the eggs until they hatch....

Luke and I checked out the Angels-Demons Parade, which is a collection of giant adorably evil black baby sculptures along Swanston Street as part of the Melbourne Festival. They're simultaneously cute with their chubby hands and feet, and threatening, with their bat wings, spiky tails and the little horns on their heads. I liked them - I enjoy the juxtaposition of opposites.

Town Hall baby

New Seuss, refreshment, new music

There's a new Dr Seuss book! It's a called the Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories and we Suess fans can thank a dentist with a passion for Dr Seuss, vintage magazines and eBay for this new book. Thank you, mister!   I have already purchased my copy online.

I think I've written about this before, but it's so delicious it bears repeating:  tonic water with fresh lime and passionfruit juice - if you look up "refreshment" in the dictionary, you will see a picture of that beverage right there. Of course  a shot of gin goes nicely too.

I've also mentioned (The Whole) Kit & Caboodle on Adelaide's Three D Radio before, but I'm going to mention that again too, dammit. I've been tuning in to hear Jade and Susie do their thing on Tuesday afternoons for the past couple of weeks and I tell ya, their show is a sure-fire mood-lifter after a long, cranky day at work. They're sexy, smart, funny and engaging as hell,  and the music is super cool. If you like your music with a heavy dose of retro, tune in online at 5.30 (Melbourne time).

Here's one of the new additions to my music library thanks to Jade and Susie: Kim Lenz and Her Jaguars.

* Not-so-gleeful news: the swan pair I wrote about yesterday built their nest below the tide line and it looks as if the river has washed away their egg(s). *sad face*

Swan egg, carving, longer days

There's a swan baby on the way! Maybe more than one, but only one egg was visible when I walked past the nest, near the um...Swan Street Bridge, on Sunday.

In other news on things I've recently seen near bridges, I spotted this very intricate stone carving beneath the Church Street Bridge on Saturday when I went for a late afternoon walk. You will walk past it if you head down the steps half way across the bridge on the city side. It says, "Victoria...Peace and Prosperity". It's not new obviously... Either I just didn't see it on the one or two other occasions I've walked down those stairs, or it was revealed during the recent lengthy restoration of the bridge.

Daylight savings started on the weekend. Yay! It was so nice walking home in proper daylight tonight, even after finishing work at 6.00pm.

Homecoming, baby stone, exact

Camera shy swans (and you thought

swans were graceful birds)

Luke's back! Yay! And he bought me presents, my favourite of which is a trio of small, smooth stones he picked up on the beach at The Needles on the Isle of Wight. One is a like the baby of the stone Luke found on the beach when we visited Cape Schank on Good Friday.  Oh, he got the card I sent too. He liked it a lot.

Yesterday I had exactly the right cash in my wallet to pay for my lunch.

I got another delivery at work from Etsy.com - a black and white striped bolero (I'm a little obsessed with B&W stripes). It's my first custom made item and it fits. It came from a designer in Latvia too, which makes it extra special, I think.

The days are getting longer. It was still light at 6.00pm when I was on my way home from work. Not long until daylight savings starts now...

Nothing to do today but smile

My view

I had another happy-sigh-making day today, but closer to home than yesterday. I spent the afternoon in one of my favourites places - under a tree with a book in the Royal Botanic Gardens. The weather was a carbon copy of Saturday - hot in the sun but just perfect in the shade.

My first stop was the edge of the Ornamental Lake which was almost teeming with eels and turtles. It's unusual to see so many turtles so close to the water's edge there.

I also saw the cygnets. They're still cute, grey and fluffy but getting big.

I found myself a nice spot near a stand of bamboo and got out the bubble mix that I bought this morning when I did my grocery shopping. I blew bubbles into the sky and watched them carried away on the breeze, all rainbow-shiny in the sun. A lady laughed at me, but I didn't care. After a while I attracted the attention of a small boy, so I blew the bubbles and he chased them gleefully.

I nearly finished reading the book I bought yesterday and as expected, I'm enjoying it - the photographs (taken by the author on her travels around the world) are beautiful and I feel like she's talking directly to me. I found myself nodding in agreement quite often.  Isn't it wonderful when you find a book that connects with you and where you are right at the time you read it? It's given me some motivation and ideas for dragging myself out of my continuing glum phase...

We should be mucking about all the time, because mucking about is enjoying life for its own sake, now, and not in preparation for an imaginary future. It's obvious that the mirth-filled man, the cheerful soul, the childish adult [that's me!] is the one who has less to fear from life - Tom Hodgkinson, The Freedom Machine (quoted in One)

One of the little pockets with a removable quote on it

While reading I listened to Simon & Garfunkel, inspired by a snippet of Only Living Boy in New York that was featured in one of the stories on New York, I Love You, which I watched last night. Their poetic whimsy and beautiful harmonies suited my mood perfectly. I noted the irony of listening to Simon and Garfunkel sing 'I am a rock, I am an island' while reading a book about being on your own, which includes John Donne's famous quote, 'No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent'.

I got asked to move by the Moonlight Cinema people who were setting up for tonight's movie, so I went for my usual wander around the gardens, camera in hand. It was late afternoon by this stage, and the green grass and foliage were aglow in the golden light. The Ornamental Lake sparkled in the sun as dragonflies buzzed across the surface. I strolled through the Southern Chinese garden.

Ah, the gardens...a feast of shapes:

  

Textures:

I think this is a New Zealand kauri tree

...and colours:

I'm so lucky to live so close.

Big pony, sitting swans, helpful Jayne

This morning I shared the lift in my super corporate office building with a pony. A large, plush, pink and aqua pony. The woman carrying it decided her daughter had outgrown it and she'd brought it to work to give to someone else's daughter.

The two black swans who frequent the stretch of the Yarra between my house and the city were sitting on the grassy bank, engrossed in a vigorous grooming session, when I walked past on my way to work.

A woman stopped me to ask directions as I was walking home. I like giving people directions. Helpful directions, not rude ones.

In the gardens...

Tonight on my walk home I saw some people picnicking by the river with...a cat. As you do.

I detoured through the Botanic Gardens. I watched a hungry duck feeding. It looks like it's having a laugh in the photo above, but it's munching on bugs or weeds or whatever it found in the murky lake. 

I saw the cygnets. They've grown!

I found some strange seed pods.

I sat on a park bench dedicated by a man to his late wife. "Dance me to the end of love," the inscription on the brass plate read. Aww.