Library, wonder-chamber, beach

Today was the annual open day at the Supreme Court of Victoria and I finally got to see the impressive interior of the library. Apart from two volunteers on hand to answer visitors' questions, there was no one else in the library when we arrived. It was just Luke and me  standing under the dome with our mouths open, going "Wow". 

Sadly we weren't allowed to take photos but there's one here that shows the lower circumference of the the dome. The library is set out in a radial pattern, with the large inner circle lined with portraits of former Chief Justices and judges - including a portrait of my ancestor Sir Leo Cussen, who was a judge and also a President of the Melbourne Cricket Club and trustee of the National Gallery of Victoria and the State Library of Victoria. 

Beneath Sir Leo's portrait was a glass cabinet containing the handwritten court record of Ned Kelly's death sentence in 1880. 

Branching off from the centre were alcoves lined with shelves of legal books which gave off a faint aroma of old books. 

While we were at the court, we had a look in two of the court rooms, including one that had a very narrow winding staircase to bring the accused from the dungeon (yes, they call it a dungeon, although it's not used these days) up to their seat in the middle of the court room.  Access to the court room was by way of a removable section of floor a bit like a manhole cover. 

After leaving the court we dropped into one of the kookiest shops in Melbourne called Wunderkammer, which is a German word meaning 'wonder-chamber'. It sells 'scientific curiosities, artefacts and ephemera', including an array of stuffed animals, animal skeletons,  fossils, a rug made from the pelt of a mountain lion (with head), mounted butterflies, insects and spiders, and antique scientific and medical instruments. I was quite taken with the murder of crows. The door to the storeroom was open and there was a box of stuffed ravens in the doorway. 

Raaaaaaark

 Say 'aaaaah'

Disapproving elk disapproves 

(you can't blame him)

As we left Wunderkammer, I spotted this quaint old mail box near the shop door. 

We had lunch in the city before heading to South Melbourne. We walked past one of my favourite old signs - or collection of old signs - on an old chemist shop on Cecil Street.  

Luke spotted this large, but difficult to read, sign near the market. 

 'Produce' is about the only word I can discern

And then I saw this one...

Something 'Boot Repairer'

Then we caught the tram to South Melbourne beach to take photos. 

 Out the front of the South Melbourne Surf Lifesaving Club

 A tall ship way off in the distance

 This bird was hanging around near the fishermen on 

Lagoon Pier hoping for a snack

North Pacific Sea Star (a pest in our southern waters). 

 Faces in places - telescope thingie at Princes Pier

Little dark cloud doing its own thing

Southern signs

I went to Spotlight in South Melbourne today to buy a few crafty bits and pieces. On my way back, I spotted some excellent old signs.

On the side of what was once McCauleys furniture on Dorcas Street 

A closer view

I love the pointing hand

A few doors down on the corner of Dorcas 

and Clarendon  Streets  (which is still a chemist) 

South Melbourne sights

A couple of sign finds wandering to and from South Melbourne Market today...

Guests Biscuits, on Coventry Street (click to enlarge)

Mitchell McCabe on Clarendon Street. I can also see (or guess)

 the words mercery, hatters and tailor.  I googled Mitchell McCabe -

 they've been operating a menswear store since 1901.

 Now that's longevity!   

Bubbles, rhubarb pills, bagels and beautiful trees

Well, that was a fun weekend *dusts off hands* I've been over at the Botanic Gardens again blowing bubbles with my choc-chip-cookie scented bubble mix. This time it was at twilight and the softer light seemed to really make the bubbles shine with irridescent colour. So preeeeety...but fleeting. I always want to take photos of them, but they pop before you get a chance...or the friend you're with runs about popping them like a gleeful child.

My friend also got me to spin round and round while looking straight up into the air (to "test my balance". Pffft.) Of course I very quickly got dizzy, lost my balance and fell over on the grass...in duck poo. Lovely. But it was funny.

I cooked lamb fillets again. So tender and tasty. Yummy scrummy in my tummy.

Today was pretty much spent in search of bagels. I discovered there is now a Glick's bakery near South Melbourne market so we set off on foot in the sunshine to get some. On the way we passed this awesome building on Cecil Street with much of its original sign writing still visible. Look at it! I was in old sign heaven! This is probably my favourite example of old signage so far.

Top hat cough? WTH? Oh! Stop that cough...

with Dr Scott's Balsam Horehound

Marchalls Rhubarb Pills - for the liver

Use J King self-raising flour

When we got to Glick's it was closed, dammit, but we were determined to have bagels so we decided to walk to the Elsternwick bakery instead. It was rather a long way, but it was a nice day, the path was quite shady and it meant going past a bookstore on Clarendon Street that I'd seen last Sunday selling a copy of Australia's Remarkable Trees, marked down from $65 to $20! It was closed then, but not today! That book is mine. It's a beautifully photographed guide to the country's biggest, oldest and most unusual trees.

Eventually we arrived at Glick's, hungry, thirsty and footsore (me, anyway),  and ate five bagels between us. Hey, we'd really worked up an appetite with all that walking. I had a look in my book to see if my favourite tree, the Golden Elm on the corner of Punt Road and Alexandra Avenue, was among Australia's remarkable trees, and it is! Yay! We visited it on the way home.

There's also another tree, an Algerian Oak, in the Royal Botanic Gardens in the book too. I'll have to go and find it. 

Here's my post-bagel straw moustache. Just because.  

A day at the beach

I took advantage of yesterday's gloomy weather to go to South Melbourne beach. No, not for a swim; to take photos and explore another part of Melbourne that I'm not overly familiar with. I love the beach on grey days.

I walked along the beach front from Kerford Road Pier to Station Pier and then wandered through the streets back to the city. Development along the waterfront is predictably samey and charmless, but the old terrace houses and the Clarendon Street shopping strip are quite lovely.

There were lots of shells on the beach, some of them even whole. I saw a live jelly fish in the water and lots of jellyfish washed up on the sand too. I love poking about on the beach to see what I can see (and in rock pools).

Unusual multi-lingual toilet signage, no doubt due to nearby Station Pier being the  former port of entry for migrants arriving by ship

A plaque in the concrete at the base of a park bench near Station Pier