Dish lickers

A pair of greyhounds on Chapel Street 

Friday wanderings

Luke and I had a pleasant day out in the Dandenongs on Friday. We visited two gardens and two waterfalls and had lunch at a (former) piggery. 

I'd often seen pictures of the Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens on Instagram and thought we should go for a look, so we did. Then we spotted the George Tindale Memorial Garden just a few hundred metres down the road, so we had a look at that too. 

The Piggery Cafe is just next door to the Alfred Nicholas gardens and we had a quick lunch there. We said hello to the two pigs who live in the grounds (until they end up as lunch, I guess. I think they might have an (o)inkling of their fate because they were not as happy as pigs in mud are supposed to be. They seemed pretty glum.) 

Anyway, here are my photos (out of order but *shrug*):

 On the walk to Sherbrooke Falls

 Mossy log on  Sherbrooke Falls walk

 Even the fungus had moss on it

 Moss

 Sherbrooke Falls (or, more accurately, Sherbrooke Rapids)

 Conifer at George Tindale Memorial Gardens

 Succulent at George Tindale Memorial Gardens

 One of several lovely old lamps at George Tindale Memorial Gardens

 The pigs at The Piggery (yes, he's peeing; no, that's not why I took the photo)

 Bee watering hole in the trunk of a tree fern

 There were a lot of hellebore at both gardens 

 Bugs

 Both gardens also have a lot of azaleas which are a riot of colour right now

 Another hellebore

 Very big insect (the leaf  is bigger than my hand)

 More fungus

 The lake at Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens

 The lake again

 I took A LOT of photos of the hellebore

 Curly leaf thing

Another leaf

Skulking about Richmond

I didn't go to yoga this morning because I woke up feeling very body-weary. Later in the morning I took the bus to an 11.30 appointment in Richmond because I didn't have the energy for a half-hour walk. But then I wandered for eight kilometres* around the back streets of Richmond taking photos before walking almost all the way home. 

If you saw someone in red boots skulking around between Bridge Road and Victoria Street taking photos of things on people verandahs and in their front yards, that was me. 

I posted my pics to Instagram when I got home and was amused and a little creeped out when I noticed I was being silently watched while taking a photo of chairs on someone's verandah! 

This photo is a little blurry because I rushed to get a shot of the dog while it was still sitting on the seat. 

It started wagging its tail when it saw me and I assumed it was going to come for a pat, but it got down off the seat and headed straight for the open front door! 

Some more of my photos:

 Snail lunch

 Closed up

 Love the shutters and entrance. Near Richmond West station 

 Shutters and statue

 Verandah seats, also near Richmond West station 

 As above

 Pretty garden and cottage on HighettStreet 

 Verandah bike, Lennox Street 

 Buttery yellow and blue 

Verandah couch 

 Conformity is overrated

 Verandah seat with wine glass

 Lovely lavender

 More verandah seats 

And couches

  * according to my VivoFit

Greyhound love

The rain over the bay yesterday

I have become obsessed with greyhounds. We had a pet greyhound called Bess when I was a kid and I've long wanted to have one of my own one day, but lately I just really, really, really want one. Seeing them in the news more because of the recent ban on greyhound racing in New South Wales hasn't helped. I guess saving a squillion photos of them on Pinterest doesn't help either. Today I found a series of photos of Borys and Walter, a Bengal cat and rescue greyhound, who are best friends. It's so cute it hurts. 

Greyhounds are actually ideal dogs for apartments because they are very lazy, but we aren't allowed to have pets, and I wouldn't go and get one on the sly. One day maybe...

I love these dog portraits, and of course I like the greyhound/galgo ones the most. There's some dog breeds in there I've never heard of - like the Silken Windsprite and the Azawakh. Look how adorably gangly the Azawakh is! 

My week is half over. Yay. 

A visitor

I was lazing about in bed late this afternoon after a nap when Luke arrived home from the supermarket. He called out to me and said he had a friend to see me. What the? I came out into the living area and there was our neighbours' cat! He was walking around inspecting and sniffing everything. 

I first met him a few weeks ago when his owners got home as I was walking up the stairs and he came out of the door miaowing at them. I wanted to steal him away because I love 'blue' cats and I miss having a moggie. 

He was on the stairs again when Luke got home tonight, apparently locked out of his flat, and he followed Luke in to our place. He spent a good 10 minutes investigating and enjoying some pats, but then he started miaowing with intent. I gave him half a tin of tuna, which he gobbled up. 

He wandered around a bit more then settled down on the back of the couch. After a while he heard the door of his flat open and away he went. I hope he visits again. 

Drizzly Friday

On my way to catch the tram into the city today I saw a woman throwing a ball to her dog. The dog took off after it so excitedly that it overshot the ball, lots its footing and then slid along the wet grass on its back for a few metres. 

In the city I saw a woman put a hand of bananas and a bag of bread rolls into the coin collection of a homeless person as they slept. 

I'm looking forward to getting my scruffy hair cut and coloured tomorrow. 
 

Platypuses and wombats and devils oh my!

We went to the Wine and Wildlife event at Healesville Sanctuary today. Despite living in Melbourne for 20-something years, I've never been to the sanctuary before. I guess I prefer to go see more exotic animals like they have at the Melbourne Zoo and Werribee Open Range Zoo, but  I did enjoy seeing my first platypuses, Tasmanian Devil and conscious wombat. 

I don't have any pictures of the platypus and Tassie Devil worth sharing because they were constantly on the go and it was dark in the platypus house, but here are my other photos. 

 A critically endangered Orange-bellied parrot

 This leggy fella is a curlew (also endangered)

 A rather bedraggled Tawny Frogmouth

 A more dignified Tawny Frogmouth  

 Some other bird I don't know the name of 

 Sooky young wombat who just wanted to hide 

between her keeper's legs

 Awe-inspiring massive Wedge-tailed Eagle, Australia's largest 

bird of prey with a wing span up to two metres

 Baby freshwater crococile

 I spy with my snakey little eye...

We visited the animal hospital where a stick insect was among the patients. The vets actually operated on it and put it under using gas. When they were done, they used superglue to 'stitch' it up! I don't know how they knew it was sick or what was wrong with it, or how they worked out how much gas to use so they didn't kill it. 

Oh, I also tasted some wine and chocolate.