Come with me on an afternoon walk in the sunshine

I had a choice this afternoon. 

I could (should) sweep and wash the floors, carpet sweep the rugs, dust the furniture, including the piano, and do several other useful things. 

OR

I could go for a walk to the river.

The sun was shining. It was a beautiful afternoon. I abandoned the useful things. I needed to go out and buy some flowers and a card, anyway, so I was being sort of useful. Sort of.

I set off and decided to go down a road I can see from my place but which I haven't ever been down. It goes along the other side of Docklands Park. I very often go along the Harbour Esplanade side of Docklands Park, most often on the tram but sometimes on foot. I hadn't been down this side - in fact, I wasn't really aware that there was a "this side" of the park. And there were LOADS of things there that I had no idea existed!

I had absolutely no idea. I should go exploring more often.

I reached the river just as the office workers were heading back after their lunch breaks, although there were still people around. I don't come over to the river very often. I more often walk around Victoria Harbour, which strictly speaking is an inlet of the river and then usually for practical purposes. Anyway - come with me for a stroll along the water:

 

The river runs from here through the Port of Melbourne to Port Phillip Bay, near to the bayside suburb of Port Melbourne. It is obviously cleaner than its proximity to the shipping and container ports would suggest. We often get seals in Victoria Harbour and in the river, and sometimes even dolphins, plus there are lots of fish and many sea birds.

I came home, having bought the flowers and card, to find the harbour shimmering in the spring sunshine.

The floors are still not swept. The rugs remain dotted with cat fur. The dusting is undone. And I don't care. I would say it could wait until tomorrow but I am working tomorrow and Thursday. It will all have to wait until Friday, which is a public holiday. However, Brandy is reminding me that he and Whiskey have absolutely no intention of waiting until Friday for their dinner 😹

A week in early spring

We are just about at the spring equinox in the southern hemisphere. It is getting light now when I get up, usually just before 6am. It is still light 12 hours later. We are almost at the change to daylight saving time. Summer is lurking on the horizon.

Sunset, from my lounge window

It was 27d on Sunday, plummeting to something like 13 or 14d yesterday. Proper spring weather (although 27d is a touch on the warm side for September!) It was a perfect day for the Docklands monthly market, which Lindsey, Freyja and Simon joined me for 

Morning light from my window

From the esplanade

Farmers' Market

A new Japanese restaurant has recently opened next to my local supermarket. I'm told it has been two years in the making, although I have only been watching it for a few months. Lindsey and I went to check it out on Saturday and it was lovely. It does do a proper menu but we chose from the more izakaya-like menu and shared skewers and sushi

There was more Japanese food last night. Ian was in town and sent out an invitation to Freyja, Simon and me to join him and Lindsey at Kinyoubi in Fitzroy.

I've recently been playing Cat TV programs on the TV. You can find them on Youtube. I've had to stop doing that. Brandy has been trying to get at the birds and squirrels and chipmunks and I could see me ending up with no TV and no cat! So I've been playing them on my laptop (wouldn't be quite as disastrous if the laptop was knocked over).

Otherwise, last week trundled along. Matt and Will called in briefly on Thursday. I went to Japanese in the city in the evening and did two first thing in the morning Zoom classes during the week. I went in to work on Friday.  I've been practising my piano, badly, and doing my daily puzzles, vocab practice and gentle exercises.  

It was quite a pleasant week, all told.

My lemon tree seems to be enjoying life too

Not a lot to report

Nothing particularly exciting or out of the way happened last week.

I went into work on Friday for some meetings.

I met Lindsey and Freyja for lunch on Thursday and then went for a potter in Daiso. I actually made it to the Japanese class in the evening. It was a bit disconcerting to find that the sensei was a young male. I don't think I've ever had a male Japanese teacher before.

I went to a Garden Group meeting on Saturday morning. The bloke from Grow Garden had come to hep us sort out the bed with the edible natives in it. It was very overgrown and people were a bit wary of getting in and weeding it because we are none of us experienced with edible native plants and also didn't know what to do about the self-invited celery and parsley growing in that bed (Answer - pull them out and eat them; we have lots of celery and parsley in the non-native beds).

Carrots, broccoli stalks, celery, silverbeet
from the garden.
I had them with left over stew for dinner

Lindsey and I met Matt, Belinda, Sage and Will in the Quarterhouse for lunch on Sunday. Freyja and Simon couldn't come because Simon was racing Puffing Billy in Belgrave . Belgrave is not especially handy for the Quarterhouse!

I went back out to Bunnings on Wednesday and got some potting mix and a few other bits and pieces. I've potted on my little lemon tree, which has lots of flowers. I have also planted a rhizome of ginger (in a separate pot!). My herbs and tomato plant seem to be very happy. I pruned the Roma tomato plant back a few weeks ago. It is shooting out new branches and also has a couple of flowers. I have no idea why it is still thriving. It really should have died over the winter. But on it goes. I know it's a bit early but I am also going to sow some cherry tomato seeds. My winter garden behaves much like a heated greenhouse, so all might be well. And if not, I will learn from the experience - and sow some more in another few weeks.

Sunset is getting noticeably later.
This from yesterday

Time

Time has been behaving very oddly lately.

I pretty much had no idea what day it was last week. I'm not sure why. And the week positively galloped by even though it wasn't a particularly busy week. Things did happen, but it wasn't a hectic, exciting or even noteworthy week. It just vanished.

I met Wendy in the city by design on Wednesday. We had lunch in The Emporium food hall and then went to Daiso for some things that I wanted and for a look around.

I went into work on Thursday, to cover someone who was away. Alas, I got back too late to go to my Japanese class but it was stuff that I had done before so nothing much was lost. Lindsey did go and I believe they recorded the class for me - although Lindsey didn't express much confidence in the sensei's technological ability and I haven't received the recording yet!.

I went to Bunnings on Saturday and bought some plant pots. I haven't restarted my Diggers' membership (I don't think I'd get anything like enough use of it) but I did want a ginger rhizome and some interesting cherry tomato seeds, which I got at non-member prices through their online shop. I needed pots to plant them in. Now I need to get potting mix to put ion the pots. I'm going to have to go back to Bunnings.

In addition to that, I've done my twice weekly, first thing in the morning, Japanese Zoom classes, plus my daily exercises:  Japanese vocab practice, my (very poor) piano practice and the morning puzzles. I've also started a morning (app-based) tai chi / yoga / pilates program. Which reminds me - I must dig out my Pajama [sic] pilates book. It's designed for doing the program in your pyjamas, using your bed, chair and other supports. My single bed was way too narrow and I forgot about it. I think my new bed should be wide enough (even if it isn't QUITE wide enough for me and both the cats who seem to take over a substantial section of the middle of the bed by around 3 or 4 in the morning!!)

On Sunday I met Freyja and Simon at the market and then we went to Clifton Hill, or perhaps Rushall, to a cafe for brunch. At least - I had brunch. They had coffee, having had breakfast before the market

I was on my way home on the train when my brother Matt rang. He and William were at Will's flat and were proposing to come for a cup of coffee in about 20 minutes time. I was back with about 7 minutes to spare before they arrived. They didn't stay long; they had limited car parking time to play with. That is one of the advantages of living where I do. It is convenient for people to drop in for a cuppa on their way past, or on their way to catch a train or a tram, or because they're in town and have a few minutes up their sleeve. No one ever just popped in to my place in Mount Helen!

I didn't really ever get to grips with the time last week. The weekend came with unseemly haste and it really wasn't until Sunday that I got my head around the calendar. I set lots of alarms to make sure that I got to the things and places that I was supposed to, when I was supposed to!

I was coming back into the building yesterday, after a brief visit to the supermarket, when I was hailed by two people who are in the garden group who were having a natter in the lounge area. One of them wandered off and another came ambling past and joined us. Then another paused briefly to say hello. The afternoon concierge came over to have a chat. Two more came by with their new baby (they  live next door to my flat but I hadn't previously seen the baby who is now two months old). It was quite a little gathering to say that it was completely impromptu and only occurred through happenstance.  I had assumed that I would never really get to know my neighbours, or other people who live in Victoria Point. I was mistaken. I run across people I know all the time!

Where did the week go?

I am finding it hard to believe that it is a whole week since I went out to St Kilda on the tram and sat on the pier, eating ice cream. Where did that week go?

It's not even as though I was particularly busy or active. I didn't do very much at all.

Having said that, I did go to Victoria Gardens and Bunnings on Monday.

I did not leave my flat at all on Tuesday. I did manage to stir myself to go the supermarket on Wednesday.

Lindsey has found a list of places to eat close to both Southern Cross and Flinders Street stations. We are going to sample some of them. So on Thursday we met at the Mail Exchange hotel pretty much immediately across the road from Southern Cross. Remarkable handy for me, plus open at weekends which so many city pubs are not. The building is lovely and the food was delicious. It has made its way onto my Places to Eat list. Then we went to our Japanese class later in the afternoon.

I went to work for a few hours on Friday.

So I suppose, apart from Tuesday, I did actually manage to do some things after all. The week wasn't quite as indolent as I had thought it had been.

I am still finding it hard to believe that I have landed on yet another weekend!

Melbourne is lighting up some of its significant buildings for the Now or Never Festival. Flinders Street station, the art gallery tower, Fed Square, the town hall among others. Some of them are now also lit in very bright pink for Dolly Parton, the station, town hall and arts tower especially.

Lindsey went to have a look after the Japanese class on Thursday. I forgot she was going and made my way home, via the tram than runs along Flinders Street. When I saw quite how pink the station was - I remembered that Lindsey was going exploring!! Fortunately, she took photos (this is not one of them - I took this one).

We have also had some magnificent sunsets this week. These are from Tuesday evening:

I have been a bit worried that Brandy and Whiskey might be getting a bit bored after a year in the flat. I don't know if they remember the house with multiple rooms and a courtyard garden. I have no idea if they think of it fondly and wish they could go back. They do seem mostly content and appear to enjoy watching life on Harbour Esplanade. They don't often play with the cat toys that they are given. But I decided to put Cat TV on for their amusement during the week. Brandy paid absolutely no attention at all. Whiskey, on the other hand:

Tram Challenge Route #12. Richmond to St Kilda

I have nerdy-fied the Tram Challenge by writing the route numbers I haven't done yet on small pieces of paper and putting them in a small bowl so the route I am going to do can be random rather than me always choosing it.

I knew I was going to be Home Alone at the weekend. Lindsey went to Sydney and Freyja and Simon had gone to Ocean Grove. I thought I might do a tram route, if the weather was obliging and if I could be bothered.

I pulled a number out of the bowl. It was one of  only two publicly accessible routes that do not run through the city centre. I was discussing with Freyja how I might achieve this (there were options) and she suggested that I put that route on hold and we could tie it in with her and Simon's railway station challenge.  I put the slip of paper aside.

The next one I pulled out goes past the zoo. I knew that part of the route was being replaced with buses until mid-October. I considered doing it anyway but then decided to wait until the route is fully open again and put the number back in the bowl.

The third number was the route 12 which runs between Victoria Gardens in Richmond to St Kilda. I have done the part between the city and Victoria Gardens multiple times because that's where IKEA is. The #12 terminates there; the #109 goes past on its way to Box Hill. Also, they are the tram lines that go past the flat in East Melbourne and the Bunnings in Collingwood. However, I have not done the stretch from the city to St Kilda.

It was a pleasant day on Sunday so, after visiting the Alphington market, I took myself on the #12 to St Kilda. It goes through South Melbourne and Middle Park, finishing up at the Fitzroy Street shops in St Kilda.

The final stop is about a block from the beach. So I walked to the beach.

The beach was busier than I expected it to be. The pier was very busy. I went out along it anyway.

I had a great afternoon. I don't know why I don't head out more often to the many beaches which are available to me.

It crossed my mind that, while I do go to the Richmond end of the #12 route quite often, I haven't properly "collected" it. There are rules, you know! When I am collecting bridges I need to get at least one photo and I need either to cross the bridge or to go under it. I make an exception when it is not possible to do either, such as the pack horse bridge at Haddon Hall in Derbyshire which is not accessible to the public. You can get near it but not actually to it. With the tram routes, I need to get off the tram, and take at least one photo. If there is anything at the end of the line (sometimes there isn't) I need to have a look at it.

So yesterday, I went back to Victoria Gardens and properly collected the end of the line. I wanted to go to Bunnings anyway, which is on the way to Victoria Gardens, and was more than happy to visit Toscano's, the greengrocery, and the supermarket while I was there.