AT SOUTHBANK

Christmas tree at Southbank. The violet baubles are rather too lugubrious for my taste, despite the Barbie pink bows and bells...

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

WAITING FOR THE TRAIN

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

LUNCHTIME

At the Preston Market.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

AT PRESTON MARKET

Flower shop at Preston Market. Spring has arrived.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

SAD DAY...

Twenty-seven police officers were injured and 42 people were arrested today following a violent anti-war protest outside a weapons expo in Melbourne City.  About 1500 people descended on the City this morning against the Land Forces Defence Expo being held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

It was the city's largest protest in 24 years with about 1000 officers, from both Victoria and New South Wales, deployed. Protesters were accused of throwing projectiles like rocks, suspected human faeces, horse manure and balloons filled with unknown liquids at officers following a clash about 7am. Scenes became more violent throughout the day before dying down by the afternoon.

Violence and war are not stopped by further violence an escalation of conflict. War is a vile thing and it should be stopped. However, these protesters were obviously unaware of Satyagraha...

Satyāgraha (from Sanskrit: सत्याग्रह; satya: "truth", āgraha: "insistence" or "holding firmly to"), or "holding firmly to truth", or "truth force". This  is a particular form of nonviolent resistance or civil resistance. Someone who practises satyagraha is a satyagrahi. The term satyagraha was coined and developed by Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) as early as 1919. Gandhi practised satyagraha as part of the Indian independence movement and also during his earlier struggles in South Africa for Indian rights.

Non-violent protesting is more effective in furthering one's cause and making people aware of wrongdoing, than is violent and antisocial behaviour. You cannot purport to be a peace activist by injuring others and putting innocent lives at risk. It is shameful, it is wrong, it is counterproductive. A sad day for Melbourne. More to come this week, unfortunately...

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme

RUBBISH NIGHT

Taking out the rubbish and enjoying a view of the moon amongst the clouds as it goes towards the West to set.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

IN THE CITY

After the cold, wet, windy, stormy weather we've had the past few days, people were advised to work from home if they could. This is certainly a very sparse-looking City streetscape early in the morning, which means that many people did indeed stay away. Gave me the willies, as it brought back memories of COVID lockdowns...

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

SHOPPING CENTRE

Like any large metropolis, Melbourne has its fair share of large shopping complexes scattered all over the suburbs. Generally one can find whatever one wants (and occasionally what one needs!) concentrated in one location with easy, free parking. Here is Highpoint West Shopping Centre in Maribyrnong. You'd be forgiven to think that you were anywhere else in the world in one of the big urban centres. But I'm being too cynical perhaps, yes it is convenient.

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

RAINY NIGHT

It's been raining on and off all day today and it's quite cold. The rain persisted in the evening and it's raining tonight as I'm posting this. A classic image of wintry Melbourne today, composed of four separate photos assembled into a Photoshop collage.

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

COFFEE BREAK

I'm not a big fan of big shopping centres and generally avoid them. However, when it's unavoidable to visit one, I go do my shopping quickly and leave. Today was a wintry, cold and rainy Sunday, and we had to visit a one such shopping centre, which fortunately was not too crowded. Suddenly, the coffee smelt good and the light was less objectionable than usual. We did have a coffee and it was hot, aromatic and hit the spot...

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

HAWTHORN

Burwood Rd in Hawthorn looking West towards the City. Always busy and with a good variety of historic buildings, interesting shops, galleries, Swinburne University of Technology campus and many cafés and restaurants.

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

SUNDAY BRUNCH

At the Town and Country Café in Glenferrie Rd Kew.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

AT THE SHOPPING CENTRE

At the Northland Shopping Centre in Preston, early one morning. Best time to visit and avoid the crowds later on!

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

RAINY EVENING

A cold, rainy Autumn evening in Melbourne. Everyone (well almost!) is indoors quite cosy with the heater on and the electric blanket warming the bed...

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme.

FLOWER STALL

At the Camberwell Market.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

CAFÉ

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

HIGH ST, NORTHCOTE

High Street in Northcote has in the last few years woken from its torpor of the previous two decades and is developing into a vibrant, bohemian, rather trendy part of Melbourne. Always fun to walk there and go into many of the quirky shops or have something to eat in the numerous eateries or cafés. A little bit scruffy in parts, but also quite likeable.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

ACLAND ST

Acland Street is a street in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda, which enjoys great popularity as a recreational area, mainly due to its many restaurants and its proximity to the entertainment areas along St Kilda beach.

Acland Street runs on a north-west to south-east axis between Fitzroy and Barkly Streets. It was one of the first streets laid out when St Kilda was surveyed in 1842. The north-west end of the street is largely residential, and features many fine houses from the late 19th century, some of them converted to flats or other uses, such as the Linden Gallery, and earlier, Acland Street Gallery, which was at number 18, and closed in 1990.

The south-east end of the street, between Carlisle and Barkly Streets, is a commercial strip, with many cafés, cake shops, venues, retail outlets and restaurants. The section of Acland Street between Barkly Street and Carlisle Street is a tram zone where route 96 terminates.

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL

St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne is the metropolitical and cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne, Victoria in Australia. It is the seat of the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne and Metropolitan of the Province of Victoria. The cathedral, which was built in stages, is a major Melbourne landmark.

A distinguished English architect, William Butterfield, designed the cathedral, in the architectural style of Gothic transitional. The foundation stone was laid in 1880 and, on 22 January 1891, the cathedral was consecrated. St Paul's replaced St James Old Cathedral which then stood on the corner of William Street and Collins Street - later moved to a site near the Flagstaff Gardens.

To fit the block, the cathedral building is orientated NNW. The erection of the spires began in 1926, to the design of John Barr of Sydney instead of Butterfield's original design. The 1960s saw extensive work completed to the exterior of the cathedral and the T.C. Lewis organ was restored in 1989 by a major National Trust appeal. Major restoration works were completed in 2009 with significant repairs to the spires, the building of the Moorhouse Tower Lantern and the new processional doors.

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

DEMONSTRATION

Permission from the City of Melbourne is not needed to conduct a demonstration, rally or protest or other form of public assembly. The right thing to do is to advise City Council of such a gathering taking place, so that adequate precautions are taken so that no adverse consequences ensue.

​The Council advises: "Before notifying City of Melbourne, we encourage you to contact Victoria Police for advice and to discuss potential police resourcing. If your activity takes place in or passes through privately managed public spaces, we encourage you to notify them directly and discuss any requirements they may have."

Here is a (small) demonstration on Collins Street, advocating putting a stop to the extradition of Julian Assange to the USA and releasing him so he can come home to Australia.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme