Thematic Photographic 242: Vegetative Melbourne

Carmi's latest theme suits me. I've just come back from a holiday in Melbourne, Australia,
where I found lots to photograph in the way of growing things. 

Early morning light showed off the trees in the Treasury Gardens beautifully:

I love the Conservatory in the Fitzroy Gardens -
there are always wonderful displays (and it's warm!)

Nearby, Captain Cook's cottage has some spectacular vegetation around it.
There's a statue of the old explorer himself, keeping watch:

On my walkabouts I saw many of Melbourne's old terraced houses:

Along the banks of the Yarra River the trees are beginning to change colour:

Lastly - the produce in the organic hall at the Queen Victoria market
is so fresh that it's practically still growing:

For other people's vegetative musings go here.

“Ideas, like individuals, live and die. They flourish, according to their nature, in one soil or climate and droop in another. They are the vegetation of the mental world.”
~William MacNeile Dixon

Leaving on a Jetplane...

It's school holidays - and I do know when I'll be back again. 

Early (VERY early) on Tuesday morning, I will drive for almost two hours to Auckland airport.

Then it's off to Adelaide for 5 days to see my daughter, my son-in-law and best of all,  my two grandchildren. I can't wait! It's only 3 months since they were here, but at age 2 and 4 they change so quickly. And I've never been to Adelaide before.

Then I'm going to have 5 days on my own in Melbourne, which will be wonderful. Melbourne is my favourite Australian city and I have so many things I want to do there. Mmm Melbourne: great shopping; interesting buildings, both old and new; every sort of cuisine you can think of, and then some; galleries, gardens, and the sea...

This has been a very long, hard term, and I need a rest. 

See you soon!

Leaves

This morning I walked in to school at 7.15, as usual, and suddenly saw a leaf 

that is actually turning! 

I was beginning to think this was going to be a colourless autumn.

We have been having a few cooler nights. Still no rain, though...

Thematic Photographic 239: Leaves

Sunrise, sunsets

For Thematic Photographic 238, here are some morning and evening photos.

Sunrise in Christchurch:

Sunrise in Bursa, Turkey:

Two sunsets taken from my front door steps:

 

and a strange sunset effect taken from the same place a couple of weeks ago:

Remember this?

“There's a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they're absolutely free. Don't miss so many of them.”
― Jo Walton

Spring Forward, Fall Back

Today is the last day of March, and it's nearly the end of Daylight Saving in this country. (Thanks Kiwi Nomad)

I always feel sad at the thought of longer nights, dark evenings and mornings, cold and rain... 

In those foreboding words from Game of Thrones: "Winter is coming!"

This morning the dog and I walked around my college's horticulture and farm unit; 

we found clear evidence of the fact that we've already had a month of autumn.

All of the apple trees had rotting fruit under them -

The kiwifruit look almost ready to pick, although in fact they will 

hang under the vines for at least another month.

The weather needs to get a lot cooler, to bring up the sugar 

levels in the fruit, before they're harvested.

Looks like a good crop this year!

I hope you all have a lovely Easter Sunday.

Grey days

For Thematic Photographic's Grey theme, I have some shots - not of 

our current bright-blue, sun-hot, drought-ridden days, though!

A grey summer day from 2011:

and a cold winter's day last year:

two of the locals:

Sunday Snapshot

Last night we had a beautiful sunset. 

There was an odd moment at the end of it, when a column of light shone upwards. 

This shot doesn't do justice to what was an amazing sight.