Happy Easter, Happy Spring. . . .wait. What?

The Royal Exhibition Building

So. Easter feels so different in the Southern hemisphere. We were completely prepared for the fact that Christmas happens in summer here. Hard to get your head around, but pretty obvious right? So why is it sooooo strange to be celebrating Easter. . . aka rebirth. . . in the fall? It has really thrown us. Not only is it a time for a long holiday here (the university is closed down for almost a week, starting with Good Friday), but Good Friday is the biggest day. Stores are closed on Good Friday as they would be on, say Christmas or Easter, in the States. I guess it has me puzzled, since I would think that, among Christians, Easter would be the Big Event.

Differences happen, and that's ok. It's true that I wasn't prepared for not being able to get groceries on Good Friday, so we ate eggs and whatever else I could scrounge in the kitchen for dinner that night. Not terrible. In fact, the fact that I shop pretty much daily (the produce is so good when fresh,) is, overall, a positive.

John being off work, we spent most of the weekend touring the city on our bikes. There is an incredible bike path to the downtown area where we don't have to compete with any vehicular traffic, so there we went. The amount of expense the city went to. . . and the infrastructure to have this bike path pass under at least 8 underpasses, many by the Yarra River, really is extraordinary. Lots of other folks use it, too.

A potter friend of mine from the ceramics studio participated in the arts show that was held in The Royal Exhibition Building, which is not a far bike ride away. This building was built in 1879 for what was supposed to be a temporary exhibition: specifically the 1880 International Exhibition, which was the southern hemisphere's equivalent to a World's Fair. It was recently granted a World Heritage Building site, and was Australia's first. Everything on the inside is wood, though obviously lighting was retrofitted some time later.

 Really quite a gorgeous space to hang out in, though we eventually left our bikes and headed out on foot to see parts of the CBD that we haven't seen before. It's a big city.


Below, the focus of my intent was an old hotel in the center of the picture, but in typical Melbourne fashion, old mixes with new without much concern. This is a very dense city, and practicality seems to rule over everything else.




Likewise with the old theater shown below. What a masterpiece. What a mess. What a life.

Walking it back a bit, I gave these guys the Coolest sellers at the Art Festival Award. They were re-purposing old tires into very cool things. Clever name, too: "Retyred". (in the British fashion, our "tire" is spelled "tyre") I did ask the blokes (catch the Aussie lingo there?) if it was ok to photograph them and their work. They were happy to oblige.

 

Retyred. Are these guys fabulous or what?

One last comment. Today is Easter. As is our tradition, we spent time thinking about rebirth, second chances, the phoenix rising from the ashes, and hope. We also took a long hike around the Royal Park and thought a lot about this first Easter without Lacey. It is still painful. I would love to believe that her spirit is romping around somewhere, reborn and loved, but have to admit that I don't really believe it. I just hope for it.

And tonight, as is also our tradition, we're going out for a nice dinner. We fondly remember many previous Easters with long conversation and wine soaked dinners with the kids after some long hike or another. We found a new Eastern European spot called "Little Odessa". I'll let you know how it goes!

The Great Ocean Road: Final Bit

We moved on from Apollo Bay to Johanna. Not a long drive, but a little bit inland and VERY off the beaten path. No WiFi there, and the cell reception wasn't exactly terrific, either. But! It was a wonderful place. We had to drive back about 2 kilometers over a dirt road (they call them "tracks" here), then pulled into a narrow driveway where we were welcomed into the only garage space. S. has an Airbnb unit attached to here house that is on about 5 hectares (a hectare is roughly 2.5 acres), with a second floor balcony from which we saw this sunset. Twice! We also watched a Kookaburra hunt at dusk on both evenings. It was lovely, though we actually had to retreat inside because the sun set

directly in our eyes for the first bit!

So, somewhat belatedly, it's occurred to me that a map might be a good idea, for those of you who care about where we actually traveled. Sorry about being so late in thinking about this!





We spent one of our days in Johanna doing what is admittedly a super tourista kind of thing. We visited a place called Otway Fly Treetops Adventure. We opted out of the zipline tour (not my choice). Unfortunately, photographs don't do it justice. It is eco-tourism at perhaps it's best.  This company has built elevated walkways throughout the temperate rainforest here, and it is truly spectacular. You get the view of a bird, or maybe a flying fox! They make a big deal about the building of the walkway (ever so carefully), and it culminates in a tower that you climb up to to be at almost the tip top of the rainforest.

Not the most comfortable situation for my lovely height-adverse consort, but he managed just fine. I especially loved the views of the forest floor and under story. It was SO lush.

Rainforest understory

"Rosettes" of ferns. . . . 2 meters across!

Beneath our feet

Fern closeup

Walled Garden.

After Johanna, we drove into Port Campbell. The weather and a not-so-great Airbnb (our first bad one, really) colored our feelings about Port Campbell, but it was only for a night. The town itself seemed SOOO Tourist Weary. Oh my goodness. Folks were just not at their best. This is probably related to the fact the one of the National Landmark treasures is nearby, The Twelve Apostles (http://www.visitvictoria.com/regions/Great-Ocean-Road/Things-to-do/Nature-and-wildlife/Beaches-and-coastlines/12-Apostles. I guess we can forgive our hosts. It is a spectacular area, but like many things in life is ruined when over used and trampled all over. Maybe that's exactly how the locals feel; over used and trampled all over. Anyway, we decided to drive north, away from the coast at the point, stopped in a beautiful little town called Camperdown, where we had a much better experience. It's a beautiful historical little town that prides itself on it's history. We were also treated well at the local tourist information center. We started a decent hike, but found we had to give it up because the smoke from a recently extinguished fire was making our throats burn. Our person at the information center told us that they had to close down a local elementary school due to high carbon monoxide levels! Apparently this is from smoldering peat, and is a big problem for folks, as if the fires themselves weren't a big enough problem. By the way, we had a sweet lunch at a local cafe. I keep telling folks that I want to have a walled garden in my next house. This one would do. . . 

Aren't these great? No idea. . . .

We stopped that night in Colac, which turned out to be a pretty nice town, though all of the lodging was right on the main noisy road. No worries. I have the White Noise app that John downloaded for me years ago. The next morning, he went to do laundry while I spent a couple of hours at the Colac Botanical Gardens. Nice find. One of the things I've noticed here is that even when I see a familiar plant (e.g. The Norfolk Island Pine), it looks different than at home. In the temperate rain forest, it often looks A Lot Bigger!

Likewise, but I love the colors!

Finally, at the end of the plant images (I hope you don't get tired of them. . . I never do. . . ), is an image that again doesn't do justice to its subject. After we had a great Thai meal (nice wine to go with it, of course), we waited out a rainstorm in the restaurant, and then walk/ran back to the motel. We were lucky enough to see a complete rainbow! It stretched all the way from one horizon to the other, though the panoramic image I took disappeared. Oh, IPhone. How could you let me down?

Lipstick plant comes to mind, but again. . .

Another lovely. Perhaps a currant relative.

The Great Ocean Road, part 2

As an aside, John and I never get tired of trying to figure out the language here. Smile. So many words used differently than in the states. If anyone knows the difference between walking and promenading, let us know. This was part of a break wall that we walked along in Apollo Bay. We saw seals playing in the surf there, along with the usual assortment of amazing birds.

Mystery flower on a dogwood-sized tree

Local resident at our place in Apollo Bay

Dandelion or a close relative. Evolutionary success story

Fushia-like native

Close-up, Fushia-like flower

And of course, no post of mine is complete without a complement of botanicals. These are from a hike we took up Mariner's Lookout, just outside of Apollo Bay. The lily-like flowers above hung from a small tree in a yard that was just off the parking lot. It was covered in these flowers. No scent that I could tell. Then there is the lowly dandelion. . . not exactly, though. These were happy in the grassy knolls at the top of the world.

Then, enter this wild beauty, pink though she is. My goodness. Just growing crazy on the hillside. It makes me crazy to not know what their names are, but then I don't know a lot of names. Best, I suppose, to just enjoy them, unnamed. At least until I get back to the Botanical Garden.

The Great Ocean Road (GOR) Trip

The "great" is modifying the "Ocean Road". . . I'm not making a grand statement about the trip. It was a very good trip, though. Glad I did it, though it DID remind me of visiting National Parks in the U.S. It's not that they aren't really amazing places. They are. But they're crowded, full of signs that sound like scolding, and (not unrelated) usually packed with tourists who probably need the scolding. Fortunately, we are in the off season, so it wasn't as crowded as it would have been when our friends, D and S visited. John craves all things ocean more than I do, probably because I grew up close to the coast, and vacationed there every year. Don't get me wrong. . .the ocean, especially at this end-of-the-earth feeling place, still inspires awe. I love the sound and the smell of it. And I seem to be able to get sand into every part of my being, even when I don't go swimming. Not terrible. Just the price one pays.

Apollo Bay, long view from Mariner's Outlook

John and I drove the Pacific Coastal highway (along the California coast) many years ago, during our last sabbatical leave. Ok. More than 20 years ago. I remember it being much like this road. . .winding, curving, absolutely breathtaking views at every turn until you just get tired. Time to stop. There are several little coastal towns along it, my favorite being Apollo Bay, though Lorna, with her hundreds of Cockatoos, was pretty wonderful too. Both of these towns seemed less tourist weary, more open to wonder.

Sunset at Apollo Bay

Lorna was our first stop, other than the stops along the way to walk along the beach and view the long stretches of lovely, mostly deserted (translation: too cold for swimming) beaches. We stopped at the Lorna information center, where we had a wonderful chat with a lady about the area, who described the hundreds of cockatoos as "vermin". Smile. These birds are truly beautiful, from a purely aesthetic point of view, but after watching them for a while, I could see her point. They are LARGE. Twelve to 14" long, at least, with wingspans of maybe 16-20". They are mostly white, but have yellow undersides, and an impressive yellow crest. Honestly, the image below doesn't do them justice.

The other important thing that we did in Lorna was talk to a very fit young man about mountain biking in the Otways (a temperate rainforest just north of the GOR). We stayed in a nice Airbnb in a small town outside of Apollo Bay. We had to get John ready for his mountain biking adventure in the town of Forest, the next day. We had some weather that night. As fit, determined Americans, we were determined to walk down to the moonlit beach in the evening, but the winds were so strong that we had to back down. We were being sandblasted by the sand and the wind. Still. We got to sleep to the sound of the ocean and wake up to the sound of the Australian Magpies. I swear, I think that's the sound of heaven. I'm not kidding. Their sound is so unbelievably soothing. . and alluring at the same time.

The rascal I found at Elizabeth Lake.

So. After confidently taking a wrong turn on our way to Forest, Victoria, we eventually got John to the mountain bike outfitter. It was a kind of shack with a woman who had come it to help John (the only biker of the day). This sounds like kind of a slapdash outfit, but John tells me that the trails were great and well marked. I, not wanting to mountain bike, but deciding that sitting all day at the brew pub across the street was probably not the greatest idea, either, went to find a hike. Elizabeth Lake! Yay. Follow the signs, right? After getting lost a few times (remember, I'm driving on the left side of the road on roads that are only a little wider than a car width), I finally crawled down to the trailhead at Elizabeth Lake. And look who was there! I parked, and we hiked down to the lake. In Australia, nothing is ON a lake. It always involves a fairly substantial hike (this one was about 1.5 miles), up and or down. Through fern and eucalyptus forests. It's really tough. John posted the "beware of snakes" sign for our Grand Children, with a caption something like "Grandma Idaho doesn't always read signs very well". . . the Aussies do respect their snakes. All poisonous.

The Wild, The Crazy, and The Familiar. . .

I've decided to go with a very straightforward format to show you the various plant forms from the Botanical Gardens. Many folks here regret the abundance of flora from other parts of the world here. . and indeed, as with most cultures with international beginnings, the native is often left behind in favor of the more familiar. The plants from home. There is a vibrant respect for the native plants, here, though, particularly as water is increasingly becoming a limited resource. So. From the original to the invaders!

Bronze leafed Dahlias. I have a soft spot in my heart for dahlias, but these were so lovely, with a sea of bronze leaves. A North American (Mexican) native, as opposed to
















This plant, a South African native, is the Bush Lily. We saw it in bloom everywhere when we first got here, but I missed photographing it myself. . . the Google gave me the above image. The spherical inflorescence of flowers is on a tall stalk, like an ornamental Alium. No scent that I noticed. . . .

Ficus obliqua, the small leafed fig is also a local. It is multi-trunked and obtaining a huge size and presence. Both it and the Moreton Bay fig are members of the family Moracea, which is well-represented in Oceania.












The Moreton Bay Fig, or the Australian Banyan, latin name Ficus macrophylla is an abundantly planted local, well adapted to Oceania. Ficus and other Moracea genera, as well as Eucalypts (family Myrtacea) are Everywhere!







This is not my image, but we have seen these incredible root structures on the Moreton Bay Figs. Also, note that most of these don't have human-edible fruit, though there are many of the fruiting types cultivated in gardens all over Melbourne.

Some other scenes from the botanical garden. This long expanse of lawn leads down to a series of man-made lakes. Our cheerful docent told us that the gardens have been directed by both plantsmen, who were most interested in making the gardens approachable and enjoyable; to botanical scientists, who focused on making these gardens world class scientific institutions. You can feel that as you walk through. There is also an herbarium which houses plants and seeds for the international germplasm project.

The Rose Pavillion

Temple of the Wind: Detail of a staghorn fern

Temple of the Wind

Bouganvilla: another interloper

And another local: The paperbark tree (closeup below)

The Royal Botanical Gardens Revisited

Once again, I'm starting a post with a bird. Because. Though I mostly want to talk about the Royal Gardens, I don't want to forget to tell you about the Lorakeets. The image to the left is Not a Lorakeet. It's a Butcher Bird. Once again, my avian photography is not world class. I like the Butcher birds just fine, but last night, on our post-dinner walk, John and I heard and "saw" hundreds of Lorakeets in Royal Park, across from our house. The word "saw" is in quotation marks because they are back-lit in flight it's hard to see their amazing colors how breathtakingly beautiful they are. And then, you catch a good look and it almost stops your heart, so beautiful are they.  I mentioned them before, but had no idea how many there were.

Lorakeets. Not my image. . .

My first childhood pet, Fletcher-the-parakeet, and Galen's parakeets come to mind. I feel kissed by God when I see/hear/feel their very remarkable presence.

Now. for the Royal Botanical Gardens. I saw my old nemesis, The Norfolk Island Pine, and actually had verification of my identification by the lovely Tour Guide, Jenny.

I realize now that I was thrown off the scent because these trees in the garden, and around town, have a different branch conformation than the ones we grow as houseplants at home. Their splays of sub-lateral branches are definitely formed in an upward "V" shape, whereas the ones we're used to have more of a flattened conformation. And silly me. I had thought that Norfolk Island was off the North American coast. . . off of Virginia, where, of course, where lies Norfolk Virginia. No, Virginia, there is no Norfolk Island Pine there. Turns out that Norfolk Island is an island in the south Pacific that is roughly halfway between the middle of the Australian continent and the top tip of the North Island of New Zealand. Who knew? This family, Araucariaceae, is quite primitive, and any species belonging to it in the Northern Hemisphere died out during the Cretacious-Paleogene extinction event.

Wow. I've been looking for an excuse to legitimately use those words for my whole life. That's the same event that took the dinosaurs. Anyway, the reason they look so amazing to us, we me anyway, is because they are so unique. They are unlike anything we have in the northern hemisphere. Here are some members of that family of plants, only 3 of which are native to Australia. And since the blogger.com image mover is making me crazy, I'll continue in the next post!

Araucaria muelleri (New Caledonia only)

A. muelleri leaves. . . look like scales!

Araucaria cunninghamii: Hoop Pine                                                      Another Native: Soft Tree Fern