City animals

Another day I was reading a little zine made by Australian girl (her page here) with German roots. She was telling what impressed her in Germany. And what she loved about being back in Australia. This is her list which we agree with:

• The wildlife;
• Super friendly checkout ladies;
• The local library (I’m so happy to borrow new movies, music and fantastic books too!);
• The Ocean (oh yes!);
• Star gazing;
• Mangoes…

So, we were really impressed by the wildlife here too. Especially that you can meet many creatures just in the city. Like those little possums. They really love hanging out in European trees. And since it is autumn and leaves felt of – finally we can see those little beauties.

Another afternoon we went to one of big parks near the river. Even if it is surrounded by big streets it is pretty calm there.

Flying foxes live there. I always thought that bats sleep at day quietly, hiding in caves, abandoned sheds or at least in thick trees, so no one can see them. And there… They scream, the hang on sunshine and you’ll always see a few flying around.

 

We were noticed too.

Another day we went to see the Docklands. It is the suburb next to the city CBD and it is highly advertised in all guides, they recommend shopping and eating there. Well… Saturday noon – totally quiet, everything is closed. Just few fishermen. And a darter! We have a book with Australian birds. And darter was the last bird in one page we hadn’t met before. One page finished! Check!

They call it winter. Cardigan ends in a bag and coat – on a bench. Warm!

Posing for us and even laughing. I somehow can’t call that noise a song.

When was the last time you saw an owl? A wild one?
We went to get some groceries for lunch. The day wasn’t so busy, so we decided to walk by the sea. And there we heard some noise. Parrots screaming, nothing new. Somehow we looked ant the palm tree. And saw something white. Maybe cockatoo? But too small and not totally white. A juvenile one? And then it turned her head and looked at us! You should have seen how fast we walked home, grabbed our camera and ride our bikes back to the Barn Owl!

Random small trips West from Melbourne

 

 

 

Geelong – second biggest city of Victoria. There was a cool shop selling life size alien sculpture, we’ll come back and make some photos.

 

3D from the forest.

Little town at the end of peninsula. Can’t remember the name now. Rozelas climbing.

Beautiful ibis posing on a very thick wires.

There you can see the very end of the Mornington peninsula. It is the narrow gates where all ships enter to Melbourne’s bay.

  

In the hills, little spa town Trentham.

Quirky stencil in Daylesford. They definitely used some tape to stick the tape stencil on the wall.

🙂

The sign on the toilet wall:
“Opened by his Excellency Sir Winston Ducan
KCMC-CB-DSO.
A Lehmann.-Mayor
23-11-40”

 

Another beautiful day in the hills. Looking for the birds.

 

And there they are – bright and colourful!

A little finch on a big rock.

A bigger bird on the same big rock.

Yes, it is the same big rock. Actually it’s name is also Big Rock. Genius!

Everytime we go North West we meet some birds of prey.

Beauty, isn’t she?

One of the towns called Blackwoods (I think so) of Australia. People in older days were not very creative with the names. Every suburb, has the same named street. You go with the tram and you can cross for example 3 streets called Church street. I’m not talking about Victoria or High street…

These are so random pictures from different places, but if someone needs more details (like where we met one or another bird) – Laurius keeps the notes 🙂

Grampians

This is about the Grampians in autumn.

It was raining when we left.

Sun showed her face only for a couple of minutes in the evening.

We arrived when it was getting dark.

Next morning – little walk before breakfast.

Someone is taking shower.

Well, we look funny there.

Jurga looked too attractive for this little bird wearing her blue hoody.

After the walk we sat in the nice forest picnic ground, enjoying breakfast. Someone was too busy with making a sandwich, someone was just looking elsewhere. That was the moment when no one looked at the food.  Then I heard a growling noise and saw wings just in front of me. Shit, the bird felt in my hot tea – thought for the moment. Then I understood what happened. The cheese was stolen from my hand. Fat kookkaburra was sitting nearby and laughing at us.

  

So we spend the rest of the day climbing up and down.

 

Yeah, you climb and then wait in the queue to take a picture.

See the girl on the left. It is very high.
That’s all folks!

Magic cinema

One evening we went to the cinema. It was a modern one, but all walls were covered with red curtains and silver ones were hiding the screen. Somehow it reminded me Twin Peaks. Now this doesn’t look impressive, because we went to old Art Deco Astor cinema.

This is in the toilet! Little fireplace-heater looks like a tiny doors in the wall. You can still smell cigarettes there although it is non smoking for a long time.

I don’t know what is in the middle. And I saw the detailed frames only in the photo, I didn’t realise it when I was there. Next time I should be more sensitive to the details.

Oval balcony.

A mural on the wall.

 

 

A relief decoration.

We were watching Arrietty and Howl’s moving castle – a double feature evening. During the second movie we noticed a cat walking down the stairs. Finally he or she spent half of the movie on Laurius’ lap sleeping and purrrrring.

New friends reuniting again in the corridor.

Brunch, vinyl and other weekends

It is so fashionable to go for a brunch. Actually this means somkething – let’s go and have a very expensive sandwich instead of making one at home. Of course we go too! Many lovely places. Like this cafe on a tram stop. Someone is waiting for the breakfast. Others – for the tram.

 

Interior.

Another day we went to a free comic day to pick up our free comic copies. We ended hiding from the rain in a vodka bar and tried potato pancakes here. As it is very popular thing in Lithuania we felt like experts discussing the taste of the meal.
-Too much of lemon juice.
-Yes, too sour.

Well, we didn’t have way too big glasses or moustache and jeans were too wide, so in this place we had to hide behind a burger. Thankfully, it was enough big, so noone didn’t notice our shame.

Who killed the burger?

Actually, our most favourite thing for weekends is a hunt for the records.

Sometimes we get lovely finds and sometimes feel a big shame that we don’t know a lot about music and have to disappear quietly.

This picture is for Mini fans.

We went to a garage sale. Very conceptual one. The DJ is playing and the things they sell are… few (a bike helmet, two books, a pair of shoes and a couple of blouses).

Underground toilet in the city centre. Can you imagine 7 ladies doing the make up here?

Religious discussions inside the toilet cabin. I didn’t expect this. We are all probably used to see some anatomical or less detailed drawings and texts like “Kate loves Jake”, but not this. Some people believe in Jesus and some in Santa.

At the end of a day we go to some beloved place for live music. Here we find a Baltic dark beer and feel very suspicious if it is Lithuanian one. Of course not…