ESPLANADE

esplanade | ˌɛspləˈneɪd, ˌɛspləˈnɑːd | noun a long, open, level area, typically beside the sea, along which people may walk for pleasure. • an open, level space separating a fortress from a town.
ORIGIN late 16th century (denoting an area of flat ground on top of a rampart): from French, from Italian spianata, from Latin explanatus ‘flattened, levelled’, from explanare

St Kilda is an inner suburb of the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Port Phillip. At the 2011 Census, St Kilda had a population of 17,795. St Kilda was named after a schooner, Lady of St Kilda (which moored at the main beach for much of 1841) by Charles La Trobe, and the ship's master and early settler Lieutenant James Ross Lawrence.

During the Victorian and Edwardian eras, St Kilda became a favoured suburb of Melbourne's elite, and many palatial mansions were constructed along its hills and waterfront. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, St Kilda served a similar function for Melburnians as did Coney Island to the residents of New York City and its history draws an interesting parallel.

Densely populated postwar St Kilda became Melbourne's red-light district, home to low-cost rooming houses. Since the late 1960s, St Kilda has become known for its culture of bohemianism and as home to many prominent artists, musicians and subcultures, including punk and LGBT. While some of these groups still maintain a presence in St Kilda, in recent years the district has experienced rapid gentrification pushing many lower socio-economic groups out to other areas.

St Kilda is home to many of Melbourne's famous visitor attractions including Luna Park, the Esplanade Hotel, Acland Street and Fitzroy Street. It is home to St Kilda Beach, Melbourne's most famous beach, several renowned theatres and several of Melbourne's big events and festivals.

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DAWN

Dawn on the banks of the Yarra River in Melbourne.

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COBURG LAKE

Coburg Lake Reserve is a popular district level park in Melbourne's Northern suburbs, offering a great variety of activities including picnicking, playgrounds, barbecue facilities, walking and bike paths and nature play all set in a beautiful heritage setting overlooking Coburg Lake. Several playgrounds are located throughout the park. These are nestled amongst the gardens and next to the lake. If you like to watch wildlife you will love the Coburg Lake Reserve. Ducks, swans and native birds can be observed here.

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BRIGHTON IN BAYSIDE

The City of Bayside is a Local Government Area in Melbourne, Australia. It is located in the southern suburbs, with an area of 36 square kilometres and an estimated population of about 100,000 people. It comprises the City of Brighton, City of Sandringham, City of Moorabbin, City of Mordialloc and City of Bayside. As well as having quite exclusive and very expensive real estate by the seaside in Brighton, for example, it also has areas of industrial and business park usage, as in Moorabbin, for example.

Here are some photos from Brighton Beach where the bay is blue, the beach is beguiling, the boxes beautiful, the breeze bracing, and the bank balances buoyant!

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ANCIENT ATHENS

Athens is one of the oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for at least 5000 years. Situated in southern Europe, Athens became the leading city of Ancient Greece in the first millennium BC, and its cultural achievements during the 5th century BC laid the foundations of western civilisation.

During the early Middle Ages, the city experienced a decline, then recovered under the later Byzantine Empire and was relatively prosperous during the period of the Crusades (12th and 13th centuries), benefiting from Italian trade. Following a period of sharp decline under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Athens re-emerged in the 19th century as the capital of the independent and self-governing Greek state.

Athens is rich in ancient sites and buildings, including the areopagus, the acropolis, the agora, various amphitheatres and various athenaea (temples of Athena, like the Parthenon), as well as numerous other architectural remains, and monuments, statuary and objects of everyday life. The Acropolis Museum, the National Archaeological Museum and numerous other museums and galleries also have objects and remains of the ancient city.

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Acropolis

Erechtheum Temple

The Amphitheatre of Herodes Atticus

The Agora

The Thesseum, Temple of Hephaestus

The Areopagus

Goddess Athena

Ancient Athens

'X' IS FOR XEROPHYTE

xerophyte | ˈzɪərə(ʊ)fʌɪt, ˈzɛrə(ʊ)fʌɪt | noun Botany: A plant which needs very little water to grow.
DERIVATIVES xerophytic | ˌzɪərə(ʊ)ˈfɪtɪk | adjective

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'W' IS FOR WATER

Water whooshing down a waterfall, whirling into white wavelets...

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'V' IS FOR VEGETABLES

Eat more vegetables, everyday!

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'U' IS FOR UMBRELLA

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'S' IS FOR SNAIL

Snips and snails, and puppy dogs' tails,
That's what little boys are made of...

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'R' IS FOR ROSE

The rose as symbol of love is well-known. It was sacred to Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love and beauty, and carried the message of "I love you" from sender to receiver, something every Valentine knows.

However, it is also used as a sign of silence and secrecy. The words sub rosa "under the rose" refer to the demand for discretion whenever a rose was hung from the ceiling at a meeting - hence the ceiling roses of Victorian homes. In the Mysteries roses were sacred to Isis. It is also the flower of her son Harpocrates or younger Horus, the god of silence.

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'Q' IS FOR QUOITS

quoit |kɔɪt, kwɔɪt| noun
1 A ring of iron, rope, or rubber thrown in a game to encircle or land as near as possible to an upright peg.
• (quoits) [treated as singular] a game consisting of aiming and throwing quoits.
2 The flat covering stone of a dolmen.
• [often in place names] the dolmen itself: New Stone Age burial remains at Zennor Quoit.
3 Australian informal a person's buttocks.

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'P' IS FOR PUMPKIN

Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,
Had a wife, couldn't keep her;
He put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her very well.

Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,
Had another, didn't love her;
Peter learned to read and spell,
And then he loved her very well.

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And of course,

'O' IS FOR ORANGE

“A little orange will put a spring into your day.” ― Anthony T. Hincks

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'N' IS FOR NEST

Blackbirds are nesting in our garden again this Spring...

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'M' IS FOR MOON

Lullaby

Sweet crescent moon,
Up in the sky,
Won't you sing your song to earth,
As she passes by?

Your sweetest silver melody,
A rhythm and a rhyme
A lullaby of pleasant dreams
As you make your climb.

Send the forests off to bed,
The mountains tuck in tight,
Rock the ocean gently,
And the desert kiss goodnight.

Sweet crescent moon,
Up in the sky,
You sing your song so sweetly
After sunshine passes by.

Marissa Meyer

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'L' IS FOR LEMON

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." - Julius Rosenwald

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'K' IS FOR KITE

"Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it." - Winston Churchill

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'I' IS FOR IGLOO

The Inuit inhabit igloos of ice.

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'H' IS FOR HOUSE

California bungalow is a style of residential architecture that was popular across the United States, and to varying extents elsewhere, from around 1910 to 1939. Parts of Australia, particularly the east coast and some southern regions, share a similar climate to California. These environmental similarities, combined with the increasing influence of Hollywood and its promotion of American culture, shifted Australia’s architectural gaze from Britain to the US.

The decorative Arts and Crafts design movement of the same period also influenced the California Bungalow architecture, which favoured the use of natural materials and championed craftsmanship over industrialised techniques. Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs offer some excellent examples of Arts and Crafts American architecture. California Bungalows follow a simpler floor plan than earlier architectural styles, centred around an entrance hallway and leaning towards open-plan living.

Here is a lovely example in weatherboard in our neighbourhood in Melbourne's inner northeastern suburbs.

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