Tuesday, 31 October 2017

MELBOURNE GENERAL CEMETERY

The Melbourne General Cemetery is a large (43 hectare) necropolis located 2 km north of the city of Melbourne in the suburb of Carlton North. The cemetery was established in 1852 and opened on 1st June 1853, and the Old Melbourne Cemetery (on the site of what is now the Queen Victoria Market) was closed the next year. The grounds feature several heritage buildings, many in bluestone, including a couple of chapels and a number of cast iron pavilions. The gatehouses are particularly notable, especially the one at the main gate, shown here. It is presently being used as offices for the cemetery staff.

The Melbourne Cemetery has much history and home to more than half a million stories. This cemetery is full of fiery preachers, con men, courageous women, scandals, disasters and joyous occasions. Musicians, actors, scientists and ordinary people who have helped make Melbourne the metropolis it is now. A miscellany of photos today of monuments, statues, mausolea and graves.

Indulge me my whim of colouring these shots with a "vintage" colour filter. It seemed to suit the subject matter and the Halloween atmosphere...

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.








Sunday, 29 October 2017

MY SUNDAY BEST MEME #38 - STAIRCASES TO HEAVEN

Welcome to the meme, "My Sunday Best", which is a photographic and creative meme that allows you to showcase your talents in imaging. Every Sunday, you can post here showing an image you have created using your camera, (and/or) image processing software, and/or painting and drawing in the conventional way and have scanned in.

The rules are simple:
1) Create your image and post it up on your blog;
2) Put the "My Sunday Best" logo image link somewhere on your post so people can click and come by here;
3) Leave a comment here once you have posted;
4) Visit other posters' blogs and be amazed with their creativity!

Please do not use this meme to advertise your goods or services. This is a creative meme and any inappropriate links or comments shall be removed immediately!
This post is part of the My Sunday Photo meme,
and also part of the Photo Sunday meme.


Saturday, 28 October 2017

PARENTS...

In the Darebin Parklands, the waters of the Darebin Creek and the several ponds through the reserve offer a great environment for many species of waterfowl. Nesting boxes are also provided for these birds and many take advantage of these "apartments" as a secure place to raise their young. Here is a couple of chestnut teal ducks (Anas castanea).

Chestnut teals are dabbling ducks found in Australia. They are protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974. The chestnut teal is darker and a slightly bigger bird than the grey teal. The male has a distinctive green coloured head and mottled brown body. The female has a brown head and mottled brown body. The female is almost identical in appearance to the grey teal. The female chestnut teal has a loud penetrating "laughing" quack repeated rapidly nine times or more.

The chestnut teal is commonly distributed in south-eastern and south-western Australia, while vagrants may occur elsewhere. Tasmania and southern Victoria are the species’ stronghold, while vagrants can be found as far north as New Guinea and Lord Howe Island. The chestnut teal prefers coastal estuaries and wetlands, and is indifferent to salinity. This bird is an omnivore.

Chestnut teals form monogamous pairs that stay together outside the breeding season, defend the nest site and look after the young when hatched. Nests are usually located over water, in a down-lined tree hollow about 6–10 m high. Sometimes nests are placed on the ground, among clumps of grass near water. The young hatch and are ready to swim and walk within a day.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme,
and also part of the Camera Critters meme,
and also part of the I'd Rather Be Birdin' meme.



Friday, 27 October 2017

SUNSET SKY

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky.” ― Rabindranath Tagore

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme,
and also part of the Orange you Glad It's Friday meme.

Thursday, 26 October 2017

DOGWOOD

Cornus is a genus of about 30–60 species of woody plants in the family Cornaceae, commonly known as dogwoods, which can generally be distinguished by their blossoms, berries, and distinctive bark. Most are deciduous trees or shrubs, but a few species are nearly herbaceous perennial subshrubs, and a few of the woody species are evergreen.

Several species have small heads of inconspicuous flowers surrounded by an involucre of large, typically white petal-like bracts, while others have more open clusters of petal-bearing flowers. The various species of dogwood are native throughout much of temperate and boreal Eurasia and North America, with China and Japan and the southeastern United States particularly rich in native species.

Species include the common dogwood Cornus sanguinea of Eurasia, the widely cultivated flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) of eastern North America, the Pacific dogwood Cornus nuttallii of western North America, the Kousa dogwood Cornus kousa of eastern Asia, and two low-growing boreal species, the Canadian and Eurasian dwarf cornels (or bunchberries), Cornus canadensis and Cornus suecica respectively. Depending on botanical interpretation, the dogwoods are variously divided into one to nine genera or subgenera.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.


Wednesday, 25 October 2017

'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.

This post is part of the ABC Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

And of course,

Tuesday, 24 October 2017

CAPRI, ITALY

Capri is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. The main town Capri that is located on the island shares the name and is the largest population centre. The island has two harbours, Marina Piccola and Marina Grande (the main port of the island). The separate comune of Anacapri is located high on the hills to the west.

Capri has been a resort since the time of the Roman Republic. Some of the main features of the island include the following: the Marina Piccola (the little harbour), the Belvedere of Tragara (a high panoramic promenade lined with villas), the limestone crags called sea stacks that project above the sea (the Faraglioni), the town of Anacapri, the Blue Grotto (Grotta Azzurra), and the ruins of the Imperial Roman villas.

I've post-processed a few images in Photoshop to create this "vintage-look" travel poster view of the island from high up on Monte Solaro.

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Our World Tuesday meme.


Monday, 23 October 2017

AUTUMN HUES

For friends in the Northern Hemisphere, this is for you, as Autumn is well truly advancing in your part of the world...

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Macro Monday meme,
and also part of the Through my Lens meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

Sunday, 22 October 2017

MY SUNDAY BEST MEME #37 - FLATTEST CONTINENT

Welcome to the meme, "My Sunday Best", which is a photographic and creative meme that allows you to showcase your talents in imaging. Every Sunday, you can post here showing an image you have created using your camera, (and/or) image processing software, and/or painting and drawing in the conventional way and have scanned in.

The rules are simple:
1) Create your image and post it up on your blog;
2) Put the "My Sunday Best" logo image link somewhere on your post so people can click and come by here;
3) Leave a comment here once you have posted;
4) Visit other posters' blogs and be amazed with their creativity!

Please do not use this meme to advertise your goods or services. This is a creative meme and any inappropriate links or comments shall be removed immediately!

For 11 days in February 2000 the space shuttle "Endeavour" circled the world, using a sophisticated radar to chart all the land between 60 degrees north and 56 degrees south, and 80 per cent of the Earth's land was mapped with a resolution of 90 metres. After more than four years' work, the final topographic maps, covering Australia, New Zealand and more than 1000 Pacific, Indian and Atlantic ocean islands have been released.

NASA noted that Australia was the flattest continent in the world. "Its low average elevation (300 metres) is caused by its position near the centre of a tectonic plate, where there are no volcanic or other geologic forces of the type that raise the topography of other continents.

"Prominent features of Australia include the Lake Eyre Basin, the darker green region visible in the centre-right. At 16 metres below sea level, this depression is one of the largest inland drainage systems in the world, covering more than 1.3 million square kilometres. "The crescent-shaped uniform green region in the south, just left of centre, is the Nullarbor Plain, a low-lying limestone plateau, which is so flat that the Trans-Australian railway runs through it in a straight line for more than 483 kilometres."

Colour coding used in the map "is directly related to topographic height, with green at the lower elevations, rising through yellow and tan, to white at the highest elevations".

This post is part of the My Sunday Photo meme,
and also part of the Photo Sunday meme.