Melbourne street art – My 2014 Top 30

Having loaded 1000+ Melbourne street art images to Flickr in 2014, it’s clear I’m a little obsessed with the wonderful street art around our city. Melbourne is renowned world-wide as a city with great street art. So, here are my Top 30 street art pieces I’ve found in 2014 (some may have been painted earlier).

In no particular order.

Lucy Lucy – Glenroy

Mimby Jones Robinson – Fitzroy

Adnate, Sofles, Smug – Preston


Dvate – Fitzroy

Makatron – Collingwood


Sirum – Northcote


Itch – Port Melbourne


Man of Darkness – Duckboard Place


Baby Guerrilla – Footscray


Heesco – Windsor


Heesco – Blender Studios laneway


Dvate – Collingwood


Be Free – Brunswick


I & The Others – Collingwood


RAD – CBD


Adnate – Fitzroy


Barek – Northcote


Rone – CBD


ELK – CBD


Kaffeine – Fitzroy


Emily Vanderlism – CBD

Kaffeine – Fitzroy

Gus – Hosier Lane

Adnate – Fitzroy

Be Free – Northcote

Dvate – Richmond

Be Free – Northcote

Unknown artist – Hosier Lane

Astrowitch – Collingwood

Akemi Ito – Preston

Australian Dingo Foundation

I haven’t posted here for a while, rather just using Facebook and Flickr for on-line social chatter. However I had an experience today that justifies a post on this blog.

With the wonderful crew from Craigieburn Camera Club, Adrienne and I visited the Dingo Discovery Centre at Toolern Vale, home of the Australian Dingo Foundation. Founders Peter and Lyn Watson are passionate about preserving the gene pool of Australia’s native dog, the Dingo.

The Dingo is much maligned and misunderstood, and has been baited, trapped and hunted close to extinction in the wild.

It was a wonderfully educational, rewarding and fun day. Learning about how wonderful the Dingo is, how much more intelligent it is than the average domestic dog, and learning about how it has adapted to survive in the wild was fascinating, but actually meeting the dogs, including the oh-so gorgeous puppies was enthralling. They are such amazing creatures, so beautiful looking, so affectionate and playful. I am a “dog person”, I love all dogs, but these native dogs are extra special creatures – you can tell this quickly when you meet them.

Did you know;

• The dingo is a true Australian native animal with recent geological and DNA evidence suggesting the species has been on the Australian continent for over 20,000 years.
• The dingo is classified as a “pest” or “vermin” by some state governments.
• Some state governments authorise baiting of these beautiful animals with the terribly cruel poison 1080 which is banned in many other countries.
• A team from Yale University recently proved that the Dingo is significantly more intelligent than other dog breeds.
• Dingoes have recently been recognised as a separate species. Previously it was thought that they had evolved from wolves.
• They are incredibly flexible and are double jointed. They can rotate their head backwards.They have extraordinary 180 degree peripheral vision.
• They have no scent.

We were allowed to interact with the puppies, and for some of us with the adult Dingoes too, for a couple of hours – what a treat.

Please “Like” the Australian Dingo Foundation Facebook page, and go and visit their website where you can find out a lot more about their story and how hard that Peter and Lyn are fighting to preserve these magnificent creatures.

Access to the Dingo Discovery Centre is by appointment only, and is restricted to a small part of the year (when puppies are present). Today was the last day for this year. Why not think about putting an entry in your 2015 diary to visit and find out more about our wonderful Dingo.

Adrienne and I chose to sponsor a Dingo today to try and do a little to help Lyn and Peter in their fight. Can you help too?

My Favourite 20 Bird Photos 2013

Another of my loves, with my camera, is capturing images of our beautiful birds. I am lucky enough to live very close to Woodlands Historic Park which is home to many and varied species of birds.

I’ve selected my favourite 20 bird images taken in 2013, I hope you enjoy them.

My rules for selection were;
– no more than one photo for any one species
– no captive birds, only wild birds

You can click on any image to view it larger in Flickr.

In no particular order.

Striated Pardalote, Woodlands Historic Park

White-winged Chough, Woodlands Historic Park

New Holland Honeyeater, our back garden

Eastern Yellow Robin, Lemonade Creek Cottages, Lorne

Red-capped Robin, Woodlands Historic Park

Superb Fairy-wren, Woodlands Historic Park

Tawny Frogmouth, Woodlands Historic Park

Sparrow, Melbourne Zoo

Peregrine Falcon, on our next door neighbour’s TV aerial

Rufous Whistler, Woodlands Historic Park

Australian Magpie. Woodlands Historic Park

Magpie Lark, Lake Wendouree, Ballarat

Purple Swamphen, Lake Wendouree, Ballarat

Brown Falcon, Providence Road, Greenvale

White-necked Heron, Mickleham Road, Greenvale

Spotted Pardalote, Woodlands Historic Park

Black-shouldered Kite, Woodlands Historic Park

Pelicans, Western Treatment Plant

Eastern Spinebill, Lemonade Creek Cottages, Lorne

Kookaburra, Woodlands Historic Park

Melbourne street art – My 2013 Top 30

As many of you would know, I’m a little obsessed with the wonderful street art around our city. Melbourne is renowned world-wide as a ciy with great street art.

So, here are my Top 30 street art pieces I’ve found in 2013 (some may have been painted earlier).

In no particular order.

Brain Foetus – Brunswick

Smug – Fitzroy

Dvate and Sirum – Glen Waverley

Taylor White, Shida, Eno and Two One – Brunswick

Dize – Yarraville

Aida Sabic – Hosier Lane

Mimby Jones Robinson – Collingwood

Isolde – Fitzroy

Deb – Melbourne CBD

Taylor White, Ape Seven and Hancock – Brunswick

Lister – Fitzroy

Be Free – Northcote

Two One – Docklands

Shida – Croft Alley

Two One, Sofles, Bonsai – Roxburgh Park

Makatron and Blo – Footscray

Lucy Lucy – Reservoir

Meggs and Steen Jones – Northcote

Kaffeine – Richmond

Sputnik – Brunswick

Linz – Collingwood

Rone and Wonderlust – Collingwood

Man of Darkness – Drewery Place

Fintan Magee – West Melbourne

Heesco – Windsor

Heesco – Windsor

Kaffeine – North Fitzroy

Herakut – Union Lane

Adnate – Fitzroy

Taylor White – Fitzroy

2014 – A new start!

Well, over a year since I posted here so I’ll be very surprised if anyone is still following, pleasantly surprised though, so if you are there please leave me a comment.

It has been a very tough time since I stopped blogging here. We lost my Dad after a short battle with cancer in October of 2012, and I still miss him every day. Mum is in aged care now, and confirming what we all knew anyway, we got an official Alzheimer’s diagnosis for her earlier this year. We also lost Adrienne’s mum early this year. Due to economic conditions, work has been a pretty tough deal too, but you’ve got to keep going.

Long time followers of this blog will know that starting in about 2004 I embarked on a health and fitness journey, losing 40kg, and maintaining a very lean 75kg for over 6 years. I was a runner (including a full marathon) and bike rider.

Well, the reason I’m posting here again is, I’m afraid, because I have lapsed. I’m ashamed to say my exercise routine is now limited to a daily (pretty much) walk, nothing that gets the heart rate up though. I’m making some bad eating choices, and probably drinking too much.

I have put back on about 14kg of the 40kg I lost, and am struggling to find a t-shirt in my wardrobe that fits me.

So, 2014 will be a change for the better. This blog will become the accountability tool it always was. I’m not going to be manic about it like I was before, but I am going to get myself back down to 80kg (and stay there) by making some better choices and exercising (properly) a few times a week. Expect at least a weekly post here with a progress update.

Wish me luck!

Edit: Official weigh-in for the start of the New Year is 87.1 kg, so the target is a 7.1 kg loss. Here goes.

Gorgeous eyes …

These gorgeous eyes were the highlight of my day …

Interestingness ?

I don’t know if “interestingness” is a proper word, but Flickr certainly thinks it is. Every day they put the top 500 photos posted each day into a special area called Explore, based on their secret “interestingness algorithm”. Five hundred each day might seem like a lot, but when you think that there were over 48,000 photos uploaded yesterday that were taken with exactly the same camera as I have (a Canon EOS 60D), then I’m guessing the total number of photos uploaded each day is a really, really big number.

So, I think it is a good thing if one of your photos is considered interesting enough to appear on the Explore page. I’m lucky enough to have had 17 of my photos in Explore.

These are them. Do you find them interesting? Which ones are highest on your “interestingness” scale?

Barbed wire on Rutledge Lane, July 27th, #443


Red-capped Robin, July 22nd, #423


RMIT Building, July 20th, #157


New Holland Honeyeater, July 20th, #316


Red-capped Robin, July 18, #299


Young Welcome Swallow, July 15th, #345


Young kangaroo, July 10th, #394


Laughing Kookaburra, June 29th, #228


Emu Bottom bellows and forge, June 26, #409


Hosier Lane – The Joker,  June 22, #140


Princes Pier at sunset, June 19th, #319


Sunset from Princes Pier, June 18th, #473


Princes Pier, June 16th, #277


Melbourne University Underground car park, June 16th, #397


Derelict gate on foggy morning, June 12th, #168


Derelict farmhouse on foggy morning, June 11th, #205


Shrine of Remembrance, June 9th 2012, #434

Perspective …

It’s been pretty quiet on here hasn’t it. There’s been other things on my mind. Dad has cancer and is recovering from his first cycle of chemotherapy, and mum, who dad has cared for, for many years, is demanding to be left on her own at home, despite the fact that we are very unsure as to whether this is the right thing. So, we’ve been up and down the Geelong road many days and generally worrying about how things will turn out and feeling helpless.

Meantime, work is piling up and getting out of control, I’m eating badly, exercising little and putting on weight. Still as the picture below illustrates, we all need perspective, and at the moment, work and my weight seem quite unimportant, compared to family.

If you want to know the story of the photo below, please click through to Flickr.

A new favourite …

Another day spent down in Geelong doing a few things for mum. The only highlight was a short detour on the way down to drive down the Point Wilson Road, the photo below resulting. My new favourite from my bird photos I think.

Brown Falcon

Still going …

Like this 50+ year old Caterpillar motor grader, I’m feeling a little worse for wear. It’s been a very stressful week with mum staying with us and my dad back in hospital with another tumor.

But, also like this wonderful 50+ year old bit of yellow iron, we’ll keep on going, because it is the only choice really.

Please click for a larger view!