Two more to add to the menagerie!

If you build it they will come” .... I know it’s a misquote and the context is wrong but it seemed appropriate. 

We have welcomed 2 new bird species to our garden in the last two days - a Little Raven and a pair of juvenile Magpie-larks AKA Peewee, peewit, mud lark, Murray magpies, and other names. We had heard them calling in the area and last night there they were come for a visit.  One of our juvenile currawongs popped in for a drink and forage too. All in all, we had 5 different species all ‘playing’ together nicely on our cosy terrace. Over the years we’ve had 14 species visiting us plus half dozen or so FIFOs. Not a bad count for inner city sky rise pad!

Plant the garden, bring the insects and the birds will follow - and leave some litter around for scavenging insects and for nest building material. What a joy it is in a sky-rise city garden tea la la ..... 🎶

Summertime in a city ‘sky rise’ and the living is easy .....

Let me tell you ‘bout the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees 🎶🎵 .... our terrace is a joyful place. We’ve slurped up the heavenly pulp of passionfruit from our vines and sucked the golden pink lusciousness from our figs - with more on the way. 

There are not enough figs ripening together to make jam but we’re really enjoying them daily.  The plum trees are going gangbusters but the tomatoes are being a bit slow ripening. 

Our second grevillea has now been planted (in the corner) and now we wait. Hopefully we’ll get other bird species visit us once they flower.

We spend many delightful hours - or so it seems, watching the birds and insects that visit our garden. And we are rewarded many times over. A couple of mornings ago, we were treated to a wonderful dawn chorus. A juvenile Pied Currawong came in for a look see, a bit of a forage, a drink and then started calling his ‘brother’ to join him. We watched for about half an hour as they talked to each other. Their song must be one of the most beautiful, a glorious melodic caroling. All the while the sparrows were quietly muttering in our tree and the doves fluttered about just making sure their territorial rights were protected. The currawongs are back daily to drink and bathe and forage. So beautiful and so far they haven’t scared off the other birds. 

City of bridges ..... and growing

Still on our quest to see and cross the many bridges that cross-cross the Yarra around Melbourne. 

While we’re on the subject of bridges, I found that when European settlers first arrived in Melbourne in 1835, there were no crossing points over the Yarra other than at The Falls or by boat. (The Falls separated the salty water of Port Phillip Bay from the fresh water upstream around where Williams and Queen Streets are today). Within a few years enterprising people had set up a punt at where Punt Road Bridge is today - the name!! Hot on their heels was the construction of the first bridge at where Princes Bridge is today the big push was by Swanston Street traders; it was a wooden toll bridge.  

But I ramble, here we were heading downstream to take in more of Melbourne’s staggering 15 bridges. 

Spencer Street Bridge built 1930s and nestled not far away the Polly Woodside is hunkered down. 

Seafarers Bridge a pedestrian bridge - 2009

Charles Grimes Bridge in the distance 1970s, reconstructed 2001. It was named after Charles Grimes, a NSW surveyor general who was the first European to see the Yarra River it seems.

This is an extension of the Jim Stynes Bridge, a pedestrian bridge - 2014 which links Docklands with the CBD and winds along the river’s edge 

Webb Bridge also pedestrian - 2003

Away off sending pylons high into the sky is Bolte Bridge (a part of the tollway) - 1999. It is the newest vehicle bridge (Melbourne’s  oldest bridge was also a toll bridge)

Further downstream, much further than we’ve walked to date is the almost infamous Westgate Bridge which after much tragedy opened 1978. 

Still exploring the Birrarung .....

I’ve discovered so much as we’ve walked in local neighbourhood - really just being tourists in our own town I guess. I read all the signs, take a shot then trawl through the internet winkle picking for more information. 

Looking across to Birrarung Marr to the cityscape. 

Heading upstream from Princes Bridge the paths are leafy and cool some of the way. 

Most of the year the river is busy with craft of some description - leisure and sport. And so it has been for well over a century. In 1904 the Alexandra Gardens, over to the right, was opened and ever since this precinct has been a place for entertainment and leisure. The annual Henley-on-Yarra rowing competition which started in the early 1900s was a nation-wide affair and drew huge crowds; in 1925, over 300,000 attended the regatta. It was a highlight of Melbourne’s Spring social calendar; the same regatta is still held annually over a century later. In its heyday, the river’s edge would be crowded with decorated vessels - double-decker, ferries, canoes etc. 

At Kings Domain Landing, a coffee-vessel is moored drawing in passers-by with its rich aromas. 

The Morell Bridge, a favourite, was built in 1890s and was open to vehicle traffic until 1998. Around that time major restoration works were done as serious cracks had appeared.  Decades ago when we lived on Punt Road, we regularly walked through Gosch’s Paddock and across this bridge to walk along the river in the evening.  

We’ll talk about punts later!

Jelly-bean picnickers scattered across the lawns - so colourful. 

Stark contrasts - the newest tower in Southbank yet to be finished and dear old government house 1880s. 

Sweeping lawns linking hands across the Gardens are a total delight. For 9 years we held our annual BYO everything including friends picnic on the Tennyson Lawn under a huge old spreading oak tree which we called the Dweag Tree. Sadly it is no longer standing. 

We ended that walk wandering through the Botanical Gardens and along Melbourne’s iconic Tan Track. The Tan was built originally to exercise horses. Now it’s the place to be seen ‘exercising’!

The Observatory built in the mid 1800s, was once home to weather forecasting, time setting, setting weights and measures standards plus a number of other essential functions. 

What an amazing precinct!

It’s all about the birds and the bees ....

Look at those delicate wings. Almost transparent yet with amazing strength and resilience. 

Bees I just love them 🐝 they’ve given me a lot of joy watching as they hover around the oregano plant which is laden with tiny white flowers. 

With a garden full of bright, larger flowers you’d think they’d be all over those but no! There’s always at least one bee hard at work among the oregano flowers, after the nectar I think rather than collecting pollen. 

The hover flies get into the act too and both are regular visitors to the water bowls. They seem quite fearless. 

Lindsay removing another tree to make way for a lovely bird-attracting grevillea. A hybrid which is supposed to produce  big red flowers most of the year. We’re aiming to make our wee garden more and more bird and insect-friendly. I’ve already planted another grevillea which flowers most of the year. The veggie space is being reduced - sorry veggies (because we’ll be away a good part of the year).