Miss Marple's

 

Above: Miss Marple's Tea Room
You could be forgiven for thinking you were in the English countryside of a quaint English village. With it's old English architecture, this lovely old building is the epitome of Englishness. Located in Sassafras in the beautiful Dandenong Ranges, the tea room was inspired by Agatha Christie's delightful character Miss Marple.

The local tea room in the quaint old English village of St. Mary Mead was the gathering place for all the local identities. It was a hotbed of gossip, and to anyone of an enquiring mind, like Miss Marple, it was a constant source of useful information. It was Miss Marple's shrewd powers of observation that enabled her to solve many a dastardly crime (read murder). Crimes always reminded her of a parallel incident you see and she had the remarkable ability to latch onto a casual comment and connect it to the case at hand. According to Miss Marple, "Everybody is very much alike, really. But fortunately, perhaps, they don't realise it."

Today's quote: Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea ~ Henry Fielding.

I'm Watching You

 

Above: Forgotten
Strolling through Gasworks Park I espied this forlorn pair of sunglasses sitting on a tree trunk ..... waiting.


Today's quote: The only thing faster than the speed of thought is the speed of forgetfulness. Good thing we have other people to help us remember ~ Vera Nazarian.

Water Towers

 

Above: Queen's Park fountain
Queen's Park in the suburb of Moonee Ponds and is a small retreat from nearby busy streets. Early travellers heading for the goldfields met here because fresh water was available in the lagoon. Burke and Wills camped here on their fateful journey to cross Australia.


Today's quote: That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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The Spires

 

Above: The spires of St. Patrick's Cathedral

St Patrick’s is one of the worlds most elegant and inspiring neo-gothic Cathedrals. This bluestone/sandstone gothic revival cathedral was designed by William Wardell. It was built in stages from 1858 to 1940, when the spires were added. Saint Pat's as it is fondly called, was accorded the title "Minor Basilica" in 1973 and is on the corner of Gisborne Street and Cathedral Place, East Melbourne.


Today's quote: I never weary of great churches. It is my favorite kind of mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral ~ Robert Louis Stevenson.

Yellow & Black ~ The e.Bar

 

Above: The e.bar
This is the e.bar of the Old England Hotel in Heidelberg which first opened in 1848. One of the dining areas in the Hotel, the e.bar is a casual bar with a covered and heated outdoor area, inexpensive meals, beer and cider on tap, and Trivia every Tuesday night.
I was standing on the balcony when I took this photo. The double story red brick building you see reflected is the Masonic Hall which is opposite the Hotel.

Today's quote: Few things are more pleasant than a village graced with a good church, a good priest and a good pub ~ John Hillaby


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Theme Day ~ Creative Artisan

 

Above: Artist at work

Walking to the St. Kilda Esplanade Market one Sunday afternoon, I was fortunate to see some of our wonderful street artists practising their craft. I love the colours and motion of this artwork and on asking the artist permission to take a photo, he answered, "Yes, but not my face" to which I dutifully complied.

Street art (or graffiti) is art, but specifically visual art - it is not something you go to a museum or gallery to look at, it just is. It is for the joy of the passerby, the flaneur taking a constitutional, for anyone and everybody. It makes you think about what you are seeing, what the artist is saying, in short, street art is an Art in itself and should be encouraged by councils and governments alike.

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Today's quote: "Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don’t come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make someone smile while they’re having a p-ss." ~ Banksy