Melbourne Adventures

 I am reasonably sure I have commented in the past about my efforts to visit this church, located just to the North of the Prahran Market.  The difficulty was coinciding with the time of the church being open but without a service in progress.  Today the ducks lined up and the congregation were leaving when I arrived at about 1055hrs.  Here is the exterior of the building: I shall not add much text to the images as I don't know the names (or functions) for most of the items in the furnishings.  This is a view of the interior just inside the door. Google Lens delivers: this is a wooden icon stand ( proskynetarion ) with icons placed upon and behind it. I called this the altar but Google Lens advised it is a n elaborate dark-carved wooden iconostasis (screen of icons separating the sanctuary from the nave) featuring traditional Byzantine painted icons.  It also noted the  Traditional wooden pews/stalls, a center red carpet aisle, and an ornate overhead c...

 St Kilda West Not having been to St Kilda West for a while I took myself off there on the morning of 18 August.  Getting off the tram on the Esplanade I took the bridge across marvelling at how the contractors are still managing to find things to at the end of the pier.   When in Peru we marvelled at the work the Incas did cutting out huge blocks of sandstone using leather straps and water as the cutting implements.  We imagined a conversation between a child and their grandfather: "What did you do in your life grandpa?" "I finished cutting out the building block my grandfather started." The St Kilda equivalent response, if the ratepayers are lucky, would be replacing  'building block' by 'work on the approaches to St Kilda Pier'. Whatever.  I wandered along the shore seeing few birds (2 Australasian Grebes were the highlight) and out to the water's edge. A couple of other birders were there ... ... causing me severe lens envy.   After a ple...

  I have used the rather poncy title as I am expecting this to cover the usual musical matters and some other lectures and exhibitions. Piano at Melba Hall This was part of the regular Monday concert series.  It would be nice if I could give the name of the guy who gave the recital but they left it off the program, both the paper version and - as far as I can find - online.  A pity as he was rather good. The first work was Beethoven “Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110” with three movements and the second “César Franck “Prélude, Choral et Fugue, FWV 21” which despite the 3 words was played as one movement.  I found it very pleasant music to hear and being in the front row the loudness sufficient to keep me awake in the rather warm venue even though I had taken off my parka. The pianist was very energetic! At some points in the second work I was a little concerned that his hand movements were such that he was going to knock himself out.  It was also the ...

The catalyst for this outing was a photographic exhibition at the Bayside gallery in the suburb of Brighton, a name which resonated well with us as we lived in the 'burb of the same name in Adelaide for about 30 years (Frances) and 6 years (Martin).  It would also tick off  2 stations in the Melbourne stations project.   We began by walking to Prahran Station which we have walked past many times on our way to the local branch of the Stonnington Library.  This station was opened in 1860 under the name Greville Street.  The wikipedia entry for the station has a few interesting comments: The station connects to the #6 tram route.   There is a second entrance to the station from High St (which is where the tram runs) opened in 2015; There used to be a pedestrian tunnel under the line, replaced by pedestrian gates in 1997. A bus service from the station to Malvern Town Hall didn't last long, being open for only a year before it was shut down due to the...