N is for Night Lights: an evening stroll in Melbourne

I am taken with Melbourne.
My first stroll around the main spots, Fed Square, the Flinders Station clock entrance, late at night, watching the lights, the peaceful Yarra River, glimpses of the flowers, the water features, the call of the Museums and Concert Halls.

C is for Cricket: an evening at the Melbourne Cricket Ground

KFC Big Bash League at the MCG

Lee and I spent 3 days talking about the weather here in Melbourne, the fierce heat, the strong winds, and then yesterday, the rain came down and the temperature dropped 20 degrees in less than an hour.

Fred and I had popped into a local cinema to see our summer favourite, a James Bond movie. We did this to escape the midday heat, when we came out it was pouring!

Fred was not impressed as we had an evening at the MCG planned, a highlight, as this is a wish of anyone who loves cricket.

It turned out to be a perfect evening. The rain cleared, the weather cooled and it was a pleasure to be out and not a fly in sight either.

Much excitement as we approached Melbourne and saw the Yarra River and the city for the first time, the MCG, the Rod Laver Arena, such well known landmarks.

The MCG is fabulous, the music and atmosphere of the Big Bash T20, the Silver Gulls in their hundreds, mascots and cheerleaders, and we saw some entertaining cricket too. Melbourne Stars vs Sydney Thunder - Jaques Kallis, Kevin Pietersen - the Stars only just lost too.

But the highlight was a Facebook post from Shawni in New Zealand, they had seen Fred and me on TV, did a quick freeze frame and sent it to us!

Such fun all round.

G is for Gum Trees: Australian stalwarts

Some of the tallest trees in the world

One of the pleasures of visiting Australia is to walk among the gum trees, their scale and their variety a real draw card, I was mightily impressed with the Australian Mountain Ash on this trip down from Mansfield to Melbourne.

Members of the Eucalyptus genus dominate the tree flora here and there are more than 700 species!  

They are known as gum trees because they can exude copious kino from any break in their bark. 

The appearance of the bark varies so much and the trees shed lengths of their bark fibres. 
The type of furrowing, the thickness, the hardness, and the colour is all fascinating to me. 

All mature gum trees put on an annual layer of bark, which contributes to the increasing diameter of the stems. Locals tells cautionary tales of the hazards of falling gum tree branches, car parks have a sign too that says 'beware of falling limbs'. So between the fire hazards and falling limbs these trees dominate in many ways.

How I love the names too, like the scribbly gum, and I notice the flowers and the nuts, along the trails. 

I found this pod on one of my walks, the form and colour remarkable.

This post is for Doreen, she too loves the trees.