I came across the gorgeous blog of Melbournienne Lucy Feagins.  She has done a great job blogging Gertrude St.  The beautiful photo of Amor y Locura above is hers.  I find so few blogs that I really want to read these days, but this is one of them. It’s so what blogs should be like: journalism without the corruption.  And with good photos.  Good blogs need good photos.  Free and ad-free.  But hers even boasts hand-drawn maps to die for.

Apart from Gertrude St, it has much of interest to whatever remains of Abbotsford Blog’s readership after its sad neglect by me.  For example, her posts on:

• Abbotsford’s Yello Diva (how to explain: just click on the link);
• Gertrude St’s Cottage Industries;
• the Gertrude St florist Mr Lincoln (move over Vasette);
• Abbotsford’s Mondo Trasho; and
• Abbotsford’s Studio Hacienda.

But then just about everything else is likely to be of interest.

The last 40,000 in the last 2 months, exactly double the number in the two months before that. And we’re turning 1 on February 18th! How will we celebrate?

Yep, it’s true, and no politicians this time. From 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. See www.mfm.com.au, $2 entry and $2 parking. It’s a plastic bag free zone, so bring baskets, trolleys, and bags of your own. See previous posts here and here.

The Melbourne Farmers’ Markets website’s blurb is:

“Farmers’ markets are at the heart of Slow Food. It’s not just the most direct source of fresh produce but also a genuine, accessible way for the public to find the real story on how our food is farmed.

…The market will illustrate Slow Food principles and the Victorian Farmers’ Market Association criteria and be all proceeds will be directed back into local Slow Food endorsed projects.

This is simply about Victorian farmers getting what they deserve for their efforts and consumers getting value for what they pay for…. no long cold storage, no gases, no over processed chemical laden foods and no GMOs. Just delicious, nourishing seasonal foods in an atmosphere that promotes conviviality and community.

Come and find seasonal, organic and low/no chemical fruit and vegetables, free range, rare breed and heritage meats, fish, chooks and eggs. Then there’s handmade cheeses, pasta, condiments, bread, honey, olive oil, flowers, seedlings and much, much more.”

Dates for the next 6 markets are: 23 December, 27 January, 24 March, 28 April, 26 May,  and 23 June.

On Monday it was my special holiday. Miss K was at work. Just enough colleagues were as well that I could relish the schadenfreude so essential for a successful random day off. I ambled up to eat baked eggs at Birdman Eating, coffee at Gertrude St Enoteca (sorry Dr Java), and get my mop chopped at Dr Follicles. Folly was closed and so was Birdy. That was a blow. Shaggy haired and hardened by hunger, the coffee at Gert’s no longer appealed. I tried Dante’s, but Maria wasn’t there. No one new me. The place was empty. I popped across the road to the Renown Tavern, one of the least blinged-up pubs in the inner city. A former manager who left in “very bitter circumstances” had gaily advertised the unrenovated air of the place in chalk on the side of the building, and I thought any place in Fitzroy that advertised its lack of renovation warranted a visit in order to stave off renovation any longer.
I had an experience very reminiscent of sitting at the front bar of the Union Hotel on the High Street of Nhill. Both places sported publicans from another era who lived up above. Both sported a woman very much at home there at noon, and both featured a crumple faced old geyser of exactly the kind which is made homeless by renovations — a scandal little reported on by the mainstream media but which I call the Second Stolen Generation.

Old Sam Matthieson had spent 30 years behind bars in Geelong, back in the days when barmaids would be pleased if a traveller would shout them a pony of beer. He’d been sitting on that particular stool daily for the last 10 years, and lived in the Gertrude St housing commission flats which are apparently a lot better since they were “re-done inside”. Get him talking about the shortcomings of Geelong Bitter and you’re in for an entertaining spiel. Mind you I was nodding away in agreement — the loathesome stuff used to be on tap at the Builders Arms in its last but one iteration, but hidden under some apparently so-Fitzroy “Dolly” label.

The other drinker looked like he was drinking very slowly indeed, and was studying his half-empty pot intently. He did not descend into conversation. He had very long white hair and a very long white beard, and looked like someone retired off the set of Lord of the Rings. The mysterious woman seemed at home in the front bar in her faux leopard skin coat.

Sam and the publican told me at some length with an absolute earnestness which indicated complete conviction, about the ghost of the fellow murdered upstairs. A key bit of evidence was that some chips fell off a shelf without explanation one time.

But best, I discovered that the Louisana Shakers play there. I know these guys vaguely through a Fitzroy Great Gatsby who throws brilliant jazz parties, often with bands put together by Alan Brown and various associates, including in particular Chris Tanner, a world clarinet genius who just happens to live in Melbourne and may still be playing with his band Virus every Saturday at Laundry on Johnston St, a brilliant gig. They are a very good band. They play free on Sundays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. This is one gig where you could be guaranteed, as the chalked sign on the side of the pub says, no pretentiousness.

And another:

According to the Melbourne Leader, the State Government will spend $12,000 to get Little Audrey glowing again. Thanks to Lightsight, a 29 year old woman from Bris-vegas for the lovely photo.