I went for a walk to Galatea Point

I took Miss K down to Galatea Point in Yarra Bend Park, just off Studley Park Road, a great little 20 minute walk you can drive to and be guaranteed a park (directions below). This is one of the beautiful views of the Yarra a great loop of which makes the Point feel like a promontory. Across the way is green lawn, and autumnal European trees (in the general vicinity of the Studley Park Boathouse). The combination of the bush and the park separated by the river is particularly pleasant, the best of both worlds, and I daydreamed of installing a kangaroo on the point, but have since confirmed my suspicion that kangaroos are excellent swimmers.

Along with nesting rainbow lorikeets, three eastern rosellas, and grey fantails, we saw, without even looking, one of the most splendid Australian birds, a flame robin, hopping around nonchalantly in front of us for as long as we cared to take in his scarlet beauty. My camera’s batteries had by then given out. Happily, I was able to borrow this photo from Julian Robinson of Flickr.
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Sean D: photographer laureate of Fitzroy and the world of coffee

At Books for Cooks last weekend, I bought a Sean D photocard of a 1950s Gaggia coffee machine, a beautiful thing. Anyone who’s spent a bit of time wandering down Brunswick St of a weekend has probably bumped into Sean, his card table, and his photocards. He takes beautiful photos of coffee and cafes (and other things), and his website has pages devoted to Indian Coffee Houses and Cuban Cafe Culture. Blogging makes you google your day’s events, and I googled Sean D only to learn that he has these twin plans: to cycle from Oslo to Cape Town, and to walk 3700 km from Prague to Santiago de Compostella, the great pilgrimmage mecca for European Catholics. He is an eccentric, and a likeable one, and one whose grand amibitions I am delighted to finance in a minimal and occasional way.

A King Walk from The Carringbush to Dights Falls

After some beers, you proceed from the Carringbush Hotel up Raphael St and right along Gipps St, down to the pedestrian bridge across the Yarra.

You are in a beautiful part of Studley Park called F.A. Andrews Reserve, where there is a public toilet according to the National Public Toilet Map. Once there, you may see something like the first photo, particularly if you wear glasses and smear them with Vaseline around the edges, or are misty eyed by melancholy. It is the chimney of the Carlton & United Breweries.

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