evening report

This evening I walked from the Airport West tram home through Gowanbrae. I didn't realise it has started to get dark earlier (this is getting near my favourite time of year - the time when summer is furthest away) so half way through the walk it was actually too dark to take photographs. Anyway, the first thing was I can't take the route I used to take, which was to cross the railway track on foot. Because they (the GUVENMENT) have erected a big black fence. Instead, I had to deviate significantly (that hurt) and cross the road bridge. I had never done this before and it alerted me to the existence of the remnants of the former road bridge.


It also alerted me to this ancient homestead, which must be about 160 years old, and presumably was once on the main road, since it now stands on a sidestreet perpendicular to the main road, but facing at a right-angle to it. Nifty looking place.


Another grouse house. Big and run down. About two minutes away from the above. Not old.


Once at Gowanbrae proper I observed the new retirement home, very secure and isolated from the rest of the suburb. Oddly enough this... I can only call it a laneway, though Gowanbrae doesn't have laneways... runs alongside it. I don't know why; some kind of drainage easement? Even that seems unlikely. Anyway, I decided to follow it. Imagine my surprise...


When I discovered the other end of it was blocked. I thought I would have to scale the fence (you know my philosophy - as relevant to walking through Gowanbrae as it is to retro rock festivals: 'You can't go back').


However I was lucky enough to discover a hole in another fence nearby so I squeezed through into a vacant lot. A bulldog did not chase me and take a bite out of my pants revealing red underwear with white spots.


I know this is a disgraceful photograph, however it is the only known visual evidence of community activity in Gowanbrae so it is very valuable. Some dads and kids playing a ball game near the creek. By the time I got near them someone had kicked it in (to the creek).


The railway bridge and a puffing jogger.


Sorry but it was too dark after this. A pity, as I could have got some quality shots of a bloated boy teasing a hideously irritating squealing skinny girl (they were like 1930s pen and ink caricatures) and stealing her plastic bicycle. It wasn't a serious crime.