jacana birds

I hadn't seen a white duck at the creek for months and months and thought s/he was gone, and maybe s/he is, but there was one there today. This terrible picture (above) proves it. Below are some other birds seen recently. 

asha is fat on her back

amazing sunset

yesterday's walk

Barry and Ferdy's birthday present to me yesterday was to allow me to take them for a walk. I know, right! 

I am now 49. Hard to believe. Easier to believe when you consider I was born in 1965 and it is now 2014. 

yuroke creek trail yesterday.

Ferdy and Barry are OK with short train trips. They are a bit scared when the train pulls into the station and slightly unhappy about getting on but can be persuaded. They never quite know where to put themselves when actually on the train. 

It was a bit of a dreary day yesterday and always about to rain, except when it did rain. These are new, small houses to the north of the shopping centre at Roxburgh Park. There are some good shops at RB - a Dimmeys, a 'fresh' (bulk?) grocer. Not much was open yesterday.

Well of course this is intriguing. Is this the aftermath of one huge Up & Go binge, or a daily ritual of Up & Go consumption, or something in-between? Either way, someone really likes their Up & Go, but also, really doesn't like rubbish bins. 

First amazing house. More to come, many more.

Inspired idea, giving a nod to the idea of a wall, but stepping down to a rump. Very nice. 

 The formal entry to Roxburgh Park. In fact, we were leaving, and heading into Meadow Heights. Just a quick stop at the lake:

 And then under the road to MH.

Indeed, another truly extraordinary house. One of the remarkable things about these places is the hugeness of their backyards. I assume you can't build past a certain point, but that you can own, possibly uselessly, a big stretch of yard.

In this case, someone has fenced off a big section of a backyard, apparently claiming it for another owner.

Brick cladding almost done.

 Empty

Ferdy 

Barry

Without wishing to suggest the people who built this house didn't know what they were doing, I do feel that the columns here have that look of, 'will that stay up by itself? well... let's just make sure'.

 Then it chaos theories into the distance...

 Tennis courts

This is when things really started to get awfully Russell Drysdale, though thankfully not Russell Mulcahy.

This is truly the most amazing of all the houses seen on this walk. It is three storeys high and seems to go the length of a very long block (though there are also some houses behind it). It only has one letterbox so I assume it is one house. Pretty amazing. Incredible. Extraordinary. It's more imposing in real life than it is in a small photograph though.

 These are flats. Next door. Note mattress out the front obscuring the for sale sign.

Vacant block. 

We stopped at Meadow Heights shopping centre for a pide. The dogs met this man. 

I feel that there was potential for detective work here, possibly wasted. Barry located an Up & Go box, a pair of shorts, and a cigarette butt. He did not share his deductions. 

This sign either says 'kingfisher' or 'frog with a beak'.

 Vista

More vista

Note cyclist in distance, and see comment below. 

This is sometimes the northernmost point of a walk we like to take in Broadmeadows Valley Park. It's rained so much lately there was no chance for me to be crossing it though. I won't show you a photo of the massive blister I got on my left big toe from a 3 hour walk in what I now realise was inappropriate footwear. We'll leave things here. But it was a really nifty walk. And may I say what surprised me particularly was this must be one of the best bike tracks in Melbourne if not Australia; we only saw one cyclist in the entire 3 hours we were out there. Bizarre.

Later comment (21/4/14) I have done a version of this walk before, six years ago. In that instance we didn't walk down the Yuroke trail but went on-road at a certain point. I am saddened to note that I am the only one of the three participants in that 2008 foray still living. Barry and Millie were alive at the same time, as were Charlie and Ferdy, but neither pairs ever met, which I have always felt was a shame.