arden

This is our local station, still not to be opened, I understand, for another year but looking very much like it will be ready next week.* 

This last picture is one I took this morning - I have to wonder what the grass all around is for. Is it space to later be built on, or is it parkland? I guess there's a way I could find out but the website itsn't entirely forthcoming. 

This image is of course actually a cutaway but it shows the area to the west of the station as open space. The plan on the website has green all around it which suggests to me that it will have grass all around it, but there's no key or caption confirming this. 

*BTW I actually took this picture, in real life. I'm a bit surprised myself but it's there on my phone. 

charlie in the grass today at south morang

voting with their feet

I'm not sure why, but I know I was quite pleased to see that enough people and other animals have walked alongside Jacana lake (and seasonal changes have revealed) that a new path has been worn taking quite a different route from the more broad-brush no-nonsense bike/pedestrian path. This allows Millie and Charlie and I to avoid the bike path pretty much altogether (though Millie will often pursue it off her own bat because, I think, she likes the smells and the naughtiness of being a free beast). Since the bike/ped path is at the foot of a fairly steep incline, the worn path which is on more open ground is better for avoidance of oncoming dogs. Apart from anything else our dogs don't need much encouragement to go down into the lake itself and patter around in the mud, so that's a good avoidance strategy, but also since they like doing that anyway, it's the best place to walk with them.

I was put in mind of one of those things I always assumed was apocryphal but never really analysed, the idea that Sydney's main streets were based on goat tracks. Who were these supposed goats, where were they going so regularly and dedicatedly, and why? Incidentally, alongside the lake near the clump of trees I have always assumed marks a space where once stood a hut or home of some sort, I came across a scattered collection of some large mammal's faeces, not instantly recognisable to me (not a horse, not a sheep, not a dog, I dunno).

I suppose the thing I like about the worn path particularly is that it seems like some kind of democratic decision has been made. And also there's probably one of those primal reasonings - 'this is safe, it has been done many times before by your species'. Because there's no particular advantage to walking on this kind of path; the grass is low and doesn't exactly ensnare your feet. But we were all into the worn path.

kenzie's staying over

I feel like Hugo Weaving's character in Proof. After I uploaded this picture I thought, 'god that stupid  broken chair is still there!' Our garden is littered with broken chairs (and my half-finished projects, but that's another issue). Oh, and dog shit. 

that abandoned car in full

It's still there - the police have known about it for weeks and presumably passed on information to the owner - and by golly it has provided tons of fun for the local kids in the meantime. I would say it's like the 21st century version of the old 'puffing billy' in the playground.

today's listening

The Church Of Skins and Heart
Tactics Glebe
Greg Quill and Country Radio Gypsy Queen
X X-Aspirations

This afternoon we mowed the grass. Mia did the lower part of the yard and I did the upper. She raked her grass into the corner near the herb garden and I raked mine into the compost hole next to the tomatoes. There was a football game going on at the reserve.

Later I regretted not doing a before & after picture for you but just imagine there being a lot of grass and then, much of it cut down.