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. 

down near jacana station

But on the eastern side of the line.

bin going out

valhalla, ritz, longford, etc

I was thinking the other day for no reason about the Ritz Cinema which ran for a short time in Errol Street, North Melbourne (I think in the town hall actually, so not really a cinema per se; although I note that the IGA in Errol Street is in what looks like a cinema building). This was probably around 1977-8, and I went there a couple of times to see old films, like for instance the worst condition print I have ever seen of any film, the notoriously confusing in any condition Beat the Devil.  

As I entered my early teens there were quite a few 'revival' (did we call them that?) film houses around Melbourne, the most famous of which was of course the Valhalla which at that time was in Richmond. I went to quite a few all night marathons at the Valhalla, including a rock music one, a Marx Brothers one, a Woody Allen one... I can't recall any others. The Woody Allen one included a rare screening of What's Up Tiger Lily? a film which I found unbelievably hilarious in 1978 and couldn't endure more than ten minutes of a few years ago. Also, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About S*x which I haven't seen again. The Valhalla would have a double feature every night of the week there. I'm amazed, in retrospect, when I think about what I saw there, from 8 1/2 (I went to that with my grandmother) to The Seventh Seal (I couldn't really concentrate on that one). There were also tons of films that were Valhalla stalwarts that I saw many times in their program and I guess figured I would eventually take in but never did. The double bill of Bof and Themroc sticks in my mind. 

I know I went to the Longford in South Yarra - I am pretty sure I went there to see Carrie with my mother, though I actually don't recall the building or where it was, at all. There were also cinema screenings of old films at universities; I know I went to see Bedazzled and Take the Money and Run with my father at a university, which in my memory was Monash at Clayton (that was the only Monash campus then) although it was more likely (?) at Melbourne. A formative evening, in any case.

I note that someone(s) has revived the Valhalla name for a movable feast this year. Interesting and I wonder who will go. I might.