A Relaxing Weekend.

We had miserable wet weather all week. Come the weekend and it turned the bend. Today was a glorious sunny autumn day. Bright and sunny, not a cloud in the sky and not a breath of a breeze.

Melbourne is famed for wet dreary winters so we made the most of the weather while it lasts.

Once again we stayed close to home and headed to another spot in Plenty Gorge Park. With the whole family in tow we arrived at this picnic area. We’ve been there a couple of times before and for some unfathomable reason it is always virtually empty.
We parked ourselves for a BBQ lunch.

One of the locals an Australian magpie (Cracticus tibicen) came panhandling. The second half of their scientific name means “flute-player”. They have a lovely warbling song.

From the picnic area you can see down into the gorge which cuts through Melbourne’s northern suburbs.The park is very different from places like Fitzroy Gardens. These are all native trees, mostly Eucalyptus species with a smattering of wattles (acacia) and others scattered through.

Because most Oz trees are evergreen there is no autumn flush of colour like the one I posted last weekend.Many eucalypts shed their bark rather than their leaves.Some of the smooth barked species end up with lovely mottled patterns as the bark comes away.It was amazingly still; I shot this rather ordinary looking pond to show how glassy it was.In fact the water was so still it was reflecting like a mirror.

I captured another local, a small honey eater called a Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala). They really are noisy; they live in family groups and gather together to noisily confront threats in an attempt to drive them off. We used to have a cat that was terrified of them. They should not be confused with Indian Myna birds which are an introduced pest in Oz.(Indian Myna image from Wikipedia)

In a damp spot some little fungiAnd soft green pillows of moss.Now to my WIP extract for the week.
Last week Valentina, Penelope and Natasha were “taken for a ride” by Stepan.
I have made you wait and indulged my sadistic side long enough. So here we go…


Valentina Mescova
Berlin 1948
A surreal conversation I half heard over my sobbing breath.
Stepan’s voice, ‘So your name is Natasha?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m Stepan. I used to be a friend of your mummy,’
‘Valentina isn’t really my mummy.’
‘No I suppose she isn’t. But you do love her don’t you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Good. Are you a brave girl Natasha?’
‘Yes.’
‘Even better. Now listen carefully, I am playing a trick on my men, will you help me?’
‘I don’t like them.’
‘I don’t like them either. Now I am going to take these hoods off Valentina and her friend. Then I am going to untie them. You have to help me look after them, but I am going to make some very loud noises with my gun. It is very important you stay very quiet. Can you do that for me?’
‘Yes.’

A spatter of loose earth as he knelt down next to me, his voice in my ear. ‘Be quiet…’ Hands on my wrists, the manacles coming away. Hands on my shoulders, helping me to a sitting position. ‘I am going to take this hood off, keep your eyes and mouth closed so they don’t get full of dust.’

Light, and air. ‘No don’t wipe your eyes you’re going to get more dirt in them.’
Little hands pushing my hair away from my face. I grabbed my little girl and hugged her tight.
‘Natasha block your ears I am going to make the first noise.’
I sat stupidly as Stepan pulled his gun from its holster. Once, twice he pulled the trigger. The bullets kicking up fountains of dirt as they slammed harmlessly into the side of the hole that might have been my grave. He looked intensely at me ‘Now you’re dead, so no noise!’
He turned to Natasha, ‘Well done, but you still need to keep quiet, okay?’
She nodded solemnly.
He stepped across to Penelope.

He was rougher than he had been with me, as Stepan hauled off the hood Penelope’s. face was streaked with mud as the dust stuck to her tears. He rolled her on to her side. As he began undoing her manacles he urgently whispered to her in English. ‘As you can see no one is dead, but I have to make a fiction for my men. Pretend I am raping you and scream.’
She shook her head as if to clear it, ‘What?’
‘Scream like I am hurting you.’
Her scream was shrill, ‘Noooo!’
Stepan looked exasperated, ‘Not nearly real enough.’
He flung aside the manacles. Then Penelope really did scream. ‘Stop! You’re hurting me!’

He frowned as he twisted two of her fingers the wrong way back toward her wrist. She screamed again. He dropped her hand, she held it with her other softly moaning he smiled, ‘Much better, much more real.’
‘You bastard.’ She hissed
He smiled, ‘Play with the big boys English girl and you see what you get.’
He turned back to us, ‘Almost over, Natasha block your ears.’
She obediently stuck her fingers in her ears. His gun barked again.

Holstering the gun he squatted next to me. His eyes were intense, ‘I’m sorry for scaring the shit out of you.’ He jerked his thumb at Penelope, ‘but once she came on the scene I had no time to come up with anything better.’
‘Why this.’
‘You had been noticed which is bad enough. She made it impossible. You would have ended up in Siberia at best. It’s kinder to shoot someone.’
‘What happens now?’
He pointed, ‘You walk through those trees, straight ahead, due west two kilometres and you are in the US Zone. Patrols don’t often come here, they know we use this patch.’
‘What about you?’
‘Me? I fill in your grave and go back to my job. About your friend.’
‘What?’
‘Don’t tell her my family name. It will be dangerous for me if she knows it. She’ll get me what she nearly got you. And for heavens sake don’t let her do any field work in Berlin. Or anywhere, she stands out, far too pretty, far too noticeable for field work.’
‘Stepan come with us.’
‘What would I do with all those capitalists?’
‘Stepan…’
‘Go! Now!’
Firmly holding Natasha’s hand I looked back before the trees hid him from me. He was pushing soil back into the empty graves.
His eyes caught mine and he smiled.
Another step and he was gone from view.

Stairs Again: A Lazy Afternoon

I was up early on Christmas to open up for the breakfast program. We had a good crowd through for brekky.
After we closed I gave each of the volunteers who had made the effort on the Holiday morning a token gift of Swiss chocolates. I keep saying it, but our volunteers make all the difference for our programs. We couldn’t open on public holidays and weekends if we had to rely entirely on paid staff.

The rest of Christmas was a lazy day for me. Our eldest daughter E, has gone on a mad keen Christmas cooking frenzy over the past couple of years. It is an amazing luxury to sit back and do nothing until it is time to clean up.

On Boxing Day I was again in the city early for work. After that we had a BBQ lunch and went for a lazy drive out to the Maroondah Reservoir near Healesville .

It was a gorgeous afternoon so we went for a walk around the park. The park lies around the dam wall of what was once part of Melbourne’s water supply. It is a series of well manicured gardens, a mix of native and exotic species.

This piccie shows the dam wall seen through some of the plantings. The dam was completed between 1920-27. I guess that means most of these trees are between 80 and 90 years old.

We seem to be picking places with plenty of stairs just lately. Not as many as the weekend before last, but if I keep doing this I’ll be in danger of getting fit.
And this is from near the top of the same stairs.
The gardens are quite relaxing with plenty of places to picnic or simply sit and rest.
We strolled across the top of the dam wall. I paused to take some shots across to the other side. The lake being a former river valley has a shoreline of little bays and inlets.

This is what was the water works intake. I like the touch of the rotunda you wouldn’t see the extra effort on public structures these days. Maroondah is no longer part of the water supply as it is too small to be of relevance, so now it is just a public park.

From the far end I took a few photos.
The view down across the dam wall.
And straight down, the people at the bottom give a scale.
This view is back through the park. As you can see many of the trees are exotics. I think the conifer in the centre of the frame may be one of the American redwood species. (West Coasters What do you think?) The conifer to the left is definitely a cedar of some variety.

Then we turned and went back across the wall.
Finally before we left the park I attempted to get some shots of this Noisy Miner nest . Unfortunately this was about as good a shot as I got. The nest was high in a tree and quite well hidden. While I was setting up for the shot we saw a couple of adults feeding the chicks, but by the time I had the camera ready this bird was sitting still, keeping an eye on me. Noisy Miners are interesting in that, like many Aussie birds, they have a strategy of grouping together to help raise a single nest of chicks. Mum, dad and older siblings all have an interest in raising the current crop of youngsters.