There are just a few weeks every year when the royal gala season starts when it is worth buying apples. Unfortunately it only takes three or four weeks before they start to turn floury and aren’t worth eating any more. But . . . for those few weeks each year, when royal galas become available they are so much better than all the other apples you can buy in Naarm (Melbourne) that . . . well . . . they taste like apples are supposed to taste. They taste like apples (might have) tasted when I was very young. I guess that all the other apples you can buy these days are bred to have a year-long she ..read more

autumn walk, just following our cavoodle everywhere ~ Instead of going for a walk with any set purpose in mind, I let our cavoodle, Barney, take the lead. When Barney wanted to run, we ran (ridiculously). When Barney wanted to stop, we stopped. We went in the direction that Barney led us. We chased some rainbow lorikeets. We kept on going, and going, til at twilight Barney led us back to our gate ..read more

The 1st of March, the first day of Autumn here in Naarm (Melbourne, Australia). lopped treefirst day of autumn state of mind I read an article the ABC in 2019 that talks about how common plane trees are in Melbourne, and the plans to massively reduce their number by 2040. You can fine the article here ..read more

Aaand . . . we’re back . . . Spring is here, the slough of winter all-but-forgotten and my writing hiatus is done. Father’s Day here in Australia is on the first Sunday in September, so right at the start of spring. Honestly, Father’s Day isn’t usually celebrated all that much in Australia, but this year I did manage a haiku: dew on dry grass –a man holds a new-born baby ..read more

Hot summer days in Naarm (Melbourne, Australia) are often accompanied by an oppressive hot north wind. Often, the wind changes direction in the mid or later afternoon, and the heat is broken by a lovely cool sea breeze. If the change doesn’t come you’re in for a hot, uncomfortable, sleepless night and, almost certainly, a stinking hot tomorrow. Thin cypressesfaded Australian flag – no cool breeze today. Read my other posts and haiku, here. References: Melbourne weather: How winds from the north and west create ‘change days’, Belinda Smith, ABC News, 13-Nov-2018 ..read more

This post was originally drafted a month or so ago. At that time Melbourne was coming out of a very long COVID lockdown (our sixth). The formal restrictions set by the government were being eased, but many of us continued to live mostly-isolated for fear of catching the virus and passing it on to older or unwell relatives. Kids were going back to school, but because of the risk of catching COVID on public transport, we were dropping our kids at school each morning in the car, and picking them up each afternoon. My daughter’s school is a castle of concrete and brick on top of a steep hillside i ..read more

Melbourne’s COVID-19 lockdown is staggering towards the finish line. The case numbers are as high as they have at any time during the pandemic, but the vaccination rate is rising steadily, and I think there is just a general realisation that many people have given as-much-as-they-had-to-give and have started . . . not-to-comply. So back to work, in dribs and drabs, we go. Back to our commutes, our shopping centres and our offices. Our parking inspectors. Our microwave-reheated lunches. Our bosses and our subordinates. We’ll have to leave behind our new cavoodles, our business-shirts-with-PJ-bo ..read more

Is there a more haiku-worthy Australian bird than the tawny frogmouth? They look like bits of broken branch on trees, or stone gargoyles on a church, or maybe a very grizzly looking great uncle who has fallen asleep while sitting on the couch. One of these amazingly grumpy-looking birds has recently made a nest, and has a baby frogmouth, in a tree near the dog park in Travancore just near the Moonee Ponds Creek. Any time of the day you walk along Mooltan Street in Travancore you’ll see a little group of people, hovering quietly around the base of one tree in particular, hoping to catch a glimp ..read more

Oh Snail Climb Mt Fuji But slowly, slowly!Issa (trans. R.H. Blyth) Reports that Melbourne is set to become the longest locked-down city in the world has me thinking strange and gloomy thoughts. Such as: is it just my perception, or are there many less snails around than there used to be? Less little silver trails among the flower pots . . . Less of those distinctive little holes eaten in the leaves of violets and geraniums . . . When was the last time you, after rain, saw a garden path so covered in snails that you could hardly find a place to put your feet? Or a big snail sliding o ..read more

Today is the vernal equinox (in the Southern Hemisphere) but there’ll be no dancing around bonfires in Melbourne tonight. We continue in our, long-ongoing, COVID-19 lockdown. Still, the weather is lovely, and each day I go out walking some new plant has burst into flower. Today I saw hop goodenias (Goodenia ovata) in flower for the first time this year. Last week I saw broad beans in flower. Broad bean flowers, anda mirror bush – I think I’ll delete Instagram. Read my other posts and haiku, here ..read more