Timeless

This morning is a bit of a haze. I woke up about 8 but by the time I'd completed my morning stumbles and got showered and dressed Mun and Bella had already left (to return a couple of visiting chooks to their owner) and before long, Jason and Dylan were heading out the door for Dylan's judo class. I think I did a wee catch up on blip and worked through a few pics but I honestly can't remember. Ah well, let senility creep in! :-)

I do remember when the boys returned we headed out to Hurstbridge to meet up with the girls for lunch at this wee organic shop/cafe. The leek and potato soup was a big hit, with everyone eventually having a taste. Yummy! Stopping off to drop of Mun's car and pick up the cameras we headed out on our afternoon adventure.

First stop was to the William Ricketts Sanctuary at Mount Dandenong. The park contains 92 of the most exquisite sculptures of Aboriginal busts and figures. The setting is perfect as the sculptures blend into the trunks of trees or around the tranquil surrounding landscape. Sun splashes through the leaves projecting mottled rays onto the subjects. It is said his aim was to capture Aboriginal spirituality and respect for the land and for me, in these works he seems to have done just that. His work on this project began in 1934 and continued up to his death in 1993.

As we left the wooded studio behind we realised that we'd cut time a little fine to make our second destination of the afternoon, the Yarra Valley Chocolatier. With only 5 mins to spare we arrived at the front door and headed straight to the ice cream counter. We needn't have worried. I honestly don't know if that place ever closes on time but on the evidence of today it seems rather unlikely. Not only were we able to sit and eat our ice cream at our leisure but we were able to then wander around picking some chocolaty treats without anyone hounding us or rushing us to complete our purchases, and we certainly weren't the last to leave as we sauntered out the door just after 5:30.

One last outing for the day for Jason and I as we headed into town to go to the Eureka Tower. I missed this last time I was in town but alas our luck was to run out here today as well as we missed the 9:30 last entry time by... 1 min! We were the only ones there but the jobsworth behind the doors refused us entry. Boooo! Instead, we wandered the packed city centre at ground level and I got to see something else I'd missed first time round, the gas flames that light up the night sky along the Yarra, and boy do they give off some amount of heat. The display lasted about 5 mins and each time a plume of fire burst into the sky you really felt it heat your face. Our wander took us down the banks of the Yarra from Southbank as far as the Webb Bridge.