Bosco Parrasio

Snapshot, St Patrick's Cathedral from Parliament Gardens

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:45:00 +0000

I always enjoy when you spot a piece of architecture from a new angle and through a new frame.

Snapshot Castlemaine

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 06:47:00 +0000

Waiting on Castlemaine PLatform 2 for the afternoon train to Melbourne, catching some sunshine after a cold few days in Daylesford.

Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:23:00 +0000

Sorting through photos and these are some of my favourites because the weather was just glorious. Although my real focus on this trip has been English gardens I have a bit of a thing for proper fortified castles that tower above the landscape. I stopped at this one during a drive up the east coast in Northumberland after visiting the recent garden at Alnwick Castle. It is quite close to Lindisfarne. The coast line is very beautiful and has what I think of (in my prejudiced way) as proper beaches, with golden sand and very little development, unlike the southern rocky beaches and the built up seaside towns in places like Brighton. There has been a castle here since about the 7th century AD I think, and i was the seat of the kings of Northumnbria at the time when England was split into several kingdoms.There is more history on the websit if you are interested. http://www.bamburghcastle.com/history.php

Photos. I didn't go in as I had to drive on to Scotland but I circled around the outside. Do you like the dramatic contrasts between blue sky and clouds in a period of only about 40 minutes!? Typical English summer weather.

Snapshots, Melbourne Uni

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 10:22:00 +0000

I was waiting for someone outside the 1888 building at Melbourne Uni the other day. I have been there so much over the past decade as a student and as staff but because I work there I tend not to take many photos. I had some time on my hands, and a camera and the sun was shining so here a few snaps.

The 188 building itself. I like all it crowded ornament set against the red brick. There is always something about brick as a material on a façade that helps to tone down crazy ornament in a way a stucco or rendered façade wouldn't. There is something almost mannerist about the ornament, the crowded banded columns and the strange spiky pyramids. Though it lacks the elegance of more sophisticated mannerist architecture, everything is a bit crowded, a bit squeezed, but I still like it.

I have to admit to never taking much notice of this pub, I don't really like it as a place to go (the interior is pretty awful, blonde tiles etc). But in the afternoon autumn sun the outside looks pretty good. I am guessing it was built in 1926 as the date above the door suggests, it has been designed to look older unlike a few of the other deco style pubs around this area.

Snapshot, Collingwood

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 03:08:00 +0000

Somewhere in Collingwood, not sure, somewhere near Rokeby St, maybe even on Rokeby St?

Snapshots, Adelaide

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 09:09:00 +0000

A photo I took last October. I didn't have much else to do in Adelaide than walk around the city for hours on end, which suited me just fine. I wandered down lots of small streets and found some lovely little buildings. This small shop is on Compton St, just near the Central Markets.

I was struck by this shop and it had a reassuring small blue plaque. The plaque reads

This small building was originally built as a house by Edward Moore in 1817. A shopfront was added by the next owner, baker Matthew Madge, in 1898-99. Bert Edwards, one of Adelaide's most colourful and notable citizens, opened a tea room here in 1913. It was immensely popular, particularly on Friday nights when the rear of the shop was used for playing the then illegal game of two-up.

I think I like that last use the best. And I am guessing that at some point it had something to do with the Metropolitan Saw Works, though that sounds like a very big thing for such a small shop.

Snapshots, Ballarat

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:21:00 +0000

View of the Mining Exchange and Post Office, Lydiard St Nth.

Begonias at the Begonia Festival, Ballarat Botanic Gardens.

Lavandula, Hepburn Springs

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 09:26:00 +0000

I went to Lavandula, a Lavender farm and garden in Hepburn Springs the Friday before last. It had rained heavily all morning so the sky was grey and the ground was damp and the light wasn't the best for photos. After a month of heavy rain the gardens were very lush and green. The old buildings date back to the 1860s when it was a dairy farm set up by a Swiss-Italian migrant, the property was more-or-less abandoned and then bought by Carol White about twenty years ago. It has a lavender farm (as you would expect) around the property, as well as vegetable gardens, fruit trees, geese, even a donkey. The new owner aimed to create a farm and gardens inspired by Italian, or Swiss Italian, farms. It definitely has an Italian feel to it with grape vines and lines of pointy trees.

Some of the old buildings almost completely covered in grape vines.

Simple slate paving forms a path through the green grass.

Freshly pruned lavender, the farm had both these 'balls' of lavender, that you often see in photos of French and Italian lavender farms, as well as less controlled plants.

Trees in a row.

View back across one of the lavender beds toward the old milking shed (now the shop). All the plantings were laid out in a visually interesting way, often bordered by other plants. You can see here how they have created visual variety by pruning the central lavender plants but leaving the ones around the edges to grow in a more wild manner.

View across the field towards the gentle rolling hills. These low hills are typical of the Hepburn/ Daylesford area, so many farms are set in these shallow valleys.

The dam, or pond, or lake, not sure what they called it. A range of European trees and eucalypts, a very 'Victorian' view.

Lavender! The whole garden was infused with the smell of lavender, not quite overpowering but very present.

The 'wild' lavender sea.

A green quince, this got me excited about the arrival of quince season.

I guess some kind of old dairy farm thing being used as a tub for waterlilies, very effective.

I can never remember the name of these flowers, I have asked about 100 times and i never retain it. Anyway here they are after the petals have fallen off. Suggestive and sculptural!

More views of the plantings, I like all the different heights from the tall pines, to the medium height fruit trees to the low growing lavender.

Fields and fields of lavender.

The vegie patch.

A very large zucchini.

Blackberries. They were tasty. I hope they didn't mind me eating a few.

More fruit trees, and non fruit trees and an old cart.

I liked all the vines growing over the various frameworks and the closely planted trees, it gave the area around the old house and dairy a lovely intimate feeling.

Another field of lavender, you get the idea.

Lavender drying under the verandah of the old farmhouse.

The verandah on the old house.

Jewel spider, isn't it magnificent? Look at it's spikes!

The donkey.

Daylesford Snapshots

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 02:29:00 +0000

Some photos I took while down the road the other day. Don't know much about any of the buildings I'm afraid!

The local post office, always nice to see a post office still in its original building. I found an early photo of it in the SLV collection from the late 1890s but I am guessing the post office was probably built a decade o two earlier, but I'm not really sure.

Daylesford, ca. 1897-ca. 1899, b/w ; 5.5 x 7.5 cm. approx.
Image No: b27334, State Library of Victoria

Breakfast and Beer

Cnr of Vincent St and Central Springs Rd

Snapshot, Ballarat

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 00:25:00 +0000

I was waiting for the bus to Daylesford on Wednesday and it was a beautiful sunny day so I took some photos. This is the station. The full temple portico is pretty impressive, I guess it speaks to the wealth of Ballarat during the nineteenth century.

The Alice Hoy Code?

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:47:00 +0000

I took these photos at the end of last year in the Alice Hoy building at Melbourne University where I had been office squatting on and off for eighteen months. I think these interiors date to the building's construction in the 1960s. The education faculty has now mostly moved out and it is about to be renovated. I'm not sure how much of the old building will be kept. A lot was changed a few years ago but there are a few small areas of 1960s interiors left (well there were in mid December), it is not very exciting but I find them interesting nonetheless. What has intrigued me most are the brick reliefs on the stairwell. I have no idea if they are meant to mean something or are just random decoration. Anyone else have any ideas, sensible and informed or otherwise? (My photos aren't great as I only had a basic camera with me but you get the general idea). Photos go from bottom of stairs to the third level.

These are bizarre. Are they meant to be babies? Dead mice the owl (see below) has caught? Maybe there was something else now obscured by the fire cupboard, I doubt it though.

An Owl. I guess this could be intended to symbolise wisdom? I think the owl is my favourite.

Motherly looking figure, I guess this makes sense, for an education building, but is that a key? Also she seems to be missing her babies, maybe she dropped them under the stairs...

Weird armless people ascending towards a question mark and then an arrow pointing them down again. Is this a metaphor for university?

The sun, this is at the top of the staircase, which I guess is logical.

Edwin Smith

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 06:35:00 +0000

Discovered this photographer on the weekend. I am now trying to find a copy of any of his books to buy. I love the photos, the detail in the landscape and architecture scenes is incredible. There is a real sense of depth, which can be hard to achieve, so many photos of gardens and landscapes end up looking flattened out. The more intimate photos are also beautiful, the contrasts of shadows cast on skin or snow.

Forgive my photos of photos but you get the idea!

And a few better images via the V&A website:

Edwin, Smith, Bealin Cros Twyford, Ireland, 1965

Edwin Smith, Castle Ward, Co. Down, Ireland, 1965

Elizabethan garden labyrinth spotted in luftwaffe spy photo

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 10:29:00 +0000

A German spy photograph of a ruined house in Northamptonshire surrounded by oddly marked fields, has revealed a secret unguessed at by the Luftwaffe cameraman: such important evidence of a lost Tudor garden that the site has been awarded Grade I status by English Heritage, ranking it among the most important gardens in Europe.
The garden's grass ring marks, shown clearly by the aerial, monochrome, photograph, are 120 metres across and almost certainly mark a Tudor labyrinth tracing in symbolic form the religious faith of its creator – a faith that finally cost the man his family fortune and his son's life, after the latter was exposed as one of the Gunpowder plotters.
In 1944 the photographer was probably disappointed with his efforts: the house and garden of Lyveden New Bield, near Oundle, and now owned by the National Trust, were undoubtedly peculiar but could have had no military significance.
The Luftwaffe images are now part of the US national archive, kept in Maryland, and were only studied closely when the National Trust ordered copies in the past six months.

The full story is here

This is very interesting. Aerial archaeology is quite a big thing but I have never read much about it in relation to garden archaeology, I guess partly because only very large and obvious designs would be visible, more subtle plantings would be harder if not impossible to see. Aerial photos are an interesting source for the study of gardens. I have been using the ones on Google Earth and Google Maps to look for historical garden sites. This may sound odd but often I actually have very little idea about the modern state of a seventeenth or eighteenth-century garden just from primary and secondary sources. Less famous gardens are often only referred to in passing and may only be illustrated with an old engraving rather than a modern photo. I'll try and find some of the comparisons I put together for a post tomorrow.

Decorative details - Venetian Doorway

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 11:47:00 +0000

A doorway from Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice. A nice door if I ever saw one...

Teatro Olimpico Vicenza

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 09:13:00 +0000

Something short and sweet tonight. I just had this photo up to add to my thesis catalogue. Some of you probably know it - the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Italy. Designed by Andrea Palladio and then completed by Vincenzo Scamozzi. It is unusual for its survival, theatres usually have terribly short life spans, especially before the advent of electric light when the combination of many many candles and a lot of flammable wood and paper meant they tended to burn down. It is also unique as an example of an attempt to recreate an ancient Roman theatre. It was built for the humanist Accademia Olimpica in Vicenza who wished to perform plays in it after the style of ancient Rome, both revivals of ancient plays as well as new plays written in the same style. It is very closely based on antique examples with the semi circular seats (the cavea) the permanent scenery (scaenae) with its screen of columns and sculptures (columnatio). The streets are very much based on 16th scenery, though we do know that Roman theatres did have some kind of scenery behind the columnatio. By the time it was completed in the 1580s the interest in reviving ancient plays was on the wane and instead most theatrical productions were using a theatre in a style that is still very familiar today, with a semi-circular auditorium, a single proscenium arch and scenery on some kind of moveable machines and a backdrop. You can still watch plays and operas in this theatre, I have never been there at the right time of year though.

The illusion is quite amazing and one always wants to wander up the street to see just how short it really is.

NaBloPoMo

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:29:00 +0000

So I decided to sign up for this in a fit of procrastination, which is possibly unwise as I am trying to finish my PhD and I will soon have mountain of marking. My plan is that if I have this to do when I need a break from either of the above things it will help focus me. That's the theory. I posted twice yesterday and will post something later today. I am currently working on my image catalogue for my thesis so expect a lot of musings on images from that.

Snapshot East Melbourne

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 11:33:00 +0000

I posted this on Walking Melbourne and ended up writing some thoughts about what style it is and I thought I would re-post them here. It is an interesting little building, quite different to most of the 1930s apartment blocks in East Melbourne.
Called Bradoc House it was built in 1933 and is on George St between Simpson St and Hoddle St.

The info from the East Melbourne Historical Society http://emhs.org.au/history/buildings/ea ... adoc_house says it is Tudor-Byzantine with Spanish influence, but well, that just sounds a bit silly to me. I guess the white and dark colours is a bit Tudor, but is is also Spanish Colonial. I have no idea why Byzantine, I guess maybe the tower could be and the way the forms are massed together, and it has some hints at crenelations, but once again this all could come from a Spanish colonial influence as well. If anything it makes me think more of Romanesque style than Byzantine. Personally rather than Tudor-Byzantine I would say it has Spanish Colonial and Arts and Crafts influences. I don't think there are really hard and fast descriptions for 20th century architectural styles, especially in periods that experimented with a lot of revival styles. What do others think?

Snapshot Adelaide

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 02:25:00 +0000

A small terrace house in North Adelaide in the late afternoon sun. I was particularly taken by the patterns made by the shadow cast by the porch supports (no idea what the proper term for these would be...)

Snapshot Adelaide - Colonial Mutual Life Building

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 05:09:00 +0000

I have quite a few photos from Adelaide to post. It has a pretty amazing array of older buildings from the classically inspired galleries and libraries on the North Terrace to small bluestone houses. The most noticeable and celebrated buildings tend to be nineteenth century, however, I found a large number of twentieth century buildings that also caught my eye.

This is the Colonial Mutual Life building on King William St. It was apparently built in 1934 and became the city's tallest building until 1969. In a relatively low rise city like Adelaide it still towers above many buildings. I'm not sure exactly what you would call the style, I have seen it referred to as neo gothic, and certainly you can see the paired arched windows with delicate columns that are taken directly from gothic architecture. It has a relatively minimalistic use of decoration in comparison to most buildings that I would think of as neo gothic. Perhaps neo gothic filtered through the more streamlined aesthetic of art deco? The small columns look like twisted columns from a distance, but up close you can see that they are actually decorated with a very art deco zigzag pattern. The capitals are also very art deco, with the usual gothic style flowers or leaves reduced to simply geometric shapes and lines.

The building appeared to be empty, though apparently it does have heritage protection (and hopefully that counts for more in Adelaide than it sometimes does in Melbourne!) This site suggests there were plans for it to become a hotel, but it also says that it will be completed by 2009 and it clearly isn't.

Some close up details of the delicate decoration, which does get a little lost in the mass of of the very large facade.

Melbourne Bike Share

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 00:26:00 +0000

I thought I would share my thoughts on this scheme, slightly off topic, but this is a blog that is partly about Melbourne so I guess it fits. Here is the bike I borrowed the other day with my vegies from the Vic Market securely stowed in the front, that little basket is better than it looks.

When I heard about Melbourne Bike Share starting up I was pretty excited as I really like riding around Melbourne, but since having my bike stolen I haven't been able to. I could buy a new bike but I have absolutely zero room inside to store it and I am reluctant to store one outside again after the last theft. Plus the block of flats I live often receives grumpy body corporate letters from lawyers stating that we are not allowed to keep anything in 'common areas', despite the fact that the area surrounding the flats is basically concrete and a few tidily stored bikes would hardly be a problem... but that is a separate issue.

My point is that I am probably an ideal candidate for this bike share stuff. I live close enough to a couple of bike stations, about a 5 minute walk. I don't have my own bike and much of what I do, uni, meeting friends, shopping, is located near other bike racks.

I am still getting my head around which routes to take, which roads have bike lanes, where the bike lanes suddenly vanish, and so on. So far I have been using it to ride to Melbourne Uni where I work/study, I usually walk so this cuts my travel time from about 35-40 mins to 15-20 mins, which is great. There really is no way for me to get to uni on a tram or bus that would be quicker than walking, so riding is ideal. I have also used it to ride to the Vic Market, and that took about 10 minutes instead of 25, and from Melbourne Uni into the city, which took about the same time as a tram but was a lot more fun.

I have some days when I ride in and then have other things on in the evening and don't ride home, so the flexibility of not worrying about how to get my own bike home works well. The little basket with an elastic works quite well as long as your bag is sturdy/big enough, the other day my bag was a pretty empty and almost too small to secure - but they basically work well. As you can see in my picture I secured my market shopping nicely. The seats are easy enough to move up and down, though I have noticed some bikes getting a bit stiff, or being completely stuck - so double check it can be adjusted before you hire it. They are quite easy to ride, they are the style where you can sit up straight, which is my preference. I'm not concerned about riding fast and there are not too many hills, and certainly no really difficult ones, on the routes I take. They are quite heavy and noticeably less maneuverable compared to most other bikes I have ridden, but for short trips they are fine. I am a bit concerned about riding at night, they do have a light but it seems very weak? Also it would be good if they had a bell on them (unless I have missed it).Also it would be useful to be able to get a small fold up map of where all the stations are.

I took out an annual subscription so hiring the bike is pretty easy, I just stick my key in and it beeps and releases the bike. Then you give it a good shove into the stand when it is returned and it beeps again. I had one issue the other week where a bike I returned locked in but for some reason didn't register as returned and my key was blocked, however, the bike share people sorted it out and were very helpful so that was great.

There has been a lot of talk about this scheme, and mostly about what is wrong with it, and there are some things wrong. I also feel that it has been marketed very badly, I keep thinking of opportunities for them to promote it, yet I have seen virtually no promotion of it.

More stations - I guess this is something that is dependent on it growing in popularity but it does seem to me that the area covered is a bit limited. There are some places in the city with several stations within metres of each other, whereas other areas are completely missed. I think the area covered is only about 5 square kilometres, which isn't much. Also many stations are located along tram lines. For me the motivator in subscribing was the ride to uni, the route is badly served by public transport as nothing goes there directly, I would have to catch a tram in the opposite direction and then catch another tram, or walk halfway and catch a bus. Things that take longer than walking. I feel that more stations that allowed people to take routes across Melbourne that don't have direct tram or bus lines would be really sensible. I would love to see some in Fitzroy, some in South Yarra near the Domain Rd shops, some in Richmond, even Prahran - and these are just the places I tend to frequent, I'm sure other people would like to see them in other suburbs. It seems to me at the moment some stations are positioned in places that councils or tourist marketers (is that a phrase??) like to think everyone wants to be in Melbourne (i.e. Docklands, Southbank etc), rather than where many people are actually going. Also getting between inner city suburbs in Melbourne on PT can be a bit of a joke, especially on weekends, I often end up walking rather than waiting for trams. A bike would be a great way of getting round this.

Marketing - Why does the website not link correctly to twitter or facebook? Both icons simply prompt you to promote the Bike Share website via your own twitter/facebook account. I actually had no idea they had a twitter account until a friend tweeted at them. Not only is it silly not to link directly to their own accounts, but icons that automatically 'promote' something via your own facebook/twitter account without explaining that this is what they will do are frustrating and a bit sneaky.

Why is Melb Bike Share not involved with 'Ride to Work Day'? [UPDATE - I just noticed that on their website they are affiliated w RTWD, but I can't really find out how exactly] Surely they could give out some free day passes to people who register with Ride to Work but don't have their own bike. I think they need to get people on the bikes as much as possible, even just for one trip, to break the ice. There are quite a lot of racks at Melbourne Uni, so I wonder why they don't promote it more with the students, who could even use them for getting across campus. I have had to trek between Tin Alley and the Law School in the past, and it is a good 10-15 minute walk.

I also feel they should take on the bad press, maybe have a blog on their website where the post media coverage, both good and bad and actually respond to the bad, how they are tackling it etc.

Cost - I think the annual subscription that I took out is very reasonable, $50 for a year. The daily and weekly rates are also pretty good, they are aimed at short trips and I think this is fine. However, I think one huge barrier for daily and even weekly users is the ridiculously high security deposit of $300. I read somewhere that this is not refunded till the next working day, and I could imagine even longer if used over the weekend depending on your own bank. As someone who does not use a credit card I simply don't have this in my debit account to be put aside. I know people who wouldn't have this space on their credit cards. Or imagine a family wanting to use them, you could end up having to put down $1200+ in security deposits! Or you might be a tourist on a budget, or worried that if there was an error and you have left Melbourne it might be tricky to get your money back. A definite deterrent. This actually put me off using the scheme until I was ready to take out an annual subscription. I understand the need for a security deposit for the bikes but the other schemes I have looked up, like the one in London, simply take credit/or debit card details and charge you after it is clear the bike has not been returned. So if you use the scheme correctly then you only have to lay out the actual cost for daily/weekly rental and other usage costs you incur.

Helmets - I know this is the big thing in most discussions. I do feel though that talk about the scheme has been a bit hijacked by people who want to ditch helmet laws, and as most of these seem like super keen bikers, with their own bikes, are they really worried about the scheme? I do I get the problem, honestly I do. Especially for tourists the need to have a helmet will be a huge barrier, who travels with a helmet? Who would want to buy one just for the day? But it seems the government won't shift so rather than everyone getting up in arms about it I would prefer to see how Melb Bike Share, the RACV, the city council and whoever else is involved will try and find a work around it. They at least need some rental helmets, if not at all stations maybe at the more touristy locations like Fed Square. Also what about those dinky fold up ones they had in The Age a while back? Those would be perfect.

Personally the helmet thing is not a huge barrier for me. I had a few bad falls as a teen and my preference is always to wear a helmet. Also, for me the helmet is not the only thing I have to consider, I need to make sure I wear the right shoes, have a bag that can go in the basket or won't fall off as I ride, not wear the wrong kind of skirt and so on. But, still there will be times when I will think 'damn if I only I didn't need a helmet, I would jump on a bike', specially for the trips that are down very safe streets.

Has anyone else used it? Any other opinions?

Open Gardens, Eltham

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 08:36:00 +0000

I haven't been to an open garden in ages. I love them, I love poking around other people's gardens, usually feeling envious because I don't have a garden (although I did hear an auctioneer yesterday describing my nearby Fitzroy gardens as Melbourne's answer to Central Park or the Luxembourg Gardens, slightly hyperbolic but having them nearby does sometimes feel like having a huge backyard that someone else looks after).

Now I am tempted to visit more of them. I am a bit transport challenged on account of not having a car but I noticed there is one in Domain Rd, South Yarra next weekend so I might schlep to that. You can find a short list of upcoming gardens on the website - http://www.opengarden.org.au/index.html

I do find ti odd that the only full list is in the book, which you have to buy. Considering we pay to go into the gardens I feel this is a bit unnecessary. I wonder if it is a deliberate decision to try and sell the book or whether they just haven't thought to have a full online list. Also I would prefer to be able to buy (maybe at a cheaper price) a pdf of the book, as it is essentially useless after the season has finished.

The two gardens I visited yesterday were the Adams and Ford gardens. They are adjacent blocks in Eltham. The landscape design of both was mainly the work of Gordon Ford. He bought the land in 1945, it used to be an orchard. Ford used to work with Ellis Stones, who created much of the stone work for the gardens designed by Edna Walling. You can see some aspects that have been derived from Edna Walling's designs but overall the garden has an even softer structure. The stone work is mostly aiming to look natural, or is almost invisible beneath plantings. My first impression of the Ford garden was that it was quite open and almost sparsely planted, you can easily see through to the garden to the neighbouring houses. The short write up did say that a lot of plants, including trees, had been lost over the last few, hot, summers. That said, as we explored the garden I kept discovering new small spaces that were hidden behind the house or behind thicker plantings. The main feature was a large pool of water fed by a small rocky waterfall. Above this I discovered some large stepping stones across a pool, which apparently used to be the only way to reach the house from the street.

Photos of the Ford Garden.

The lower pool.

A view of the pond from the opposite direction.

The stepping stone entrance.

The Waterfall

The house, mud brick of course, what else would you expect in Eltham?!

One of the small spaces that I 'discovered'. I can imagine myself drinking tea/gin and tonics here in the sun and reading.

A narrow path, I like a lot of height in a a garden and paths that are very enclosed so that when you emerge in a new space it feels like a surprise. It makes wandering around a garden seem like more of an adventure and I think this is a god example of how it can be done on a smallish scale.

Chairs

Head in a pot, maybe to remind the children to behave, or something.

The photos below are of the second garden, which was more-or-less designed by the same person from the late seventies. The house in particular has the look of a certain era about it, but not in a bad, dated way.

This is the more recent swimming pool and rock garden. Pretty impressive and a nice way to have a swimming pool, which actually adds to the look of the garden rather than detracts. Though I bet it would be a pain to clean with all those eucalypts around.

Felice Varini

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 08:36:00 +0000

Some of my students told me about this artist during our classes about optical illusions. I would love to see one 'in the flesh' as I feel a photo can't quite do them justice. Indeed, me and the students had to look for a while to find a photo taken 'off centre', which then allowed us to realise just how ingenious the works are (I'm not sure whether to call them paintings or maybe urban sculptures?). In a photo taken from the right angle where it all slots into place we are liable to not even realise what is going on. It simply looks like a photo that has had flat shapes drawn on top of it, it is only when we shift our point of view away from the ideal viewing point that we realise that a selection of three-dimensional objects have been painted in such a way that they create the illusion of a two-dimensional shape. This goes against what we tend to expect from illusionistic art, or art that employs single viewing points. more usually they give the illusion that a flat surface, like a canvas or a wall, has depth. Perhaps Varini is having fun inverting this expectation.

He is also playing with the visual cues (both leared and innate) that we use to detect depth and form.When viewed in a photo and I would imagine from the correct view point it is virtually impossible to not see the two-dimensional shape created by Varini, it is very hard for us to try and tell our brains to instead see a series of three-dimensional forms that have been painted the same colour. Yet as soon as we shift from the point the shape shatters in many small pieces. This 'breaking' of the illusion is also important, an done reason why photos of the work are problematic, if we do not realise the trick the artist has played we may never appreciate his skill.

APAC Nevers No. 1, 1986

Deux cercles via la rectangle, 1994

Rettangoli gialli concentrici senza angoli al suolo, 1997

All images from http://www.varini.org/

This youtube video goes some way to capturing the experience of moving toward and past the ideal viewing point.

Snapshot, Abbotsford

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 03:09:00 +0000

The Retreat Hotel, Abbotsford. Saturday morning in September. I'm not sure what style you would describe it as. It has art deco stylings, the emphasis on strong vertical lines, but my understanding is that it dates to about 1910. It also has a certain arts and Crafts look or maybe English Free Style, especially the curved central tower with its large overhanging eaves, a bit like a mushroom and the very strong window frames.

Views of Melbourne contemporary architecture

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 06:37:00 +0000

This is a bit cheesy and a few years old judging from some views where you can see the QV complex still under construction, but it is always interesting to hear an outsider's take on Melbourne architecture.

Look ma! I'm in the paper.

noreply@blogger.com (Katya) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 07:17:00 +0000

This blog has fallen down several slots in my current 'to do' list. The main reasons are imminent thesis submission and a new semester of teaching. I also have a few other projects on the go. One of which is the new group 'Melbourne Heritage Action'. It has risen from the ashes, or the dust, of Lonsdale House. Several of us felt so angry that all the community protests over the demolition of that art deco building were ignored that we have formed a new group to hopefully stop similar demolitions in the future. The National Trust encouraged us to form a group focused just on the CBD. In part because the CBD is very vulnerable, the land is valuable and there is a demand for new buildings with CBD addresses. Also because the CBD has lacked such a group. Many suburbs have resident's groups, or heritage groups and while the CBD does have some they don't tend to have nearly as many members and are often focused on specific areas or specific buildings. Our hope is to connect all these groups and give the general public a place to find out about heritage threats and what they can do about them, how they can protest and so on.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/art-deco-destruction-spurs-gen-y-heritage-protectors-20100814-1248e.html

A few weeks ago we had our inaugural meeting, and today we got a story in The Age. Please visit our site and get involved http://www.melbourneheritage.org.au/
We are standing outside Scots Church Hall, which is under threat of demolition along with the art deco car park next door and the building on the corner of Lt Collins and Russell streets.