I’ve driven past this park many times over years as I’ve gone about my business or visited my family but it never occurred to me to visit it till this past week.

I knew it was reclaimed land that had been turned into a wetland reserve and this occurred sometime after 1994 when we’d shifted into this area.  But this week as I dropped into a business across the road from it I decided this would be my next planned photography shoot and I’m so glad I did.

Here are two links that tell you more about it:

Parks Victoria

Fisher & Fisher

For the first time in my life I saw a Flame Robin and that was thanks to a couple who regularly walk their dogs there. They’d seen me taking pictures of the birds and they pointed me towards a path they’d walked on where they had seen the robin. So when I went looking it was very obvious as the bright colour showed up easily amongst all the greens and browns.

Here in Australia we celebrate ANZAC Day on 25th April each year.  For most of the country that means Monday is made a public holiday but here in Victoria that was abolished which is a shame.  However this just means that since Anzac Day is a Saturday this year many shops were closed for the morning, choosing to open in the afternoon only so that we could honour the memory of those who fought for our country – Australia and New Zealand that is.

The Australian War Memorial site gives an outline of Anzac Day and what it means.

I was hoping to go into the city and see the march firsthand and take some photos but in the end I didn’t get there so watched it on TV and I’m afraid taking photos from the TV screen isn’t as good!  But since I’m learning photography it was an interesting experiment, learning about refresh rates and shutter speeds as I poured through my camera manual and researched on Google.  So below are just a few shots to give you an idea of the march.

There’s a fast food advertisement being played on TV at the moment where a young man buys two meals at a really cheap price and then when he sets the meals down in front of his mate his mate tells him he only has $5.00. The first young man responds ‘that will have to do’ and pockets the money.

This advert is very poor – it’s teaching young people (and those others easily led astray) that it is ok to be dishonest and rip off people, including your mate.

I consider this to be very poor advertising and in bad taste – pardon the pun!

If  you’re a visitor to Melbourne you can’t be blamed for thinking that Aussie Rules Football (otherwise known as AFL – Australian Football League) is a religion in this rather large city.

You hear about it almost every single day. Come to think of it, it is EVERY day.  From the time we wake up in the morning (usually the 6am news) to when we go to bed at night, the news on both the radio and TV seem to carry a story that relates to the AFL in some way.  And that story is frequently headline news or in the main part of the news before the sports section – and then more footy news.

What is going on? Isn’t there anything else more interesting to report on? Frankly I feel that the stories reported just show how immature most of these boys in men’s bodies really are.  It wouldn’t be so bad if it were ‘good news’ stories being reported but they nearly always relate to fights, sexual complaints of some sort, drunken behaviour, traffic misdemeanors, court appearances and so on.

Let’s face it, the AFL isn’t giving a very good example at the moment to our young people are they, nor to the rest of the world who might tune in from time to time.

When our family shifted to Melbourne from Adelaide in the early 1990s we didn’t take much notice of the footy at that stage. We had other things going on in our lives but steadily over the years it’s become obvious that this state lives and thrives on footy!  I mean for a Winter sport it certainly seems to be in the news a lot during Summer, Autumn and Spring.  It seems like it’s all year round.

And heaven forbid if you plan some event like a wedding or something on the AFL Grand Final weekend (which I have known to happen).

C’mon Melbourne – you have lots more on offer, let’s hear less of footy and more of other things in the news and current affairs programs.

I was planning to go to the Melbourne Flower & Garden Show this afternoon. I have a busy weekend coming up with photo shoots on Saturday and Sunday so couldn’t plan to go on the weekend before it finished.  However today’s heavy rainfalls put a stop to my planned trip.  So I decided to brush up on my skills in my own garden, practicing some skills I’ve been reading about in relation to being close up and taking shots after the rain.  There’s one shot below but the rest you’ll be able to see over the new few days at my photoblog.