Dimmey's Mural

Dimmey's is a discount clothing/linens store that has been in Melbourne since the 1850's. On the side of the store in Richmond there is an awesome mural documenting the history of the store and all of Australian history and popular culture. The mural was done by Hayden Dewar and took several years to complete. The work is incredible and has been mostly treated respectfully by other street artists.

The mural starts in sepia tones featuring a Ned Kelly wanted sign and portraits of the explorers Burke and Wills.
Vibrant colors come in about a third of the way though with loads of Australian icons like Blinky Bill, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo (the Australian answer to Lassie), Dame Edna and of course Steve Irwin. There is even a small corner where Dewar portrayed himself painting the wall. The mural is a great way to get a brief in Australian history.

Flying Foxes at Yarra Bend

I was whining that I wanted to go see some animals but since we are Bosley sitting there are limited dog friendly animal reserves (actually none). We decided on just going up to Studley Park and having a picnic. The place was chocked full by the time we got there and there was no where to park so Matt drove around to a less populated area, Yarra Bend, that was still doggy friendly. What I didn't know was this is home to a community of 30,000 grey headed flying foxes (aka fruit bats). The trees are absolutely full of them and they are awesome to watch. They hang upside down because they expend much less energy than they would if they tried to sit upright. They sleep and stretch and preen each other while making a fare bit of squeaking noise. Many people see these lovely little creatures as pests. There were stupid golfers from the golf course next door hitting balls at their tress while we were there. What a lot of people fail to realize is how important these bats are. According to Victorians Advocate for Animals president Lawrence Pope "After bushfires, they help revegetation by carrying 50 times more pollen than birds and bees." They are also vital to the timber industry. Flying foxes can travel over 100km a night not only spreading the pollen that collects in their fur but seeds from the fruit they have eaten. I think they are beautiful with very cute little faces. There are walking trails that follow along the river right under the trees some of the thousand of bats are hanging in. It was a wonderful surprise to see these fantastic creatures hanging out in their natural habitat.

False Pretenses

I feel I was lead to Australia under false pretenses. My dear husband made big, bold statements about the weather in Australia being much less severe than any where in the world. He must have temporarily forgotten about the ten year drought. Since I have moved here there have been cyclone warnings with massive floods up in the north. You all saw on the TV the horrible tragedy that occurred with he bush fires after a record breaking week of heat. The wind gets pretty crazy here. The wind was so bad one day I saw a metal plate fly off a restaurant sign and come inches from cutting off a girls arm. No severe weather here.

Last night Matt was watching NASCAR in the living room so Bosley (who we are doggy sitting for the weekend) and I were in the bedroom watching anything else but NASCAR. I am laying there minding my own business when the room starts shaking. THE ROOM WAS SHAKING!! Matt said "it must have been a truck driving by." Not so much, Earth Tremor would be more like it. 4.6 on the Richter scale. My first quake....good times. While reading about earthquakes in Australia I was certainly pleased to see this map of heavy landslide occurrences. FALSE PRETENSES!! Oh well, at least there are really cute animals.

Rockabilly and Super Hilly

The Kustom Lane Gallery had a fundraiser this weekend for the Bush Fire Victims so Matt, Tara and I went down to check it out. This is the PERFECT gallery for Matt and I...lots of art and lots of cars. Many people were all gussied up in their rockabilly best. Some of the girls looked like they were right out of a Vargas painting. I really enjoyed watching this tiny girl kill a massive stand up bass.

After a good dose of Kustom Kulture we headed down to Rye to pick up Bosley who had spent the week vacationing at the beach with Tara's family. We walked up to the top of the cliffs (maybe they were really big dunes but thy seemed like cliffs). I opened my big mouth and mentioned walking down to the ocean. Going down was fine but coming back up was a little trickier. Soft sand and a really steep hill (or massive cliff in my mind) make for a fantastic Sunday afternoon work out. At least the view was beautiful.