AT THE SHOPPING CENTRE

At the Northland Shopping Centre in Preston, early one morning. Best time to visit and avoid the crowds later on!

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

SMILE!

In one of Melbourne's famous alleys in the CBD.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

MELBOURNE IN THE SUN

Today is the 27th consecutive day where Victoria has recorded no new locally acquired cases of coronavirus in the community. There were no new deaths and the state’s total death toll stands at 820. Restrictions have eased and we are now living a "Covid-normal" existence, with standard but well-observed restrictions in enclosed public spaces and large gatherings.

Melburnians are enjoying the Summer weather and a walk in the City reminds us how many things we were taking for granted in the days before Covid...

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

AT BRUNSWICK ST

Brunswick Street is a street in inner northern Melbourne, known for cafés, live music venues, quirky shops, street entertainment and alternative fashion boutiques. Brunswick Street runs north-south through the inner northern Melbourne suburbs of Fitzroy and Fitzroy North, from Victoria Parade at its southernmost end, crossing Alexandra Parade, and continuing until it reaches St Georges Road in Fitzroy North, near the Edinburgh Gardens; there, its former northward course is continued by a much smaller residential street named Brunswick Street North. Tram route 112 runs along the entire length of Brunswick Street for part of its journey.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

IN FITZROY

Fitzroy is a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, 2 km north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District. At the 2011 Census, Fitzroy had a population of 9,430. Planned as Melbourne's first suburb, it was later also one of the city's first areas to gain municipal status. It occupies Melbourne's smallest and most densely populated suburban area, just 100 Ha, bordered by Alexandra Parade (north), Victoria Parade (south), Smith Street (east) and Nicholson Street.

Fitzroy has a long associations with the working class and is currently inhabited by a wide variety of ethnicities and socio-economic groups and is known for a culture of bohemianism, being the main home of Melbourne's Fringe Festival. Its commercial heart is Brunswick Street, which is one of Melbourne's major retail, eating, and entertainment strips. It has undergone waves of both urban renewal and gentrification since the 1950s. In response to past planning practices, much of the suburb is now a historic preservation precinct, with many individual buildings and streetscapes covered by Heritage Overlays. Its built environment is diverse and features some of the finest examples of Victorian era architecture in Melbourne.

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HOSIER LANE

Hosier Lane in Melbourne, is found between Swanston and Russell Sts, extending from Flinders Street through to Flinders Lane. In the 1920s businesses in Hosier Lane were diverse and included an organ manufacturer, a warehouse for a men's clothing company, and a costume manufacturer. The nearby Higson and Oliver Lanes had warehouses that were predominantly used by businesses involved in the manufacturing of clothes and the name of this lane reflects its association with clothing.

Hosier Lane today is well known for its bars but mostly for the graffiti and stencil art that can be seen on its 19th century brick walls. The artwork decorating the walls near number 1 Hosier Lane and near Misty Place at number 3-5 Hosier Lane have been approved by the City of Melbourne as registered street artwork. Melbourne City Council regards graffiti as primarily a product of an urban environment that should be engaged with creatively, not something that it merely takes a strict zero tolerance approach to. This engagement is seen as a diversion that hopes to tame a vigorous and diverse form of expression. By having certain areas of the city where street artists can express themselves, graffiti on unacceptable locations can be controlled.

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and also part of the My Sunday Photo meme,

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FITZROY MURAL

This is a mural in Nicholson St, Carlton, by artist Justin Avery. Quite a striking piece with the tessellated blue and pink background on which are the three figures warping the fabric of time as it were, poking a stick through the orderly cubes. A nice touch is the galah in flight above!

This post is part of the Monday Murals meme,
and also part of the Through my Lens meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

MURAL IN 'THE MALL', HEIDELBERG WEST

The other day, we found a lovely mural in Heidelberg West in "The Mall". It is a design of polo players that is very much reminiscent of Persian miniatures found in manuscript books. The artist is Ronak Taher, an Iranian-Australian.

This is the artist's bio from her website:
"Ronak Taher is an Iranian-Australian artist born in 1984. She finished her bachelor of Graphic Design at the University of Tehran, also holds a Master of Illustration and Animation from the Azad University of Tehran.

In 2013 she was celebrated as one of the 300 upcoming world talents in film industry at the “Berlin Film Festival”. Her last animation was screened at the Montreal World Film Festival 2011, Chicago World Film Festival 2011, Shnit World Film Festival 2011 in Switzerland, South Africa, Germany, Austria, Costa Rica and Singapore, Florida International Film Festival 2012 to name a few.

Ronak also works in the fields of graphic design, illustration and sculpture. She has had over 6 solo and group visual art exhibitions and has illustrated more than 8 books for children and young adults. Her latest book “The Conference Of The Birds” will be published in France in 2014."

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
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DAISY KOOKA MURAL

This mural is to be found in Bayview St, close to High St in Northcote, on top of the hill. I have previously shown photos of the same building (the Telstra Exchange) in 2013, when the walls had an Alice in Wonderland themed coverage. Alice doesn't live there any more, the tags and random graffiti destroyed those murals. Now in Bayview St we have this lovely kookaburra and some script in a rather angular (and illegible) graffiti font.

The street artist who created this is DVATE, whose webpage can be found here. On this page you can find more examples of the art as well as the graffiti text, self-summed up as: "...Developed and varies his own unique graffiti font and has ridiculously good photo-realistic skills..."

I have also shown another mural by DVATE on this blog and you can find it here.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
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WESTGARTH MURAL

Yesterday, while driving to go to a fête, we came across this mural in Roberts St, Westgarth. It is in quite an obscure location, where not many people would find it. It is painted on a large roller door and the ribbed metal surface adds another dimension to the work.

The mural is by Sam King, an emerging British artist working within the mediums painting, murals, illustration and installation. His work fuses figuration with futurism and Eastern influence. Sam King's website can be found here.

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30ML CAFÉ

The volume of coffee in a standard shot of espresso is 30 mL. And this is what this small coffee shop is named after. It is tucked away in a Melbourne CBD laneway, 2 Presgrave Pl, Melbourne VIC 3004, and the coffee here is excellent - the competition being tough in Australia's coffee capital!

The café owners Rob and Vince are great guys and very hospitable and proud of their craft. The shop is small, dark and cosy and the "Spirit" coffee machine an amazing piece of engineering! It's well worth hunting out this place and enjoying the coffee - and not only. The mural gracing the wall is very Melbourne street-art!

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
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