Farm life, wild life and cultural life.

We have been touring around our Australian friends, actually Pat and Bob's friends who have adopted us when we are here.

Melbourne can be hot and dry at this time but is quite green this year.
Inland from Melbourne, over the Great Dividing Range, the land is dryer.  Here is the archetypal image of Australia.  The arid hills, the magnificent trees, the dam and the water pump.

Here are some of the Australian long distance walkers.  I have walked the Tour of Montblanc and the Pyrenees High Route with them, but in 2012 this lot walked from Chamonix to Nice over a 30 day period.

Being hot and dry, they can, with irrigation grow all sorts of crops.

There is also sheep and an alpaca.

 


Back in the city, Melbourne has some wonderful spaces.  The Yarra river runs alongside the Royal Botanic Gardens and nearby is a sports complex that houses the MCG, Melbourne Cricket Ground, the 3 stadia for tennis and another for Rugby and Scccer.

There is exciting wildlife that can appear in your bathtub.

The Huntsman Spider is not your average Canadian visitor.....we are told it does not bite!!!!

There are cuddly ones too,

But they eat your ripe fruit at night.
On the cultural side we went to see an exhibition of Jean Paul Gautiers work,  He is the iconic couturier who designed Madonnas huge conical bra,  The show was impressive, the clothes however could not be worn by normal people doing normal things.  
I have no photos of the show but there were some whimsical displays at the National Gallery of Victoria that caught my eye.
There is a gold Carousel in the main atrium.  You can ride it, it takes about 2 minutes to go round.

 
This little fellow was making his own paintings!

Then there was the life drawing class, many were trying their hand.  Some would be displayed on the wall.

That's all for now.  G'day mates!