Ghost signs

 

Well, I knew that my interest in bricks and twentieth century industrial buildings is shared at least by Thomas Ryan in Tasmania, but I thought this was perhaps a rather obscure interest. As also my eye for what I called in an earlier post "bricks with vanishing signage". Then I heard on the radio about a recent conference and followed this lead on the internet. To my delight I learned that there are a whole community of people documenting what are officially known as “ghost signs”.  And I discovered the websites of Dr Stefan Schutt of Victoria University.

Milano, Brunswick West

What a surprise to come across this Italianate mansion on top of the rise in Cohuna Street West Brunswick! And still with an expansive block around it. I had to do some research.

CERES Harvest Festival

 

How quickly the year has passed since I went to last year’s Harvest Festival. I am happy to say that I regularly visit CERES for a variety of reasons, however yesterday I was involved in the Greens stall and it was a lot of fun. It was great to speak to a number of people from overseas and from Germany in particular. I say this because when I lived in Germany many years ago, in Ladenburg, which is a small town on the Neckar river, between Heidelberg and Mannheim, the idea of Harvest Festival (Erntedankfest) was very much a part of life and I remembered that fondly yesterday.

 

Mirabella 2 or writing in strange places

Yesterday as I walked past the Mirabella Lighting store, I noticed a small message written on the rim of a pavement lid. I had never noticed it before, yet it looks as though it has been there for a while. Obviously another admirer of Mirabella lights. The text says "there is a light that never goes out" then there is a heart and then a word I cannot make out. Have you walked past, seen it and wondered who wrote it?
A while ago I photographed these lines, written on the glass of a window that no longer exists as the site is being redeveloped. Coincidentally, it was next door to Mirabella. Perhaps it was part of a poetry installation or perhaps someone had just put them there.

Flowers of the White Night

Last night until early this morning, Melbourne celebrated its first White Night festival. We went down to take it in, although we did not stay the whole night. We took the 96 to Bourke Street and then walked down to Flinders Street, nearly getting trampled in Desgraves Street which was unbelievably packed. The colourful light displays on the buildings along Flinders Street and of the station itself were a sight to behold.

Bricks

I walk around my neighbourhood noticing the different kinds of bricks, the colours and patterns they make. This wall of concrete brick lacework is near the Aladdin's Cave (see earlier post). It makes an interesting contrast to the Victorian and Edwardian houses just down the road.

The Lady and the Moon

Recently on television there was a show about astronomy and there was a photograph of the night sky that one can see from a mountain in the Atacama Desert in South America. Due to the lack of light and other pollution, the sky seems literally ablaze with stars and the Milky Way is a veritable flood.

From the back porch in Brunswick, however, there are few stars visible. As compensation, the full moon in January was beautiful as it hovered over Our Lady. But even this will one day not be visible, if a large multistorey development of flats on the Gainsborough site goes ahead and blocks out the view of the lady and the moon.