Saturday, August 30, 2025

Missing a tram

My intention was to catch the number 12 tram to South Melbourne. I had just missed one and the next scheduled was about ten minutes later. I walked along a side street to the next tram stop, instead of just waiting. It was quite rewarding. 

From a distance, the exterior of these two houses in this photo looked like painted bluestone. Much of inner Melbourne is built in bluestone, including many, many cobbled lanes. What we call bluestone is basalt rock, or lava rock if you like, formed many thousands of years ago when Australia had active volcanoes. It is a very strong and tough rock.


But hey, this is fake bluestone. It's just a facing material that looks like bluestone...not very much upon closer inspection. Frankly, the houses looked ridiculous. 


Modern housing is nicely integrated into older housing streets. 


It appears ivy has been let to get out of control. Never let your Ivy roam freely. She will get into to trouble and cause you trouble. 


Not a complete plant takeover, but getting close. What a huge home for some rich ****er. 

33 comments:

  1. Real bluestone used to look great.. very Melbournian.

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    1. Hels, it still looks great where we can see it, and there is plenty.

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  2. These ivy creepers in Fengshui indicate potential backstabbers climbing your walls

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    1. Roentare, the Fengshui must be taken into account. It was when the building where I live was designed.

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  3. The stone looks like it has been painted, ugh. You have to be mad to grow ivy and bamboo in a suburban garden, though a friend of mine said ivy was holding his fence together , until it wasn’t. It bred so much it pulled the fence down. When I was a child oleanders were fashionable….you never see them now. They were quite ugly . Pitosporum ..spellimg? , were fashionable 20 years ago until they became riddled with a bug . The same with Lilliiepilli .

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    1. I have a HUGE oleander visible from my front window and if the garden was mine it would be cut down.

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    2. I think it is painted, and it isn't stone. I've had ivy and bamboo in gardens of the past. Ivy has to be neatly trimmed and contained, and the bamboo was black and not invasive. I see a few oleanders, and they aren't particularly attractive. Pittosporum is a nightmare spreading tree. My mother has a lilli pilli, and it was awful too.

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    3. pink. and a giant lillypilly behind my flat with dried berries all over the footpath and driveway each year.

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  4. Just looking at those last two pictures is giving me hay fever.

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    1. Kirk, yes. Ivy does throw out something in spring, I think.

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  5. In my community we have mostly granite rocks.

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  6. One excellent reason to never plant ivy. (Unless it's great grandma Ivy and you are planting her six feet deep.) I used to like looking at those enormous old homes on real estate sites, just stickybeaking, but these days I don't bother.

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  7. Ivy, grows into every crevice it can find.

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    1. Margaret, it sounds like you have some experience with ivy.

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  8. Our ivy took over at one point. Now, just the skeleton is left - not very attractive!

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    1. JB, that is neglectful of you. It grows more slowly in your country.

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  9. Poor old ivy. Friend to bees and insects at Autumn's end. Decorator of your house at Xmas. It also smothers trees much to gardeners fury, but it doesn't really hurt ;)

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    1. Ah Thelma, so it is autumn's end when it makes people sneeze. It is just plant that you have to control.

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  10. It is often fun to walk to the next stop. I did that last Monday in Arlington.

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    1. TP, and of course you can now be fully informed about when the next vehicle will arrive.

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  11. I understand Andrew - I too cannot wait idly at public transport stops and it feels productive walking one stop closer while waiting. I do hope that you didn't miss the next with the pondering? Where I live the main concerns would be snakes and fire!

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    1. Jeanie, it depends where. I don't mind waiting if there are people around to watch...when I lift my head from my phone.

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  12. A walk somewhere new is always fun, Andrew.

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    1. Pat, one reason I prefer lanes to main streets.

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  13. I always enjoy walking, so I totally understand, Andrew.

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    1. Linda, and regular public transport users walk more and are fitter than those who don't.

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  14. From a distance the houses look nice enough, if not up close. I can't imagine how hard it's going to be to get all that ivy off that building. They'll probably have to repoint the brickwork.

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    1. Steve, you can be sure they will employ someone to remove the ivy. I hope the masonary work is not damaged.

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