Melbourne

I arrived in Melbourne Sunday afternoon, and after dropping off my suitcase, got instructions to the nearest park, and was off to find more birds. I didn't expect to see such a vacant downtown area - hardly any traffic and virtually empty sidewalks. As it turned out, it was the day after White Night - an all night arts and music faire that ended Sunday morning. By the time I returned from my walk, the restaurants were open and the streets were full. During the two hours I was away walking and viewing the sites in a park, life had returned to the city.

Fitzroy Gardens has the look of the many parks I caught glimpses of in Sydney. It is remarkable how many parks I saw in the two cities. Obviously a treasure for Australians.

View from north entrance

Conservatory facade

Conservatory panorama

Here is a sampling of the birds seen in Fitzroy Gardens and along Enterprise Street in Melbourne.

Magpie Lark

Spotted Dove

Australian Magpie

House Sparrow

Needs identification

Silver Gull

Australian Wood Duck

Greens Along MD Route 50

MD Route 50 West

I am down to the last days of commuting to work in Maryland. Soon we will be moving to Colorado, and be experiencing life on the western edge of the Great Plains. Since the first spring after moving here in the winter of 2006, the range of greens that appear here in the Mid Atlantic region are striking as trees change from barren stems to dense canopies that reach down to the ground. There is a greater range of colors in spring, than the yellows, oranges, and reds in Autumn.

Spring tree leaf color pallet

A few days after a particularly beautiful morning, I pointed by camera at stands of trees that lined the Maryland State Route 50 freeway to catch some of the hues of green. Pasting one of the pictures in Power Point, I sampled the some of the greens that combined defined the sweet gums, eastern red cedar, honey locus, white ash, American beech, and many more found across the state. The boxes of colors are a finite set of the many colors from this natural pallet.