Kensington in Autumn
Sunday was a deceptively warm day. Autumn was definitely here because the red and orange hues had already replaced the green of the leaves in the park. The familiar sound of dry leaves rustling down the road as trams lumbered by carrying passengers to their destination was another tell-tale sign autumn was here. Autumn invokes for me the music of Jethro Tull and their album “songs from the wood”. Cities now speak of creating urban forests among the habitation and we are seeing that in Melbourne.
Our return from the supermarket early on Sunday morning revealed to us that it was also the end of month Kensington markets. These local markets highlight the craft of the people who create wonderful items for sale in and around the suburb of Kensington. We decided to drop in and check things out.
After a quality coffee and savoury muffin we walked down Belair Street to a point near the Allied flour mills in North Melbourne where we crossed over the railway tracks and returned down the other side. These mills have been in operation since 1887. Younghusbands building, a wool merchant long gone is now an eclectic enclave of large factory space used for creative, artistic and community initiatives. It was where my niece spent time taking part in the filming of the ABC show, you’re skitting me.
I almost felt like a local as we passed Michelle from the Davis Street community garden heading in the opposite direction. It’s nice to know that you can bump into somebody in Melbourne, say hello and recognise them.
Although our walk was short it was a nice balance from the 21,000 steps that we had walked the day before as we went into town to meet up with our son. We took an impromptu tour of St Patrick’s Cathedral with all of its magnificence and then walked home to Kensington.
So there it was a brief moment on a Sunday where as a family we had a simple but special moment together. Next weekend I will be back in Darwin, different scenes, different lifestyle, different fun.
In researching some of the facts for this blog, I stumbled across another person who takes pleasure from walking the streets of in Melbourne and capturing stories about them. I particularly like a term he uses “ghostsigns” to refer to the names of businesses that have long passed but the buildings they occupied still remain in the last vestiges of the business appear as a faded sign on the building. You can check out some of the posts here from his blog the Melbourne Circle. His self applied term of what he does… “psychogeographer” is even more interesting than pilotographer. His term is a real word and has been around since 1955.
Today is ANZAC day and although I believe we should never celebrate war, we must remember those who died so we can enjoy the simple things I have described in this post.
