Saturday, April 27, 2013

If the Choux Fitz...

The choux fitted well today.
I was hanging around Smith Street, Fitzroy, early as usual, waiting for Ian.
If you're bored here, you'll be bored everywhere.
In this first of Melbourne's suburbs, age is celebrated. And so is youth.
So is all of life, in all its sudden glory.
We got to lunch before too long, to La Niche. But I'll digress, and take you to Heide Museum of Modern Art, where I wandered afterwards,
among the bee hives
and the sculpture.
A good friend, French food, art, gardens...I didn't miss out on much today.
Jeff Thomson's Cow ( yellow ), 1987, with some neighbouring moos.
 Sixties domestic architecture at its best.
Like Fitzroy, Heide is always re-inventing itself. Both, they are, prepared to take on the new, to mesh the new into their identity.
'In the presence of form II', 1993, by Amish Kapoor. I was listening to children shout inside it to hear the echoes.
I've posted this most elegant sculpture before, Andrew Rogers' 'Unfurling'. So beautifully feminine.
Return now, if you will with me, to Smith Street, where amongst the Victorian grandeur, the dingey digs and the newest of architecture, home-owners are creating native gardens.
It's a streetscape begging for inventiveness...
...which it gets in spades, or in carousels.
A piece from the 'Exquisite Palette' exhibition.
After all this running around, before and after lunch, I was delighted to eat my beef burgundy, authentically French. Our waiting staff, one fully clued in her delicious hat, the other extempore, in her evening dress, served us with grace and humour. I prefer to eat my lunch than photograph it, so, below, see a poster on the premises:
If anyone needs to move to a city where the people are nice and the art is happening, where the past is beautiful, not a trouble, come and see us here.
 Everyone is welcome, choux-less or not.




12 comments:

  1. It sounds like the perfect day excursion. How deliciously relaxing. I need (want) the mouse painting the cat. Oh so wonderful! I hope you are doing something equally as fun this weekend. Bonnie

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    1. Bonnie, my weekend was made just that squeak more arduous when I discovered mousies in my bedroom! And not just in my bedroom, but in a wardrobe drawer, in a delightful nest.
      Thankyou, but I may have had enough of them for now!

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  2. Nice blog. Fitzroy is such an interesting suburb where the old and new mostly sit together comfortably. When ever I walk through Fitzroy I am filled with a feeling that anything can happen and that anything is possible.

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    1. Matthew, coming from the burbs now, after many years in the inner-city, getting to Fitzroy is an eye-opener for me. So refreshing and alive.

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    1. You'll have to get over this way one day Paul! Thankyou.

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  4. I'm feeling Cinderella-like: I think that the choux would fit me perfectly.
    I enjoyed this post Faisal, it bought back some happy memories for me.

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  5. As a Sydney-ite, I find much to enjoy in your posts about Melbourne. Wonderfully tempting, I'm wondering when I'll be able to get back down to see the things you show so tantalisingly. (Maybe that's not a word?) Yes, I think the choux would fit me, too.

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  6. I'm sure tantalisingly is a word, Carol! It's amazing how different our two cities are. You, of course, have the most beautiful harbour/coastline in the world, and a Georgian atmosphere we lack. I haven't been up your way for over 20 years.

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  7. Lovely post. You're breaking down my preconceptions!

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    1. Thanks Jane. Fitzroy's one of Melbourne's coolest spots - didn't hear any Bob Dylan though!

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