I had a really peaceful and enjoyable (although a little tiring) day today. I took the tram from my place to Chapel Street, walked down gorgeous Greville Street to Prahran Station and caught the train to Middle Brighton, where I had coffee and then walked over to St. Andrews church and took photos of many of the historic graves. Apparently the streets in Brighton are named after the families buried in this graveyard. I think the saddest one was this one below, which marked the last resting place of Charlie aged 14 months, Gilbert aged 9 months, Stella aged 13 months, Irene aged 3 months - the children of William and Annie Kennedy.
I left the historic graveyard, cross the road and walked for about ten minutes until I got to Middle Brighton Beach. The sea was calm with just a few ripples on the surface of the water. I took the following photograph of the sand and pier in the distance.
You can't really tell from this photograph, but the flotsam on the beach was filled with tiny pieces of plastic, a rusty old piece of boat, tin foil and tin cans. It was quite warm as I walked along the pier and in the distance I could see the Melbourne skyline covered with smog or a low cloud. It looked incredible, like a strange and glorious sculpture amidst the blue. And in this photo, one lone man walking on the sand dune. It may appear from these photographs that the beach was empty. Not so, there were small groups of families on the beach, other people just walking along; a diver in the water and several boats heading out to sea.
I was the only person on the pier, save for a young boy who walked along licking an ice-cream. But I didn't mind because it was just so wonderful to be there in quiet contemplation.
I couldn't resist having a piece of battered fish and salad at the little outside restaurant on the beachfront and as I ate with that most wonderful backdrop of the sea and moored boats, one of the local seagulls appeared to give a bow as I took its photo.
I headed home after watching the dark clouds roll in and made it back to Prahran Station just as it began to rain.
What a beautiful day you had - the person on the sand dune and the bowing bird are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteIt was beautiful indeed Charles. I'm so glad that I'm not as phobic about train travel, however I'm still wary of lonely platforms and men who do unpredictable things, such as the man yesterday who dropped down from one platform, and crossed the tracks to another. He was also walking from carriage to carriage suggesting to me that he was unstable in some way. But other than that, I chatted with lovely people as I traveled.
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