Recharging the Creative Batteries in Melbourne, Australia (and Becoming Less Anxious)
We're just back from a long week in Melbourne where we were catching up with friends and revisiting old haunts. It's a great city for art and other culture and a good place to recharge my creative batteries.
I always stop in at the free exhibitions in the NGV galleries in Federation Square and on St Kilda Road.
The international collection had an amazing exhibit on Venetian glass, something I wouldn't normally be drawn to.
Click to see options for using this image
But by far the most impressive work there for me on that visit was Zhu Jinshi’s “Ship of Time” about letting anxiety go. It did the job and walking through it was quite an amazing feeling from me.
The boyf wasn’t as impressed.
Melbourne is also well-known for its street art, which can be seen all over the city, but is most noteworthy in the central city laneways.
Our friends took us to see the newly painted Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand prime minister) mural on a silo in Brunswick. It made me proud to be Kiwi.
Here are a few more snapshots of the city:
Reasons to Be Cheerful - Listening to Someone Practising the Violin (Sometimes)
Overheard on Voelas Road (Click to see options for using this image)
Living in New Zealand: You See More Kingfishers Looking Up
Spotted overhead on Ticehurst Terrace, Lyttelton.
Click to see options for using the image
If you want to hear a recording of a New Zealand kingfisher, head here:
http://www.kuaka.co.nz/birdcalls
Living in New Zealand: Christchurch Has Fantastic Libraries and Tūranga is the Best
Tūranga is the best thing about the post-earthquake Christchurch city rebuild (Click to see options for using the image)
I love libraries. They are the original community-sharing resource, but even if you never borrow anything, they are great spaces to be in. The new library in the middle of Christchurch, Tūranga, is incredible. It is a beautifully designed space, with lots of different areas depending on what you want to do in the library. There are quieter areas as well as areas for kids to play around in or for people to collaborate in.
The children’s area on the first floor of Tūranga library
There are a couple of cafes, a computer lab and a room for making music. As well as books, magazines, newspapers, DVDs and CDs there are also games, puzzles and interactive displays. And there are incredible views over a city that is changing before our eyes.
Looking south from Christchurch Central Library over the cathedral towards the Port Hills
https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/turanga/turanga-floor-by-floor/
The earthquake has also meant a rebuild of many suburban libraries like the one in Lincoln.
Lincoln library
Some libraries weren’t destroyed in the earthquake. One of my favourites, New Brighton library, is one of them.
Unfortunately, the ugly Lyttelton library is another.
