A View from the Street

 I thought I'd give you a 360 degree view from our street corner.  I realized after I took the pictures that mostly what you see are the trees, but I'll tell you a bit about where these roads lead.

First, you should know that every direction we go is uphill. We live in what has been referred to in the old days as "the gully." This hill, which is steeper than it appears in the picture, leads us to the ocean. At the top of this hill, we walk 2 more blocks and then over some train tracks and through a caravan park (campground) where we will arrive at the beach boardwalk and then the sand. We try to go down to look at the ocean at least every other day; some are long leisurely walks down to the river mouth to the east, or west to the breakwater, and other walks are just to say hello to the sea and check the surfer count. Our neighbor's lawn, pictured on the left, is a good example of the neat landscaping. Someone comes by every week or so and mows or trims the edging so it is perfectly clean and straight. Occasionally the two young boys who live there part-time with their dad play cricket out on the nature strip (that's what Australians call the piece of grass between the side walk and the street).

The road below is the road most traveled. There is a gradual ascent going west, but uphill nonetheless. This road takes us downtown where we can get just about everything we need. There is a butcher, a baker, and probably a candle stick maker. They have a Target and two grocery stores, a fruit and veg stand, numerous restaurants and milk bars, specialty gift stores, Horseland, multiple thrift stores, hardware and paint, at least two natural food stores, a community theater, an art gallery, at least three $2/bargain stores, and just today alone I went into six of the many clothing stores. The downtown is huge. You can also see in the photo below that it is fairly common for people to park on their nature strips.

This is the road least traveled and points east. This street is lined with Norfolk Pine trees which are very grand and full of crows and magpies. Occasionally you will see one has been eaten bare by corellas, leaving just a tree skeleton. We could walk to Fletcher Jones this way, turning left at the top of the hill. We could also get to the beach this way if we turned right at the top, but there is not sidewalk for a block or two which means we end up walking across someone's finely manicured nature strip, so we avoid that route.

This view looks north and our house is just to the right of that "give way" (yield) sign. At the top of this hill the street dead ends at the Reid Oval. That is where we have watched the neighbor kids play footy and netball. Most recently we watched cricket. I'm sure Andy will write more about his new found interest in the game of cricket, but you can watch a bit of the game we watched that day at this link. We also walked this way the other night to get to the community garden where we participated in a garden trivia night/Christmas party with some friends. Sometimes Andy heads this direction on his way to the Aquazone where he has a gym membership. The major highway that runs through town is just two blocks in that direction.

So there's a little view of our life from the corner of Japan and Koroit Streets.